Help identifying strange creature

[Galego]

Hello. For those of you who don't know me, or don't remember me, I'll introduce myself. I'm a 31 years old man from Galicia, in Northwestern Spain. I spend my time between a small city and the mountains. (Not the same city or the same mountains I lived on back when I first joined this forums. Smaller city, wilder and more isolated mountains. So yeah, life is good right now). I am a historian specialized in anthropology and Galician folklore, as well as a high school History teacher. I also work occasionally as a hiking guide, tour guide and archery instructor in a small mountain hotel. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I specialized in folklore, so it's not a field outside my area of expertise. I am very familiar with wildlife, not just the local species, but zoology in general, as it's one of my hobbies. I am capable in the woods, and  a decent tracker, compared to most local hunters.

I have a friend whom I'm going to call "Xocas", as he doesn't want to reveal his name. Is in his behalf that I ask for your help with this experience. He doesn't understand English, so I hope to be accurate in my effort to translate the details of his story.

Xocas is a Galician man in his fifties. He was born and raised in the mountains. He is not "capable in the woods" or "a decent tracker". He is a true master. He started hunting when he was twelve, and knows this mountains like the palm of his hand. He's seen everything, from bear, to boar, to deer, to marten. As a true rural Galician, he is totally on the fence when it comes to the supernatural. A popular saying here is "Eu non creo nas Meigas. Pero habelas, hainas". Meaning, "I don't believe in witches, but they are out there". That's kind of his approach to the whole supernatural thing.

Xocas lives up in the mountains, in a small hotel he owns and operates (It's actually a collection of small mountain cottages. There are quite a few of those establishments all around Galicia, as rural and adventure tourism seems to be popular lately). There, besides just the stay, he offers hiking trips, tours, archery practice, bouldering and climbing and things like that. I work for him as a guide and archery instructor when he needs a replacement, so I'm also familiar with the woods surrounding his little hamlet.

The thing is, two winters ago, early in the morning, he saw a creature drinking from a small creek, at about 2 km from his house. He says it looked similar to a genet, with spotted fur and all. Except it's fur was greenish colored, was about the same size as a border collie and had antlers similar to those of a roe deer. It's snout was similar to that of a musk deer, fangs and all, but shorter, and it's tail didn't have the typical ringed markings the genet has. Xocas says he was at about fifteen meters from the animal when he encountered it.

At first he thought it was a really big genet that had been playing in the creek, smeared it's fur with algae, mud and grass, and got a branch stuck on its head. But the more he looked at it, the more it looked like an unknown creature. He took out his cell phone to record it, but the creature saw him, jumped across the creek, climbed a tree and disappeared into the woods. He then checked the creek and the surrounding area for footprints or any kind of track. Didn't find any, so he assumed his mind played a trick on him, and he daydreamed the whole thing, or maybe that it was some kind of spirit. But as it didn't seem aggressive, Xocas let the whole experience go and didn't preoccupied himself with it. Till last March, when some guests told him they had seen a strange animal on the property. Something they described as a green leopard. He then remembered his own sighting, and started asking around. In June, a couple that was staying in his hotel told him they had seen a green catlike creature with horns in a forest nearby. And in July, a child told his parents "a deer with green eyes" had stared at him the whole night through one of the windows. They told Xocas, of course. Apparently, this "deer" was sitting in a tree branch just next to the window, and had spotted fur. So, after that, he called me.

As I said before, I am specialized in Galician folklore and mythology. Such a creature doesn't exist in our mythos. And to be honest, I don't know of anything that fits the bill in any mythology. Or in the animal kingdom. I searched for similar sightings online and found a lot of photoshoped images, awful taxidermy and various obvious hoaxes. But nothing similar to our creature.

We asked some more people in the closest hamlets and villages. One person said he saw something, but we are fairly sure he was lying. The description he gave us changed after we told him what the creature Xocas saw looked like.

Xocas decided to set a few trail cams in the woods in and around the property, and installed surveillance cameras in the hotel. He got lots of wonderful photos, but not the antlered genet. Of course, we checked for prints and kept an eye out, tried to track the thing (kind of impossible, with no tracks), or at least spot it, but no luck.

Then came the big WTF moment.

The thing is, I own property in those mountains too. Two years ago, after I lost my home in the terrible forest fires that devastated Galicia in October of 2017 (a story for another time, and also the way I met my wife), I used the insurance money to buy a small ruined hamlet in the mountains. But it wasn't just me. Together with a group of friends that want to go back to living in a sustainable and self-sufficient way, as well as bring new life to an area mostly empty and with a really aging population, we bought the land. You see, those mountains are protected and you can't build a village or house there, only restore existing ones. So we bought the hamlet, and started to restore it. None of us live there full time yet, as we all have jobs and the like in other places. It's a long term plan. But is going well. We regularly go there to work on the restoration of the cottages, prepare the cultivable land for crops, and the like. I personally spend there a lot of time, as it's only a one and a half hour drive from our city home. But there was a friend (I'll call her "Laura") who hadn't brought her girlfriend to the mountains yet. You see, while Laura is a really grounded and reasonable person, her girlfriend is a bit... out there. She describes herself as a Witch. The magical kind. She is a nice and kind person, and I do like her and think they are a really great couple. But I don't agree with some of her "truths". And she is THAT kind of person. She always knows the "truth" to everything. Anyhow, two weeks ago she decided to bring her. The first night they stayed in the mountains, they slept in one of Xocas's cottages, as Laura's girlfriend is not very outdoorsy and our cottages lack electricity and plumbing at the moment (we do have outhouses). So in the morning, we went to eat breakfast with them at Xocas's. It was then that another friend asked Xocas how "the hunt for the creature" was going and if he had found out anything (After Xocas told me, I asked my friends if they had seen anything, Laura included. They hadn't.). And here comes Laura's girlfriend asking if we are talking about the "ocelot". We looked at her and basically just said "WHAT?". She said "The green ocelot, the guardian spirit of the mountain. She visited me last night in a dream". So, yeah. There's that. I asked Laura, and she says she didn't told her anything about the supposed creature.

At this point, Xocas kind of believes he saw a supernatural guardian spirit, or something like that, and is concerned it may mean negative publicity for his business if people keep seeing it . I'm trying to be the voice of reason here, telling him that there has to be a rational explanation for all this. An animal has to be an animal. And Laura must have told something to her girlfriend, even if she doesn't remember it. And our friend the witch just decided to prove once more how witchy she is, and stump us all.

So, Xocas was starting to consider getting the help of "an expert" to shed some light into the whole thing, and I suggested this forum. I know some of you guys will see this my way, but with fresh eyes and distance. And I also know some of you will have plenty of supernatural explanations to keep his inner superstitious Galician self happy.    

So, there it is. Please, speak your mind and help us here.    

[Piney]

This fellow was originally described as a "goat headed god". It was only in the late 20th Century he was described as a hominid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basajaun

It could be your bunny. 

[Galego]

9 minutes ago, Piney said:

This fellow was originally described as a "goat headed god". It was only in the late 20th Century he was described as a hominid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basajaun

It could be your bunny. 

I am very familiar with The Lord of the Forest, in all it's variants. Here in Galicia it's called Rabeno. It doesn't match what my friend saw. It wasn't a satyr type creature. But thank you for your suggestion, Piney. Is nice to meet you.

P.D: It may be of some interest to you, since you mentioned Basajaun. 

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Galego
Post Data

[Piney]

5 minutes ago, Galego said:

P.D: It may be of some interest to you, since you mentioned Basajaun. 

I missed that thread. Nice meeting you too!

I would imagine then something on the lines of a variation of a Forest Guardian because of the antlers. 

[+susieice]

I had to google to see what a genet was. What a beautiful animal! 

So this animal look resembles a genet but has green fur and antlers? And it's been seen by several people at his hotel and not just him? Could it be some sort of a small deer? I don't know what would cause the fur to be green.

[Piney]

40 minutes ago, Galego said:

genet

Oh, the evolutionary branch between a cat and A weasel. 

My bad! I thought you were talking about a type of monkey. 

[Galego]

Just now, Piney said:

I missed that thread. Nice meeting you too!

I would imagine then something on the lines of a variation of a Forest Guardian because of the antlers. 

Well, the thread is more than five years old, so it's understandable .

Yes, the iconography would point to that. But I actually believe it has to be a case of misidentification. I've spent most of my life either studying and investigating folklore, or spending time in the forest. I haven't found any kind of proof for the supernatural. So I believe my friend saw an animal that he couldn't identify (due to malformations, or any other reason), or he hallucinated it (unlikely, as more people claim to have seen some creature as well. 

3 minutes ago, susieice said:

I had to google to see what a genet was. What a beautiful animal! 

So this animal look resembles a genet but has green fur and antlers? And it's been seen by several people at his hotel and not just him? Could it be some sort of a small deer? I don't know what would cause the fur to be green.

Genets are truly beautiful.

That's what he said, yes. And those people described a creature similar to what he saw. That's the part that puzzles me. There aren't any small deer in Galicia. The smaller one is the roe deer, that has that tipe of antlers. But it doesn't climb trees. I even though of a malformed genet or wild cat. I read once about a cougar with a siamese twin in his head that made it look like it had horns.

[Galego]

6 minutes ago, Piney said:

Oh, the evolutionary branch between a cat and A weasel. 

My bad! I thought you were talking about a type of monkey. 

A monkey? I'm afraid the only primates we have around here are those poorly named Sapiens. 

[Piney]

2 minutes ago, Galego said:

A monkey? I'm afraid the only primates we have around here are those poorly named Sapiens. 

Try living in the States or the North Borders of England.

"Hominid" takes on new definitions.....

[Galego]

5 minutes ago, Piney said:

Try living in the States or the North Borders of England.

"Hominid" takes on new definitions.....

I actually lived in Ireland for a while. Found it's people more civilized than mine. Can't speak about the States or England, though.

This is the cougar I mentioned. I'm thinking our antlered genet might suffer from something like that. Still no clue on why it was green, though.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mountain-lion-teeth-1.3398377

[Galego]

Mystery solved. Turns out it was all a prank orchestrated by my wife as part as a surprise birthday party for me. So, yeah. I'm an idiot. 

[ThereWeAreThen]

On 9/15/2019 at 7:35 PM, Piney said:

Try living in the States or the North Borders of England.

"Hominid" takes on new definitions.....

More like the British Isles!

[openozy]

The small deer thing sounds like a Muntjak,which my mates in the UK catch sometimes when hunting rabbits with lurchers.They are a feral, introduced animal there,maybe so in your country.The young are spotted.

[Bella-Angelique]

5 hours ago, openozy said:

The small deer thing sounds like a Muntjak

I think you got it. Watch video and see how the color of its fur can shift under different lighting.

 

[Galego]

Thank you all, but as I stated before, turns out it was all a prank orchestrated by my wife for my birthday party. 

[openozy]

1 hour ago, Galego said:

Thank you all, but as I stated before, turns out it was all a prank orchestrated by my wife for my birthday party. 

So the animal your mate had seen was a made up story by you?

[Alchopwn]

Damn, I thought I found the answer:

 

[Galego]

On 9/27/2019 at 3:19 PM, openozy said:

So the animal your mate had seen was a made up story by you?

Not by me. It was a story made up by my wife and my "friends". I was the intended victim of the hoax. Because apparently wasting two months of my life investigating a stupid prank is a good birthday surprise. So they say.

[ThereWeAreThen]

On 9/27/2019 at 2:19 PM, openozy said:

So the animal your mate had seen was a made up story by you?

What's wrong Ozy? It's like you've never seen a made up story on this site before. 

[openozy]

22 minutes ago, ThereWeAreThen said:

What's wrong Ozy? It's like you've never seen a made up story on this site before. 

Only ones by skeptics trying to explain the unexplainable.