Albino Animals Album
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(View our Album of Albino Animals at the end of page!)
Albinism (from Latin albus, "white" also called achromia, achromasia, or achromatosis) is a form of hypopigmentary congenital disorder, characterized by a partial or total lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair, or more rarely in the eyes alone. Albinism results from inheritance of recessive alleles. The condition is known to affect mammals (including humans), fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians. While the most common term for an organism affected by albinism is "albino" (noun and adjective), the word is sometimes used in derogatory ways towards people; more neutral terms are "albinistic" (adjective) and "person with albinism" (noun). Additional clinical adjectives sometimes used to refer to animals are "albinoid" and "albinic".
It is not the same as leucism, where all integumental pigment is absent at least in patches but the eyes have their usual color.Leucistic animals are often mistaken as being albino creatures, such as white lions. Leucism is a condition similar to albinism, characterized by reduced pigmentation in general and can also affect distribution of pigment on the hair shaft, but unlike albinism, it’s caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. Chinchilla and other mutations can also cause white animals, such as some of the animals depicted here, including white peacocks, and white tigers, which are typically white rather than albino.
Albinism is hereditary; it is not an infectious disease and cannot be transmitted through contact, blood transfusions, or other vectors. The principal gene which results in albinism prevents the body from making the usual amounts of the pigment melanin. Most forms of albinism are the result of the biological inheritance of genetically recessive alleles (genes) passed from both parents of an individual, though some rare forms are inherited from only one parent. There are other genetic mutations which are proven to be associated with albinism. All alterations, however, lead to changes in melanin production in the body
The chance of offspring with albinism resulting from the pairing of an organism with albinism and one without albinism is low . However, because organisms can be carriers of genes for albinism without exhibiting any traits, albinistic offspring can be produced by two non-albinistic parents. Albinism usually occurs with equal frequency in both genders. An exception to this is ocular albinism, because it is passed on to offspring through X-linked inheritance. Thus, males more frequently have ocular albinism as they do not have a second X chromosome.
Best known Albino animals:
Toug-Toulog the sacred white elephant was imported to the Barnum & London Show in 1884.
Pinky is an albino bottlenose dolphin found in Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana.
Pinky was first spotted in 2007 by a boat captain, Erik Rue. The dolphin has become a tourist attraction, and conservationists have asked visitors to leave the dolphin alone. Not to be confused with the Amazon River Botos, called pink dolphins, which live in South America in the Amazon.
Snowflake (c. 1964 – November 24, 2003) was an albino gorilla. He was the most popular resident of the Barcelona Zoo in
Catalonia, Spain.
The official story is that an ape specialist, Jordi Sabater Pi, found the animal in 1966 in Ikunde, in the then Spanish colony of Spanish Guinea, modern-day Equatorial Guinea. The only albino gorilla known to man, he was captured outside Nko, in the Equatorial forest of Nko, near Rio Campo, in the Rio Muni region, on October 1, 1966, by Benito Mañé, an ethnic Fang farmer, who had killed the rest of his group (all charcoal black in color) in order to obtain this unusual albino specimen. During the massacre, his mother was shot by Mañé whilst she tore a banana stem apart in his banana plantation. The small creature was found clinging to his mother's neck, his head buried deep in her black fur. Benito kept him at his own home for four days and then transported him to Bata, where he was purchased by Sabater Pi, who worked for the Barcelona Zoo's Ikunde Center, in Spanish Guinea, and paid 10,500 pesetas for the gorilla. A National Geographic-funded study of gorillas in the region was underway at the time of Snowflake's discovery.
Snowflake was a Western Lowland Gorilla. He spent most of his life at the Barcelona Zoo in the Parc de la Ciutadella. He was known worldwide, mentioned in tourist guides and put on postcards, becoming the unofficial mascot for the city. Barcelona Zoo director Antonio Jonch in wrote in 1967:
"The gorilla was a male about two years of age. Morphologically it was normal except that it was white, skin and hair being completely devoid of pigmentation. The eye had a blueish sclera, a normal cornea, and a light blue iris which was very transparent to transillumination. Accommodation and refraction were normal. The media were transparent and the fundus of the eye normal and totally depigmented. The choroidal vessels were perfectly visible and the pupil was normal. The animal displayed marked photophobia which caused it to close its eyes repeatedly when exposed to bright light. In diffuse light similar to that in its biotope, we calculated that it blinked on an average of 20 times a minute."
Source: Wikipedia
Most humans and many animals with albinism appear white or very pale; the multiple types of melanin pigment are responsible for brown, black, gray, and some yellow colorations. In some animals, especially albinistic birds and reptiles, ruddy and yellow hues or other colors may be present on the entire body or in patches (as is common among pigeons), due to the presence of other pigments unaffected by albinism such as porphyrins, pteridines and psittacins, as well as carotenoid pigments derived from the diet. Some animals are white or pale due to chromatophore (pigment cell) defects, do not lack melanin production, and have normal eyes; they are referred to as leucistic. The direct opposite of albinism, an unusually high level of melanin pigmentation (and sometimes absence of other types of pigment in species that have more than one), is known as melanism, and results in an appearance darker than non-melanistic specimens from the same genepool. Albinism-like conditions may affect other pigments or pigment-production mechanisms in some animals (e.g. "whiteface", a lack of psittacins that can affect some parrot species.).Another is common in reptiles and amphibians: axanthism, in which xanthophore metabolism, instead of synthesis of melanin, is
affected, resuling in reduction or absence of red and yellow pteridine pigments. Of all these conditions, only albinism and melanism affect humans.
Mocha Dick was a notorious male sperm whale that lived in the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century, usually encountered in the waters near the island of Mocha, off southern Chile. Unlike most sperm whales, Mocha Dick was white, and was the inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick.
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"longer than a city bus ... and heavier than a car," said University of Toronto Mississauga biologist Jason Head, who announced the find.
4 June 2009 a Lisburn man Mike Warner (73) and his son Greg (44) have done, seeking evidence that this was the home of the Yacumama and actually capturing a picture of the creature. A leviathan of the jungle, which reports say reaches 40 metres in length and two metres in diameter, it dwarfs any snake known to science.
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The biggest snake yet discovered, Titanoboa cerrejones, slithers alongside one of its presumed prey, a primitive crocodile, 60 million years ago in an artist's conception.
At least 42 feet long (13 meters) and weighing 2,500 pounds (1,135 kilograms), the snake was
It was Colonel Percy Fawcett, who was commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1906 to map an area of the Peruvian Amazon in a dispute over rubber production who, after an encounter with a giant anaconda, first documented large 'trails 6 feet wide' or what are now called 'channels'.
In fact, the photographs were taken on the Silent Valley Game Ranch in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A web page on the game ranch website explains:
The snake in this picture had eaten a full grown Impala ewe and, sadly, caught itself in an electric fence.
Over four metres in length, this was a large specimen. When the python was skinned we found a full grown Impala ewe had just been swallowed.
The African Rock Python is identified as the third largest species of snake in the world.
cryptid is the one this article covers: the giant anaconda. The coloration of these animals is nearly identical to that of the green anaconda, they are blackish brown with dark rings and oval spots. Stories of these animals were quite common, and the reported animals reached considerable sizes.
Percy Fawcett's encounter is one of the most commonly told, and that one was "only" 62 feet in length. After his encounter, Colonel Fawcett found out about a specimen 80 feet long that had been shot, and stories of snake trails 6 feet wide (his snake was a foot wide!). One specimen that was 80 feet long supposedly had 4 capybaras and an ox in its stomach. Two of the largest encounters had been photographed; interestingly the film from both cases was developed in the same shop in Manaus. The first snake, which was shot on the Brazil-Colombia border, was supposedly 95 feet long and weighed 2 tons. The second picture shows a snake supposedly 110-150 feet long shot (500 times) near Fort Tabatinga. Although the cases are interesting, the first photo appears to be a hoax, and the second it too ambiguous to be used as evidence. Snakes this large are no longer commonly seen, the last reports come from the 1940's.
searchers did find what appeared to be giant snake tracks that measured 40 centimeters (16 in) wide and passed alongside fallen trees.
A local history museum has in its collection a large jawbone measuring 34 centimeters (13 in) across, which many believe belongs to the giant snake. Others speculate it belongs to a shark.
Reports of giant anaconda date back as far as the discovery of South America when sightings of snakes upwards of 12m(40ft)began to circulate amongst colonists and the topic has been a subject of debate ever since among cryptozoologists and zoologists. Anacondas normally only grow to size of 6 metres (20 ft), and 250 kilos in weight,but tales of truly gigantic specimens persist. Indeed, although some python species can grow longer in length,the anaconda, particularly the Green Anaconda, is the heaviest and largest in terms of diameter of all snakes, and is often considered the biggest extant snake in the world. It is not uncommon for a fully grown anaconda to attack and kill a jaguar or caiman. Yet, despite the snake's large size, no specimens above the size of 10.5 metres (34 ft) have been captured, and anacondas of this proportion are considered cryptids.
The first recorded sightings of giant anacondas were from the time of the discovery of South America, when early European explorers entered the dense jungles there and claimed to have seen giant snakes measuring up to 18 metres (59 ft) long. Natives also reported seeing anacondas upwards of 10.5 metres (34 ft) to 18 metres (59 ft). It is unquestionable that anacondas above 9 m (30 ft) in length are rare; the Wildlife Conservation Society has, since the early 20th century, offered a large cash reward (currently worth US$50,000) for live delivery of any snake of 9 metres (30 ft) or more in length, but the prize has never been claimed despite the numerous sightings of giant anacondas. In a survey of 1,000 wild anacondas in Venezuela, the largest captured was 5 metres (16 ft) long, far short of the length required.
Facts
If you look in the records there is a lot of controversy over which snake holds the world's record for massive size. The dimensions that have earned the anaconda the title of king is its total body mass or its weight (the sheer physical bulk of it). The other snake that competes with the anaconda is the Asiatic Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus). The python holds the world's record for length of a snake, with the longest ever measured at 33 feet. Even though the longest python is longer than the record-holding anaconda, the girth of the anaconda is far bigger. Anacondas in the jungles of South America can grow as bThe longest snake ever found is a reticulated python that was found in Sulawesi Island, Indonesia in 1912. It was 33 feet long.
While it is believed that the American water boa (known as the anaconda) may grow larger or heavier, the largest snakes found both in the wild and in captivity are reticulated pythons.
The largest snake ever held in captivity was a python named Colossus. She lived at the Pittsburgh Zoo in Pennsylvania and at the time of her death she was 28.5 feet long, had a girth of 37.5 inches and weighed an estimated 320 pounds.
What is the longest snake ever recorded?
The longest snake ever recorded was a 11.5 meter green anaconda from South America (Oliver 1958 and Gilmore and Murphy 1993). Some biologists dispute this and consider the maximum length to be only 9 to 9.5 meters.
The longest Python?
The longest python on record was a reticulated python that reached a length of 10.1 meters. While it was common to find individuals with lengths up to 8 meters in the wild only a few decades ago, few wild creatures today exceed 5 to 6 meters.
Longest snake in Africa?
The African Rock Python is the longest African snake. One individual reached a length of 9.75 meters.
We all know the movies 'Anaconda " but these here above are the real deal!
Source: Wikipedia
This anaconda is not green but dark brown and is known by the locals as the 'black boa' or 'Yacumama'.
"Yacumama is translated as Mother of the Water and reports of this giant snake abound throughout the Amazon basin and history."
After an exhausting 12 days in the jungle and a 30 hour trip back home the father and son team were finally able to examine their photo evidence in more detail, over 700 photos and five hours of video.
"The data is immense and will take months to fully appreciate but already it supports our theories of 'channels' created by these giants as they make their way through the dense jungle knocking down trees 90 feet tall, but more importantly we managed to catch one of these reclusive giants on camera as it made its way through one of its watery channels."
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These photographs of a large snake that has died after being caught in an electric fence have been circulating via email since 2005. The photographs are genuine. However, in most versions of the email, the description that accompanies the images is inaccurate.
The version discussed here claims that the snake was caught on an Australian sheep farm after the owner put up an electric fence to kerb the mysterious disappearance of some of his sheep. A number of other versions have similar cover stories set in different areas of the world.
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Giant Congo snake (Congo Rainforest AFRICA): A giant, brownish-green snake was photographed by a Belgian helicopter pilot in 1959. The photo (at top of page) has been extensivly analysed and the results are always the same; it shows a snake somewhere between 40 and 50 feet in length. If so, this would be the biggest snake on earth (save for the giant anaconda that is).
Pumina (Zaire AFRICA): Giant snakes that are well known to the natives. The giant Congolese snake in the photo may be a pumina.
We discovered that the “snake photo was originally published (per Newton’s Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology) April 28, 1949, in the newspaper A Provincia do Pará, credited to Joaquim Alencar. The snake was alleged 45 meters, and was found on the Rio Abuna (Acre State). There’s been a fair bit of confusion over the details over the years, and different lengths have been reprinted along with the same photo at different times. The locality details printed on the photo sent to you appear to be another variant.”
The green anaconda is believed to be one of the world's largest snakes, believed to max out at around 30 feet. However, there is some indication that a similar snake once got much larger. These animals had been seen throughout the Amazon, but there appears to be some confusion with different animals. The Minhocoa is a large burrowing animal that may be serpentine, it will be delt with elsewhere. There are reports of snake like animals that have features more typical of sea serpents (saucer-like phosphorescent eyes, vertical undulations), and they will also be mentioned elsewhere. The third type of
Mt. Tsurugi, the second highest peak on the island of Shikoku, is steeped in mystery. According to one local legend, the mountain is actually a giant man-made pyramid, and another legend says that a hoard of King Solomon’s secret treasure lies buried within. A giant snake believed to be guarding that treasure has been sighted on many occasions.
In May 1973, a group of 4 forestry workers reportedly encountered a 10 meter (33 ft) long snake as big around as a telephone pole. The creature was described as having shiny black scales, and it reportedly made a loud chirping sound. In the months that followed, local officials organized a large-scale hunt for the snake, enlisting the help of hundreds of volunteers. While the creature was not apprehended, the
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January 26, 2007
Guard dogs protecting a fruit orchard in Malaysia have met their match - a 7.1-metre long python that swallowed at least 11 hounds before it was finally discovered by villagers.
"I was shocked to see such a huge python," orchard-keeper Ali Yusof told the New Straits Times.
The paper published a picture of the captured snake, which was almost long enough to span the width of a tennis court and as thick as a tree trunk.
Villagers did not harm the snake, but tied it to a tree and then handed it to wildlife officials, the paper said today.
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The origins of the monster
Indian legend has it that the large lake creature, Ogopogo, was originally a demon possessed man who had murdered a well known and respected local man named "Old Kan-He-Kan." In memory of this man, his people named Our beautiful lake "Okanagan." To pay for his sins, the Indian gods changed the murderer into a lake serpent so he would forever be at the scene of his crime and suffer eternal remorse. The creature's name became "N'ha-A-Itk" which roughly translates into sacred creature of the water, water god or lake demon.
His mind was full of dark thoughts and the demons spoke to him. His wild eyes and words frightened his people, and he became an outcast, shunned by all. One day in a fury of rage and pain, he attacked old Kan-He-Kan, a local wise man. The demon-possessed man killed the venerable sage on the shores of a beautiful lake near his home, and then ran away, afraid of what the people would do to him when they found out.
But the gods had seen the murder and were angry. They captured the demon-possessed man and transformed him into a terrible serpent as a punishment for the murder of the good Kan-He-Kan. Then the serpent was cast into the lake, condemned forever to remain at the scene of his crime. The people living near the lake called the serpent "N'ha-A-Itk" or Lake Demon. They would offer sacrifices to it before traveling upon its waters. But the offerings did not always appease the monster. Many times, a fierce storm would fall upon the lake and N'ha-a-itk would rise from the roiling waters to claim a life. Once a man who was watering his horse at the lake saw the monster rise up from the depths and pull the poor animal under. And so the curse of N'ha-a-itk continued to plague the residents of the lake.
Then the white man came, and they scorned the tale of the Lake Demon. They began taking timber from the land nearby, and floating the logs down to Lake Okanagan. One evening, as a local man worked on the raft of newly-sawn logs, he chanced to look up and saw a long serpent with a horse shaped head and a green, undulating body. It raised its head out of the water and stared deeply into the man's eyes. The man started shaking from head to toe and scrambled backwards toward shore. The demonic eyes of the giant creature gleamed with malevolence, and he scrambled up the bank and ran for his life.
Indian traditions speak of Timbasket, the chief of a visiting tribe who paid a terrible price for challenging N’ha-a-itk. Historian Frank Buckland tells the story:
Timbasket, the Indian cynic . . . declared his disbelief in the existence of the lake demon. He was told that the Westbank Indians intended to sacrifice a live dog to the water god as they passed Squally Point, but he was quite unimpressed. He knew too much to concern himself with outmoded customs. . . . [Later when crossing the lake] Timbasket defiantly chose to travel close to the rocky headland. Suddenly, the lake demon arose from his lair and whipped up the surface of the lake with his long tail. Timbasket, his family and his canoe were sucked under by a great swirl of angry water (Quoted in Moon 1977, 25).
And yet, the reality of him is well documented in the verbal reports of those who say they have seen him. The interior Salish aboriginal peoples knew him as Nihaiaiitk - the lake demon - and they appear to have depicted his snake-like image in several petroglyphs etched in the rocks of the Powers Creek area. Their livelihood depended in significant part on their harvesting the bounty of the lake, but they had a healthy respect for the creature who lived there. They would carry small animals to feed to him whenever they ventured forth onto the water in their canoes, and they avoided that portion of the lake that was thought to be his home.
Earliest mention by caucasian people
1870 Mrs Allison watched Ogopogo from Sunnyside, where Vineyard Estates are now. The sun was shining and a strong wind blowing: "As I watched I saw something that looked like a huge tree trunk or log floating on the lake going against the current and not with it. She estimated it was 50 feet long and 3 feet wide and not more than a mile from the shore looking towards the Okanagan Mission, South Kelowna. So Mrs Allison's sighting of Ogopogo in 1870 may be the first sighting .
In 1854 or 1855, a settler named John MacDougall is said to have neglected the sacrifice. While crossing the lake with a team of horses, a great force sucked his steeds down with a tremendous slurp. MacDougall was terrified, but even more so when he realized that his canoe, lashed to the horses, was about to be pulled down to a watery doom as well. He grabbed a knife and cut the ropes, narrowly escaping with his life.
The McDougal Brothers rowed a 10 foot scow to ferry from the Westside to Kelowna from 1885 to 1905. There were no native canoes ever found on Okanagan Lake. The natives may not have crossed the lake to each other's communities for fear of Ogopogo.
The name Ogopogo was first coined in 1912. In 1924 a local named Bill Brimblecomb sang a song parodying a popular British music-hall tune , That went like this :
I'm looking for the Ogopogo,
His mother was a mutton,
His father was a whale.
I'm going to put a little bit of salt on his tail.
A Vancouver Province reporter named Ronald Kenvyn later parodied a popular British ditty and composed a song that included the following stanza:
His mother was an earwig;
His father was a whale;
A little bit of head And hardly any tail-
And Ogopogo was his name.
Later in 1914 a group of local native folks discovered the decomposing body of an unidentified creature on the shores of Lake Okanagan. It was five to six feet long and was estimated to weigh approximately 400 pounds; it was blue-grey in color. The beast had a tail and flippers, and a local amateur naturalist felt that it was a manatee although no one knew of ant populations of Manatees in the lake. Lake Monster expert Peter Costello has theorized that the carcass was an Ogopogo; he suggested this even though the carcass was badly mangled and the long neck was gone.
In the 1920s Ogopogo appearances were commonplace and the animal was regarded as just another member of the local fauna and not a mystery. Its reality was so strong to Okanagan Lake residents that when they built ferries to take people form Kelowna to Westbank there concern that the ferry needed to be armed with ‘monster repelling devices’ to ensure passenger and crew safety.The government, in 1926 announced that the new ferry being built for travel across the Okanagan Lake would also be equipped with special "monster repelling devices".
On September 16, 1926, Ogopogo was watched by some 30 cars of people along an Okanagan Mission beach.
The early inhabitants of the area saw the monster as a malevolent entity. Indians claimed that Monster Island's rocky beaches were sometimes covered with the parts of animals that they had attacked and ravaged. When crossing the lake during bad weather, the Indians always carried a small animal that they would toss overboard in the middle of the lake to appease the monster, according to material in the files of the Kelowna Archives.
Primrose Upton, in The History of Okanagan Mission, noted that no Indians would fish near Squally Point. When Europeans settled in the area, they too feared the aquatic monster and supposedly continued the custom of offering an animal to appease Ogopogo. According to Ogopogo expert Arlene Gaal, armed settlers patrolled the shoreline in case of attack by the monster.
On a typical Okanagan afternoon in the summer of 1932 or 1933 Henry Murdoch was practicing for the Marathon swim at one or other Valley regattas. He planned to swim from the Point where the Maud Roxby Bird Sanctuary is situated to the dock at the old Eldorado Hotel. His pilot boat was being rowed by John Ackland, one of his best friends. Everything was going fine with Henry, swimming about twenty feet behind and slightly to the side of the boat.
When they were off the south end of "Boyce's Field" (Cedar Avenue), John rested his oars and bent down for a few seconds to light a cigarette.
When he looked up, Henry had disappeared!
At first, he thought that Henry was playing a trick on him by swimming up and hiding under the boat. Very soon, he realized there was something wrong so he searched the clear, eight foot deep water, frantically for 20 minutes before rowing to shore and running to the nearest phone to call the police.
Within two hours there was a search party out with several boats dragging for the body and swimmers searching as best they could. The search continued for two days but Henry's body was never found.
Henry had been the lifeguard at the Eldorado Arms Hotel and was considered at the time the strongest swimmer in the Okanagan. All very strange when you consider that the water was very clear and shallow and there was no discernable current in that part of the Lake.
There have been over 200 sightings by credible people including a priest, a sea captain, a surgeon, police officers, and so forth. The fact that the percipients are generally people of good repute is often mentioned in reports of sightings. Photos of Ogopogo are numerous and include the 1964 Parmenter photo; the 1976 Fletcher photo; the 1978, 1979 and 1981 Gaal photos, the 1981 Wachlin photo, the 1984 Svensson photograph.
There have now been half a dozen films and videos taken of an animate object in Lake Okanagan, but none of them are conclusive.
British cryptozoologist Dr. Karl Shuker has categorized the Ogopogo as a 'many hump' variety of lake monster, and suggested it may be a kind of primitive serpentine whale such as Basilosaurus. However, because the physical evidence for the beast is limited to unclear photographs and film, it has also been suggested that the sightings are misidentifications of common animals, such as otters, and inanimate objects, such as floating logs.
11 Nov 2008.
VANCOUVER - A TV documentary crew has added to the mystery surrounding Ogopogo by finding an unknown biological specimen in the depths of Okanagan Lake.
"I told a radio station tongue-in-cheek I thought it was the baby Ogopogo," monster-watcher Bill Steciuk of Kelowna said Monday after the History Channel completed a nine-day shoot.
"It was all curled up. The features were really hard to see. You could see a little head tucked in and a straight tail with no fins.
"It's a huge mystery. We have no idea what it is," said Steciuk, who helped organize the shooting locations.
The unidentified specimen has been shipped to the University of Guelph in Ontario for DNA tests, but Ogopogo buffs will have to wait until February to find out more, when the Monster Quest program weighs in on the legendary mega-serpent.
In 1990, a Canadian postage stamp depicting an artist's conception of the Ogopogo was issued.
Michelle and Gilles Beliveau from Westbank took this photo of a form just below the water on Sept. 7/06 south of the Kelowna Mission area on the east side of Okanagan Lake. The photo was taken from their boat at 2:30pm. They estimated the object was about 25 feet long and approx 50 feet from the boat.
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An account of a creature in Lake Champlain was ostensibly given in 1609 by French explorer Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec and the lake's namesake, who is supposed to have spotted the creature as he was fighting the Iroquois on the bank of the lake. However, in actuality no such sighting was recorded, and it has since been traced back to a 1970 article.
The first reported sighting actually came in 1883 when Sheriff Nathan H. Mooney claimed that he had seen a “…gigantic water serpent about 50 yards away” from where he was on the shore. He claimed that he was so close that he could see “round white spots inside its mouth” and that “the creature appeared to be about 25 to 30 feet in length”. Mooney’s sighting led to many eyewitnesses coming forward with their own accounts of Champ sightings. Mooney’s story predated the public Loch Ness controversy by 50 years.
Champ became so popular that the late P. T. Barnum, in the early 19th century, put a reward of $50,000 up for a carcass of Champ. Barnum wanted the carcass of Champ so that he could include it in his epic World’s Fair Show (Krystek 3).
Many believe that Champ may be a plesiosaur similar to “Nessie”, claiming the two lakes have much in common. Like Loch Ness, Lake Champlain is over 400 feet (120 m) deep, and both lakes were formed from retreating glaciers following the end of the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. Believers also claim both lakes support fish populations large enough to feed a supposed sea or lake monster (Krystek 1). This legend would require either a single 10,000 year old animal, or a breeding population of thirty.
In 1977, amateur photographer Sandra Mansi released a photograph that appeared to show a plesiosaur-like body and neck sticking out of the lake. Mansi later showed the photo, which is similar to the famous "Surgeon's photo" of the Loch Ness Monster, to Joseph W. Zarzynski.
Zarzynski, founder of the Lake Champlain Phenomena Investigation and a Wilton, New York Social Studies teacher, took the photo to George Zug of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Vertebrate Zoology. Zug states that the creature in the photo does not resemble any creature or animal living in Lake Champlain (Hall 1).
The entire bay of the lake where the photograph reportedly was taken is no deeper than 14 feet (4.3 m). According to Nickell, there are few explanations for how a giant creature could swim, let alone hide, in such shallow water. Furthermore, some people have suggested that the object in the photograph could possibly be a rising tree trunk or log. Rotting trees often gather gas in the process of decay, and sometimes rise to the water's surface at considerable speed.
Native Americans, who inhabited the region long before the Europeans arrived, had tales of a ‘horned serpent’ that lived in Lake Champlain’s waters. There were at least three tribes in the region: Abnaki, Algonquin, and Iroquois. The Abnaki’s name for Lake Champlain’s serpent was Tatoskok, and it was described as having horn-like protuberances from its head. The tribes also revered a natural formation of rock in Lake Champlain, now called Split Rock. These odd formations, near Essex NY resemble petrified snakes.
Both of the indian tribes used to leave offerings for the creature.
“The History of Eastern Vermont”, written in 1858, includes an illustration by Benjamin H. Hall titled “Indian Rock.” His writings include the following description, “…in the town of Brattleboro is situated the Indian Rock. It’s location is about one hundred rods west of the point of junction of the Wantastiquet and Connecticut rivers. It lies low, and during a part of the year is covered with water, or with sand and dirt…On first examining this rock, the figures on the upper part of it were alone visible. Just below them, the rock was covered with earth to the depth of six feet. The earth was removed until a surface measuring ten feet in width and eight feet in height was exposed….Of the ten figures here presented, six are supposed to designate birds, two bear a resemblance to snakes, one is not unlike a dog or a wolf and one conveys no idea either of bird, beast, or reptile.”
1819--Sighting in Bulwagga Bay, Port Henry, NY
1871--Horseshoe Bay. Passengers on the steamship Curlew saw acreature's head above the water on a long neck and a 30-40 foot wake.
1873--Railroad workers spot "a head of an enormous serpent sticking out of the water and approaching them from the opposite shore," near Dresden, NY.
1873--P.T. Barnum offers a $50,000 reward.
1883--Clinton County, NY Sherriff Nathan Mooney sighted a strange animal in the lake about fifty yards off shore. He said that this creature was at least 25 to 30 feet in length and he could see round white spots in its mouth.
1884--While on board the steamer, “The Spirit of Ethan Allen” eighty people saw a greenish-brown, 30 foot long monster that had several humps.
1886--a gentlemen was duck hunting when he saw a giant serpent-like creature with legs curled up onshore. When he moved slightly, it ferociously reared it’s head and crashed it’s way through the bushes.
1887--A group of soldiers were fishing , when they discovered a 14 inch, four legged lizard, that was swimming around in Lake Champlain.
1945--Passengers of the "S. S. Ticonderoga" view a creature.
1945--Man claims he caught baby serpent.
1977--The Mansi family sees creature, Mrs. Mansi snaps picture.
1983--Camp Geylock councelor Laura Coble, claims several councelors and children saw Champ's humps moving through the water.
1984--The captain and several passengers aboard the "Spirit of Ethan Allen" see something strange in the lake.
By 1982, the total number of sightings reported was over 130.
The Lake Champlain monster has now been sighted at least 300 times, and probably twice that many more, since the 300 sightings are just reported sightings, inmagine how many others went unreported out of fear of ridicule. Since 2000 to present there has been an increase of sightings.
The lake could easily hide a monster or some lost species of dinosaur. It is 109 miles long, and in some places it is 400 feet deep and as dark black as coal.
More recent evidence of Champ's existence is from a video taken by two fishermen, Dick Affolter and Pete Bodette, in the summer of 2005. Though it is no longer available, the video was aired on "Good Morning America" and featured a video of something coming up from the depths of the lake next to the men's boat. Neither Affolter nor Bodette could explain what they saw, but both of the experienced fishermen admitted that it was like nothing they had ever seen.
Perhaps the most impressive evidence of Champ's existence, however, is not a photo or video. It is a recorded sound. In June, 2003, a team from the Fauna Communications Research Institute visited Lake Champlain. On three separate occasions, using high tech equipment, the team visited areas of the lake where Champ sightings have occurred. The team picked up an echolocation signal on all three occasions that measured about 140 kHz. Echolocation is basically an alternative to sight in which the animal uses extremely high pitched noises to create vibration. This vibration then bounces off the animal's prey and can be detected by the predator. In underwater environments, the only known animals that use echolocation are dolphins and whales. This signal, however, could not have been made by a whale or dolphin because is very different from their signals. Also, freshwater dolphins live in much warmer climates, like the Amazon and Southeast Asia.
Feb. 22, 2006
Residents near Lake Champlain in New York say they have their own Loch Ness monster. They call it Champ, and it's a local legend.
It is the inspiration for parade floats, T-shirts, key chains, minor-league baseball team mascots, and wild stories.
ABC News obtained exclusive video of something just under the surface of the lake that some say may be Champ. The video was taken by two fishermen with their digital camera last summer. Before their supposed sighting, they were Champ skeptics.
"It was as big around as my thigh," said fisherman Peter Bodette. "I'm 100 percent sure of what we saw. I'm not 100 percent sure of what it was."
"It made my hair stand on end at the time," said fisherman Dick Affolter. "It just didn't fit anything -- any creature I had seen."
Affolter said they never saw the entire body.
"What we saw always stayed at the surface and parts of it would come above the water, like the back of the nose or the head," he said.
In the past, grainy pictures and home video taken from too far away did not provide a clear picture. This footage -- showing an odd wake -- is from a closer vantage point, but still not clear.
May 31, 2009
A cell-phone video of a “creature” that appears to be swimming in Lake Champlain near Oakledge Park in Burlington last weekend is sparking renewed discussion about “Champ,” the lake’s legendary monster.
The nearly 2-minute video, taken at sunrise Sunday by Burlington resident Eric Olsen, 37, shows an object moving across the mouth of the small cove and beach area at the park.
At several points during the video, the object appears to raise its “head” a foot or more above the water’s surface. At other times a portion of what appears to be a torso, several feet in length, also can been seen.
“I was just filming the water when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move, and I turned toward it and tried to zoom in on it,” said Olsen, a Web site developer and musician.
“You can see that it is moving both horizontally, across the water, and vertically, going under the surface and coming back up,” he said. “It struck me as something that was long, that it didn’t have much girth.”
Olsen put what he captured with his phone on YouTube, an Internet video-sharing site. Unsure about what he had photographed and reluctant to call it a “Champ” sighting, Olsen titled the footage “Strange Sighting on Lake Champlain.”
A large deceased marine animal, believed to be mammalian, and the infamous "Champ", a prehistoric creature that has somehow survived in Lake Champlain, has washed up on Oakledge Beach in Burlington, Vermont.
June 4, 2009
Carl Roberts was enjoying a pleasant evening with friends Thursday while fishing at Wilcox Dock.
They had been casting their lines since 6 p.m. and had caught quite a few perch, but the fish unexpectedly stopped biting around 8 p.m. .
The wind was calm, the sun was still shining above the western horizon, and Lake Champlain was as tranquil as could be.
But then, a movement out on the lake caught the angler’s attention. Something in the water was moving rapidly from left to right about 100 yards beyond the dock.
“It had to be 50 feet long, from what I could see of the humps (rising above the lake surface),” Roberts said Friday morning as he recalled the unusual sighting, still energized with excitement from the experience.
“There was no wind, no boats, no explanation whatsoever. It was so close that I could see the texture of the skin.”
His girlfriend, Randy Patnode, was nearby talking to her grandmother on her cell phone. Roberts called to her, telling her to get a picture of the creature before it moved out of sight, but her cell phone was low on power and prevented her from getting a shot.
Still, the group watched the object as it continued to move toward the peninsula just south of Wilcox Dock.
“It didn’t move like a snake,” said Roberts, owner of Adirondack Birch Worx furniture shop in Plattsburgh. “It was not like a porpoise or dolphin, either. It moved straight and fast, with its bumps up high and then down lower in the water.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” he added, noting that he grew up on Cumberland Head and has seen 20-foot lake sturgeon close up before.
The creature’s skin was “whale-like,” he said, and had a shiny greenish black tint to it.
As the object moved toward the peninsula, it suddenly dropped below the surface and did not appear again, one solitary wave slowly inching toward shore from where it had been.
Roberts said he has never really believed in the Lake Champlain monster and stopped short of saying that this was Champ. But it was definitely not something normal, he said.
“It was no log, no boat, no animal I’ve seen before. I just can’t believe it. I couldn’t sleep because of it.”
Roberts, Patnode and their friend Lincoln Collins were the only three on the southern edge of Wilcox Dock. Several other people were on the northern edge, facing Georgia-Pacific, but did not see the creature, Roberts said.
The trio continued to fish for another hour or so, but the perch that had been so abundant earlier had disappeared.
“I know one thing,” Roberts said. “I’m not swimming in this lake again.”
Source: Wikipedia
Champ - "Tatoskok" The Lake Champlain Monster
Also known as : Le Chaosaraou (Quebec and Native American); Tatoskok (Abanaki Tribe); Tany (baby).
Champ or Champy, is the name given to a reputed lake monster living in Lake Champlain, a natural freshwater lake in North America, partially situated across the U.S.-Canada border in the Canadian province of Quebec and partially situated across the Vermont-New York border. While there is no scientific evidence for the cryptid's existence, there have been over 300 reported sightings. The legend of the monster is considered a draw for tourism in the Burlington, Vermont area.
Like the Loch Ness Monster, some authorities regard Champ as legend, others believe it is possible such a creature does live deep in the lake, possibly a relative of the plesiosaur, an extinct group of aquatic reptiles.
Two Native American tribes living in the area near Lake Champlain, the Iroquois and the Abenaki, had legends about such a creature. The Abenaki called the creature "Tatoskok".
The number of viewings of the video since it went on YouTube on Sunday had reached 3,060 by Tuesday evening.
Loren Coleman a cryptozoologist based in Portland, Maine, said what Olsen filmed with his phone is the best [moving] photographic evidence to date of what residents on both sides of Lake Champlain prefer to call “Champ.”
“We need to figure out what is going on here,” Coleman said. “The film needs to have a formal forensic analysis performed … to break it down frame by frame. It needs to be looked at very seriously.” Cryptozoology is the study of purportedly nonexistent or mythical creatures. [Cryptozoology is actually the study of as-yet-unverified new animals, hidden animals, and to-be-recovered "extinct" animals. ~ Loren]
Unidentified animal caught in the net of fishing vessel off New Zealand.
On April 25, 1977, the Japanese fishing ship Zuiyo Maru, trawling for mackerel off the coast of New Zealand, snagged a rotting corpse at a depth of 900 feet and hauled in the remains of a beast that no one anywhere seemed to be able to identify.
"It's not a fish, whale, or any other mammal," said Professor Yoshinori Imaizumi of Japan's National Science Museum, in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper story that broke the news to the world. "It's a reptile, and the sketch looks very like a plesiosaur. This was a precious and important discovery for human beings. It seems to show that these animals are not extinct after all."
Despite the possible scientific significance of the find, the captain and crew agreed that the foul-smelling corpse should be thrown overboard to avoid spoiling the fish catch. However, as the slimy carcass was being maneuvered over the ship in preparation for disposal, it slipped from its ropes and fell suddenly onto the deck. This allowed the 39 year old Yano, a graduate of Yamaguchi Oceanological high school, to examine the creature more closely. Although he was still unable to identify the animal, Yano felt it was definitely unusual, prompting him to take a set of measurements, along with five photographs using a camera borrowed from a shipmate. The total length of the carcass measured 10 meters (about 33 feet). Yano also removed 42 pieces of "horny fiber" from an anterior fin, in hopes of aiding future identification efforts. The creature was then released over the side and sank back into its watery grave. All of this took place within about an hour (Koster 1977). About two months later Yano made a sketch of the carcass, which unfortunately conflicts with some of his own measurements, photographs, and statements .
On July 25 1977, Taiyo Fish Company issued a preliminary report on biochemical tests (using ion-exchange chromatography) on the tissue samples. The report stated that the horny fiber sampled from the carcass was "similar in nature to the fin rays a group of living animals." The "living animals" referred to were sharks; however, the report failed to state this plainly, leading to further confusion by the Japanese media (Sasaki 1978) and the continued spread of monster mania. Toy manufacturers began gearing up to make wind-up models of the beast, while the company which made Yano's borrowed camera developed a whole advertising campaign around his "sea-monster" photos. Dozens of fishing vessels from Japan, Russia, and Korea were reportedly streaming toward New Zealand in hopes of resnagging the hastily discarded creature. Bubbling with excitement, one Japanese citizen confided that he thought sea-monsters were imaginary creatures but "danced when I read in the newspaper that it was still alive!" (Koster 1977). The Japanese government even issued a new postage stamp featuring a picture of a pleisiosaur.
Unfortunately, many creationists continued to promote the plesiosaur interpretation long after 1978, including Ian Taylor (1984, 1987, 1989, 1996), Paul Taylor (1984, 1987), Baugh (1987), Peterson (1988), Baker (1988), Dye (1989), Bartz (1990, 1992), Buckna (1993), and Morris (1993, 1997). Most seemed unaware of the 1978 resarch and reports. Some flatly called the beast a plesiosaur (Scoggan 1996; Hovind 1996), or "sea-monster" (Doolan 1994), or "dinosaur" (Hovind 1996) (plesiosaurs are not dinosaurs). Even more perplexing were the comments of creationists who did seem aware of the 1978 work and tissue tests, and yet suggested they supported the plesiosaur identification. Among the most troubling statements are the following:
"From photographs, sketches with careful measurements, and flipper samples for tissue analysis, it had every appearance of being a plesiosaur or sea-dwelling dinosaur..." (Ian Taylor 1984, 1978)
"Photographs, measurements, and tissue samples all show that it was probably a plesiosaur." (Paul Taylor 1987).
"Photographs, tissue examinations, and measurements were made by the Japanese scientists. Their findings point to a descendant of the plesiosaur" (Baker 1988).
Some even complained that the press was suppressing the plesiosaur story (Bartz 1992; Scoggan 1996; Taylor 1996), despite its coverage in dozens of popular books and articles, and the fact that it was often presented in a way more favorable to the plesiosaur interpretation than the evidence warranted.
Several lines of evidence strongly indicate that the Zuiyo-maru carcass was a large shark, and most likely a basking shark, rather than a plesiosaur. Those giving the opposite impression have done so by telling only part of the story, or mischaracterizing portions of the evidence. To help set the record straight, such authors should correct any misleading statements of the past on this issue, and refrain from any further suggestions that the carcass was a likely plesiosaur.
To Japanese scientists who examined the available evidence left in the New Zealand monster's foul-smelling wake, the most likely candidate for identification seemed to be the plesiosaur."
Nonsense! shouted back the American and British scientific communities, and not a few people in Japan, where the New Zealand monster was front-page news for weeks. Rather than face the stinking carcass of a dinosaur apparently deceased not more than thirty days, paleontologists, mammalogists and marine biologists all over the world advanced their own theories — it was a seal, a whale, a basking shark, ... but no theory, whether prehistoric [or] mundane, was completely adequate to explain away the 4,000-pound, 32-foot body, which was examined, photographed five times, clipped for tissue samples, and then dumped back into the sea for fear it would contaminate the Zuiyo Maru's catch of fish.
Although some Japanese scientists remained cautious, others encouraged the plesiosaur idea. Professor Yoshinori Imaizumi, director of animal research at Tokyo National Science Museum, was quoted in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper as saying, “It’s not a fish, whale, or any other mammal… It’s a reptile, and the sketch looks very like a plesiosaur. This is a precious and important discover for human beings. It seems to show these animals are not extinct after all.” (Koster 1977). Tokio Shikama of the Yokohama National University also supported the monster theme, stating, “It has to be a plesiosaurus. These creatures must still roam the seas off New Zealand feeding on fish.” (Wire Service Reports, 7/25/77, reported in Aldrich 1977).
Unfortunately, many creationists continued to promote the plesiosaur interpretation long after 1978, including Ian Taylor (1984, 1987, 1989, 1996), Paul Taylor (1984, 1987), Baugh (1987), Peterson (1988), Baker (1988), Dye (1989), Bartz (1990, 1992), Buckna (1993), and Morris (1993, 1997). Most seemed unaware of the 1978 resarch and reports. Some flatly called the beast a plesiosaur (Scoggan 1996; Hovind 1996), or "sea-monster" (Doolan 1994), or "dinosaur" (Hovind 1996) (plesiosaurs are not dinosaurs). Even more perplexing were the comments of creationists who did seem aware of the 1978 work and tissue tests, and yet suggested they supported the plesiosaur identification. Among the most troubling statements are the following:
"From photographs, sketches with careful measurements, and flipper samples for tissue analysis, it had every appearance of being a plesiosaur or sea-dwelling dinosaur..." (Ian Taylor 1984, 1978)
"Photographs, measurements, and tissue samples all show that it was probably a plesiosaur." (Paul Taylor 1987).
"Photographs, tissue examinations, and measurements were made by the Japanese scientists. Their findings point to a descendant of the plesiosaur" (Baker 1988).
Some even complained that the press was suppressing the plesiosaur story (Bartz 1992; Scoggan 1996; Taylor 1996), despite its coverage in dozens of popular books and articles, and the fact that it was often presented in a way more favorable to the plesiosaur interpretation than the evidence warranted.
Several lines of evidence strongly indicate that the Zuiyo-maru carcass was a large shark, and most likely a basking shark, rather than a plesiosaur. Those giving the opposite impression have done so by telling only part of the story, or mischaracterizing portions of the evidence. To help set the record straight, such authors should correct any misleading statements of the past on this issue, and refrain from any further suggestions that the carcass was a likely plesiosaur.
To Japanese scientists who examined the available evidence left in the New Zealand monster's foul-smelling wake, the most likely candidate for identification seemed to be the plesiosaur."
Nonsense! shouted back the American and British scientific communities, and not a few people in Japan, where the New Zealand monster was front-page news for weeks. Rather than face the stinking carcass of a dinosaur apparently deceased not more than thirty days, paleontologists, mammalogists and marine biologists all over the world advanced their own theories — it was a seal, a whale, a basking shark, ... but no theory, whether prehistoric [or] mundane, was completely adequate to explain away the 4,000-pound, 32-foot body, which was examined, photographed five times, clipped for tissue samples, and then dumped back into the sea for fear it would contaminate the Zuiyo Maru's catch of fish.
Although some Japanese scientists remained cautious, others encouraged the plesiosaur idea. Professor Yoshinori Imaizumi, director of animal research at Tokyo National Science Museum, was quoted in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper as saying, “It’s not a fish, whale, or any other mammal… It’s a reptile, and the sketch looks very like a plesiosaur. This is a precious and important discover for human beings. It seems to show these animals are not extinct after all.” (Koster 1977). Tokio Shikama of the Yokohama National University also supported the monster theme, stating, “It has to be a plesiosaurus. These creatures must still roam the seas off New Zealand feeding on fish.” (Wire Service Reports, 7/25/77, reported in Aldrich 1977).
"My examination of the monster was quite thorough. I felt in its mouth and found it had no teeth. Its head is large and its neck fully twenty feet long. The body is weak and the tail is only three feet in length from the end of the backbone. These facts do away with the whale theory, as the backbone of a whale is far larger than any bone in this animal. Again, its tail is too weak for an animal of the deep and does away with that last version.
"With a bill like it possesses, it must have lived on herbage . . . I would call it a type of plesiosaurus.""
A stunning conclusion, no doubt. Later, Mr. Wallace offered the theory that the monster may have been preserved in a glacier for millions of years, finally being released by the gradual melting of ice, eventually ending up cast upon the shore in Monterey Bay."
Again in 1970...
Photo:
This approximately 50 foot long creature washed ashore in Situate Harbor, Massachusetts during the night of November 16, 1970:
Nearly 40 years after Tasmania's famous west-coast monster mystery, another hairy sea creature is baffling the experts. The stinking carcass washed up on Four Mile Beach between Ahrberg Bay and Granville Harbour, north-west of Zeehan, before the new year.
“The hair is the biggest puzzle,” says Ed Hodder, the fishermen who found it. “What’s hair doing on any kind of our fish,Measuring about seven metres in length and covered in coarse white hair the length of an average man’s hand, it looked like nothing he’d ever seen before. “I’d say it weighs three or four tonne,” said Hodder, 59, who’s spent as much of his life on the sea as off.
The “monster” has what appears to be a skeletal structure consisting of a backbone and ribs, although it’s impossible to tell which end is which. There’s no obvious head and only a suggestion of limbs. Flaps of flesh on either side could just as well be ears as fins.
Source: Wikipedia
Click pics to enlarge
Photo:This apparent Plesiosaur specimen washed ashore in Monterey Bay, California in 1925. It sported a twenty foot or so long neck and some witnesses described a number of legs on the creature. Are Plesiosaurs still living in the Pacific Ocean?)
"We now come to perhaps the most intriguing description of them all, given by one of the most scientifically competent of them all. Mind the reader, not most competent, but one of the most competent. His name was E.L. Wallace, a man who served twice as president of the Natural History Society of British Columbia. He had the following to say about the animal:
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