Whenever I am channel-surfing and come across night-vision footage, I get off that channel real quick, because it is usually some paranormal claptrap. On Tuesday, I started watching a program called Destination Truth about the "sloth monster": I thought I would give it a go, to see just how truthful they were going to be. Some fifteen minutes into it, they started the night-vision stuff — in the Brazilian jungle no less. I pondered: Do I switch channels now or should I see it through?

I should have switched! The photograph showing a cartoonish interpretation (in remote Rio Branco, Brazil) of a "mapinguary" was taken by Lalo de Almeida for a decidedly less pretentious version of the sloth-monster story in The New York Times.