Living goblins cannot breathe well underwater

Back in March 2007 Angel Palacios,  one of the workers at a bird breeding farm in Metepec Mexico was setting up rat traps around the farm to control the  problems they had been having with pests that often left  half eaten eggs and chicks. The traps were the equivalent of a mini  bear trap and so far very effective.  On a  good night they would catch 10-15 rats or sometimes a few more. The morning after setting up the traps Angel Palacios found what he thought was a bald sphinx rat in the trap and tossed into the bucket with the others, (finding that kind of rat was not a surprise since they used them to feed some of the birds of prey at the farm and some of them had escaped several months ago) what was unusual was the bizarre appearance of the rat, which, despite its small size and wounds, would not cease to writhe. Long story short, once inside the shed, he took the rat out of the bucket and saw the “rat” more carefully, then the first moment of brilliance took place: He took the trapped animal and put it on the table to scare a co-worker who hated rats, when the co-worker came in, the second greatest moment of brilliance took place: out of anger for the prank and fear for the grotesque animal the prank victim took the trap by the chain a dumped the animal inside a bucket full of tanning liquid while his the workers were laughing outside the shed.

A few hours later the co-workers came in looking for the rat which they found inside the bucket, already dead and slightly swollen due the the chemicals. The next day the workers showed the dead rat to the farm’s veterinarian/owner Mario Moreno Lopez, who, upon closer inspection saw that many of the characteristics  the animal had did not match any of the local fauna. His findings were the following:

-Very high cranial capacity relative to its size

-Ape-like skeleton as well as carnivore-like teeth

-A long tail more similar to a spider monkey’s

Intrigued, the owner showed the remains to a few fellow veterinarians who also failed to  identify the animal. Then the news reached the ufologist Jaime Maussan and more tests were made, all of them inconclusive. DNA did not match any known species yet, the CT scans confirmed the remains were from biological origin with bone structure, skin, muscle and organs.

Reality Check

Now, let’s see, the best thing two farm workers can do with a new species specimen is play pranks with each other then dump it into chemicals?

For the sake of argument let’s just blame that one on ignorance. Then, Maussan, who happens to be a relatively controversial and unreliable figure in Mexico (often ridiculed by fellow non-ufologist-journalists, common practice which also happens to people like George Knapp) Maussan comes into the equation and turns the discovery into a media event rather than looking for a well known University to analize the remains (He claims, however, the tests were made by well known Mexican researchers and even people from History Channel’s Monster Quest  became involved)

Now, here is the greatest contradiction of them all: If so many conclusive tests have been made, how come one picture wonders such as the alleged “Montauk Monster” receive much more attention?

You go figure. We could be dealing with just decomposing racoons and  dried out marmosets or something more bizarre, but that would be hard to say, especially when their media circus  shines its lights on everything but conclusive tests.

A few extras to the story:

The months following the capture of the goblin-rat were (allegedly) full of unusual occurrences such as:

-A sharp increase of the number of  predatory attacks but also the odd mutilation of a fully grown bird of prey (especially since eagles are unlikely to be preyed upon by rats and eaten alive inside a locked cage)

-Two more sightings of slightly larger goblin-like rats measuring approximately 2 ft /60 cms.

-The alleged death of the farm owner in a fire that extensively damaged the property.

Sometimes mass media makes reality stranger than truth.

Media Links:

Video 1 (English)

Video 2 (Spanish)

Video 3 (Spanish)

Video 4 (Japanese)

PS

Special thanks to Daniela Conde for the Spanish to English translation and transcripts from the videos. (You rock girl!)