The Water Horse — Is The Water Horse Real?

The Water Horse - Crusoe and Angus

In order to decide, here's a thing or two you might need to find out.

On June 17, 1993, Edna MacInnes and her boyfriend, David Mackay say they watched a creature in Loch Ness for 10 minutes. Miss MacInnes said that the 40 foot long beast waved around its giraffe-like neck. Then it disappeared! Later on the same day James Mackintosh and his son also spotted a brown thing with a neck like a giraffe break the surface of the loch. Mr. Mackintosh remembers that, "It was an eerie experience, it was swimming quite swiftly away from the shore."

The Edna MacInnes story was grossly misreported. Nonetheless, stories like these are called "eyewitness reports." They are told by people who claim they saw the Water Horse with their very own eyes. But are they telling the truth? Why would they lie? How can we know? What is good evidence?

There are hundreds of reports by eyewitnesses. There are photographs taken by people who claim to have seen the Water Horse. But some of them are hoaxes. (A hoax is a trick that is done to fool people -- like the man who walked around the edge of the loch making "Nessie prints" with a hippo-foot hunting-trophy. And the famous surgeon's photo that was modeled on a toy submarine by the same family who did the "hippo-foot" hoax!) There is the photograph of the Loch Ness monster curling its neck out of the water. But it is really a photograph of a truck tire!

Sometimes people see what is called an optical illusion. Put your two index fingers together about an inch away from your eyes. Do you see a little hot dog sitting between your two fingers? This is an example of our eyes playing tricks on us, or an optical illusion.

Scientists have used sonar as a way to track the monster's movements. Sonar is a way to find objects underwater by using sound bouncing off of the object, the way bats use sound to fly around in the dark. Scientists have also turned to nature. They study the water temperature, the depth of the loch, the climate of the area, and other forms of life found in the loch. They want to see if the loch could keep a creature alive. Millions and millions of people visit Loch Ness in Scotland. They take pictures. They ride boats across the loch. But most of all, they look. They say they would like to believe in the monster. If only --

Adapted from "Searching for Nessie": www.nessie.co.uk/search3.html

In April 1934 the most famous photograph of Nessie was obtained by a London surgeon. There is some doubt about wether the photo is real or a hoax.

This page is excerpted from Walden Media’s Activity Poster for The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. Click here for a complete copy of the poster in PDF format.

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