Jackson-area resident Sarah Harrison MacMillan was enjoying a floating trip on the South Fork of the Shoshone River with friends and family Saturday when she spotted what she thought was a dead cat floating in the water.
Their boat was anchored, and the carcass drifted close enough for her to grab it by the tail.
It wasn’t a cat, and as of Monday, MacMillan remains stumped without a positive identification about what the mystery critter was.
Marmot, Marten Or Wolverine?
She posted photos of her holding the unidentified animal on social media, which prompted a wide variety of guesses. Some insist that it’s a dead pine marten or perhaps a fisher cat, which are members of the weasel family.
Others said it might be an oddly-colored squirrel.
One of the wilder suggestions was that it might be a drowned baby wolverine.
MacMillan told Cowboy State Daily that her best guess is that it was an immature marmot that got too close to the river, fell in and met its fate.
Cowboy State Daily sent photos of the mystery carcass to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department asking for a possible ID, but there was no response from the agency Monday.
MacMillian said a look at the critter’s teeth likely would have definitively told the tale of what it was.
Unfortunately, she never got the chance.
She hadn’t been holding it very long when skin on the part of the tail she had gripped in her fingertips “gloved off” (sluffed off the animal), and the carcass plopped back into the water. She wasn’t able to grab it again.
“I am so intrigued by it,” she said. “I really love nature and I love knowing about the animals.”
Why She Thinks It’s A Marmot
The animal’s fur was dark, practically black, she said.
In the photos, it also appears to have white spots on it. MacMillan said the animal’s eyes had turned white from the carcass being in the water.
Based on her brief examination, she said the other white spots appeared to be from the natural decomposition process. She also didn’t see any evidence that fish or birds had been trying to feed on the carcass.
She leans toward thinking the animal was a marmot because of its feet.
Looking at the photos, “I can see only four toes in the front, with two pads behind. On the rear feet I see five,” she said.
That matches a marmot’s foot pattern.
The relatively flat skull also indicates a marmot, rather than an otter or member of the weasel family, she added.
The Teeth Would Have Given It Away
She’s frustrated that the carcass slipped from her fingers and was lost before she got a chance to get a good look at the mouth.
Oversized front incisors, common among rodents, would have been a dead giveaway for a marmot, MacMillian said.
But if the critter had sharp canines and an array of teeth more suited toward a carnivorous predator, that would have pushed things more in the direction of a fisher cat or some other weasel.
MacMillan said she hopes somebody can help her positively identify the mystery creature.
“I’m slightly baffled by it,” she said. “I feel like I should send the photos to a biologist.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
