"Montauk Monster" washes up in Ontario

[Bob Schroeck]

Article with pictures here. Even given the effects on sea water on dead animals, it's hard to figure out what this is or was.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Rev Dark]

I guess basic biology and zoology are things that happened to other people - those other people being the ones not invovled in journalism.
It is an otter.  Likely Lontra Canadensis.  The Shape of the paws, dentition, muzzle shape and location of the ears, as well as the 'rat-like' tail.
The 'boar like tusks?'
http://digimorph.org/specimens/lontra_c ... is/female/

ps: Note how they ask bloggers, passersby, etc; rather than experts; biologists, zoologists, museum staff.   For fuck's sake - why has no on pulled a Hinterland Who's Who and called the Canadian Wildlife Service in Ottawa!
(Yes, it was a rhetorical questions as Canadian Montaulk Monsters sounds a lot more interesting than uneducated douchebags drag dead otter onto shore and have a hissy fit.)

[Bob Schroeck]

I had intended to also include a note about scale being uncertain in these photos (and I couldn't be sure the "foot long" referred to the tail or the entire length of the critter) -- "otter" had occurred to me, just out of general similarity of body shape, but since I didn't know for sure how big it was, I decided not to speculate.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

For fuck's sake - why has no on pulled a Hinterland Who's Who and called the Canadian Wildlife Service in Ottawa!

(hunts through various government websites for five minutes) They don't make it easy to find the phone number... A-ha, here it is.

[size=smaller](Maybe we should offer to design that department's websites as well as host their servers... Oh, apparently we don't offer that service. )[/size]

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Epsilon]

Rob, you know Canadian government agencies do not exist for you to CONTACT them. That would just be madness.
--------------
Epsilon

[robkelk]

But... but... (looks at government ID, stack of newly-written documentation, and best performance review ever) If nobody contacts us, what am I going to do with all this?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

YEah, people are idiots sometimes... but the commentary is lol-worthy:

My old mate reckons it looks like his mother in law
- Ted, London ., 22/5/2010 19:04

[Sofaspud]

I rather liked the "So that's where I left it?" one.  Elegant.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs