Some of the world's lakes are teeming with legends, and in their unique ecosystems, unexpected unknown creatures may live. Probably the most legendary is Loch Ness, a lake in Scotland that has been passed down as a water monster for many years.
Recently, an outdoor enthusiast photographed a mysterious giant creature in Loch Ness, with an estimated length of 6 meters, which once again triggered speculation that the "Loch Ness Monster" appeared? So, is the legendary Loch Ness Monster real or fake?
Loch Ness is a large and deep freshwater lake with a width of about 1.5 km, a length of up to 37 km, an average depth of 132 m, and the deepest point can reach 230 m. Due to the high peat content in the surrounding soil and the large amount of floating algae in the water, the water body of Loch Ness is very turbid, and the visibility is generally less than 2 meters. It is precisely because of the depth and muddiness of Loch Ness that this lake is full of mystery.
Recently, an outdoor enthusiast, Richard Mavor, went canoeing in a remote part of Loch Ness, and he shot the scene in the air with a 4K-quality drone. When he released the video, he accidentally found a huge unknown creature in the water on the shore, which was much longer than the 4-meter-long canoe next to it.
He examined in detail what was in the water, neither wood nor stone nor man-made objects. Although he didn't want to say what the Loch Ness Monster was, he had always been skeptical about it, but this time he did photograph something strange, and it was shaped like the Loch Ness Monster that people had witnessed before.
The Loch Ness Monster has been in sight many times this summer, and this year it has been included in the official Loch Ness Monster sighting record at least 10 times, for example, in July this year, a man on the shore of Loch Ness through binoculars saw an unidentified creature surfaced 60 centimeters, estimated to be 3.6 meters in length, and it quickly went deeper into the turbid lake water. A father and daughter were hiking by Loch Ness when they saw unknown creatures swimming in the water.
In fact, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster has a long history. It is recorded that as early as 565 AD, a man was attacked by a "water monster" while swimming in Loch Ness. The water monster bit the man and dragged him underwater, eventually killing him.
Since then, eyewitness reports of the Loch Ness Monster have been numerous. With the advent of the camera, people have been photographing suspected water monsters since then. While some of these images of water monsters are forgeries, there are others that don't seem to be explained by known creatures.
In order to find out the real identity of the monster, in 1987, a large-scale local search of water monsters was organized, costing 1 million pounds to detect the creatures in the lake through sonar, and found an unknown object of size between sharks and whales.
According to numerous eyewitness accounts and suspected photographs, the Loch Ness Monster has a large body and a long neck, resembling a plesiosaur. According to the fossil record, plesiosaurs first appeared in the late Triassic Period 200 million years ago, and by the Jurassic period, they were widely distributed around the world. Plesiosaur was a large marine animal with a body length ranging from 2 to 15 meters.
Loch Ness is part of the Golden Lion Canal, which connects the Atlantic Ocean on the southwest side and the North Sea on the northeast side, so Loch Ness actually leads to the sea at both ends. So, will there be plesiosaurs swimming backwards from the ocean into Loch Ness?
For now, this possibility is almost non-existent. So far, plesiosaurs have never been found in the oceans, nor have they found such creatures in other lakes. In fact, during the fifth mass extinction event 65 million years ago, Plesiosaur was completely extinct.
What exactly is the real body of the Loch Ness Monster is still uncertain, but possible explanations include otters, elephants, eels, European giant catfish, or an unknown new species, or it may be just an optical illusion, or someone is playing a prank to attract people to play.
In addition to Loch Ness, Lake Kanas, located on the other side of the globe, is also said to have the possibility of a water monster. Locals say legend has it that the Kanas Lake monster ate animals such as cows and horses on the lake' edge. Unlike the Loch Ness Monster, the Kanas Monster may be a large fish species. In 1985, scientists found a 15-meter-long red fish in the lake, which may be the legendary "water monster".