Lousiana swamp monster caught on cam - Or maybe Photoshopped

Contessa Brewer of MSNBC has picked up a story from an NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge, La., of a creature popping up in a Berwick hunter's motion-activated wildlife cam.

Apparently, the man whose camera picked up this photo on a friend's private property wishes to remain anonymous but claims the cam was destroyed but the memory card remained intact.

The NBC33 affiliate already featured the photo twice by 10:45 today and have also posted it on their Facebook page.

Any why not all the coverage?  I personally love any monster story that gets locals and news reporters talking, and it gives producers a chance to use The X-Files theme music.

Although I'm guessing this is a Photoshop job or some alien iPhone photo app (not unlike the ghost apps we mentioned before).

Plus, this photo has already made the rounds and appears on a photobucket profile and archery Web site with an 11/30 time stamp (shown here), as opposed to the 12/4 stamp shown in the news package.

As far as the glowing eyes, it's time for a science lesson.

If the photo were somehow legit, and this was an image of a nocturnal swamp monster, the glowing eyes wouldn't be that surprising.  Many animals who operate at night posses a reflective layer behind their eyes called the tapetum lucidum.

This layer allows animals, like my dog here (who I'm pretty certain isn't a complete hellhound), to see better in low lighting. It also causes a mirror effect when a photo is taken and the light is reflected back, creating a glowing illusion.