Eerie photo shows wild boar dragging ghostly shape through Alabama woods. What is it?
A haunting trail camera photo of a wild boar dragging something ghostly in the dark has created a mystery in southern Alabama, including uneasy jokes of it being a dead alien.
The grainy image was posted on Facebook Sept. 19 by the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. It shows the feral hog — eyes aglow — with something wispy in its mouth. The object’s long legs — or tentacles — are seen trailing on the ground.
“Take a look and see if you can determine what this Barbour County pig had for supper,” the division wrote in the post.
Barbour County is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the Florida Panhandle, so multiple suggestions the object was a marine animal from the gulf seemed off base. However, commenters also pointed Hurricane Sally brought historic Gulf Coast flooding to Alabama last week, making anything possible.
“Squid. That hurricane was something else!” Dale R. Patterson wrote on the division’s Facebook page.
“Doesn’t look like an animal to me,” Steve Mulder posted.
“Looks like he got himself an alien,” David Clements commented.
Others insisted it was a deer, a coyote or palm fronds needed for building a nest. State wildlife officials posted Monday that they think it’s a fawn.
The image was captured Sept. 11 at 3:30 a.m. on a camera owned by Clint Ludlam. He estimates the hog is between 200 and 250 pounds and says it’s part of a bigger wild hog infestation he’s been battling “for several years now.”
“I have this one (hog) on camera several nights every week. It’s a boar, so the comments about it making a nest for its piglets isn’t even possible,” Ludlam told McClatchy News. “There also isn’t a palm frond for miles around this spot, so that’s not what it is either.”
The same camera photographed a small deer and a coyote in the field that night, and he thinks the hog killed one of them.
Feral hogs (also known as wild boar) are an invasive species that grows to 450 pounds on average (for males), according to Outdooralabama.com. However, one weighing 820 pounds was shot and killed in rural Samson, Alabama, in 2017, according to Al.com. The species has no natural enemies in the state and is known for its “voracious omnivorous feeding habits,” Outdoor Alabama states.
Among the creature’s most intimidating features is “four continually-growing canine teeth (tusks) that self-sharpen from movement of the upper and lower jaw,” the site says.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 8:49 AM with the headline "Eerie photo shows wild boar dragging ghostly shape through Alabama woods. What is it?."