“A passerby once mistook a dead sloth floating in a Panama creek for an ALIEN. Photos of the animal went VIRAL, earning it the nickname “PANAMA E.T.”

National Geographic Kids, 5,000 Awesome Facts, sloth fact and final #25

In 2009, a creature was photographed near Cerro, Azul, Panama by a group of teenagers aged 14-16. They claimed this “creature” came at them, and they threw rocks and sticks at it, killing it, saying they’d never seen anything like it.

However, a few days afterwards one of the teens came forth and said they were in the water when something seemed to be grabbing at their legs.

It was the rubbery floating corpse of a sloth. 

The pictures went viral where a lot of people claimed it was that of an alien. 

It was also compared to being close to the Montauk Monster of Mountauk, New York that ended up being a water-degraded racoon..

Once the ANAM , or the National Environmental Authority of Panama, did a biopsy on the carcass that it was later to be determined to be a male brown-throat-ed sloth.

ANAM also stands for “Automated Neurophysiology’s Assessment Metrics.

The loss of fur was due to the fact it had been submerged in water which accelerated the loss of hair which made it look as if it had smooth skin.

The analysis of the death of this sloth was to be trauma by a lot of force to its torso area. It was later taken in and buried by the ANAM staff. 

Sources:

Wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_creature, Wikipedia.org/wiki/montauk_monster

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