Has the Loch Ness Monster gone extinct?

by Sean McLachlan on

Things aren’t going well in Scotland. Last year was the worst year on record for sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. A documentary studied the possibility that Nessie has gone extinct, and even the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club is worried.

Only one “dependable” sighting, by a local man back in June, shows there might be life in the old critter yet, but if that’s a false alarm, where does that leave us? Locals around Loch Ness are worried last year’s poor showing may affect tourist numbers. In the United States, liberals are saying Nessie died of shame from being called a “monster” instead of the more politically correct term “evidence-challenged endangered species”. Conservatives claim Nessie was the first victim of the death panels set up by Obama’s America-hating, terrorist-loving national health care.

The number of sightings has been going down for a few years, so the creature or creatures may very well be dying out. Is it gone for good? Unless AOL coughs up a few million to equip me with sonar equipment and a submarine, I really can’t say.

Whatever happened to Nessie, take heart. There are plenty of lake monsters to go around. There’s a Nessie-like creature in Minnesota, one in Lake Champlain, and others scattered around the world. There’s even another Scottish beastie in Loch Morar, which was the subject of a recent investigation by blogger Tom Gates. He took the amazing photo shown here. Believe it or not it’s actually a fake, made with a little Nessie model and some basil, and should serve as a warning to serious cryptozoologists that common household items can be used to construct a photo that can fool even the experts.

I, for one, don’t think Nessie will ever die. Despite having walked on the Moon and plumbed the depths of the ocean, we as a species love a mystery, and will always need creatures like Nessie, Bigfoot, the Mothman, and Raw Head and Bloody Bones until we ourselves go extinct.%Gallery-13474%

Want to go on a monster hunt?

by Kraig Becker on

Every country and culture has its monster stories. You can wander the globe and hear tales of all kinds of things that go bump in the night. From giant snakes in the Amazon to legendary ape men in the Himalaya, there are enough rumors of strange creatures to keep cryptozoologists out in the field, chasing shadows, for years to come.

If you’d like to go on a monster hunt of your own, Forbes Traveler has put together a list of the top destinations on the planet that are rumored to be the home of one type of monster or another. But as the article mentions, only the bravest, most adventurous travelers need apply, as who knows what awaits you out in these remote corners of the Earth.

Some of the locations that earn a spot on the list include Loch Ness, Scotland, where the legendary Loch Ness Monster is rumored to lurk beneath the icy waters of the lake that reaches more than 50 feet in depth in many areas. Not a fan of aquatic monster hunts? Then head to the Redwood Forests of Calfornia in search of Sasquatch, also known as Bigtoot, the famous giant ape, which has many sightings dating as far back to the mid-1800’s. Looking for something a bit less mundane when you go on a monster hunts? Then how about going to West Virginia to look for the Mothman, a strange creature that looks like a man with bug eyes and giant wings.

So, who wants to organize a monster hunt? After we get done looking for Sasquatch, we can head to Roswell, New Mexico too. We’ll make a road trip out of it!