Photo Fakery: Animals and Insects

A gallery of viral images depicting animals in a variety of credulity-stretching contexts: giant housepets, wayward predators, albino wildlife, and more. Some of these photos are authentic, others are fakes. See if you can tell which is which...

Emailed photos allegedly show a 412-pound deer killed by a hunter in Clarion County, Pennsylvania (or in Nebraska -- take your pick).

Emailed photo shows a hunter posing beside a dead razorback hog purportedly 8 feet long and weighing 800 lbs.

September 2007 email flier of indeterminate origin purports to seek a home for six abandoned black lab mix puppies.

Emailed photos purportedly taken at Cross Lake, Louisiana show a gator moving through the water with a full-grown deer in its mouth.

Circulating via email, an unsettling photograph of what appears to be a half-human, half-animal creature suckling her hybrid offspring.

Emailed photos taken in a cornfield in Illinois, Minnesota, or Wisconsin (depending on version) show a black bear awakened from hibernation by a combine harvester.

Viral images purport to show "big horn sheep" scaling the face of Buffalo Bill Dam near Cody, Wyoming.

Circulating via social media, this viral image purportedly depicts a rare black lion.

Emailed photos purport to show the progressive deterioration of a wound caused by the bite of a brown recluse spider.

Emailed video of a grizzly encounter between a bungee jumper and the crocodile awaiting him in the river below.

Emailed photos purport to show a 'calico buck' shot by a hunter somewhere in Wisconsin (or Michigan, Arkansas, West Virginia, or Georgia, depending on version).

Emailed photo taken by U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq shows a pair of huge, scary-looking arachnids known as camel spiders. Is it true the venom of a camel spider is deadly to human beings?

Emailed photos show a flathead catfish with a child's basketball stuck in its mouth.

Viral video tells the true, heartwarming tale of the reunion between Christian the Lion and the two men who adopted him as a cub in the 1970s.

Authentic / Mislabeled: Emailed photos taken through a screen door show a cougar (mountain lion) prowling the porch or patio of someone's home.

Little did the Palm Beach golfer realize as he tramped off alone to the seventh hole that he was about to become Ol' Mose's last meal.

Authentic emailed image of a one-eyed kitten named Cyclops who lived only one day before succumbing to a rare medical condition known as "holoprosencephaly."

Set of emailed images purports to show rare deep-sea creatures washed up on the beaches of Phuket, Thailand by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

Emailed photos document the discovery of a dead deer high atop a power pole in a remote area of Baltimore (or Winnipeg, Manitoba, depending on version).

Viral email touts humongous dog for sale: "Owner cannot afford to feed him anymore, as there are no more thieves, murderers, rapists or molesters left in the neighborhood for him to eat..."

Forwarded email urges recipients to sign a petition preventing artist "Habacuc" Guillermo Vargas (aka "Habakkuk") from participating in the Central American Biennial of Art because he created an exhibition in which a stray dog was allegedly starved to death in the name of art. Attached photos appear to be authentic.

Viral video appears to show an elephant painting a "self-portrait" unguided by human hands.

Emailed photos show the carcass of a very strange fish with monstrous teeth allegedly washed up on a beach in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Direct from our inbox, the email tale of an 87-pound housecat named "Snowball."  You won't believe the photo!

Despite its resemblance to the infamous "mutant cat" hoax above, this 2004 image appears to be authentic.

Emailed photo - apparently real - of a huge, 140-pound catfish supposedly caught in Lake Texoma, Texas.

Apparently authentic: Emailed photos of gargantuan specimens of Birgus latro - the coconut crab, named for its preferred diet of fallen coconuts and said to be the world's largest land-dwelling arthropod.

Emailed image of a large alligator allegedly shot in Texas or Florida (depending on version) by a game warden named Joe Goff.

Are emailed pictures of a giant, 1,600-pound, man-eating grizzly bear allegedly killed in Alaska by a hunter or Forest Service employee real?

Viral image shows what appears to be a gigantic snake supposedly spot near Delray, Florida, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, or in NSW, Australia.

Mislabeled: Emailed photos of a gigantic, 1,800-pound wild boar allegedly shot and killed in Conroe, Texas by a radiology technician.

Authentic emailed images show several hummingbirds calmly feeding from a woman's outstretched hand.

Authentic emailed photos of a 10-foot "liger" (a cross between a lion and a tiger) named Hercules.

Authentic emailed image of a very large "German Giant" rabbit named Herman, held by his owner, Hans Wagner.

Forwarded email recounts the true story of the rescue of a female humpback whale trapped in a web of crab lines in the Pacific Ocean near the Farallon Islands.

Actually, we think these photos of a "seriously pissed-off cat" just back from the groomer are real, but the accompanying story is too good to be true.

Emailed photos purport to show an infestation of maggots or insect eggs in the cream filling of an Oreo cookie.

Emailed photos purport to show a giant, man-eating catfish caught in the Furong Reservoir of Huadu, China.

Emailed photos of a huge crocodile fished from the sea in the port of Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo.

Emailed image purportedly shows a full-grown 'work moose' being harnessed to haul wood in a logging operation.

Emailed image shows an unfortunate moose accidentally strung up on power cables by a utility crew near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Emailed photos show an unusually large mountain lion (cougar) allegedly killed between Grantsville and Walker near Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Emailed images appear to document one of the more unusual causes of a printer jam - a mouse stuck in the printer's ink toner cartridge.

Emailed photos purportedly show a mule attacking and killing a mountain lion in Arizona (or Wyoming, depending on version).

Images circulating via email purport to show common housecats hand-painted in a variety of decorative colors and designs.

AUTHENTIC: Emailed pictures of an extremely rare albino dolphin with red eyes and pink skin taken on Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana.

Emailed pictures of fishermen holding a large fish with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth, variously captioned: "Piranha on Steroids" or "World Record Piranha."

Emailed images show the result of an unfortunate encounter between a "pit bull" and a porcupine.

Emailed photos authentically (and graphically) document injuries sustained by the survivor of a polar bear attack.

Emailed images show a 1,200-pound polar bear playing with husky sled dogs in the sub-arctic wilderness of northern Canada.

Authentic: Emailed photos show a chihuahua puppy born in Japan with a heart-shaped pattern in its coat.

Did you lose a cat? This viral image purports to show a raccoon standing on its hind legs holding a kitten or cat in its paws.

Hoax photo purports to show a specimen of the exceedingly rare "Rainbow Owl," a vibrantly-colored species native to China and the western United States.

Dramatic still photo shows a great white shark lunging out of the water towards a diver dangling precariously from low-flying helicopter.

Emailed image shows a massive shark looming behind two blissfully unaware scuba divers vacationing in Australia.

Viral image purports to show a great white shark swimming freely in the flooded streets of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Irene (August 2011).

Has your computer ever hissed at you? Here's a tale, complete with shocking photos, of a woman who probably wishes she'd called Animal Control instead of Tech Support when her PC began making strange noises.

Various tales, some taller than others, accompany these authentic images of a python who tangled with an electric fence and lost.

Emailed image shows a very large snake (evidently a python) pulling its prey (evidently a wallaby, though some have labeled it a "cow") out of a body of water in Western Australia.

Emailed photos purport to show a nest of baby copperhead snakes found in the bottom of a plastic flower pot purchased at a grocery store.

This charming series of photographs purports to show a gigantic serpent killed and dissected in the process of swallowing a full-grown human being.

Emailed picture of a giant rattlesnake killed in Texas, allegedly measuring 9 feet 1 inch in length and weighing 97 pounds.

Emailed snapshots taken at a zoo show a mother tiger nursing a brood of piglets costumed in tiger skins.

Forwarded email accompanied by a photo purportedly depicting the penis of a blue whale claims that the male of that species produces over 400 gallons of sperm in a single mating session.