Mexican President Posts Photo of a Mayan Elf

Robert Sheaffer

Robert Sheaffer

Member
On Feb. 25, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the President of Mexico, posted the following to his Twitter account:

"I share two photos of our supervision of the Mayan Train works: one, taken by an engineer three days ago, apparently from an aluxe; another, by Diego Prieto of a splendid pre-Hispanic sculpture in Ek Balam. Everything is mystical" (Translation from the Spanish).

"Aluxes" are the mischievous little people of Mayan mythology, like elves. The photo is not very clear. Any ideas what it is?



Source: https://twitter.com/lopezobrador_/status/1629617208899895296
 
This one looks a little bit like a negative of a daytime photo, with some conspicuous photo enhancement in the eyes and hair. But I've seen it pointed out elsewhere that it was take several years ago, not recently.
Quote from someone using a screen name, so I don't know the original source:
A tweet from February 2021 alleged the figure was spotted in a park in Manchester, England, and the following day, multiple Mexican media outlets reported the same figure as a "witch" in Nuevo León in northeast Mexico.
Content from External Source
 
These figures look quite hand-drawn into the pics.. Very crudely so as well. I have no proof but it's got this Cottingley Fairies feeling.
 
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Possible older. Dated 5 Feb, 2021, Borneo, Indonesia.

Article:
The appearance of a mysterious figure was caught on camera by Lili, a resident of Singkawang. To Hi!Pontianak , Lili said she recorded the appearance of this mysterious figure on Thursday night, February 4 2021, around 23.00 WIB.

Lili said, that night she was going from Jalan Ayani to Jalan Firdaus, via Jalan dr Soetomo. In the middle of the road he heard the sound of people laughing. "His voice is like burung keruak (burung ruak)," he said.
He and his two friends then turned around, looking for the source of the sound. "That's where we saw the mysterious figure earlier. He was in a tree, and I immediately took a picture using my cellphone camera, I zoomed in," he said.
The figure looks white hair and eyes shining. The body is dark in color. He clung to a tree trunk with his hands. "After taking the picture I just remembered, it's Friday night, we immediately ran away," he said.


A mysterious figure caught on camera by Lili. Photo: Doc Hi! Pontianak
 
Why would the president of Mexico include this "Aluxes" with a photo of Ek Balam? I've been to Ek Balam, it's a really cool site, what a shame to for the president to get all paranormal with it.

An alux (Mayan: [aˈluʃ], plural: aluxo'ob [aluʃoˀːb]) is a type of sprite or spirit in the mythological tradition of certain Maya peoples from the Yucatán Peninsula and Guatemala, also called Chanekeh or Chaneque by the Nahuatl people. Aluxo'ob are conceived of as being small, only about knee-high, and in appearance resembling miniature traditionally dressed Maya people. Tradition holds that aluxob are generally invisible but are able to assume physical form for purposes of communicating with and frightening humans as well as to congregate. They are generally associated with natural features such as forests, caves, stones, and fields but can also be enticed to move somewhere through offerings. Their description and mythological role are somewhat reminiscent of other sprite-like mythical entities in a number of other cultural traditions (such as the Celtic leprechaun), as the tricks they play are similar.[1]
Content from External Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekʼ_Balam

It does have a superficial resemblance to the artistic renderings of the '04 Bruja de Monterrey based on the policeman's description:

1677531718202.png


https://aminoapps.com/c/terror-amin...onterrey/vjbn_gEunu63jx1BJ04KKaq1Rg8jqp61dQSX

And the Brujas are often depicted in trees, though I suspect that's because it's easier to hang the prop up in a tree:


https://elportaldelmiedo.net/la-bruja-de-monterrey/
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a composite object. Essentially a collection of an animal plus vegetation plus stone from which our mind forms a pattern of a person. The illusion is probably lost at any other angle.

For the animal I nominate the nocturnal, arboreal, prehensile-tailed bearcat:
1677561362234.jpeg
Edit: spelling
 
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Mick West said:
A mysterious figure caught on camera by Lili. Photo: Doc Hi! Pontianak
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my first guess is that it's branches, parts of which seem discontinuous due to shadow, and pareidolia.

Obviously this depends on the direction of the light; if the only light source is a camera flash, that explanation can't be correct.
 
Ann K said:
This one looks a little bit like a negative of a daytime photo
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Just took both pics into photoshop and inverted them. Posted here are just straight negatives of the images as posted here, with no other fiddling to make them look better. My attempts to do such fiddling did not make them look much better. I don't think they are actually negatives after all, thiugh I agree that they look odd -- perhaps an artifact of garbagy image resolution/quality? I agree that it looks like there might have been some fiddling around the ayes/"hood" area, unless that impression is also caused by the image quality. My money is on monkey (or sloth if taken in the small bit of Mexico where sloths hang out.)
MEXICAN WITCH ELF THING INVERTED.png

My money is on monkey (or sloth if taken in the small bit of Mexico where sloths hang out.) I was surprised to find that the sloth Bradypus variegatus has a bit of a range up in Mexico.
Sloth-Range.jpg

(Map from: https://www.allcreaturespod.com/episodes/episode-181-simply-splendid-sloths/sloth-range/)

Not a bad match for the elfwitch, though the bands across the eyes seem to be missing...

Bradypus.jpg
Other sloth species lack those bars, but are not normally found in Mexico. Of course, if it is a hoax, it may have been taken anywhere.
Edit to add -- sloth looks more like my negative than the original, as I noticed just after posting.
 
Mick West said:
Possible older. Dated 5 Feb, 2021, Borneo, Indonesia.
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i do like the trees on that road as contenders. None exactly fit but March 2020 was the closest i can see.

i did keep wondering why they were scared of Friday night (at midnight articles say) :noting that google translate might be wonky...so adding if members find interesting.
Article:
The figure looks white-haired and his eyes are shining. The body is dark in color. He hung on the tree trunk with his hands. "After taking the picture I just remembered, it's Friday night, we immediately ran away," he said.


Article:
The very mysterious figure has a pocong-like head appearance and a hairy body like a monkey.



Pocong
Pocong is a Javanese ghost that is said to be the soul of a dead person trapped in their shroud.
Content from External Source
Screenshot 2023-02-28 123930.png
 
the "2nd" pic does seem a tad more monkey like as the arm around tree looks monkey like, but the first one still looks just like a kid to me (although pareidolia and having just looked at the pic of "Mudinho" might be coloring my view. and obviously if so the eye shine would have had to be photoshopped in.

:) maybe a bit of a stretch, but...

pocong boy.pngScreenshot 2023-02-28 130914.png

mudinho.jpg
 


Got my Bio-Arch daughter-in-law involved. She pointed out that very few monkeys, especially New World ones, have the "tapetum lucidum" that makes the glowing eyes. That assumes the photo is not edited and was taken in Mexico. I reminded her that in the world of "the magical and mysteries", evidence need not correlate with a specific time and place.

The tapetum lucidum (/təˈpiːtəm ˈluːsɪdəm/ tə-PEE-təm LOO-sih-dəm; Latin for 'bright tapestry, coverlet'; pl. tapeta lucida)[1] is a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrates and some other animals. Lying immediately behind the retina, it is a retroreflector. It reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light available to the photoreceptors (although slightly blurring the image). The tapetum lucidum contributes to the superior night vision of some animals. Many of these animals are nocturnal, especially carnivores, while others are deep sea animals.

Similar adaptations occur in some species of spiders.[2] Haplorhine primates, including humans, are diurnal and lack a tapetum lucidum.[Note 1]
Content from External Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum

Just musing here, but it sure reminds me of the guys that free climb trees for coconuts. His legs are bent at the knees so that his feet are on the trunk and his right arm is around the trunk holding on. He has on some sort of hat and maybe a beard and mustache? Granted a primate would look similar:

1677607445507.png

1677607875701.png

Also from the entry on tapetum lucidum:

Although human eyes lack a tapetum lucidum, they still exhibit a weak reflection from the fundus, as can be seen in photography with the red-eye effect and with near-infrared eyeshine.[17][18]
Content from External Source
So, the familiar red-eye effect, but it seems most of the color has been washed out of this picture. Reminds me of the Calvine UFO photo, there's some color but...

I'll have to see if I can find an old photo with red-eye and wash the color out to see what I get.

Just a thought.
 
NorCal Dave said:
They have the eyes, but are a bit small:
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yea i kinda think the tree has to be bigger, i did try looking for smaller trees or branchesches but they dont really work for what else we see in the pics.

this is the only tree i saw with the crooks. but i dont think the leaves match ??? [edit: or maybe a few leaves match]
1677616979601.png

this tree way down road has good leaves ???... (couldnt find matching tree trunks but vegetation varies and i was a year off)
1677617112911.png

the indonesian claim is this stretch of the road, if anyone is interested.
Lili said, that night she was going from Jalan Ayani to Jalan Firdaus, via Jalan dr Soetomo
Content from External Source
1677617253877.png
 
Mendel said:
my first guess is that it's branches, parts of which seem discontinuous due to shadow, and pareidolia.
Click to expand...

IF, the "eyes" are something else, then their resemblance to eyes could be causing some pareidolia. I tried to color over the eyes a bit just to see what I get. Part of the problem is that having "seen" a creature it's hard to unsee it, but once the eyes are gone, a lot of the creature does just look like shadows and bad photo artifacts. I'll note particularly what we see as the left arm going across the body and gripping the tree, now seems to just be a series of unrelated shadows:

1677691790113.png

Of course, there are 2 pictures of the supposed critter, but maybe were just seeing the face of something smaller, like a loris with its glowing eyes and our mind is filling in the rest to create something bigger.

In fact, if @deirdre is correct and the photo was taken on or near the street she identified, it seems a bit busy for a loris. A more likely candidate might be the neighborhood cat. The cat in a tree provides the glowing eyes and our minds provide the rest.
 
Provinence on this one is getting convoluted:
https://anomalien.com/woman-photographed-the-alleged-brujah-witch-on-a-tree/
Capture.JPG

...at that moment, the woman heard a strange low hiss from above and looked up at the nearby trees. Some kind of creature was sitting in the crown of one of them. Numb with fear, the woman pointed her phone at entity and took a picture. After that, creature, jumping from tree to tree, quickly disappeared from sight. When the next day the woman told her neighbors and relatives about the incident, they did not believe her, but when they saw the photo, all the doubts of the skeptical people disappeared. Then she was prompted to seek help from MUFON. This organization specializes in psychological assistance to residents of England affected by ghosts, poltergeists and aliens. In addition, various cases of manifestation of the unknown are being investigated. The experts of the organization took up this matter with surprise. According to the woman, the details of the incident were recorded. Here is how the creature was described by a resident of Manchester: “It was a nice autumn evening for a walk. The clock showed around 21:40 when the meeting took place. Musi (the name of the dog) was very frightened of something, but I took him in my arms, and we continued our walk. At some point, he became uncontrollable and, breaking out of my arms, rushed back towards the house. Then I heard a hiss. “My first thought was a giant snake, but where in Manchester would it come from? And when I looked at the crown of the tree and saw pale eyes without pupils, I became incredibly scared myself.

In a state of stupor, I automatically took out my phone and took a picture of this terrible creature. Then it darted away in quick leaps from tree to tree. It seemed to me that his coat is absolutely black, except for the one on his head, it is white. “But I paid attention only to the eyes – they had no pupils. It was like two flashlights were drilling right through me.” Later, the Englishwoman remembered a couple more details: “Maybe it seemed to me, but on the front paws of this animal I saw long rounded claws, and it also did not have a tail. I think so, but I was in shock and maybe mixed up something.” Two days later, the woman took two researchers to the park, who carefully examined the place of the mysterious meeting. There were fairly deep claw marks on the bark of the tree. Probably that creature left them. Variants with a cat or a monkey running away from someone were immediately excluded. They don’t have those claws. Who was the creature that made the Englishwoman so frightened is unknown. Folklorists believe that this may have been a form of bruja witch. This cryptid is a flying creature that inhabits not only England, but also Wales, Mexico, USA, Canada, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Puerto Rico and Ireland. Experts are still arguing whether the brujah witch is the famous Flatwood monster or not. And if so, can it be argued that it was this creature that the Englishwoman captured in the photograph? After the incident, a survey was conducted among local residents, has anyone else seen something like this? It turned out that a gentleman who was sitting on a bench in a nearby street noticed the rapidly fleeing creature that evening. But even taking into account his testimony, there is very little information about the creature, so it is extremely difficult to find out its nature of origin. In addition to the assumption of a brujah witch, there is a version that this is some kind of mutant from the famous sewer network near Manchester, about which there are a variety of legends and rumors. And there is an opinion that the Englishwoman captured a real alien. However, it is impossible to say anything with certainty in this case.
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There are some oddities there. The English is a bit "off" to my ear, and things like cats being ruled out because they don't have claws is odd. Also note the involvement of MUFON, an "organization specializes in psychological assistance to residents of England affected by ghosts, poltergeists and aliens." Seemingly the author knew or assumed that the picture was taken in the UK, and the bit about a large snake being unlikely at the location seems to fit the UK better than Mexico or SEA. On the other hand, saying that a Bruja is a British term for witch seems... wrong.

Possibly this was written in some other language then poorly translated into English, confusing some points? Not sure what to make of this.
I found this word for word on two UFO/woo sites. This is the one that did not make my antivirus get all panicky...
 
JMartJr said:
There are some oddities there. The English is a bit "off" to my ear, and things like cats being ruled out because they don't have claws is odd. Also note the involvement of MUFON, an "organization specializes in psychological assistance to residents of England affected by ghosts, poltergeists and aliens." Seemingly the author knew or assumed that the picture was taken in the UK, and the bit about a large snake being unlikely at the location seems to fit the UK better than Mexico or SEA. On the other hand, saying that a Bruja is a British term for witch seems... wrong.
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Yes, the English is stilted, but of course "in England" doesn't mean "of English descent". And as far as I can determine, "Bruja" is a term only used in Spanish-speaking countries. Perhaps the language, the mistakes, and the odd phrasing are merely a script read by someone who spoke Spanish in order to dramatize a story, either for print or for a video. I get the distinct impression that if the second viewer, the man on the bench, saw an identifiable animal running away, it wouldn't be reported because it would spoil the more sensational story.
 
JMartJr said:
There are some oddities there. The English is a bit "off" to my ear, and things like cats being ruled out because they don't have claws is odd. Also note the involvement of MUFON, an "organization specializes in psychological assistance to residents of England affected by ghosts, poltergeists and aliens." Seemingly the author knew or assumed that the picture was taken in the UK, and the bit about a large snake being unlikely at the location seems to fit the UK better than Mexico or SEA. On the other hand, saying that a Bruja is a British term for witch seems... wrong.
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Ann K said:
Perhaps the language, the mistakes, and the odd phrasing are merely a script read by someone who spoke Spanish
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It clearly seems to have been written in something other than English originally. It reminds me a lot of using Google to translate Spanish language mystery or UFO sites. Obviously "Bruja" is Spanish for witch, like the afore mentioned Bruja de Monteree.

It has the feel of a Spanish language mystery site just concocting a story. It has MOFON doing paranormal investigations, investigators showing up and dismissing mundane explanations. Then the Flatwoods monster is thrown in, along with aliens and a Manchester sewer monster. Only thing missing is Bigfoot, or Pied Gigante.
 
Mick West said:
Possible older. Dated 5 Feb, 2021, Borneo, Indonesia.

Article:
The appearance of a mysterious figure was caught on camera by Lili, a resident of Singkawang. To Hi!Pontianak , Lili said she recorded the appearance of this mysterious figure on Thursday night, February 4 2021, around 23.00 WIB.

Lili said, that night she was going from Jalan Ayani to Jalan Firdaus, via Jalan dr Soetomo. In the middle of the road he heard the sound of people laughing. "His voice is like burung keruak (burung ruak)," he said.
He and his two friends then turned around, looking for the source of the sound. "That's where we saw the mysterious figure earlier. He was in a tree, and I immediately took a picture using my cellphone camera, I zoomed in," he said.
The figure looks white hair and eyes shining. The body is dark in color. He clung to a tree trunk with his hands. "After taking the picture I just remembered, it's Friday night, we immediately ran away," he said.


A mysterious figure caught on camera by Lili. Photo: Doc Hi! Pontianak
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I used TinEye to find a slightly different version of this story with some more details.

https://kumparan.com/dukun-millenni...l-sosok-misterius-di-singkawang-1v7Kw4w7RPy/1

Quoted from Hi!Pontianak, an apparition of a mysterious figure recorded by one of Singkawang was recorded. According to information obtained by Hi! Pontianak, the appearance of this mysterious figure was recorded on the night of Thursday, 4 February 2021, around 23.00 WIB.

From the recorded sightings, there is a figure that looks very strange and mysterious. According to residents, he took pictures while walking at night, to be precise, on Jalan Ayani-Jalan Firadaus, via Jalan Dr. Soetomo. On the way he heard people laughing.

At first the figure was not detected by the residents, then after being searched and recorded, a very mysterious figure appeared. With the appearance of a pocong-like head and a hairy body like a monkey.

This figure appears hanging from a tree on Jalan Dr. Soetomo Singkawang.

From the findings of the picture, the Millenial Shaman tried to ask Putra Kayang, one of the supernatural experts in Banten. According to Putra, this figure does look very foreign because Putra believes that every region has supernatural beings with their own characteristics.

Nevertheless, Putra believes that this figure belongs to the stealth type. Not just any demon, the figure behind the picture is a demon resulting from the incarnation of a human who performs ritual rituals of drinking animal blood, this is why the figure has a head similar to a pocong while its body resembles that of a monkey.


"In my opinion, this is a demonic figure, although each region has its own unique creature, I see that it is a demon from the results of rituals. It seems that he uses the ritual of drinking animal blood, eating his figure like that," explained Putra to DM.
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Singkawang is a city located in the province of West Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo in Indonesia.

Caption to photo from article
This figure appears hanging from a tree on Jalan Dr. Soetomo Singkawang. Photo: Doc Hi! Pontianak
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That's a street; not a person with an M.D.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jl.+Dr.+Sutomo,+Pasiran,+Kec.+Singkawang+Bar.,+Kota+Singkawang,+Kalimantan+Barat+79123,+Indonesia/@0.8929727,108.9755649,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x31e372675187cee7:0xc51250d98911a96a!8m2!3d0.8977007!4d108.9752125!16s/g/1ptz2pj0q

If the witness saw a gibbon, which seems likely, the species in that area would be Abbott's Gibbon - aka the Western Gray Gibbon.


Borneo unknown species.jpg185-Gibons-and-Map-WEB- (1).pngimages (1).jpgHylobates muelleri abbotti _7_.JPGabbotts-gray-gibbon-hylobates-abbotti (1).png1-Abbotts-Gray-Gibbon-240.jpg

gibbon K.png

Enhanced K2.png

Similar, but the proportions of the face and head aren't right. The gibbon has a flatter head, not the peaked head we see here.

Let's assume that the original photo was used in this article...
I suspect that something has been photoshopped over the original head of a gibbon or some other primate. Something with a hood and glowing eyes.

Why would that be important? I bolded something in the article - Pocong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocong


Pocong (from Javanese: ꦥꦺꦴꦕꦺꦴꦁ, romanized: pocong, lit. 'wrapped-in-shroud') is a Javanese ghost that is said to be the soul of a dead person trapped in their shroud.[1] Known in Indonesian as kain kafan, the shroud is the prescribed length of cloth used in Muslim burials to wrap the body of the dead person. The dead body is covered in white fabric tied over the head, under the feet, and on the neck.[2]

According to traditional beliefs, the soul of a dead person will stay on the Earth for 40 days after the death. If the ties over the shroud are not released after 40 days, the body is said to jump out from the grave to warn people that the soul needs to be released. Once the ties are released, the soul will leave the Earth permanently.

Pocongs come in all shapes and sizes, depending on not only the physical appearance of the deceased at the time of death, but also on the state of the corpse's decomposition as well. The pocong of a person who has been dead for years would be more skeletal in appearance, whereas the pocong of a recently deceased person would retain a fair resemblance to his or her former self, save for some minor decomposition. Typically, a 'fresh' pocong is described as having a pale face and wide open eyes. Multiple sources mentioned a pocong with dark face and glowing red eyes, a decayed pocong with white featureless eye, and a flat-faced pocong with empty eye sockets. Although popular culture often depicts pocongs hopping like rabbits due to the tie under their feet rendering the ghosts unable to walk, genuine pocongs are said to move around by floating above the ground. This is the distinction that people tend to look out for when they encounter a 'pocong' in the wild.
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If you look at the photos it's pretty obvious that they both have a photoshopped head pasted on. There's a visible discontinuity and the head doesn't at all match the body. It's out of proportion and more importantly it doesn't match the posture or position. Meaning that the body in the photo is turned, but the head is taken from a body that's facing the camera.

This is supposed to be something with its head turned on its neck toward the camera. But it really doesn't look like that at all. It's a clumsy 'shop made from mismatched parts.

gibbon K.png
This looks like something peeking up from behind the left shoulder of a decapitated ape. The ape has its back turned two thirds away from the camera. We see the left arm bent at a 90 degree angle with the left hand propped against the tree to give it support. But the photoshop artist has just cut the head off and clumsily pasted on a head from a source that's facing the camera.


Enhanced 2 .png
The head in this photo is particularly out of proportion. Huge. And it doesn't match the other photo. The ape has its belly against the tree trunk, most likely with its head resting against the other side of the trunk. But there's that mismatched head peeking up at a slant over the left shoulder. Could this be any more crude?

It seems likely that the body is that of a primate in a tree, but the head was taken from something entirely different.


So what is it? I suspect it's a Jawa.
jjj 2.png



But it could have been taken from any of the innumerable pocong images on the Internet.
collage-2022-08-14T112157.504.jpg

Pocong.jpg


It's notable that there's a disclaimer in the article:
The writings of the Millenial Shaman do not represent the views of the coil editor
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Meaning that the "article" is for entertainment purposes only.

Over the years these two photos have been repurposed for other local ghost stories.

Boo!
 

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Ha Ha

https://bengkulu.antaranews.com/ber...ga-itu-berhasil-ditangkap-dituntut-minta-maaf

The "Pocong" who was troubling the residents was caught and demanded to apologize​

Monday, 11 November 2019 20:17 WIB 2061


The youths who disguised themselves as "pocong" were punished by standing on the side of the road. (Ist)
Semarang (ANTARA) - If you are on a quiet and dark street and suddenly a "pocong" appears, of course you will be extremely surprised. "Pocong-pocong" like that was played by five junior high school students in Mijen District, Semarang, to frighten passers-by.

Cash residents who found the "pocong" reacted, and also reported to the police. Long story short, the five junior high school students in Mijen District were not prosecuted by the police following their prank or fad action which scared residents by wearing pocong "costumes".

Also read: The pocong oath does not resolve cases of human rights violations

The students were arrested following reports from the public who were uneasy with the actions of the students. The police arrested junior high school students who frightened residents by jokingly using pocong "costumes" in the early hours of Sunday (10/11).

Head of the Mijen Polsek, Police Commissioner Budi Abadi, in Semarang, Monday, said the five students were only coached as a result of their nosy actions. "We summoned the five students, questioned what their motives were," he said.

The five students with the initials MF, RK, TG, FN and MH came accompanied by their parents and school. When they were arrested, TG and RK had fled but the police continued to chase them until they were finally arrested at their respective homes. MF was immediately arrested because he was still wearing a pocong costume.

Also read:Polantas "pocong" and "kuntilanak" outreach at school

According to him, the five students were not prosecuted criminally.

The five, he said, were only asked to make a statement containing an apology and would not repeat their actions.

Even though the law has not been processed, the police are still investigating the motive behind it. "The five admitted, but shifted responsibility over who had the idea," he said.

By wearing pocong "costumes" they mean they are just making fun and fun to scare people, but instead they are caught by the police.
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This is from Java and not related, except to illustrate that people are genuinely wary of this ubiquitous spook.
 
Looks to me like a doctored pic of a lanky person, perhaps a young man in short-sleeved shirt with a pack, facemask and maybe wristwatch.
Of course, could be pareidolia on my part- and it's quite easy to mark out different apparent features or edges of different areas of contrast. Senior member dierdre posted a similar picture at 6:09, Tuesday, with a different plausible left-leg arrangement.

Pres EUM Gremlin.jpg


Incidentally, if it is a human, the 'eyes' look a little wide-set to me. And I know we don't have that reflective membrane (tapedum lucidem) that cats and dogs do. Did say I think it's doctored...

I do wonder if the photo is a negative, with a hint of green added to the vegetation afterward.

Considering the monkey / ape/ sloth hypothesis, it turns out tarsiers, monkeys (including Western Hemisphere monkeys) and apes- collectively, the Haplorhini primates- all lack a tapedum lucidem (we are apes, of course).

Extract from Tapedum Lucidem, Wikipedia, accessed today (06 Feb 22):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum

Tapetum Lucidem, Extract from Wikipedia 6Feb22.JPG

Many Strepsirrhine primates- lemurs, galagos, pottos and lorises do have a tapedum lucidem and so can show "eye-shine" (same source as above).

Can't find anything definitive on sloths; did quick Google image searches for "Sloth eye-shine", "Sloth reflecting eyes" and "Sloth at night" but didn't see anything that indicates that sloths demonstrate eye-shine.

The following PubMed -listed papers might have info, but I don't have access to them:
The eye of the sloth
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5407706/
Physiological implications of the structure of the sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni Perers) eye [in French]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4158458/
Ocular microscopy of Bradypus variegatus
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34820880/

Still think it's some geezer up a tree, though. Possibly Iggy Pop? The glasses might explain the eye-shine.
1678070979624.jpeg
 
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John J. said:
Considering the monkey / ape/ sloth hypothesis, it turns out tarsiers, monkeys (including Western Hemisphere monkeys) and apes- collectively, the Haplorhini primates- all lack a tapedum lucidem (we are apes, of course).
Click to expand...
Search for photos of sloths taken at night are confounded by a sloth cartoon character named "Flash" swamping searches mentions flash photography. However, it looks like under some conditions sloths can show at least a bit of eye shine in visible light:
jungle-night-tour-sloth.jpg

And quite a bit on an IR trail cam:
sloth-grudge-page_2015_05_13.jpg
 
Irrelevant, since it's not a sloth. A sloth has a low flat head. The thing in question has a high, peaked head..
 
John J. said:
Looks to me like a doctored pic of a lanky person, perhaps a young man in short-sleeved shirt with a pack, facemask and maybe wristwatch.
Of course, could be pareidolia on my part- and it's quite easy to mark out different apparent features or edges of different areas of contrast. Senior member dierdre posted a similar picture at 6:09, Tuesday, with a different plausible left-leg arrangement.

Pres EUM Gremlin.jpg


Incidentally, if it is a human, the 'eyes' look a little wide-set to me. And I know we don't have that reflective membrane (tapedum lucidem) that cats and dogs do. Did say I think it's doctored...

I do wonder if the photo is a negative, with a hint of green added to the vegetation afterward.

Considering the monkey / ape/ sloth hypothesis, it turns out tarsiers, monkeys (including Western Hemisphere monkeys) and apes- collectively, the Haplorhini primates- all lack a tapedum lucidem (we are apes, of course).

Extract from Tapedum Lucidem, Wikipedia, accessed today (06 Feb 22):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum

Tapetum Lucidem, Extract from Wikipedia 6Feb22.JPG

Many Strepsirrhine primates- lemurs, galagos, pottos and lorises do have a tapedum lucidem and so can show "eye-shine" (same source as above).

Can't find anything definitive on sloths; did quick Google image searches for "Sloth eye-shine", "Sloth reflecting eyes" and "Sloth at night" but didn't see anything that indicates that sloths demonstrate eye-shine.

The following PubMed -listed papers might have info, but I don't have access to them:
The eye of the sloth
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5407706/
Physiological implications of the structure of the sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni Perers) eye [in French]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4158458/
Ocular microscopy of Bradypus variegatus
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34820880/

Still think it's some geezer up a tree, though. Possibly Iggy Pop? The glasses might explain the eye-shine.
1678070979624.jpeg
Click to expand...
Not a negative:

-That question has already been addressed in this thread.

-There are many nighttime flash photos to compare it to. I looked through every "camera trap" photo I could find on the Internet.

211219-01-Sunbear-INNIKEA-3-1.jpgCT_Lord-Derbys-Anomalure.jpg41598_2017_4112_Fig1_HTML.jpg
Now then, why do they look like this? I'm still educating myself on this subject. But it seems that these are photos taken with an active infrared camera. An infrared camera that has an infrared flash source.

So, do cell phones have active infrared cameras? Some do.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-you-need-an-android-smartphone-with-a-thermal-and-ir-camera/

AGM Glory G1S

Packed into the rear camera array is a 256×192 thermal imaging camera with a temperature range of -20°C to 550°C, and a 20-megapixel night vision IR camera with IR LED illumination.

Yes, this has both a thermal camera and an IR night vision camera.
Click to expand...
 
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...Well, it's not a monkey or (non-human) ape, unless the eye-shine has been 'shopped.
And if one part has been 'shopped, that calls into question everything else...
...which in this case I think is a pretty good default position.

Edited to add: Z.W. Wolf, is that a red squirrel in picture #6 ? Haven't seen one in ages.
 
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I've looked at hundreds of photos. I can't find any arboreal mammal that looks like this thing. My conclusion is that it's a photoshop. A head pasted onto the body of a gibbon or some other primate.

Not a human body. No human has legs like that. And generally doesn't look human.

I think the simplest scenario is that the witness was a city dweller who was spooked by an Abbott's Gibbon in a tree; an unusual sight for a city dweller. Add onto that a fear of the pocong spook.

The US equivalent is city dwellers that get spooked by possums and raccoons.

The street where it happened. The article doesn't give an address, but this generally looks like a suburban area.

https://www.google.com/maps/@0.8988...4!1sEdQMMwWwVw6335tpg3eXww!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

There are more urban stretches.

The witness photos of the gibbon made their way somehow to this source: https://kumparan.com/hipontianak/pe...singkawang-terekam-kamera-warga-1v7IAToIBqh/1
See: Post #7

... and the photos were punched up with Photoshop to make it look more like a pocong. The head looks a lot like a Jawa to me.

About the translation of the page: Pontianak can mean vampire, and Google Translate translates it as such, but in this case it seems to refer to the city of Pontianak. This seems to be the local Pontianak news section of the larger Kumparan website. But the incident happened in Singkawang.

https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumparan_(situs_web)

... the leading digital news media platform, which is a place to read, create, and share various news and information. Founded in January 2017, Kumparan was built as the first media platform in Indonesia that implements technology-based journalism that allows interaction for all of its users.
Click to expand...

(The source for this Wiki article text seems to come from Kumparan itself.)

Or perhaps one of the witnesses made the photoshops. At any rate this seems to be the original source of these photos, which have been reused over the years.

See: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mexican-president-posts-photo-of-a-mayan-elf.12877/#post-288319


Not an unknown type of humbug in English speaking countries, now is it?
download (5).jpg
 
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