What is this mystery creature spotted outside Texas zoo? Baffled authorities ask for help

A "strange" creature was photographed outside a Texas zoo. (Image credit: CityOfAmarillo/Facebook)

City officials in Amarillo, Texas, have been left baffled by an unidentified creature caught on surveillance cameras outside the city zoo. Authorities have now asked for the public’s help in identifying the “strange” creature that was photographed outside the zoo in the dead of the night last month.

The city shared a picture of the creature on social media yesterday, where it has since gone viral and puzzled thousands of internet users. Asking for help in identifying the mystery creature, which appears to be walking on two legs, the City of Amarillo, Texas, posted: “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?” the city asked.

According to CBS News, zoo officials were causally looking at images captured by game cameras that are placed throughout the facility when they came across the strange creature.

According to Michael Kashuba, the parks and recreation department director for the city of Amarillo, none of the city officials could identify the creature. "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," he said.

Hundreds of social media users responded to the ID request – and their guesses ranged from reasonable to downright bizarre.

“Did you guys recently have a Furry Convention in town? That would answer a lot of things here,” one Facebook user wrote.

“Looks like a person walking with a back pack and clothing blowing in the wind,” another said.

Many theorised that the mystery creature could be an alien, while others said it looked like something right out of a myth or folklore tale.