What is this beach beast?

On Tuesday, KEYT Senior Reporter John Palminteri was walking on a Santa Barbara beach doing a story on the fallout from a recent storm when he stumbled upon this:

"It certainly has been a mystery," Palminteri told The Huffington Post. "It definitely had teeth and I would never want to encounter it in a dark creek path."

Palminteri posted the pictures online and asked his audience what they thought it was. Yesterday, Paul Collins, Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, came forward with what he thinks is the answer.

"He said it was a badger," Palminteri said. "Short feet, with claws, narrow snout with two protruding cheeks. That’s a badger."

But even if Collins is right, there's still one mystery left unsolved.

Palminteri said badgers aren't common in Santa Barbara so it's difficult to tell where it came from.