A mind-bending optical illusion has left TikTok users scratching their heads at what has been dubbed a “spooky tree”.
Tara Laidlaw was on a walk with her dog when she came across the phenomenon.
Stumped, the 43-year-old stopped to capture the confusing item on video.
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She also shared it on Instagram, where the video has gained over 2.1 million likes so far.
“My first thought was that it was a raccoon or animal,” Tara, a laborer from Ontario, Canada, told What’s The Jam.
“So I stopped then [so] I wouldn’t scare it away.
“But then I realized that it wasn’t an animal, it was the tree itself.
“That’s when I pulled my phone out to record it.
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“And as I was recording, the dog started staring at it.
“Seeing the dog react, made it that much more spooky.
“So I high-tailed it out of there!”
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In the clip, Tara films the tree as a goblin-like figure sticks out to the right.
She continues to zoom in and out, focusing on the leg-like twigs and pointy-nosed face.
Birds can be heard chirping in the background, as her dog watches on with his tail down.
Tara then walks her dog past the tree, showing the strange creation.
She captioned the video: “What in the is that?”.
The clip has gathered 188,300 likes and 2,800 comments so far.
Sally said: “Leprechaun is what I thought of immediately.”
Someone else wrote: “It changed as you walked past. It got much more sinister from the other angle.”
Tam commented: “Saw a squirrel, then a teddy bear, then a demon, nope.”
Suzette added: “Dog doesn’t like it.”
Another user said: “The forest folk know what’s happening to our world, they are concerned.”
Katie wrote: “When the dog is alerted, so am I.”
Maribel commented: “I still don’t know what I saw but I saw it.”
Renee added: “Naw… I’m hiding in the comments.”
This is actually not a demonic creature or strange animal – but a few oddly-placed branches.
Tara added: “In the end, it’s just some branches that got broken off during a storm or something.
“But I’ve never seen broken branches look like that!
“Spooky!”
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