A few weeks ago, two nurses were strolling along the shore of Big Trout Lake, in northern Ontario, when their dog hauled something from the water. It was the corpse of a creature, about 30 cm long, unlike anything they’d ever seen: bald-faced, with a glossy pelt and cloudy white eyes. The nurses snapped some photos, but when others returned to find the body, it was gone. Ever since, the First Nation community there (population 1,450) has been abuzz. Based on the photos, “it’s not a muskrat; it’s not an otter; it’s not a rat,” says Chief Donny Morris, adding that some are nervous the animal—dubbed “the ugly one”—could be a bad omen.
This snaggle-toothed monster isn’t the first of its kind. In the summer of 2008, New Yorkers were agape when the body of a hideous bald beast with an eagle-like beak, later named the “Montauk Monster,” washed ashore on Long Island, horrifying the locals and delighting New York media. (“Good luck with your hell demons,” gossip blog Gawker said.) The following year, other monsters were reported from Alaska to Panama, with much wild speculation that they were Montauk Monsters, too. Now, Ontario has a monster of its own. With the ice melting and more people poking around the lakeshore, monster season is here.
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