More than a thousand witnesses have seen it, many taking photographs and film ... Since the 1930s there’s been an average of thirteen sightings a year ... In the 1930s there were several dramatic sightings. Loch Ness Investigated
An image of Nessie was captured in what become known as the surgeon’s photo. So called because it was supposedly taken by respected surgeon Robert Wilson ... It established the Loch Ness monster as a world-wide phenomenon. The picture clearly showed the head and neck of a creature emerging from the waters of Loch Ness. ibid.
Minimal algae means there’s little food for the microscopic zoo-plankton to eat. This in turn means less food for small fish. And thus less food for any large predators. Nessie can’t be the only one of its kind. The monster population must be large enough to breed generation to generation. ibid.
The biggest sonar sweep on the Loch failed to find any real evidence of large creatures, and yet the sightings continue. ibid.
But there’s one film of a wake on the Loch that’s confounded even the sceptics for over forty years: the so-called Dinsdale Film, named after the man who took it, is still regarded by some as the best film evidence of a prehistoric monster in Loch Ness ... It took forty years to solve this mystery, and science is continually re-evaluating other evidence of the monster’s existence. ibid.
The famous 1955 McNabb photograph may simply show the wake of a boat long gone from the picture. ibid.
The so-called surgeon’s photo. In the 1930s the surgeon’s photo caused a sensation. Not only did it seem to prove Nessie existed, it came from an impeccable source, a much-respected doctor. But the true story behind this picture is one of greed, deceit and a desire for revenge. ibid.
Many eye-witness sightings may well be the result of animals swimming, boat wakes, large fish, or logs. Yet the legend has persisted for year after year. ibid.
I saw the back of an animal; it was like the back of an elephant. And it was at least twenty-five feet. Dr Robert Rines, MIT
Suddenly I saw this colossal great hump about sixty or seventy feet long. Winifred Carey, interview Unexplained Mysteries
It was like a whale. It was black. You could see the water running off its back as it came out ... I saw a very large creature, living creature, for sure. Alastair Boyd
It was a large dark hump possibly about eight to ten feet long, about four feet out of the water. It was dark in colour. Roland O’Brien
Nessie sightings date back to the sixth century. Unexplained Mysteries
I think it is a giant eel. Richard Freeman, The Centre for Fortean Zoology
How can Loch Ness have a thirty-foot-long eel in it? Dr Scott McNaught, Professor of Lake Biology Central Michigan University
An ancient creature remains at large embedded deep within Scottish folklore. Sightings seem to defy scientific explanation. The Truth Behind: Loch Ness, National Geographic 2006
Some believers speculate that the elusive creature is a plesiosaur. ibid.
There have been over 10,000 reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster, and numerous search attempts. ibid.
Many in the scientific community have dismissed eye witness reports as unreliable. ibid.
1977: a Japanese trawler fishing off the coast of New Zealand netted the carcass of an unidentified animal. ibid.
To be a serious contender it would have to be a monster sturgeon. ibid.
Amongst these new discoveries is the mega-mouth shark. ibid.
The polygraph tests results suggest that the eye witnesses believe that they have seen the Loch Ness Monster. But this does not prove that it exists. ibid.
The most famous lake on Earth: Loch Ness. Tales of a monster have haunted these dark waters for nearly 1,500 years. Loch Ness Monster: Missing Evidence, Channel 5 2014
The hunt for Nessie was about to get scientific. ibid.
Operation Deep Scan: the largest sonar investigation in the Loch’s history. ibid.
The murky depths of our subconscious and our desire to believe. ibid.
Sightings of the legendary lake monster are once again on the rise ... similar descriptions all over the planet ... All of these mysterious creatures appear in early folk lore. Giorgio Tsoukalos, In Search of Aliens s1e4, H2 2014
There are actually more reports and sightings of mermaids from Scotland than from anywhere else in the world. One of the best documented sightings of a mermaid from Scotland was that from Thurso in Caithness on the north coast, at the very end of the eighteenth century. And the witness there was a local schoolmaster. David Heppell
Apart from several stories of sightings, there is also from Scotland the story of a rather remarkable capture of a mermaid in the Shetland Islands in the year 1833 when six fishermen found a creature they didn’t recognise entangled in their lines. They were certainly intrigued by the fact that it had what seemed to be large human-like breasts, and it was light grey in colour, pure white on the belly. And in this case they said it had webbed fingers. And the eyes were small and blue. Unfortunately, they didn’t bring it back to port because it was giving these piteous cries, and they also had this superstition that is was probably unlucky to capture a mermaid. David Heppell
Are mermaids real? And if so, where’s the evidence? Jon Frankel, Mermaids: The Body Found, Animal Planet 2014
The Navy took the remains of what the boys found. ibid.
The accounts have been told by sailors the world over. ibid.
Perhaps one of the most common stories is the Mothman ... Most observers describe the Mothman as a winged man-size creature with large reflective red eyes and large moth-like wings. Beelzebub means Lord of Zebub referring to an unknown place called Zebub or ‘Lord of things that can fly’. Zebub being a Hebrew collective noun for ‘fly’, thus the translation is Lord of the Flies. Labyrinth of Truth
Along the banks of the Ohio River ... the legend of a terrifying creature. The Unexplained Files s1e4: Mothman, Science 2013
The first reported sighting in America of this bizarre creature was in 1966. ibid.
Could the shocking deaths of nine Russian students be linked to the existence of a terrifying creature in Siberia? The Unexplained Files s1e7: Yeti
2012: A similar creature was apparently captured on camera. ibid.
Ural Mountains, Russia: In the winter of 1959 nine friends from college set off from a 16-day trek into the snowy wilderness … They were all trained and competent hikers. ibid.
The tent was in tatters and all of the team’s survival equipment had been left strewn around. ibid.
They found tracks nearby – but these weren’t made by skis. ibid.
Three bodies lay in a straight line and appeared to be fighting hard before they died. ibid.
‘A bright object falling towards the ground at high speed – a phenomenon the group must have witnessed.’ ibid. investigator
‘All of the students had been severely injured.’ ibid.
A photograph recovered from one of the students: it shows a strange tall creature lurking in the woods. ibid.
50 years later and over 1,550 kilometres east of the Urals ... evidence has been reported of another creature similar to the one photographed by the students. ibid.
As deforestation continues to shrink the Orang-Pandek’s habitat, could we be edging closer to this humanoid creature? Recently in Indonesia explorers have found 20 more possible prints of the Orang-Panek. The Unexplained Files s2e12: Aliens, Monsters & Demons, Science 2014
Back on the hunt lured by a riddle of an eight-foot flesh-eater. River Monsters with Jeremy Wade
Flesh Ripper: the idea that a freshwater eel could be huge or dangerous comes as a real surprise. ibid.
Maori legends are full of tales of predatory beasts – the Taniwha. ibid.
The other geologists believe they have witnessed an attack by ... the Mongolian death worm. Russia’s Mystery Files I, National Geographic 2014
Romania: And so the folklore surrounding the Strigoi emerged. ibid.
This is the hunt for the abominable snowman. Gerry Moffat is an explorer ... He has heard the tales they tell about the Yeti. And over the years he has begun to wonder: could there be any truth behind the myth? Only westerners call it the Abominable Snowman: the name was dreamt up in the 1920s. Abominable Snowman
If the idea of a gorilla-like creature striding on two legs through the mountains of Nepal is unbelievable, some people argue is not impossible. ibid.