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Lake monster

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Lake monster, loch monster, or leviathan is the name given to large unknown animals which have purportedly been sighted in, and/or are believed to dwell in lakes or lochs, although their existence has never been confirmed scientifically. They are generally believed not to exist by conventional zoology and allied sciences, and are principally the subject of investigations by followers of cryptozoology. Sightings are often similar to some sea monsters.

Of these, Nessie of Loch Ness is almost certainly the most famous, and is promoted heavily in the area's tourist industry.

Lakes with monsters

The famous hoax "Surgeon's photo" (1934) of Nessie.

Arguably the most famous lake monster is the Loch Ness Monster, which for many decades has been reported to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland. In more recent years, similar animals have been widely reported, such as Ogopogo in Okanagan Lake in the heart of British Columbia, Manipogo in Lake Manitoba, Flathead Lake Monster in Flathead Lake Montana, and Champ in Lake Champlain.

There are many other lakes around the world which have monsters claimed for them (see list below). Many of these lakes are extraordinarily deep. All these lakes are situated in areas of cold climate. This argues against the possibility of the lake monsters being reptilian. If they exist, they are probably warm-blooded, assuming they are vertebrates.

Evidence for the monsters

Evidence for such animals is almost exclusively in the form of frequently-numerous eyewitness reports. Relatively few still photographs, almost no motion picture or videotapes, and no living animals or animal remains have been produced. Such photographic/film/video evidence as has been produced has, upon close analysis, been concluded by the majority of mainstream scientists (and many cryptozoologists) to be inconclusive at best, and more often to be misidentified, known phenomena or else outright hoaxes. In the case of the famous surgeon's photo of the Loch Ness Monster, one of the hoaxers has come forward, but believers dismiss his testimony. Reported sightings commonly describe either a hump or series of humps, an extremely long neck with a visible head, or both, rising from, swimming about in, and/or disappearing into the water. Reports of such animals being seen on land are rare.

Explanations

There are many speculations as to what the reported lake monsters could be. Many consider them to be purely exaggerations or misinterpretations of known and natural phenomena, or else fabrications and hoaxes. Misidentified sightings of seals, otters, deer, diving water birds, large fish such as giant sturgeons, logs, mirages, seiches, light distortion, crossing boat wakes, or unusual wave patterns have all been proposed to explain specific reports. Skeptics point out that descriptions of these creatures vary over time with the values and mood of the local cultures, following the pattern of folk beliefs and not what would be expected if the reports were of actual encounters with real animals.

According to the Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren (1980), the present day belief in lake-monsters in for example Loch Ness, is associated with the legends of kelpies. Sjögren claims that the accounts of lake-monsters have changed during history. Older reports often talk about horse-like appearances, but more modern reports often have more reptile and dinosaur-like-appearances, and Bengt Sjögren concludes that the legends of kelpies evolved into the present day legends of lake-monsters where the monsters changed the appearance since the discovery of dinosaurs and giant aquatic reptiles from the horse-like water-kelpie to a dinosaur-like reptile, often a plesiosaur.

Other widely varied theories have been presented by believers, including unknown species of giant freshwater eels or surviving aquatic, prehistoric reptiles, such as plesiosaurs. One theory holds that the monsters that are sighted are the occasional full-grown form of an amphibian species that generally stays juvenile all its life like the axolotl. A few have suggested the animals actually represent some sort of psychic phenomena. Some have also suggested a Tanystropheus, although there are very few supporters for this theory. More reasonably, the first true cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans held throughout his life that plesiosaur-type sighting were actually an unknown species of long-necked seal.

In many of these areas, especially around Loch Ness, Lake Champlain and the Okanagan Valley, these lake monsters have become important tourist draws.

The X-Files episode Quagmire centers on an alleged lake monster named Big Blue, which is depicted in a painting as being similar in appearance to the Loch Ness Monster. The creature is only seen once, briefly, in the shadows at the end of the episode.

The Joe Citro novel, Dark Twilight, focuses upon Vermont's lake monster Champ and supposes an extra-dimensional/demonic origin.

In Diana Gabaldon's series of novels about a time traveler from the 20th century to Scotland in the 1700s (popularly called the Outlander series), her main character Claire Randall briefly views a hump and a fin in the water of Loch Ness, and theorizes that the reason the creature appears so rarely is that there is a "time gate", similar to the one Claire herself traveled through, at the bottom of the loch. This gate would link modern Scotland with the Cretaceous Period.

Lake monster locations and names

Argentina

Canada

Chile

China

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Japan

Kazakhstan

Malaysia

Norway

Russia

Sweden

Turkey

United Kingdom

For Scotland please see List of Scottish loch-monsters

United States

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