Cryptid or Hybrid?

 

New Hybrid

I have often written that a cryptid may be a prehistoric creature that has evolved and changed to cope with the modern world and its pollution or a hybrid. Dog/fox hybrids are not unknown but more rare are aquatic hybrids

Meet The Wholphin, The Unlikely Hybrid Of Intermingling Cetaceans.

It's exceptionally rare, but the world has seen a number of cetacean hybrids.

The "wholphin" is the nickname for a hybrid born as a result of some unlikely canoodling between different species of cetacean, most often a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale. However, this isn’t the only known example of interspecies mingling that’s been documented among this infraorder of animals. From the narluga to dolphin hybrids, a handful of examples of cetacean hybridization have been documented in recent decades

The birth of cetacean hybrids was especially surprising given the size difference between the two parent species: common bottlenose dolphins are typically 2 meters (6.5 feet) long while a male false killer whale can be over 5 meters (16.4 feet) long. Evidently, the creation of this hybrid offspring must have required some impressive physical feats.

Read rest here :

https://www.iflscience.com/meet-the-wholphin-the-unlikely-hybrid-of-intermingling-cetaceans-70843

The size difference did not prevent mating and therefore it is possible that some large lake monster  mated with a smaller creature that then survived the age of the dinosaurs and adapted to live in the modern world. Unlikely perhaps but more plausible than a living plesiosaur .It could also be why lake monsters are often not a recognizable creature but described as eels,snakes, dinosaurs etc. Food for thought as we enter October and the winter means less sightings are reported as people remain indoors.Please comment if you have any thoughts on the subjcct.

( just a reminder it can take 24 hours for comments to appear as they are externally moderated)

The first LNIB Expeditions (1962-64) from one who was there.

 

Loch Ness Expeditions 1962-64

Quite a few years ago now I met a man called Tom McMahon. He was retired and  in his 60s .If he is still alive,and I sincerely hope he is,he will be at least 80 now. Why is he important? Tom was on the first three LNIB expeditions at Loch Ness. It occurred to me that if I didn’t record this his version of this piece of history would be lost.

Tom and I got talking and he told me about Loch Ness so I asked him to write down anything he could remember from that time.He couldn’t remember everyone’s  names but he did remember quite a lot.

The story started with the guy who was the film person for the expedition, a priest called Clem who was a friend of Tom’s father. They lived in Slough at that time. Tom’s father was invited to go to Loch Ness but couldn’t go ,so Tom then  aged about 19/20 years went in his place.It was October 1962.

Tom travelled up in David James’s land drover with two other young men.David James MP had organized this first expedition.It was sponsored by Norman Collins of ATV, a friend of David James.Another friend John Profumo was Minister For War and helped to get a loan of army search lights.

They stayed in a hotel and were there for two weeks. Tom said he thought there were 24 of them all together.There were two sites to watch from,one at Cobbs Landing and one on Drumnadrochit beach.Tom was mainly on night watches ,shining search lights on the Loch to attract Nessie.He missed some of the hunt after injuring his hand and having to go to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.One of the other people there was Sir Archibald James,David’s father,who would keep them entertained with stories of big game hunting on the long watches.Also he remembered Lional Leslie the sculptor,a vet David Hall,Professor Porteous and a girl called Emma who went on to be a costume designer for films.

One night they heard a splash and turning the lights in that direction were shocked to see two eyes shining back at them. They got the row boat out and rowed to investigate (rather brave of them I thought).They found a glass bottle bobbing on the waves from the boat reflecting the lights back to shore. They had a laugh about it later but at the time they were all hyped up to meet Nessie.

On October 11^th ,seven of the party saw 2 humps in the water. It was too far for the camera range and they couldn’t get a clear picture. A few days later something large was seen diving but again too far away for the camera’s range.Cameras were primitive compared to today and this one had a 6 inch lens (15cms) which was inadequate for the task. They learned from this and took a bigger one the next year.

In 1963 there were a lot more people and there were campsites along the Loch,the main one being at Drumnadrochit.Tom thought there could have 75 people involved.There were 10 watching stations around the Loch. Tom shared a camper van with Professor Peter Blake a biologist from Cambridge. ( Peter sadly died very young in his 40s) , a Welsh man who owned a quarry and set off explosions to mimic the 1930’s road building .They hoped it would bring the creature to the surface.He remembered Sir Peter Ogilvie Wedderburn Bart,a New Zealand racing driver,a BEA air hostess and the artist Sylvia McCartney. Also Sir Pater Scott visited ,landing his gilder in a field near by.The cockleshell hero Blondie Hassler sailed up the Loch to see them .

The Cuba Crisis was on at that time and there was much talk of nuclear war .They were tense times. He said there was much pacing about and discussion about it by the older members .Two films of what looked like an upturned boat were taken but even with a bigger lens they were unclear.

He went again  in 1964 and stayed in a caravan at Drumnadrochit. They had cameras nearby at Urquhart castle. His main memory was of a Major Haig playing the bagpipes.

The feeling at the time was it was a great adventure, even though it was boring just sitting watching .I wonder how many of those at the time realized they would be part of the history of Loch Ness.For those who were too young to remember or be around at the time,this is written down for you. There was an amazing mixture of people interested in Nessie hunting and the recent search (2023) with lots of volunteers shows that interest is still there.

New Search For Nessie

 

Hundreds of participants expected to join the Loch Ness monster hunt with thermal imaging drones and underwater gadgets

Hundreds of volunteers are set to descend on Loch Ness, Scotland, for the search of a lifetime.

The volunteers will spend a weekend trying to confirm the existence of the Loch Ness monster.

After high interest in the search, the Loch Ness Centre invited others to livestream the action.

For the first time in over 50 years, hundreds of people will descend onto Loch Ness, Scotland, with modern-day gadgets, in hopes of locating a mythic creature known to locals as "Nessie."

This weekend, volunteers and researchers will meet up in Inverness, Scotland, at the site of the Loch Ness freshwater lake, trying to find "Nessie," the Loch Ness monster.

The Loch Ness Centre, a group of researchers and enthusiasts organizing the trip, claims participants will help to "scientifically investigate Loch Ness and its famous monster mythology." The organizers invited participants to join the "hunt for truth," where they will attempt to locate the mythical beast.

According to CNN, at least a hundred participants are joining from as far as New Zealand, and Japan. Part of the purpose of the trip is to get to the bottom of the folklore surrounding the mythic creature, but there is yet to be any physical proof of the animal.

Read full story here:

https://www.insider.com/the-loch-ness-monster-search-reached-volunteer-limit-hundreds-join-2023-8

 

Classic Text Free to Read Online.

 MYSTERIOUS CREATURES

A Guide to

Cryptozoology

George M. Eberhart

You can read it at the link below. I am not sure if it is permanent so best get in early,also it may not read well on all formats.

https://archive.org/stream/Cryptozoology_201608/Cryptozoology_djvu.txt

Hessie Norway's Giant Sea Worm

 

Hessafjorden Lake in Norway has a lake monster, nick named  Hessie.

It is said to be a huge sea worm or snake. It is claimed to be 80–100 feet (24–30 meters) in length and 1.5 ( 5 feet) metres thick.Also sporting a square dorsal fin .a massive snake like head with  brown coloured skin.

In June 1999 a local person saw Hessie eating a whale carcass through his binoculars. He ran home to get a camcorder but unfortunately the distance from shore meant little detail can be seen on the film. Other sightings had been reported in that era,the  1990s,  but most want to remain anonymous.

There is little other detail available but its size would make one think it would be spotted more often. Perhaps someone will get a clearer film in the future.

More on the Kootenay Lake Monster

 

Kootenay Lake Creature

“Kootenay Lake is  located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River.

Its  65 miles (104kms) long and approximately 3 miles (5 kms) wide.It varies in depth from 33 feet (approx 10 metres)    to a maximum of 490 feet ( 160 metres) . Large enough to house a few monsters. In  October 1900 a Captain WJ Kane reported seeing a lake monster in the lake. He described it as being large and bulky.  A 12 year old boy also saw something on October 10th 1900, on the shore of Kootenay Lake, George Goudereau saw a 12ft ( 4 metres) creature that looked like an alligator  crawl  out of Crawford Bay and made its way towards a pile of rubbish on the shore. George watched  as it used its  claws and its snout to search through the pile. After a while it went back into the lake leaving a trail of tracks of  webbed feet. The creature  became known as the Canadian Alligator.

The area also has another prehistoric creature ,Big Bertha,a 10-foot Kootenay white sturgeon that weighs over 350 pounds. However sturgeon don’t normally come out of the water to forage.”

Since writing this I have discovered more information. Another  sighting “The monster…is ten feet long, six inches in diameter at the largest part and has a most hideous head.” Dec. 1900, George Graves and son, of Nelson.

In July 1937 Naomi Miller and family saw something :

“We…were barely out of sight of Kaslo…a black head reared followed by at least one hump above the water some eight feet behind… We sat hypnotized until the ‘Ogopogo’ dived….”

Then in 1953 two men from Boswell reported a sighting “The visible part about twenty feet long, showed brownish in the sunlight, and the surface looked rough like a tree trunk with moss growing upon it.”

Naomi Miller stuck to her sighing and when interviewed in 2015 wrote:

“My alternative thought is that the “thing ” that I saw may have had the form of a dinosaur . (We did not have pictures of dinosaurs when I was a child.) The water monster beside our boat turned in front of us toward shore, Had it long enough legs proportionate to its length it might have walked a few steps before diving under!”

The local indigenous people have a legend that in ancient history there was a sea monster Yawunik that ate the local livestock and was chased up the river and back to the lake. It was eventually killed by a giant.

So the lake has a history . As for the large sturgeon:

The story of Big Bertha, a monster of a sturgeon who calls Kootenay Lake home! https://kootenaymountainculture.com/koogopogo-super-sized-sturgeon/

How ever most of the sightings do not sound like a fish but something amphibian. The mystery remains.

 

Giant Turtle or Fish?

 

A Giant Turtle?

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is said to the home of a large sea creature called the Moha Moha.

 It is described as  8 feet wide( 2.7 metres) and about 5 feet high(1. 6 metres) with a long-necked and  a large, dome-shaped back ending in a  huge  tail.Some say it is 30 feet(10 metres) long. Locals say it is aggressive and had attacked and killed tribe members.

James Cook was said to have seen it in the 1770s swimming around the ship.

In 1890 a school teacher called Lovell saw it on Great Sandy Island.It was reported as being seen 9 times over the following days. In January 1891, an article about the sighting was published in Land and Water Magazine.It stated the Moha-Moha had a saurian face with teeth. The skin was glossy and smooth  and it had no visible nostrils,Its colour varied from greeny white to shades of grey.

In 1964 Jacob Lack reported seeing a decomposing carcass on the rocks of the Moha Moha.There is no proof of this.

In general the sightings were treated with derision but the locals believe it exists.It appears to be a combined fish and turtle. I was reminded of the first descriptions of plesiosaurs from fossil remains as a snake threaded through a turtle .Food for thought perhaps.