Trunko

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Artist's impression of Trunko being attacked by two orcas ; drawn by Bill Asmussen

Trunko ( English trunk = trunk) is the nickname for an animal that is said to have been sighted on October 25, 1924 in Margate , South Africa ; In an article published in the London Daily Mail on December 27th , the creature was described as "Fish Like A Polar Bear" , that is, "Fish like a polar bear ". When it was first sighted, the animal was allegedly involved in a fight off the coast with two killer whales, who kept the extraordinary creature in check for three hours. It was said to have used its rear end to attack the whales and it was reported that it rose about 20 feet from the water. One of the eyewitnesses, Hugh Ballance, said the animal looked like a "giant polar bear" during the last fight.

description

The creature was reportedly washed up on the beach at Margate Beach, but although it was there for ten days, the carcass was not examined by any scientist. Therefore no reliable description could be published, nor are there any photographs of it. Some people, whose personal details were not recorded, reported that the animal had snow-white fur, an elephant-like trunk and a lobster-like tail - the carcass was also bloodless.

While it was on the beach, beach goers measured it; it was found to be 47 feet long , 10 feet wide, and 5 feet high. The length of the trunk was also 5 feet and the diameter of this body part was 14 inches (about 35 cm). The tail was 10 feet long. According to the respondents, the trunk came straight out of the torso - no head was recognizable on the carcass. Based on this feature, the animal was discovered by the British cryptozoologist Dr. Karl Shuker called "Trunko" in his 1996 book The Unexplained .

In the issue of Charleroi Mail , in the March 27, 1925 Charleroi , Pennsylvania , came out, an article entitled "Whales Slain By Hairy Monster" was (whales killed by hairy monster) published. According to this article, whales have been killed by a strange creature; she was washed up on the beach and lost consciousness from exhaustion, but found her way back into the sea after ten days and was never seen again.

Explanations

There have been many conjectures that should explain this phenomenon. The most common was that the carcass came from a large whale, whale shark, or basking shark , whose disintegrated body appeared fur-like and served as a feast for the orcas. Three pictures showing a white organic mass, a so-called globster , as well as a corresponding article by journalist AC Jones in Wide World Magazine confirm this assumption.

A second popular theory is that Trunko was the sight of a strange-looking new species of giant whale, seal, or manatee . It is generally assigned to the cryptids, i.e. beings with which cryptozoology is concerned.

The date of the sighting

The exact date of the incident, as well as the existence of the animal, is still unclear. While the Daily Mail article lists October 25, 1924 as the time of the battle between the whales and the cryptid, Dr. Karl P. Shuker in his book From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings , November 1, 1922 would be the actual date of this event. This date can also be found on many websites on the same subject.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl PN Shuker : The Unexplained . Carlton, 1996, ISBN 1-85868-186-3 .
  2. ↑ ShukerNature: Behold Trunko !!