Mystery ‘Loch Ness’-like creature spotted in Thames River

Is Nessie on vacation?

Experts are searching for answers after a mystery critter was spotted in the UK’s Thames River — with online sleuths guessing it could be everything from an “escaped” capybara to the Loch Ness monster.

“It was a bit of a shock,” Ryan Linehan, 21, told Pen News of the so-called Lost Ness Monster.

He has reportedly been walking with his parents near Old Windsor Lock in Berkshire when he caught the creature swimming in the drink.

“We were just passing by and it was actually the lock keeper that said to keep an eye out for what he thought was a seal,” said mom Bernie, 63. “My son just caught it as it bobbed up, but that was the best shot we could get.”

Ryan’s footage shows the critter’s dark, furry head surfacing and submerging as it makes it way across the river.

The videographer described the animal as “slightly furry” with “a flat nose,” adding that it was about the size of a medium to large dog like a German Shepherd or Alsatian.

Ryan said he was skeptical of the lock keeper’s claim that it was a seal, given that they were “probably like 30 to 40 miles from the sea.”

“I was quite surprised – I wouldn’t say it’s the last place I’d expect to see something like that, but that part of the Thames is probably not so renowned for its wildlife,” he said.

Hoping to shed light on the mystery critter’s identity, Ryan shared the footage in a naturalist group on Facebook, where it racked up thousands of views and sparked a raging debate.

“Definitely a beaver,” one commenter contended.

However, another refuted this theory, instead declaring that the animal was a “grey seal.” The Thames is home to around 3,000 of the seal species, as well as 600 harbor seals.

“It’s 110% a seal,” agreed another armchair wildlife expert, to which another viewer retorted, “It’s so obviously not a seal.”

Some thought it was an otter, but this was refuted by skeptics as well.

Meanwhile, some of the more far-fetched guesses included a sea lion, turtle, or an “escaped” capybara — a South American denizen that’s the largest rodent in the world.

Some even joked that the creature was the Loch Ness monster with one wit quipping, “Nessie, but she’s a bit lost.”

Even wildlife experts appeared to disagree over the animal’s species. When the Linehan family reached out to someone at a local wildlife trust, she claimed it was an “otter.”

“She said a seal and a beaver wouldn’t come up that far, and they wouldn’t be able to negotiate the locks,” recalled Bernie.

Florin Feneru, identification and advisory officer with the Angela Marmont Centre at the Natural History Museum in London, said he couldn’t tell “with any confidence” as he couldn’t see the tail, but leaned towards “beaver.”

“Their upper line of the cranium is flatter, a bit convex even, like a bull terrier’s, for example,” the expert said while explaining his rationale. “Otters have a stop – the concave dip at the base of the muzzle, like a beagle, for example.”

Once extinct across Britain, beavers have been reintroduced to select regions, including the Thames and other London waterways, where they haven’t lived in 400 years.