Booger Bear

The animal stands eight to ten feet when upright on hind legs, which is how it's most often seen. Weight estimates from witnesses who've encountered it at close range cluster around five to seven hundred pounds. That makes it larger than any documented black bear in the region, though within range of a grizzly. The 1967 Kentucky specimen weighed approximately 650 pounds. The fur is dark, typically described as black or deep brown, shaggy and coarse, longer along the shoulders and spine. The build is heavy through the chest and upper body with forelimbs disproportionately long for the frame. It is closer to the proportions of a great ape than a black bear. The hindquarters carry the weight differently than a bear's, with a posture that accommodates sustained bipedal movement rather than the temporary rearing a black bear does. The face is where the animal stops making sense. Every account emphasizes a shortened snout: flat, pushed in, more bulldog than bear. The brow ridge is prominent and heavy. The jaw is wide. Some witnesses compare the facial structure to a cat's; others say it looks like an old man's face set in a bear's skull. John Keel, documenting the 1967 Kentucky events, recorded that the recovered animal had "both catlike and doglike features”. That description has held consistent across decades of independent reports. The eyes reflect reddish in low light, which is inconsistent with black bear tapetum coloring. The tracks are oversized, with claw marks longer and set wider than any regional bear species produces. Some prints have been measured at fourteen inches. Researchers who've examined them note a hybrid structure that doesn't conform cleanly to known ursine anatomy. The smell precedes it. Witnesses describe a thick, musky stench that’s stronger and more acrid than black bear. The smell is detectable before the animal is seen and lingering after it's gone.

“"My husband heard the hogs first. Not squealing the way they do when a dog gets in. They were screaming. He grabbed the shotgun and the light and went down to the pen. I stood on the porch. I could see the light moving across the field and then it stopped. He came back to the house walking fast, not running, the way a man walks when he doesn't want to admit he's scared. He said there was something in the hog pen that was standing on its back legs and looking at him over the top rail, and the rail is five feet high. He said the face was flat and the eyes caught the light red. He said it grunted like a man clearing his throat and dropped to all fours and went over the far fence and into the woods. We lost two hogs that night. Whatever it was took one with it. Dragged it over that fence and into the trees. We found the drag marks in the morning. My husband tracked them a quarter mile up the ridge and then stopped. He said the smell was still in the air and he didn't want to find what was at the other end of those tracks." ”