The Loch Ness Monster ("Nessie")

Legendary or Alive, the Loch Ness Monster Continues to Capture Public Attention

The "Surgeon's photo" (1934)

The Picts (painted people) were the indigenous tribes of the Scottish Highlands. An artistic people, the Picts covered their bodies with tattoos and carefully depicted their surroundings on huge carved stones, many of which still stand in the area around Loch Ness. So expert was their artistry that the animals they carved are easily recognizable yet today—except for one. The exception bears a long snout, a waterspout, and flippers. It is, perhaps, the first rendering of the Loch Ness Monster.1

The Loch Ness Monster is the longest-lived and probably most famous cryptid. The first documented sighting of the monster (except for the Pict carving) occurred circa 550 AD. Numerous sightings have been reported since then.

In 565 A.D., while journeying along the shores of Loch Ness, Saint Columba saw a large water beast preying upon a man who was swimming in the lake. In the biography, "Life of Saint Columba", Adomnán of Iona wrote 2,

"...(He) raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, "Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed." Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes..."

However, this account, like those that succeed it, is often discredited because the book also contains tales of encounters with other supernatural beings.

Naming the Creature

The first modern-day sighting of the creature occurred after a new road was constructed along Loch Ness, enabling clear views of the lake from its northern shore. In an article published in the Inverness Courier, water bailiff and part-time reporter Alex Campbell referred to the creature as the "monster". This first report aroused an outbreak of "monster sightings" and soon the International press was full of stories about a Scottish "sea serpent" or "monster fish". Finally, the media settled on the name "Loch Ness Monster".3

In order to add the Loch Ness Monster to the British register of officially protected wildlife, it was necessary to give the legendary creature a proper scientific name. Although naturalist Sir Peter Scott and Robert Rhines (who had obtained an underwater photo that contained an undefined image) agreed that the existence of the Loch Ness Monster was still controversial in scientific circles, they suggested the name Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Greek: "The Ness monster with diamond-shaped fin").3, 4 The public affectionately shortened the name to "Nessie" .

What Nessie looks like

Descriptions of Nessie are many and varied. The monster has been compared to an eel, a seal, a manatee, a porpoise, and a whale as well as being described as:

• A snake threaded through the body of a turtle 5
• A creature about 30 feet in length with a long neck and flippers in the middle of its body 6, similar to that of the plesiosaur, a marine reptile that measured approx. 35 feet head to tail, had a long, serpentine neck and became extinct about the same time as the dinosaurs.
• A large creature with one or more humps protruding above the surface like the hull of an upturned boat 7.

1933 – The Loch Ness Monster Hits the Headlines

In April of 1933, the Inverness Courier published the report of a local couple who described "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface [of Loch Ness]" as they drove home on the new Loch Ness road.

Their sighting inspired a number of sightings, both in the lake and on land. By autumn, several London newspapers had sent journalists to the area and the excitement caused by Nessie sightings was so great that radio stations interrupted their broadcasts with Loch Ness Monster updates and a British Circus offered a £20,000 reward to anyone who captured the monster.

In December, the London Daily Mail hired Marmaduke Wetherall to find the creature. After just a few days' search, Wetherall reported finding footprints of a large four-toed animal that he estimated to be 20 feet in length, perpetrating the first of many modern-day Loch Ness Monster hoaxes. He made plaster casts of the prints and sent them to London's Natural History Museum for confirmation of his claim. In early January, the museum zoologists debunked Wetherall's claims, announcing the footprints were those of a hippopotamus, made with a stuffed hippo foot.

Although it wasn't clear that Wetherall had created the prints, he is quoted as angrily spouting, "We'll give them their monster!" His statement led to a 1934 conspiracy with Dr. R. Kenneth Wilson.

The Surgeon's Photo

In 1934, the London Daily Mail published a photo that showed what appeared to be a large reptile rising from the water. The photo, submitted by Dr. R. Kenneth Wilson, went unchallenged as "the" image of the Loch Ness Monster until 1994 when renewed attention was given to a 1975 newspaper clipping wherein Wetherall's son, Ian claimed the photo was a fraud. David Martin and Alastair Boyd set out to track down the truth.

By that time, Ian Wetherall had died, but Boyd and Martin were able to find his aging stepbrother, Christian Spurling. The 93-year old confessed to the hoax. He related that Duke Wetherall had pulled the stunt in seeking revenge for the humiliation he had suffered due to the hippopotamus incident. The Surgeon's Photo, as it came to be known, was actually a picture of a toy submarine attached to a wooden neck.7

Nessie into the New Millennium

The Surgeon's photo has spurred several scientific investigations into the whereabouts or at least, the plausibility of the Loch Ness Monster. Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have occurred throughout the decades and along with eye-witness accounts, some have been reported in photographs, film, and in June 2007, a video by lab technician Gordon Holmes who exclaimed, "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this jet-black thing, about 45 feet long, moving fairly fast in the water."8

Like all other reports, Holmes's video is still under investigation. However, sightings have dwindled in recent years. At the end of the century, annual numbers were consistently in the teens, but in 2006 only two sightings were reported and in two sighting in 2007 9. Scientists remain skeptical. There has been no physical evidence, such as a captured Nessie, tissue samples, or skeletal remains recovered as of 2008.

Taken from: http://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com

Cryptozoology

Definition: Literally meaning the “study of hidden animals”, cryptozoology is the study and search for those animals whose present-day existence is not formally recognized by mainstream science.1,2

Etymology: Crypto–from the Greek fem. kryptos “hidden”; zoology–from the Greek zoion “animal” + logia “study”.1,4

Bernard Heuvelmans

Loch Ness Monster (1934)

Famous Yeti image from Nepal (1996).

The Okapi was once considered a cryptid.

The word cryptozoology is often attributed to Bernard Heuvelmans (1916-2001), a noted zoologist and past president of the International Society of Cryptozoology (the ISC, now defunct). However, in his book “In the Wake of Sea Serpents”, Heuvelmans credits the word to Scottish explorer Ivan T. Sanderson (1911-1973).

"When he [Sanderson] was still a student he invented the word 'cryptozoology', or the science of hidden animals, which I was to coin later, quite unaware that he had already done so."3

The animals researched in cryptozoology are often called cryptids, a word introduced by John E. Wall in a letter to the editor of the Summer 1983 issue of the Newsletter of The International Society of Cryptozoology.

According to cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, “Cryptids are in the most limited definition, either unknown species of animals or those that are thought to be extinct but which may have survived into modern times and await rediscovery by scientists.”3

Cryptozoology basically consists of two types of research:

1. The search for animals that are believed to be extinct, either those found in fossils or those more recently no longer observed, such as the Australian Dodo Bird.
2. The search for animals whose existence is undocumented by verifiable evidence, but whose existence is catalogued in myth, legend, and human assertion.1

In the first section of “Exotic Zoology”, Willy Ley hypothesizes that some of the cryptids of legend, such as the unicorn, might have been based on actual animal life.1

While most scientists agree that there are thousands of forms of animal life yet to be discovered, many remain skeptical of cryptozoological research, since much of cryptozoology is concerned with proving the existence of the larger and more famous cryptids such as the Loch Ness Monster (“Nessie”), the Yeti (aka “abominable snowman”), and the Big Foot (“Sasquatch”).

Classifying cryptozoology as a pseudoscience, mainstream scientists argue that the large cryptids (megafuana) would be unable to survive through time, giving the reason that survival in their reported habitats is unlikely because of climate conditions and food supply. Their reasons also include the belief that if cryptid populations were sufficient to support reproduction, there would be documented sightings.

Ancient myths and legends are rife with tales of encounters with cryptids of one type or another, and though undocumented, sightings of cryptids still occur today. Although most of us don’t expect to see a fire-breathing dragon in the skies, in 2001 there were three thunderbird sightings reported in Pennsylvania.5

In an October 2, 2005 New York Times article, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist William J. Broad wrote, "Monster lovers take heart. Scientists argue that so much of the planet remains unexplored that new surprises are sure to show up; if not legendary beasts like the Loch Ness monster or the dinosaur-like reptile Champ said to inhabit Lake Champlain, then animals that in their own way may be even stranger."6

When first sighted, many of the animals that are well documented and familiar today were believed to be hoaxes or hallucinations, among them, the Giant Panda, the Mountain Gorilla (pongo), the Platypus, and the Okapi.7

One problem with cryptozoology is that as the cryptids are either proven or disproven, they are no longer cryptids. The science, itself, may one day become extinct!

Taken from: http://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com