The Fresno Nightcrawler is one of the most infamous cryptids of America. Also known as the Fresno alien, the cryptid has had two “confirmed” appearances so far. Both of the appearances were in California. One in Fresno and one in the Yosemite National Park. However, both the sightings are just video clips. There is one man though, a guy from Poland, who claims that he has seen the Nightcrawler with his own eyes. The Fresno Nightcrawler is also known to resemble the infamous Carmel Area Creature. Let’s find out more about it.

Fresno Nightcrawler: Real or Hoax?

What are the possible logical explanations of the Fresno Nightcrawler?

These are some of the explanations that most people have come up with. The Fresno Nightcrawler could be:

• A prankster walking on stilts and wearing gigantic pants.
• A species of primate that still hasn’t been discovered, with shorter arms than normal.
• A deer that was standing upright for some time.
• Puppets which are wire controlled.
• A large, crane like bird.
• An extraterrestrial creature.

What is the Fresno Nightcrawler?

What are the origins of the Nightcrawler?

Some people have wrongfully attributed the Fresno Nightcrawler to Native American folklore but this claim has been debunked on numerous occasions. 

When was the Fresno Nightcrawler first sighted?

The Fresno Nightcrawler was first spotted (claimed to be) by a man named Jose in Fresno, California. He heard his dog bark and looked at the surveillance camera and spotted the Nightcrawler.

What does the Fresno Nightcrawler look like?

The Fresno Nightcrawler has been claimed to be much shorter than the Carmel Area Creature. Most people have claimed that the Fresno Nightcrawler wasn’t more than 1.5 metres tall. It also had disproportionately long legs with a very small upper body. Since all footage of the Fresno Nightcrawler is of very low quality, there isn’t much detail available about its upper body. Based on what is available, the Fresno Nightcrawler has been described as a thin, white humanoid with no arms. The knee and the torso seem to be connected by webbings. The Fresno Nightcrawler also has very thin feet, almost resembling stilts. The knees are bent backwards and it walks with a bipedal form.

The Fresno Nightcrawler was spotted in the Yosemite National Park as well. Sadly, this was another low quality security camera footage. However, this footage captured two creatures. One was the standard Fresno Nightcrawler size, while the other was considerably smaller. The feet were more visible and some webbing connected the knees to the upper body.

Surprisingly, a similar looking cryptid was sighted thousands of miles away in Poland also. The cryptid was apparently captured with the help of a handheld camera. The shaky footage features the cryptid for a brief period of time, but it does look similar to the Fresno Nightcrawler. 

What is the Carmel Area Creature?

An unnamed 60 year old marine and his wife saw a tall and slender creature in gray when they were driving near Carmel. This incident happened on December 12th, 2014 and the witness gave the following account:

“We recently bought a place in the Fort Hill area (in southeast Highland County). We first noticed after about 30 days of living here that we suddenly have a perfect circle that stays fresh green, no matter what weather, in our front yard. On Friday night (the 12th), we were driving home. After turning on Carmel Road, which leads to our road, we went around the curve by the Carmel church and then up a small incline and approximately 10 feet over the incline and in front of our truck, the ‘alien’ ran across the road and into the woods.”

The Camel area has become notorious for Nightcrawler sightings and many people have claimed to have seen a thin, armless, pale white humanoid creature. However, it could very well be the case of mass hysteria and the “mind seeing what it wants to see”.

Has the Fresno Nightcrawler featured in the media?

The Fresno Nightcrawler is famous for appearing in the popular Syfy show Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. However, the show’s team couldn’t reach a conclusion about the Fresno Nightcrawler and labelled it “unexplainable”. Because the Fresno Nightcrawler has never really attacked or harmed anyone, it is now considered a fun urban legend by many.

What are some popular Fresno Nightcrawler hoaxes?

Aside from the security cam footage which has been labelled “unexplainable”, there are a lot of hoax videos about the Fresno Nightcrawler as well. There are some videos of white pants being puppeteered by someone to look like the Fresno Nightcrawler. Another notorious Nightcrawler hoax is the alleyway GIF created by Youtuber Captain Disillusion. He did so by walking down an alleyway with a melon. He then digitally altered the footage and removed the top half of his body. He didn’t create this video to create mass hysteria. He did this to show how easy it was to create fake videos of cryptids.