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Mongolian Lake Monsters

 

Mongolian Lake creatures

Several lakes are said to have lake monsters dwelling in them in Mongolian.

Lake Hovsgol

Thought  to be between  two to five million years old, Lake Hovsgol in is northern Mongolia is the home of a large creature..It is Mongolia’s largest freshwater lake, with depths of over 800 feet. The lake  drains via the Egiyn River, which feeds the Selenge River in the Lake Baikal drainage basin.

Lake Baikal has its own monster.See link below.

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2021/03/mysterious-lake-baikal.html

South of the lake lies the Hövsgöl Mountain Range. In October 2007  a report appeared in some Chinese newspapers. Diver Dave Woodward and sonar operator Gregg Mikolasek were  boating on Lake Hovsgol when they saw  a giant 'trace', or shape, suspended about 35 metres below the surface in the freshwater lake..

'I think we saw something and I think it was about six metres long,' Woodward recalls telling his diving buddies back at the camp later that afternoon. About three metres wide in the middle, whatever was down there exhibited the half-moon shape typical of the image of a fish on sonar. Its thick central section glowed red, indicating density, another pointer that whatever it was, it was probably a single entity and not a school of fish. Woodward thought about going in, hesitated, then decided not to.

(I cannot show the link to the newspaper articles as it contains a virus.)

It sounds typical of a lake creature description . I was unable  to access other reports.

Could the creature be the same one as in Lake Baikal perhaps travelling from one lake to another.

 

Lake Uureg.

 

The Lake is a saline lake in western Mongolia. It has a maximum depth of 42 m (138 ft).

A Mongolian traveller  saw a huge creature, which he captured on video whilst he was taking a trip around Uureg Lake .Traveller Mr S. Sodnomdorj said “Foremost I thought there was a timber floating on the lake. Then I asked from a local man who was joining with me if it was possible or not. The local said ‘It is not possible’. We were in the distance of 250 meters away from the object. After that I tried to see that thing carefully, and then it seemed like an animal. I switched on my camera and started to record. I was running to the lake while recording because it was too far to capture it. That animal began to move its body and turned to the centre of the lake. Finally I realized it was an animal”.The creature’s fin appeared on the surface of the lake and it was approximately 7-8 meters.

Local people tell of a myth about a giant creature in the Uureg Lake. They call the giant creature  “Khukh bukh” (Blue bull).It is said to moo like a bull and appear once in 60 years. Elderly people used to say “I will give you to ‘blue bull’, if you behave naughtily” to children. They also used to warn people not to swim in the lake.

Mr. Sodnomdorj who captured the creature wants to have the video analysed  to prove if it is a creature or not.

As it is a salt water lake it could be  a sea creature that somehow entered the lake.

Near by is another lake with a creature. Uureg Lake lies a 150 kilometers from the Khyargas Lake.

Khyargas Lake.

This is also a salt water lake and is 50 metres( 150 metres approx) in depth

There was news released about Russian researchers working on a mysterious trace that was on the lake shore. A group of Mongolian and Russian geological researchers  team led by Victor Yarmoluk, discovered a huge trace on the shore of the Khyargas lake in the 1980’s. (Voice of Russia Aug 31, 2013).

The researchers  discovered several newly made footprints on the shore  1.5 km ( 5 feet approx) from the lake. It seemed like many reptiles came out and were lying on the shore for some time.

Writer and public figure Igor Grishin and a team visited Khyargas Lake in 2013 for a second time. They visited the lake first time in 2010.

“We found different sizes of traces and also bones which are cannot belong to the animals in Mongolia. However fishes that bitten by big teeth were caught from the lake many times, but there is only a species called ‘toothless Osman of Altai’ exists in the lake as known. We afforded the observation of the footprints on the ground and bed of the lake with echometer. Those footprints can be divided into 3 groups. There can be different sizes of several animals or those footprints can be traces from different parts of one animal.”

Researchers found out that some prehistoric animals such as plesiosaurs were not able to digest its food unless to swallow stones.

Valery Nikolayev is a zoologist and scientist of Valdai protected area. He stated that he agrees the prediction on existence of the prehistoric giant reptiles The Uureg Lake belongs to the same region of geography. It raises the assumption of existence of the similar giant creatures in both lakes or travelling from one lake to another.

Lake Kanas

Kanas Lake means 'a gorgeous and mysterious lake' in Mongolian. Local legend has it that there is a huge 'lake monster' in the lake, which often drags horses drinking by the lake into the water.

Read more here:

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/07/kanas-lake-monster-china.html

Lake Khaiyr

 Its depth is yet unknown. It is called "Khaiyr" (meaning "to love" in modern Mongolian) 

In1940 there was a sighting of "two large black creatures" by the polar aviator, Ivan Cherevichny and a  polar helmsman Valentin Ivanovych Akkuratov . They  saw two large animals when flying over the lake at the height of 800–1000 metres. Getting curious, they got down to 50 metres and observed the animals, but the noise of the plane scared the creatures and they submerged.

In 1964 when a group of scientists from Moscow University, claim to have encountered an animal with prehistoric biology whilst on an expedition surveying mineral deposits.An article written in Komsomolskaya Pravda by G. Rokosuev explains that the "monster" was initially seen by N. Gladkikh, the deputy leader of the expedition team.Gladkikh went out to the lake to draw water and saw a creature that had crawled out onto the shore, apparently to eat the grass - a small head on a long gleaming neck , a huge body covered with jet-black skin and a vertical fin along the spine.Gladikikh's story was at first met with incredulity by the rest of the team. However, the creature then reappeared to be seen by the leader of the expedition and several other members.

Rokosuev wrote:

“Suddenly a head appeared in the lake, then a dorsal fin. The creature beat the water with its long tail, producing waves on the lake. You can imagine when we saw with our own eyes that the stories were true”

The descriptions sound like a  a plesiosaur, which became extinct  66 million years ago. Some researchers think that this creature represents a mammalian herbivore related to the hippopotamus. Due to the isolation of this northern lake,a unique adaptation could arise.

The 1964 story has since been reported as a hoax however the 1940 sighting has not been debunked.

Being so isolated it needs an expedition of neutral scientists to get to the truth.

It seems Scotland is not the only country with  lots of lake monsters or water kelpies .Interestingly  both are in the northern hemisphere.

 

 

Seasons Greetings

 Merry Christmas to all. I hope you all find some joy in the holidays. I hope for lots of new cryptid sightings in 2024 and a better year for us all.xx

Christmas Monsters

 Christmas is also for Monsters!

 Not all Christmas creatures are benign like Santa Claus. Krampus looks like a demonic goat who walks on its hind legs like a human. He punishes naughty children, beating them with birch branches and carries a basket on his back so he can carry off a child to eat later.The 5th of December is Krampusnacht ,men in homemade Krampus costumes run around Alpine villages causing havoc. These 'Krampus Runs' continue today. The Karakoncolos looks like a cross between the Devil and a Sasquatch. In Turkey, the legend says he would stand at street corners on winter nights setting riddles for passers-by. If the traveller gave an answer that included the word ‘black’ they were free to go on their way. If not, he would strike them dead .Sometimes the Karakoncolos would just put them in a trance and leave them to roam free. In Serbia, the story says the Karakoncolos jumps on the victim’s back and uses them as a ride. The exhausted person was only released at dawn. Jólakötturinn is the Icelandic Yule Cat or Christmas Cat. Jólakötturinn, who first appeared in the 19th century, a huge, ferocious beast with razor-like whiskers, blazing eyes and terrible claws who consumed any child who did not receive new clothes on Christmas Day.It is tied into an Icelandic tradition in which those who finish their work on time received new clothes for Christmas, while those who were lazy did not . Jólakötturinn could tell who the lazy children were because they did not have at least one new item of clothing for Christmas and these children would be eaten by the Yule Cat. Then there is the macabre skeleton mare of Welsh tradition,Mary Lwyd, which rises from the dead and wanders the streets with her undead attendants, to remind the living of their existence. Mary Lwyd wants to to get into your house. To keep the zombie horse out, you must engage in a battle of rhymes . Usually singing the rhymes to which the zombie horse replies.On New Year’s Eve, the undead mare is represented by a puppeteer parading a horse skull on a pole draped in white cloth around the towns and villages. Next there is a creature from Scandinavian folklore who looks like a gnome and lives among the dead inside burial mounds called the Tomten.He can act as a caretaker of the household, that is if you keep on his good side. The Tomten has quite the temper and is known for biting people who upset him. The bites are poisonous and deadly. People leave a gift of food out on Christmas Eve for the Tomten. One of Iceland’s creatures associated with Christmas is Gryla a giant troll who is bad tempered with an insatiable hunger for children. Each Christmas, Gryla comes down from her mountain dwelling to hunt for naughty children. She catches them in a sack and takes them back to her cave where she boils them alive for her favourite stew.

Could plans for Loch Linnhe be the end of monster sightings?

 

End for Loch Linnhe Monster?

Loch Linnhe is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. It is about 50 kilometres (31 miles ) long and about 2km (1 and 1/5 miles) wide  It opens into the Firth of Lorne at its south-western end and  the town of Fort William lies at the northeast end of the loch, at the mouth of the River Lochy.There have been several reports of a creature in the Loch over the years. Plans for the loch could put an end to food stocks for any marine life .

West coast locals horrified at inevitable damage to Loch Linnhe

Alarmed locals are calling for government action to halt plans to create Scotland’s largest fish farm in a loch known for its dolphins, otters, seals and sea eagles.

Local divers, fishermen, wild swimmers and even a rock band have voiced opinions and are outraged by Loch Long Salmon’s [LLS] proposals to bring “semi-closed” fish pens to the renowned shores of Loch Linnhe – using technology never tested before in the UK.

The eight proposed pens would hold millions of fish – with a total live weight equivalent to 11,000 cows – and unlike conventional fish farms would need a large shoreside installation running 24 hours a day in support.

James Standley, a retired professional diver with 25 years of experience, lives on the boundary of the proposed site, and has raised concerns about the project’s impact on the loch’s wildlife and surrounding community.

Local angler David Gunn, who has fished these waters for 61 years, fears the proposed fish farm will all but end the wild Atlantic Salmon population in the area.

Source:

https://thehighlandtimes.com/community-bands-together-to-stop-mega-fish-farm-plans/

 

The first documented sighting appears to be in the 1940’s.A witness said that she had seen a creature with a long neck swimming in the loch. It was dark brown, had small black eyes, and stubby rounded horns.In June 1954, a Mr. Eric Robinson said he observed three humps which he estimated were moving at 30 mph and the water was churning behind the creature. He only saw it for a few minutes.In June 1964, 10 years later a Mrs. Preston saw the head and neck of a creature in the Loch.Then in July  1967, John Rankin Muir, William S. Muir, and others said they saw a snake like head and neck with two or three humps. They watched for approximately 10 minutes.

There are ample fish stocks in the Loch .The southern end around Lismore is  known for  big pollack, giant skate, wrasse and conger eels and during the summer months people expect to see shoals of mackerel, porpoises, dolphins and even occasionally a Minke whale. The Loch Linnhe Artificial Reef was completed in 2006,to study tides I presume but as far as I am aware its construction did not prompt an appearance of the monster.The Loch is open to the sea and as it attracts dolphins etc , it could have been a shoal of these that people have seen or some other large marine creature passing through. As Fort William is a popular tourist area it would be expected that photos would appear of the creature or more sightings would be reported.

This is the last reported sighting :
Unknown said...3 August 2019 at 08:14

Dos familias españolas (4 adultos y 4 niños) hemos visitado Escocia durante 9 días. En el camino entre Glencoe y Fort William paramos en un área de descanso para admirar las vistas del fiordo Linnhe. 4 niños y 2 adultos vimos avanzar por el fiordo, en dirección a Fort William, la cabeza por fuera del agua de un animal que avanzaba rápido. Poco tiempo después se sumergió mediante un movimiento circular dejando ver lo que pareció un largo cuello.

translation:Two Spanish families (4 adults and 4 children) have visited Scotland for 9 days. On the road between Glencoe and Fort William we stop at a rest area to admire the views of the Linnhe Fjord. 4 children and 2 adults saw the fjord move towards Fort William, head out of the water of an animal that was moving fast. A short time later he submerged himself in a circular motion, revealing what looked like a long neck.

 

Lets hope the local protest is successful for the sake of all the local wildlife not just the alleged monster.

A Serpent in Eel River

 

Eel River Serpent

The Eel River is a major river that runs through north Western California. It is  about 196 miles (315 km) long.

In the 1870’s there were reports of a strange creature being seen in the Phillipsville area of the river

ALL SNAKE AND NO STORY

About three months ago as I was on my way to Garberville, not far below what is know as Phillip’s Flat I saw what I thought was a foot log coming down the South Fork [of the Eel] river, and was not a little surprised to see such a thing adrift at that season of the year.

I was on a cliff of rocks, about 50 feet above the river, and stopped to watch the curious looking object, when I saw to my surprise it was a large serpent. The monster was at least 20 feet long in the water, and its head was raised about 3 feet above the surface of the stream, and was about as large as a dog’s head. It saw me, but did not seem to be alarmed, for it headed for the last cliff on which I was standing.

It was one of those hot days that we are accustomed on the South Fork, and the monster seemed to be hunting shade. It was about a foot in diameter; its color a dark brown, with large light and yellow spots. I watched him until he came under the cliff where the rocks hid him from view. It was seen twice more at the same place and once again further up the river. It seems to go to the woods for food, as there can be no other inducement.

West Coast Signal August 19, 1877

Three other people wrote to the newspaper to say they had seen it too.

The local native Americans believe such a creature exists  and is called Kamoss. It has been seen in the  river and is a monster serpent that is capable of swallowing a child .The legend is that it has done so.

Some say it is a sturgeon fish but sturgeon have bony plates which would be obvious.Also unlikely it would swim with its head above water.

Since then there have been no reports unless someone reading this knows of any more recent sightings.

Have we lost our way?

 

 

What is happening to Cryptozoology?

Its over 50 years since I started my interest in cryptozoology. It started as a teenager with a visit to Loch Ness.Then as an adult and becoming an academic I tried where ever possible to apply scientific research methods to my study of unknown animals.

It was hoped that cryptozoology would be accepted as a discipline such as psychology or zoology. To that end scientific enquiry methods were essential. However I find myself and fellow academically qualified crypto enthusiasts have become disillusioned.

We have wobbly webcams at Loch Ness being cited in the media every weeks as photos of Nessie,only for them to be a swimmer ,canoeist or birds.Photos said to be taken years before and just now discovered that have not been submitted for professional analysis so cannot be proved or disproved to be an animate creature.

Big cat photos that are domestic cats or obviously fakes  appearing in the media as true .IF you believe you shouldn’t need to make up proof ,instead you go out and try and find it.

Cryptozoology is becoming a laughing stock,a media circus. What is the point of these hoaxes? They only serve to put off the genuine witnesses from coming forward for fear of ridicule and destroy any chance of proper scientific study.

What do readers of this blog think? Comments can take 24 hours to appear so don’t be put off. Has cryptozoology lost its way ?