Officials in Texas asked the public for help Wednesday in identifying a strange creature spotted roaming near a local zoo.
The human-like beast was caught on camera wandering outside Amarillo Zoo in the early hours of the morning on May 21, according to CBS News. Members of the zoo were looking through footage from game cameras when they spotted the creature.
The Amarillo Zoo captured a strange image outside the zoo in the dark and early morning hours of May 21 (around 1:25 a.m.). Is it a person with a strange hat who likes to walk at night? A chupacabra? Do you have any ideas of what this UAO- Unidentified Amarillo Object could be? pic.twitter.com/86Ly9ogtBT
— CityofAmarillo (@CityofAmarillo) June 9, 2022
Michael Kashuba, the parks and recreation department director, told the outlet that the game cameras only take still photographs. The picture was captured in an area of the park just outside the zoo’s fences that receives minimal traffic. A staff member sent Kashuba the photograph after discussions with co-workers turned up no leads or explanation as to what the creature is, CBS continued. (RELATED: More Than 40,000 Alien Civilizations Could Exist In Our Galaxy, Scientists Suggest)
“Nobody could figure out what it was,” Kashuba told CBS News. “And so, that’s where we decided to kind of reach out to our community to see if there was any thoughts on what it could potentially be.”
Some social media users suggested the animal might be a skinwalker, a creature from Navajo tradition that shapeshifts from human form into an animal, CBS noted.
No animals were harmed during the time the creature wandered the area, and Kashuba noted that there was no sense of fear, “just more of a curiosity.” The zoo is calling the animal an Unidentified Amarillo Object, or UAO.
“It is definitely a strange and interesting image. Maybe Amarillo can help solve the mystery of our UAO,” Kashuba said. The Amarillo government website asked the public to send any ideas on what the creature might be.