Some hunters in remote central China have trapped a strange looking animal, the Daily Telegraph says. The article claims that scientists are baffled as to what it could possibly be, a combination of cat, bear or yeti? Who knows?The odd thing is this creature is so baffling it's managing to baffle people who haven't even examined it yet. The article mentions that the animal has just been sent off to Beijing where its DNA will be analysed.
In the meantime, the locals (or indeed the Daily Telegraph) aren't waiting until the facts are in before they start speculating. Some think it's a bear, but it's not hairy. Perhaps it's a cat, it sounds like one. It has a tail like a kangaroo, maybe a Chinese bear got lonely one night, searched online on www.kangaroobrides.com.au and found a mate.*
The last claim reported by the article is that, according to local legend, there was a man who turned into a bear and that that is what the hunters have caught.
The article already calls the creature the 'Oriental Yeti'.
Those seem like strong, plausible and rigorously scientific hypotheses to me.
Or maybe it's just a poor cat whose hair was burnt off. In any case, perhaps the conjectures should wait, or at least be reined in, until someone without a need to increase his village's income from tourism can have a look at it.
Yours,
Charles
* Ok, so I may have exaggerated that last claim.
** Or perhaps that should be who.
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