Loch Ness Monster

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The lake Loch Ness seen from the eastern end of
Map of Loch Ness

The Loch Ness Monster , also known as the Nessie , is believed to be an animal or group of animals that live in Loch Ness , a lake in Scotland near the city of Inverness . Nessie is commonly described as a plesiosaur , up to 20 meters in length. Their existence could be explained as a so-called cryptid , an inaccessible and therefore unexplored animal, comparable to Bigfoot and Yeti .

Most scientists and experts explain the reports of Nessie's existence, however, as intentional or unintentional false reports or misidentifications of common animals. Regionally, the myth is an important source of income as the lake is one of the main tourist destinations in Scotland . Nessie is an occasional press issue, especially during the summer slump .

Since 1934 exists in the UK , in the event that the Loch Ness monster really does exist, a law that the monster under nature provides.

History of Alleged Sightings

Before 1800

  • The first known mention of the sea ​​monster is dated to the year 565. In Abbot Adamnan's Vita Columbae , a description of the life of Columban of Iona , it is reported how the saint saved the life of a Pict who was attacked in the River Ness. “Columban made the sign of the cross in the air and called on the name of God as he commanded the wild beast, 'No more! Don't touch him! Retire immediately! ' When the animal heard the saint's words, it fled in fear, as if it were being pulled away from there by ropes, although it was only a short distance from the man. "
  • 1527: Duncan Campbell claims to have seen a terrible monster on the banks of Loch Ness.
  • 16th century: According to an old chronicle , a giant beast got out of Loch Ness and killed three men.
  • Around 1650, an English chronicler reports that the famous Loch Ness is known for its "floating islands".
  • On August 12, 1661, an estimated 3.50 meter long sturgeon was observed near Inverness .

Sightings after 1800

  • There were further sightings among others in 1872 and 1903. However, the creature did not become famous until May 2, 1933, when regional newspapers first reported of the sighting of a monster. The Inverness Courier newspaper ran an article about local people who saw "a giant animal diving in the hole". The report on the "monster" (a name chosen by the editor of the Courier) became a media sensation: London newspapers sent reporters to Scotland, and a circus even offered £ 20,000 for the capture of the monster.
  • In the fall of 1933, AH Palmer, who allegedly observed Nessie at seven o'clock on August 11, 1933, described the creature holding its head, which they had seen from the front, low in the water. Its mouth was between twelve and eighteen inches long and opened and closed. He estimated the maximum mouth opening to be about six inches.
  • A photo allegedly taken by surgeon RK Wilson on April 19, 1934 sparked new interest in the Loch Ness “monster”. It appears to show a large animal with a long neck sliding through the water. Decades later, on March 12, 1994, Marmaduke Wetherell claimed to have forged the photo after being hired by the Daily Mail to hunt Nessie (the photo was then printed as "final evidence"). Wetherell also stated that Wilson did not take the photo. His name was only used to increase the credibility of the photo. As early as 1993, another man claimed to have been involved in such a fake.
  • Frank Searle deserves a mention not as the only one, but as the most famous "Nessie hoaxer". Frank Searle, a former soldier, appeared at Loch Ness in June 1969 and initially took a serious look at the search for Nessie. In his later years, when he ran a houseboat and monster exhibition at Lower Foyers, he frequently presented rather dubious evidence of the monster's existence. His photographs showed z. B. floating tree trunks or were even kept for photo montages. From 1977 to 1979 Searle was supported by a Belgian admirer as "assistant monster huntress". In 1985, Searle temporarily disappeared. From 1986, the unmarried Searle, from 1998 paralyzed by a stroke, lived alone with his cats in Fleetwood, Lancashire until his death on March 26, 2005.
  • In 1972, a group led by US patent judge Robert Rines took some underwater photos. One was an inaccurate picture, maybe a rhombus-shaped fin (some saw air bubbles in it or a fish fin). Based on this photo, the photographer and conservationist Sir Peter Scott announced in 1975 that the scientific name of the monster under which Nessie would be included in the British register of officially protected wildlife would be Nessiteras rhombopteryx . The name, however, is an anagram of monster hoax by Sir Peter S. , which is possibly due to Sir Peter's skepticism.
  • On May 28, 2007, Gordon Holmes from Yorkshire recorded a new video of the alleged Loch Ness monster. It shows an eel-like object that is about ten kilometers per hour and about 15 meters long.
  • According to a newspaper report in the British tabloid The Sun August 26, 2009 Jason Cooke wants the monster in Google Earth at coordinates 57 ° 13 '  N , 4 ° 34'  W have discovered. At a higher magnification, however, it is immediately apparent that it is the outline of a small boat with its wake .
  • In April 2014 it was announced that the Loch Ness monster was visible at Apple's map service. According to the Daily Mail, two men came across the suspicious satellite image independently of each other and forwarded the information to the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club .

Theories

Plesiosaurus

Some accounts of the monster's appearance, including historical accounts, suggest a resemblance to the extinct Plesiosaurus . A large animal with a long neck and a small head that moves with fins can be constructed from the material available from this creature from the Mesozoic era . The alleged connection between Plesiosaurus and Loch Ness monsters became a well-known topic in cryptozoology . But both most scientists and most serious cryptozoologists consider the idea that the Loch Ness monster was a remnant of the Mesozoic Era to be very unlikely: there would have to be a large colony of such animals to ensure long-term existence. Since plesiosaurs, as reptiles, have to go to the surface to breathe, this would result in more frequent sightings than is actually the case. Many biologists also believe that Loch Ness is not big or productive enough to keep even a small family of these animals alive. Many other reasons, such as the geological formation of Loch Ness after the last glacial period , speak clearly against a large reptile in the lake.

Seiche at Loch Ness

Other sightings do not match the appearance of the plesiosaurs or any other aquatic animal: In April 1923, Alfred Cruickshank claimed to have seen an animal three to three and a half meters long with a hunched back and four elephant-like feet that had crossed the street in front of his vehicle. Other suspected sightings suggest camel or horse-like animals.

The attempts by science to explain the monster sightings are very different: false identifications of seals , jumping or swimming fish close to the surface of the water , water birds, logs, mirages or unusual wave patterns , the latter because Loch Ness is predestined for standing waves due to its symmetrical topography (so-called Seiches ) is. Swimming deer could also be responsible for some sightings of the monster with its neck stretched out of the water. It is likely that each of these explanations contributed to the monster myth that has long since become a mass phenomenon.

There are very large sturgeons in rivers near Loch Ness which, because of their size and unusual appearance, could easily be mistaken for monsters. A new theory is that the monster is just an illusion caused by bubbling water caused by minor volcanic activity at the bottom of the hole. This argument is supported - to a small extent - by the fact that there appears to be a connection between the sightings and tectonic movements .

More recent extensive DNA analyzes of the organic material from the lake confirm the assumption, already known in research circles in 1933, that the sightings were most likely larger eels .

Arguments

Arguments against the existence of the monster

A typical case of an alleged sighting with unsatisfactory "facts" about Nessie is the case of October 1871: In this event, D. Mackenzie described something that first moved slowly and then moved away at a faster rate. Witnesses said the monster had a (sometimes not just one) hump that looked like an upside-down boat. This story is repeated many times, but an original source from 1871 is never cited, which puts the article in a wrong light.

In July 2003, the BBC reported an extensive investigation of Loch Ness, carried out by a BBC team with 600 sonar beams , but found no trace of a "sea monster". The BBC team closed their report by saying that Nessie did not exist.

The famous 1934 photo is believed by some to be a fake, based on statements made by photographer Marmaduke Wetherell shortly before his death. Wetherell claimed the photo, which attracted a lot of attention to the monster, only showed clay that was stuck to a toy submarine. Even before Wetherell's statements, some had speculated that the photo did not show a monster at all, but rather several otters following each other or a diving bird . There are, however, two photos from 1934 that show slightly different poses, leading to the argument that the photos were not forged in this way. On the other hand, it should also be considered here that a model made of clay or plasticine can very easily be changed slightly in the pose, so that the impression of a series of movements would arise.

The most recent explanation of the 1933 and 1934 photos comes from Scottish paleontologist Neil Clark. In his opinion, the animal depicted in the photos was nothing more than a swimming elephant from the "Olympia" circus. The circus director at the time, Bertram Mills, even offered a bounty of £ 20,000, knowing full well that the "monster" was in his circus.

The representations of Nessie, which sometimes differ greatly from one another, also speak for deceptions or forgeries in many sightings and photographs. Sometimes the popular "Plesiosaurus" type with a long neck is "seen", and sometimes the no less popular type of the "humpback snake" moving in vertical turns, both of which are completely different. Among all vertebrates only a few mammals such as whales or otters move with vertical movements, but not a single living or extinct species would be able to create several humpbacks lying one behind the other above the water surface like the "humpback snake" when swimming.

In this context, it should be mentioned that the first reports that Nessie resembled a Plesiosaurus date back to 1933. It wasn't until that year that Nessie got really famous. That year's sighting was made shortly after the film The Fable of King Kong - An American Animated and Sensational Film . What is striking is the resemblance of the figure of Nessie, described later, to a being who attacks the main characters of the film on a lake in the jungle. If you keep in mind that the viewers were much easier to impress by the depiction of strange beings back then than they are now, it is easy to understand how a hitherto little known rumor about a creature living in Loch Ness and the creature shown in the film are related and thus created an extremely effective and profitable legend.

Arguments for the existence of the monster

The sightings and video films (see #History of alleged sightings ) are indications of the existence of a large living being in Loch Ness, but most of the photos and films could be identified as forgeries or misinterpretations.

literature

  • Monika Hauf: Nessie - The Loch Ness Monster. Monsters, myths, mutations . Bohmeier, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-89094-385-3 .
  • Betty Kirkpatrik: Nessie. The Legend of the Loch Ness Monster . Crombie Jardine Publishing, Edinburgh 2005, ISBN 1-905102-05-4 (English).
  • Ernst Probst : Nessie. The monster book. GRIN, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-656-45768-8 .
  • Ernst Probst: Sea Monsters - 100 Monsters from A to Z . GRIN, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-656-50349-1 .
  • Donald Wicklander: Nessie . Authorhouse, Bloomington IN 2009, ISBN 978-1-4490-2492-5 (English).
  • Patrick Wolfmar: Scotland - sagas and legends. Reading of selected sagas, fairy tales and legends from Scotland . Audio book, speaker: Uve Teschner , 2 CDs, 150 minutes. John, Schwaig near Nuremberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-942057-52-3 .

Radio plays

  • In 1977 Nessie - Das Ungeheuer von Loch Ness was set to music as a radio play MC and LP for Europa . In 2000 this radio play was reissued as a CD and MC with new music and sounds as part of the horror series.
  • In 2002 Maritim published the radio play Der Fluch von Loch Ness by Alexander Kath.

Film adaptations

1969 dummy

In 1969, while filming The private life of Sherlock Holmes (1971), a mock-up of the monster sank in the lake. In April 2016, the Norwegian company Kongsberg Maritime reported using sonar recordings to find a 9 × 4 meter object at the bottom of Loch Ness, which is reminiscent of a swan in shape, i.e. it is probably this dummy. Legend has it that the removal of two humps, requested by the director Billy Wilder, made it sinkable. Kongsberg does not want to recover the object, but later photograph it with a diving robot.

Web links

Commons : Loch Ness Monster  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Animal Laws: Nessie under Conservation. In: kuriosetierwelt.de. Retrieved July 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Nessie Seeker Frank Searle Dies on lorencoleman.com (English)
  3. ↑ Sir Peter Scott, Robert Rines: "Naming the Loch Ness monster", Nature 258, 11 December 1975, 466-468, doi : 10.1038 / 258466a0
  4. ↑ Interview with G. Holmes on youtube.com
  5. ↑ Loch Ness Monster on Google Earth? on abcnews.go.com (English)
  6. ↑ Outrageous discovery on Apple Maps: Nessie is back. In: Spiegel Online . April 19, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  7. ^ "Nessie" Myth - Researchers Present Explanation for the Loch Ness Monster. Spiegel Online , September 5, 2019, accessed September 6, 2019 .
  8. ^ Report at ORF
  9. ↑ Darren Naish: Really: photos of the Loch Ness monster on scienceblogs.com , accessed May 29, 2010.
  10. ↑ Lost monster dummy in Loch Ness discovered on orf.at