🐾 Teddy Bear Thing in the Thicket: Strange Sighting Along Texas River

📍 Beaumont, Texas | 🗓️ July 21, 2025 | 🧾 Category: Cryptid / Regional Mystery

Is it a cub, a prank… or something no one’s named yet?

A southeast Texas family on a summer camping trip near the Neches River marshlands got far more than mosquito bites on July 20. Just after dawn, a child from the group spotted what he thought was a “walking teddy bear” at the edge of the tall reeds. At first glance, the creature looked oddly cuddly small, round, and dark brown – but when it turned toward them, its eyes were too large, too still.

“It blinked once, then ducked into the cattails without a sound,” said the child’s father, who reported the event anonymously to a local wildlife Facebook group. “It was not a raccoon. It stood upright and it looked right at us.”

The creature, described as around 3 feet tall with stubby limbs and a fuzzy coat, left behind what looked like small, round tracks in the soft river mud. No photos were taken, though the family later returned to the spot and posted a blurry video of the grass parting near the edge of the bank.

Local lore keepers are comparing it to the Otterman of southern swamp tales, while others suggest a juvenile swamp ape or “mini-skunk ape” variant.