Fairly recently, a subreddit called TrueCryptozoology was recommended to me by Reddit. I immediately joined. Back when I was a kiddo I loved cryptozoology. But, “what even is cryptozoology”, I hear you ponder. Well, it has nothing to do with mining bitcoins in the zoo and everything to do with so-called cryptids — creatures whose existence has not (yet) been proven by mainstream science. So creatures such as Bigfoot, or the legendary Loch Ness Monster. Inside the aforementioned sub, there was a popular thread started by u/Dry-Selection421, titled — “What’s your favorite piece of cryptid evidence?”
Inspired by that Reddit thread, I decided to embark on an adventure. So I put on my running shoes, kissed my mama goodbye and embarked. What follows will leave you speechless. Or it’ll just be a fun thing to read. Either way, enjoy.
The OP said his favorite example is the so called “2022 Ogopogo photo” On October 15, 2022, the three boaters — Dale Hanchar, his wife Colleen, and neighbor Myrna Germaine Brown — were chillaxing on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Suddenly, something emerged from the depths. Some of you might be wondering why there is just a single photo. My guess is that Dale’s wife intervened and said something along the lines of “Honey, don’t be greedy, one photo is more than enough”.
The Hook Island Sea Monster is a famous cryptid from a series of photos taken in December 1964 by a French photographer named Robert Le Serrec while he was boating with his family and a friend in Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, located in Queensland, Australia. According to Le Bob, the creature resembled a giant black sperm and was resting motionless under the surface of pristine blue lagoon water.
This would be my all time favourite photo of a cryptid if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s totally fake. As the story goes, it was later found that Le Bob was broke AF. His bank account had gradually emptied after the years of indulging in an extravagant lifestyle. Reportedly, he even told about the hoax to some of his acquaintances beforehand. Debunking experts believe that he used a bunch of black plastic sheets or canvas arranged on the shallow seafloor and weighed down with sand and rocks.
Probably the most famous cryptid of all times is “Nessie” — a legendary, Lapras looking creature from Scottish folklore. People have been reporting seeing this creature for almost a century now. The most famous alleged photo of the monster is the popular “”Surgeon’s photograph” taken in 1934 by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist and a passionate cryptozoologist. Today, most experts agree that the photo was staged, and there’s even a book about it aptly titled “Nessie – the Surgeon’s Photograph Exposed”.
In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin were riding their horses and shooting videos in Northern California. At one point, the man shooting the video saw a humanoid creature walking out of the forest. You can see the original footage below (the fun starts at 2:40). Back then, iPhones had awful cameras so don’t expect 4K quality. According to Wikipedia, “Patterson died of cancer in 1972 and maintained right to the end that the creature on the film was real“. Also according to Wikipedia, “Patterson said he became interested in Bigfoot after reading an article about the creature by Ivan T. Sandersonin True magazine in December 1959”. Imagine reading about Bigfoot and then actually seeing one in real life just a decade later. What a lucky guy!
The Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux) is a real animal. This absolute unit of a squid dwells in the dark depths of the ocean, and it’s an example of abyssal gigantism, which is a term that describes a tendency for deep-sea creatures to be larger than their shallow-water relatives. Although longer than a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) at 5m (16ft) vs 4.2m (14ft), the giant squid is much lighter. This Tentacruel looking creature is definitely big, but the claims that there are specimens measuring 20m (66ft) or more are still in the realm of cryptozoology.
Conclusion
As you can see from my in depth investigation into the matter, our world is still full of all kinds of secrets. Most of these secrets ultimately turn up to be just dead tree trunks floating on the water. But still, it’s fun to think about how many potentially undiscovered creatures might still be lurking in the shadows of the forests and in the depths of the cold ocean waters. Sure, we’ve lost some 477 vertebrate species — including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish — just in the past century alone because they vanished for some reason, but I’m sure there are many more for us to extermin… I mean discover.
Bonuses
This is a scientific reconstruction* of the Ogopogo lake monster
Leave a Reply