The Tsmok Statue at Lake Lepel, Belarus – Aquatic Dragon, Flippered Water-Deer, or Long-Necked Seal?
Posted by: Karl Shuker on September 16th, 2015
On 8 August 2015, the city of Lepel in Belarus’s Vitebsk Province hosted an international festival of mythology entitled ‘On a Visit to Lepel Tsmok’ (click here to access its full programme of events). Among the varied array of subjects featured in this festival’s talks and presentations was Lepel’s very own legendary monster, one that was once virtually unknown to the outside world. Thanks to a wonderful statue here, however, all that is now changing, rapidly.
(© Alexander “Tarantino” Zhdanovich / cmok.budzma.org/node/81 on http://labadzenka.by/?p=25052)
But what kind of creature does this very distinctive statue represent? Is it simply an aquatic dragon, or might it be some form of legendary water-dwelling deer with flippers instead of hooves, or, most intriguing of all, is it a representative of one of cryptozoology’s most popular candidates for large aquatic cryptids, a giant long-necked seal?
Further details can be accessed here on my ShukerNature blog.
About Karl Shuker
My name is Dr Karl P.N. Shuker. I am a zoologist (BSc & PhD), media consultant, and the author of 25 books and hundreds of articles, specialising in cryptozoology and animal mythology. I have a BSc (Honours) degree in pure zoology from the University of Leeds (U.K.), and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the University of Birmingham (U.K.).
I have acted jointly as consultant and major contributor to three multi-author volumes on cryptozoology and other mysterious phenomena.
I am the Life Sciences Consultant to The Guinness Book of Records/Guinness World Records (Guinness: London, 1997-present day), and was consultant to Monsters (Lorenz Books: London, 2001), as well as a contributor to Mysteries of the Deep (Llewellyn: St Paul, 1998), Guinness Amazing Future (Guinness: London, 1999), The Earth (Channel 4 Books: London, 2000), and Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained (Chambers: London, 2007).
I appear regularly on television & radio, was a consultant for the Discovery TV series Into the Unknown, and a question setter for the BBC's quiz show Mastermind.
I am a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a Member of the Society of Authors, and the Cryptozoology Consultant for the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ).
I have written articles for numerous publications, including Fortean Times, The X Factor, Paranormal Magazine, FATE, Strange Magazine, Prediction, Beyond, Uri Geller's Encounters, Phenomena, Alien Encounters, Wild About Animals, All About Cats, All About Dogs, Cat World, etc.
In 2005, I was honoured by the naming of a new species of loriciferan invertebrate after me - Pliciloricus shukeri.
cadborosaurus?
Reminds me of Cadborosaurus descriptions…
Great minds think alike…you beat me to it bigfootsdad!
Horse-Faced Flippered Megaslug!