The blurry, black-and-white footage captures the unidentified animal darting across the yard, with something like a rope trailing behind. Some viewers believe that the animal appears to have a long, thick tail, and to be running on two legs. Suggestions have ranged from peacock to deer to iguana.
However, to the woman who caught the animal on tape last week, Cristina Ryan, the animal is nothing other than a small dinosaur.
Ryan told FOX 35 Orlando: “Any animal we can come up with that would be ‘walking’ at 3.40 in the morning, wouldn’t walk this way.
“Maybe I’ve watched Jurassic Park too many times, but I see a raptor or other small dinosaur.”
But social media users, not satisfied with the raptor theory, have been debating what the mystery animal could be. There are around 2,000 comments on an article FOX 35 Orlando shared on Facebook, including hundreds of guesses.
Most people seem to agree that the creature is not actually the prehistoric, and extinct, velociraptor—but that’s where the consensus ends. Suggestions in the Facebook comments vary from kinds of birds, mammals, or reptiles.
Some say that it could be a large bird, such as a turkey or a sandhill crane. There have also been suggestions that it could be an emu or peacock.
Others think it is a reptile, like an alligator or lizard, with some social media users saying that they have seen lizards, such as iguanas or basilisks, run on their hind legs.
There have also been suggestions that the mystery animal is a deer or a fox.
However, other viewers think that the explanation is more mundane. Many seem to believe that it is simply a dog wearing a reflective harness with its leash dragging behind, having escaped or gotten lost perhaps.
Ryan has listened to the suggestions of what the animal could be, but told FOX 35 Orlando: “Some say a large bird, but that makes no sense—since whatever it is appears to have front legs. So not sure? Lol. I’m sticking with raptor myself.”
Despite many social media users suggesting otherwise, the Universal Orlando Resort theme park, which boasts a Jurassic Park Discovery Center, may have bought into the idea that the mystery animal could be a small dinosaur, jokingly tweeting: “