Description: Viral image / Hoax
Circulating since: Oct. 2010
Status: Fake (see details below)
Text example:
Email contributed by Fred M., Nov. 2, 2010:
FW: spectator
This is freaking scary. As you know I was alone when I downed this elk in ND. I was using my camera’s timer attached to my shooting stick to give me enough time to get into the picture. I knew there were a lot of cats in the area but had no idea they would come in this close to people. He had to be within 10 feet of me and I didn’t even know it. I about crapped my pants when I looked at the pictures the next morning and saw he was there.
Analysis: False. Both the photo and the story are fabrications. If you look closely at the composite image, in which the light on the cougar clearly falls from a different direction than that on the hunter, it's easy to tell it was doctored. It was created by pasting part of a 2008 photograph of a cougar in California taken by self-styled "Camera Trap Codger" Chris Wemmer into another photo (origin unknown) of an elk hunter posing with his trophy kill.
More:
• Hoax Quiz: Can YOU Spot the Fakes???
• Image Gallery: Crazy Critters!
• Photo Fakery: Animals & Insects
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Sources and further reading:
On the Prowl
Camera Trap Codger blog, 27 February 2008Hoax Photo of Alleged North Dakota Elk Hunter and Cougar Making the Rounds
Cougar News, 20 October 2010Cougar Behind Elk Hunter Photo Making the Rounds
Lewiston Tribune Outdoors blog, 19 October 2010
Last updated 12/21/11
