Tiger spotted in NYC turns out to be a large raccoon
There's not much wildlife in New York City -- pigeons, subway rats, Williamsburg hipsters.
So when a push notification from the Citizen App informed New Yorkers that a tiger was roaming the street, people were naturally startled and confused.
According to NBC New York, the NYPD received a call Thursday morning about a tiger that was supposedly spotted on the streets of Harlem.
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After a short investigation, it turned out that the animal roaming the streets was, in fact, just a very large raccoon. This proved for a very amusing series of notifications.
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Some theorized that this mix-up was due to New Yorkers not being familiar with animals.
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Others were just annoyed.
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Apparently, confusing particularly large woodland mammals with wild cats is not a new phenomenon. One user shared this delightful headline from 1928.
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Emergency services were able to capture the raccoon and take it to a nearby shelter.
Animal Care Centers of New York told ABC NY that the raccoon was euthanized, as required by law for any species that could transmit rabies.
Rest in peace, large raccoon. You lived with the glory of a tiger, if just for one brief Thursday morning.
Topics Animals
Petrana Radulovic was a web culture fellow here at Mashable. She enjoys exploring the growing intersection of story-telling and digital spaces, hanging out in book shops and art museums, and the tasteful meme. Follow her on Twitter at @pet_rana for #relatable content.
