Lake Khaiyr Hoax & More Otter Nonsense
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 7th, 2008
Karl Shuker has written an article that is meant to finally sink the oft-repeated story of a watery Siberian cryptid. Additionally, Darren Naish seems to have missed the otter sensitivity, nonsense and humor in some thoughts about the Loch Ness Monster here.
As Darren Naish writes: “One of the most interesting lake monster accounts in history was N. Gladkikh’s sighting of 1964 from Lake Khaiyr, Siberia. Gladkikh’s sketch of a long-necked quadrupedal reptile with a fin along its back has to be one of the most-reproduced lake monster illustrations. Alas, as Karl explains in the new issue of Fortean Times (232, Feb 2008), we now know that Gladkikh fabricated the sighting. Karl’s article is…Shuker, K. P. N. 2008. The truth behind the monster. Fortean Times 232, 58-59.”
Darren writes, “with apologies for Karl for stealing his thunder,” his overview of the debunking is here: “The sad death of the Lake Khaiyr monster.”
In a strange aside in Darren Naish’s blog on Shuker’s article, Naish writes “…by the way, I totally disagree with Loren Coleman’s contention on cryptomundo that the object in the [Dr. Kenneth] Wilson photo is an otter’s tail.”
Naish does not elaborate why he writes so abruptly what he has written.
For the record, here is what I wrote:
“My reading of the early opinion of this object, from zoologist Maurice Burton and others, was not that it was the head of some prehistoric animal, so much as the head of a water bird or the tail of a mammal diving into the water. I have said and written for years that the photo was never that important (other than as an icon), and probably was nothing more that the misunderstood image of the head or the tail of an otter. Yes, folks, I think the ‘Surgeon’s Photo’ is of an otter.”
Even otters sometimes fight and look unnatural.
Perhaps Darren Naish does not read this blog enough to know that, while specifically truthful about the openmindness I have for considering the water bird-otter-water mammal explanations for the Surgeon’s Photo mentioned, I also was alluding to a running joke here harking back to Joe Nickel’s suggestion that almost everything seen in Loch Ness is an otter!
Okay, to be perfectly clear, I think Darren Naish may have missed the incredible amount of joking that goes on here at Cryptomundo among comment makers who say things like the latest Bigfoot photo from the north woods is nothing more than an “otter in an ape costume.”
As to the source of what is behind the image in the Surgeon’s Photograph, I’m, however, not afraid to say, technically, I don’t know what it is.
However, if pressed, I would have to say I don’t think it is a lake monster.
I don’t think it is a toy sub.
I don’t think it is a constructed hoax.
I consider the possibilities, in the tradition of Maurice Burton, as noted, (based on the verified animals from the loch) that it might be a water bird, a seal, an otter, or some other known species of animal, the head or neck or tail or body of the animal on the surface of Loch Ness, photographed quickly from afar, as it is swimming, diving, entering, or surfacing on the loch.
In twilight, I’ve seen common mergansers ~ called the goosander in Europe ~ (Mergus merganser) swimming in lakes in North America, which I thought would easily fool some people into thinking they were lake monsters.
Additionally, swimming red deer (Cervus elaphus) ~ especially those with new antler buds covered with velvet in the spring and early summer ~ may be responsible for some “horned loch monster” reports, but that’s not about the Surgeon’s Photo, of course.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
It’s a real shame that Gladkikh hoaxed the story. Of course, life in mid-60’s Russia wasn’t exactly simple. Maybe it was a way to get his name seen.
The problem is, as I see it, if someone was able to get a detailed description of an unknown animal, it will be immediately ignored by most people because it is so detailed. And heaven forbid they take a picture.
Still, the search is fun.
On the otter matter, Loren, Darren said in the comments of that blog he believes that it is a man-made hoax because of the sharp bend of the “head”, and that he recently e-mailed you about it. Anyway, it is sad to see the Khaiyr beast sink, but the otter comment was indeed random on Darren’s part.
Yes, I email exchanged Darren this morning asking him what did he meant, and he posted some of the exchange in his comments and I posted some in an update to this blog. Real time vs blog time, I guess. 🙂 Otter confusing, if you ask me.
Thank you for the otterly helpful answer, Loren.
Awwww come on. We all know the Surgeon’s photo is of an elephant’s trunk. You know, there are whole herds of elephants that are repeatedly taken for swims in the freezing cold loch waters every day. They are just left loose to fool as many gullible people as possible.
There’s probably an elephant in Loch Ness even as we speak, going for it’s nightly dip.
LOL.
RAPPY and LYNDON:
Heh-Heh-Heh.
LOL.
Great article as always, Loren!!!
You folks otter be ashamed for some of the puns you’re making here!
Beware of people who have no sense of humor. They are very likely to have no sense about other things as well.
Well, I told Darren I thought it was an Otter.
It doesn’t really matter, we now know not to take seriously a picture purported to have been taken on April 1st.
Well, that’s an otterly purdy picture of two… erm, well dang! I can’t say otters, cuz I used that in the pun!…
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Loch Ness Elephants fighting. Yeah, that’s it. 😀
I agree with Lyndon. In my opinion, the Surgeon’s Photo is definitely an elephant’s trunk. You see, in the 1930s, some elephants escaped from circuses, and started swimming, in the loch. After about 2 months, or so, they evolved into a completely new species, of aquatic elephant. And, these aquatic elephants appear to be the explanation, for pretty much anything unusual seen, on Loch Ness.