What in the hell was just on my front porch? Looked like a woodchuck, but

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

The bugger weighed in at least five kilos, looked like a beaver except a big fluffly tail, looked like a woodchuck except the tail was a full 12" long. Tail seemed too long for a ground hog as well.

Walked out on my front porch and we looked eye to eye. I said, "What in the hell are you?"

He said "See ya!" And ran out under my 15' diameter butterfly bush and watched me and the traffic for a few before sprinting across the street to the relative safety of underbrush.

Not a groundhog/woodchuck, not a wharf rat, we're too far east for prairie dogs...

Any ideas?

[alittlelark]

1. Possibly a marmot

if you are at a high elevation

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. I'm in bottom land in North Alabama...

Maybe it was a Buddhist Marmot?



But from the pics, I've seen, It more closely resembles an Alaskan Marmot.

I've lived in the SE forever and this is the first time I've seen a critter quite like this.

The damned thing looked like a stuffed animal and seemed to cry out "CUDDLE ME!"

I thought better of that.

[Robert Oak]

2. possibly a ground squirrel

depends on where you live...

I had a "what is that" on a beasty here on the Oregon coast
and did a hunt on google and nature.com and the images on google
and finally determined it was a very fat California ground
squirrel...

we have racoons here that to me, look the size of small black
bears versus the normal "racoon size" ...one was looking in my
window and had to be 3.5 feet tall.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. This little bugger was raccoon size. ANd cute as hell.

[Bunny]

3. It was DU's very own Oscar.

Get in touch with A-Schwarzenegger to verify Oscar's whereabouts.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. Damn! I wish I had a picture to proove it!

But someone would say that digital camaras weren't used on September 12th un-superscripted.

[Bunny]

7. Yeah, the freeps would research the digital camera and

debunk Oscar!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. Naw, they'd try to proove that digital cameras don't exist. EOM

[radwriter0555]

28. Oscar? Is that you??? I've missed you!

He ran out on the marshmallow roast, mumbing something about not the right kind of chocolate for the s'mores... that was labor day weekend.

WOW, how'd he get all the way over there?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

30. He was eating a Hershey's bar...

[HEyHEY]

9. Possum?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. No... Possums have fleshy prehensile tails...This one was like a

squirrel on steroids.

[MountainLaurel]

10. Groundhog?

That's about all that comes to mind.

http://huskertsd.tripod.com/non_birds/groundhog_1.htm

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

14. If you stuck a 12" bushy tail on it, that would be close... Pluse the

size....

[freethought]

11. A nutria rat maybe?

You mentioned you were in Alabama. Nutria rats were introduced from South America to the southern U.S. for fur purposes and they have spread from there. They are described as woodchucks with sharper teeth and a major attitude. The only thing is that nutria rats stay near water (rivers, marshes, lakes). Anything like that nearby?

[freethought]

12. Bushy tail? Could be something else

Nutrias have a naked tail like a rat. The long bushy tail description indicates something else though. The other options could be you may have spotted a mink, a fisher or maybe a marten. They meet that description of a long-bushy tailed type.

Whatever it was don't try to hug it.

[Philostopher]

16. It does sound like a fisher -- I found a link to an image:

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/fisher.htm

[barb162]

19. I never saw that animal before

thanks for sending the pictures

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

15. Not really. Right size and features except the bushy tail/

[name not needed]

17. What is it? Lunch

:D

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. Naw, I think it would have eaten a good bit of me before I ever got

it in a pot.

[realisticphish]

20. KILOS????

what are you, an unamerican commie terrorist? REAL murkins use pounds


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[LWolf]

21. Anything like this?

http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpecies_LI.asp?imageID=18793

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

23. That sure looks like him... What he's doing down here is beyond me.

Good call.

[LWolf]

27. Who knows?

I just figured it was probably something closely related. :shrug:

[BlueJazz]

22. It would have been easy to tell if it was a Woodchuck

(when you saw him for the first time).
You could have asked him: How much
wood does a woodchuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood? ... .

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

24. .....Groan...

LOL.... Too funny, RL!

[Swamp Rat]

25. Big ass swamp rat with a tail wig.

It was me dude. I'm lookin' for a place to ride out the storm:D

[LynneSin]

26. Maybe it was BatBoy

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

29. I'm NOT going to admit that I find BatBoy cute and cuddly. EOM