Claim:
Photos shared on social media authentically showed a huge sea creature caught by a fisherman in Papua.
Rating:
Rating: Fake
In 2024, a set of images purportedly showing giant axolotl-like creatures circulated online. Two of the images showed men holding the pink-skinned animal — which appeared roughly the same size as the men — in boats, while the third showed a similar creature swimming underwater.
One Facebook post (archived) with the images, for example, was shared more than 1,500 times. The caption read, “Papuan fishermen catch an Axolotl.”
(Facebook user Happy Hippie)
In a caption originally written in Japanese and translated using Google Translate, one X post (archived) compared the creatures shown in the images to a mutated aquatic creature featured in Prime Video’s 2024 “Fallout” series, writing: “I’m totally a Gulper from the drama Fallout 😂.”
Not all of the posts sharing the images named a location where the creature was allegedly found. Among those that did, the most common place named was Papua, which could refer to either the Indonesian state of that name or the country of Papua New Guinea. Other posts claimed the creature was found near Kribi (archived) or Limbe (archived), both of which are cities in Cameroon.
Although Snopes has so far been unable to identify the creator of the images, they appear to have begun to circulate on social media in late July 2024, when the earliest securely datable posts featuring them showed up on Facebook (archived), X (archived), and Instagram (archived).
Ultimately, Snopes found no evidence that the images shown in the posts authentically depicted a real animal caught by a fisherman. Using Google’s reverse-image search tool, we found no authentic source for the above images. Nor did we find any news outlets reporting on the catch or any photographer claiming to have taken this picture. Instead, the images showed signs of being a product of artificial intelligence (AI) software.
Real Axolotls Are Way Smaller
The creature — or creatures — shown in the posts closely resembled the leucitic variant of axolotls, a critically endangered type of salamander, but some features of the images and posts suggested that these were not real axolotl specimens.
First, although the creatures in the images appeared roughly the same size as the humans shown sitting next to them, real axolotls are significantly smaller than a human. According to both the San Diego Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo, it is possible for axolotls to reach a maximum length of around 18 inches, but they are typically shorter than a foot in length, reaching between 7 and 11 inches at maturity.
Second, axolotls in the wild are only found in a small number of freshwater lakes in Mexico’s state of Jalisco. So-called Montana axolotls, which are not true axolotls but instead a variant of the barred tiger salamander that does not mature into a terrestrial form, have a similarly limited natural habitat, being found only in certain lakes in southwestern Montana.
Neither type of salamander can live in the ocean, and there is no evidence the animals have ever been found in Papua — whether the Indonesian state or Papua New Guinea — or off the coast of Cameroon, as some of the social media posts sharing the images claimed. A Google search for “Papua” and “axolotl” returned no results connecting axolotls to Papua beyond a Facebook post sharing the same images investigated here. A search for “Cameroon” and “axolotl” likewise returned no credible evidence that such a creature had ever been found in the country.
The creature also bore a slight resemblance to certain other types of salamanders with external gills, including so-called mudpuppies or waterdogs, but like axolotls, these salamanders are also not known to grow to human size or to live in the ocean.
Photos Show Signs of AI Software
In addition to the creatures’ alleged size and the fact that in the wild axolotls are found only in a minuscule number of freshwater lakes, there were other signs that the images were not authentic photos depicting real events, and many commenters pointed that out.
One aspect pointed out by multiple commenters was the humanlike hands visible in one of the three images of the axolotl-like creature, which were seemingly complete with fingernails. One commenter wrote: “AI. One pix has it with 5 fingers, another has 6.” Another left a comment reading: “If this is real, why does it have six toes underwater, and only five toes in the boat?“
(Facebook account Jarred Jermaine)
Another clue that the images were not authentic was the garbled text on the T-shirts of the men visible in two of the photos. Bizarre hands and gibberish text are both hallmarks of images created using AI software.
We also ran the images through AI image detectors AI or Not and Hive, both of which indicated that the images had a high likelihood of having been AI-generated.
Snopes has previously investigated similar claims about images allegedly showing bizarrely large animals, including a giant centipede purportedly found in Australia and an eerily large octopus that social media posts claimed washed up on an Indonesian beach.
Sources:
“Axolotl.” Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, https://lazoo.org/explore-your-zoo/our-animals/amphibians/axolotl/. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
Axolotl | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants. https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/axolotl. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
“Exploring Montana’s Axolotl Lakes.” Big Sky Journal, 2 Feb. 2023, https://bigskyjournal.com/exploring-montanas-axolotl-lakes/.
Ibrahim, Nur. “This Giant Octopus Was Photographed on the Coast of Indonesia?” Snopes, 5 June 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/giant-octopus-coast-indonesia/.
Lee, David Emery, Jessica. “4 Tips for Spotting AI-Generated Pics.” Snopes, 16 Apr. 2023, https://www.snopes.com//articles/464595/artificial-intelligence-media-literacy/.
Wrona, Aleksandra. “Giant Centipede Found in Australia?” Snopes, 9 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/giant-centipede-arthropleura-video/.
