FOSSIL FISH=FRESH LAKE MONSTER

Huge 100-year-old Sturgeon Caught by Newbie Fishermen, Thrown Back in River

Jessica Thomson - Yesterday 

© Steve Ecklund / River Monster Adventures

The fishermen with the huge fish (left), and the fish jumping out of the water as they fought to reel it in (right).

A gargantuan white sturgeon that is over ten feet long and estimated to be at least 100-years-old has been caught by fishermen in British Columbia.

Novice fishermen Steve Ecklund and Mark Boise went on a fishing trip near Lillooet, B.C., with guides from River Monster Adventures, Nick McCabe and Tyler Speed, on Father's Day, when they caught the enormous fish.

The sturgeon put up a big fight: it took two hours to wrestle it into the boat, with videos showing the beast leaping out of the water, revealing its true size.

White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America, growing up to 14 ft long, and weighing up to 1,500 lbs. According to the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society, white sturgeons can also live for over 150 years.

This sturgeon had not been previously tagged, leading River Monster Adventures to suspect that this may have been the first time it had been caught, which considering its age, is surprising.

Ecklund said that the sturgeon measured 10 feet and one inch long, and had a girth of 57 inches.

"Our last fish of the day ends up being the largest sturgeon caught in the company's history!" he said in a Facebook post. "This beast would definitely push 700lbs and be north of 100 years old."

Commenting on the post, River Monster Adventures wrote: "We are lost for words what a true dinosaur."

The guides scoured the river using sonar equipment to help the fishermen find the biggest catch they could. Once caught and photographed, the behemoth fish was released back into the river, as has been the rule in British Columbia for the past 25 years. Violation of this law can result in hefty fines.

Despite being able to release up to three million eggs per spawn, sturgeons only spawn every few years, meaning that they cannot easily recover their populations in the face of threats.

Sturgeon populations are in decline in parts of British Columbia, and in other habitats within its range, like California. California has occasionally seen over five consecutive years of very low population growth from spawns. The population decline may be due to destruction of habitats important to spawning, and impacts of reduced food supply.

Poaching of the sturgeons is also a problem, as the eggs of sturgeons are in fact caviar, which can sell on the black market for between $100 and $150 per lb.

In 2003, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada classified all populations of white sturgeon in Canada "endangered," with the exception of the Lower Fraser river population, which is now instead considered threatened.

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Nessie was an Elephant?

It is being reported today that another theory of the Loch Ness monster has appeared, that Nessie was an elephant.

Well I like my theory that like other Fresh Water Lake Monsters it is a Lake Sturgeon.

Of course then there is the guy that claimed to have found Nessies tooth.

And then there was the idea that maybe it is a crocodile. Crocodiles, elephants wandering around on the loose, it gives new meaning to Scotland the Free.

A tip o the blog to Nunc Scio for this,he tells his own Nessie tale as well.

Elephantine Theory Stirs Misty Waters of Loch Ness

By Mary Jordan

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 8, 2006; Page A14

LONDON, March 7 -- So maybe the Loch Ness monster was actually a circus elephant.

Neil Clark, curator of paleontology at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, sees striking similarities between descriptions of Nessie and what an Indian elephant looks like while swimming. And perhaps not coincidentally, a traveling circus featuring elephants passed by the misty lake in the 1930s at the height of the monster sightings.

According to a curator of paleontology, a swimming Indian elephant, left, looks strikingly similar to the Loch Ness monster, allegedly pictured in a 1934 photo by R. Kenneth Wilson taken at the height of the monster sightings. (By John Mcconnico -- Associated Press)

"It is quite possible that people not used to seeing a swimming elephant -- the vast bulk of the animal is submerged, with only a thick trunk and a couple of humps visible," thought they saw a monster, Clark said in an interview Tuesday.

By publishing his theory in the current issue of a British scientific journal, Clark has reignited passionate discussion here about the great Scottish mystery.

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Record sturgeon catch on Fraser River ‘a lifetime moment’ for ex-NHL goalie and friends

Former NHL goalie Pete Peeters of Sturgeon County, Alta. (no less) and friends caught the 11 1/2-foot fish on Aug. 15

THIS IS OGOPOGO, FLAT HEAD LAKE MONSTER, CHAMPY, #CRYPTID #CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Author of the article: Patrick Johnston

Publishing date: Aug 30, 2021 • 

Jake Driedger (left) and Pete Peeters with the massive sturgeon they reeled in with the help of guide Kevin Estrada on the Fraser River near Chilliwack on Aug. 15 PHOTO BY KEVIN ESTRADA /Sturgeon Slayers

All week, Pete Peeters had been joking to his fishing guide that he had made people famous.

The former National Hockey League goalie won the Vezina Trophy as the circuit’s best goaltender in 1982-83 with the Boston Bruins, but prefers to make note of goals he gave up to Mario Lemieux or to Wayne Gretzky.

Lemieux scored his first NHL goal on Peeters, while Gretzky scored goals 46, 47, 48 and 49 in his 39th game of the 1981-82 season, when Peeters was a Philadelphia Flyer. The Great One scored goal No. 50 in the same game — setting a record that is likely never to be matched — but into an empty net.

“And then he said, ‘Now I’ve made you famous,'” Kevin Estrada explained with a laugh this week.

Estrada is a fishing guide — Sturgeon Slayers is his company — and earlier this month had Peeters and a group of friends out on the Fraser River, north of Chilliwack, when the group snagged something special: A sturgeon bigger than anything that’s been measured in modern history.

The fish’s fork-length was a B.C. record: 352 cm (or 11 feet, six inches). Its girth was 141 cm (55 inches) and was estimated to weigh 890 pounds. Other recent claims to similar sizes have been dismissed upon further review, Estrada said.

“I couldn’t fathom how big these fish were,” Peeters said from his home in Alberta. “Even when the fish came up, it was hard to believe.”

Kevin Estrada (blue shirt on the left), Jake Driedger (white shirt, front, second from left), former NHL goalie Pete Peeters (grey hat, front right) and brothers Bryant and Barry Bowtell (back row). The group snagged a sturgeon bigger than anything that’s been measured in modern history. PNG

The retired goalie lives in — if you can believe it — Sturgeon County, just north of Edmonton. A remarkable coincidence, though Peeters notes the area is better known for trout fishing.

Also on the boat were Jake Driedger, who traded off on the rod with Peeters to reel in the giant, as well as Barry and Bryant Bowtell. All four men are from Alberta.

“Canadians like them have kept our small business alive during COVID and we are very appreciative of all our resident Canadians who have helped us crawl through this,” Estrada said.

The measurements were confirmed by another guide, Steve Forde of Reel Sturgeon Adventures. And Estrada said he had been in touch with the Guinness Book of Records people as he believed it was a likely world record, too.

“Very rarely do you see something that is this big, over 11 feet,” Estrada told Postmedia. “Something this big could take well over 100 years to get to this size. It’s a lifetime moment. It’s hard to put into words.”

It took about 25 minutes for the group to reel in the sturgeon. Sturgeon bigger than 150 cm (just under five feet) don’t get lifted out of the water, but anglers are allowed to hold and pose with the fish in the water.

“It wasn’t slimy like the trout we have out here … it felt like a damp snake,” Peeters said.

Peeters’ group actually got a special bonus, Estrada said.

“We were actually in some clear water so we got to see the whole fish,” he said. “You don’t often get to see them in their full glory … it was magnificent to see.

“I had tears in my eyes. I’ve been fishing this river since I was 15 years old … We’ve had some spectacular fish, some very memorable fish over the years, but never anything this big.”

Credit conservation efforts over the past two decades for allowing this sturgeon to grow so big, Estrada said. The sturgeon fishery has been strictly catch and release since the early 2000s.

Alongside his business, Estrada has been a director for the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association, an advocate to government about sustainable fishing on the Fraser River and helping the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation with a project to tag and track the local sturgeon population, which has had local school children out on the water to help.

“We have to be more sustainable going into the future,” Estrada said.

Salmon fishing, especially net fishing, is a huge risk to the health of sturgeon.

“Those nets are targeting salmon, which are between 60 and 100 cm, and that is also where we also see a decline in the population of sturgeon, it’s between that size range,” he said. “As we get older we’re going to have a big population missing unless we change very quickly to more sustainable practices.”

SEE   https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FRESH+LAKE+MONSTER

Volunteers rescue massive sturgeon after it was stranded by receding B.C. flood waters

Shari Kulha

While rescuers and volunteers were working to exhaustion to restore order to farms and properties in the Fraser Valley, two members of a local fishing association were tirelessly hauling a massive white sturgeon in a sling through thigh-deep water, alternately portaging it over three stretches of dry land, to return it home. It had been swept out of the Fraser River and then stranded in a shallow pool of water as the flood receded

.

© Provided by National Post A younger version of the B.C. white sturgeon saved in the Fraser Valley.

The fish measured two metres in length, had an 81-cm circumference and weighed 45 kilograms.

According to the CBC , the sturgeon was first seen by a helicopter crew flying near B.C.’s Herrling Island, between Hope and Agassiz, on Thursday. They sent video to the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association , who then enlisted members Tyler Buck and Jay Gibson “on a catch-and-release mission like no other.”

Professional sturgeon guides, they had been in the area “doing debris collection and picking up garbage … when the call came in,” said Kevin Estrada, FVAGA director. “They were obviously very happy they could help out in any way.”

The duo helped not only the fish but, along with other members and organizations, had been lending assistance to the affected communities and the watershed by helping evacuate people, doing LifeLab deliveries, working as an emergency medical taxi service, as well as doing sandbagging and pump control.

This sturgeon was a young adult, at perhaps 25 years of age — they can grow to 3.5 metres and in good conditions can live 100 or more years. Sturgeon are among the world’s oldest marine species, with a fossil record going back 200 million years, and have kept many of their features largely unchanged. It has no scales and a body that appears bony, even though it is mostly made up of cartilege. They are bottom feeders, locating food by dragging four sensory barbels and sucking up small marine life from the riverbed. Their main habitat is in river deltas such as the Fraser’s but they are equally able to survive in saltwater.


The International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared 85 per cent of the 27 species of sturgeon at risk of extinction, due to habitat destruction, pollution and overfishing (mainly for its very valuable roe).

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/09/this-is-ogopogo-flat-head-lake-

monster.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FRESH+LAKE+MONSTER

SOS

As in Save Our Stugeon, the source of fresh lake water monster sightings in North America.

Scientist studies decline of lake sturgeon
The lake sturgeon was designated an endangered species under the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada last May.Lake sturgeon, which have remained virtually unchanged as a species since the time of dinosaurs, are Canada's largest freshwater fish, reaching lengths of over two metres and weights of up to 140 kilograms.They can live for more than 100 years, but can take as long as 20 years to reach maturity, and spawn as infrequently as once every five years. Experts say overfishing and pollution have also contributed to the decimation of the fish's population.


Also See Cryptozoology


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Fossil Discovery Suggests Nessie, the 'Mythical' Creature, Could Have Existed

NESSIE IS NOT A PLESIOSAUR SHE IS A GIANT EEL

Story by Rosemary Giles 

One of the most famous mythical creatures in the world is the Loch Ness Monster. Spurred on by alleged sightings of the beast, along with occasional photographic evidence, amateur investigators constantly visit the Scottish loch with hopes of capturing proof of their own. While many of the photographs of Nessie have been revealed as fakes, people haven't stopped their searches. Many are still trying to find an explanation for what the monster could be.

Historically, one of the assumptions was that Nessie could be a plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile. This theory was dismissed for a number of reasons, including the fact that this creature was only found in saltwater. A discovery by scientists in Morocco might just change this belief, however. Nessie could have indeed been a plesiosaur.

Descriptions of the Loch Ness Monster

There are many varied descriptions from people claiming to have seen the Loch Ness Monster. In 1933, a couple said they saw a "dragon or prehistoric monster" cross the road and go into the water. Then, in 1934, the famous "surgeon's photograph" was taken, showing a creature with a small head and long neck peeking out of the water. It was this photograph that led people to believe Nessie could be a plesiosaur.


An alleged photograph of the Loch Ness Monster, near Inverness, Scotland, April 19, 1934. (Photo Credit: Keystone/ Getty Images)

The idea of the surviving plesiosaur was bolstered in 1975 when Boston's Academy of Applied Science used underwater photography and sonar to capture an image they believed to be Nessie. It seemed to show a flipper similar to that of a plesiosaur. Other images surfaced as well, one of which appeared to show the head, neck, and torso of the same type of creature.

Plesiosaurs could live in freshwater

Related video: 55 fossils discovered by local curator

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In a joint discovery, scientists from the University of Portsmouth, the University of Bath, and the Université Hassan II found fossils of small plesiosaurs located in a 100 million year old river system in Morocco. The fossils included neck, back, and tail vertebrae, as well as teeth and a piece of forelimb. They were found in different locations, meaning that they were from many animals, and not one single skeleton.


Rupert van der Werff puts the final touches on a Plesiosaur skeleton. 

(Photo Credit: Gareth Fuller/ PA Images/ Getty Images)

This discovery raised a lot of questions, as it was initially thought that plesiosaurs only lived in saltwater environments. It is unclear whether they lived temporarily in these freshwater environments, or permanently. However, the heavy wear on the teeth indicates that they likely ate the same type of food as the spinosaurus, fossils of which have also been found in riverbeds.

The scientists felt that their theory of plesiosaurs spending lots of time in freshwater environments was also backed up by the sheer number of fossils that they found, meaning that they weren't just traveling to the river to feed.

Could it be Nessie?

The scientists were, of course, asked about the connection between this discovery and the Loch Ness Monster. They said that given the new evidence that plesiosaurs could live in fresh water, there is a chance that Nessie might have existed in Loch Ness. However, they also said that other evidence indicates that the last of the species died roughly 65 million years ago, along with the dinosaurs.



Former Royal Air Force pilot Tom Dinsdale displays a model he made of the Loch Ness Monster which he claimed he saw. (Photo Credit: Bettmann/ Getty Images)


Nick Longrich, one of the researchers, also expressed that the environment in Loch Ness was not conducive to supporting the animal, as it is much too small. He squashed the theory, saying it would be difficult for a plesiosaur to exist undetected by humans. "Something like a plesiosaur, it's large. It's conspicuous. It has to surface and breathe air. If they existed, people would see them come up for air. One would die and wash up on-shore like whales."

Loch Ness Monster Probably A Giant Eel, According To ...

Sep. 5, 2019 — Water samples analyzed for DNA are actually referred to as “environmental DNA” by scientists. After analyzing the samples, scientists determined ...

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ACTUAL FRESH LAKE MONSTER

FRASER RIVER BC Cryptozoology Part 2: plawiuk https://plawiuk.livejournal.com/21403.html LAKE MONSTERS
Continued from Part 1
CRYPTID #LAKEMONSTER #CRYPTOZOOLOGY #FOSSILFISH #PREHISTORICFISH #STURGEON #ENDANGEREDSPECIES

Sea Serpent

Here is an interesting Sea Serpent that actually has been documented in scientific journals. And it is Canadian.

Cadboro Bay in British Columbia claims Caddy, or Cadborosaurus willsi, a serpent-like creature that to this day remains the only monster ever described in a scientific journal.

The existence of the species has been suggested by the original specimen-based description in a refereed scientific journal in which the type juvenile specimen is represented by 3 different close-up quality photographs (in the B. C. Provincial Archives in Victoria), in which at least three new-born relatively tiny precocial "baby" specimens have been independently held by at least three pairs of human captors during the past 40 years, and by more than 100 documented sightings, photographs, sonar images, and sketches of live animals made independently at predicted times and places, subsequent to the original description in 1995 and continuing to the present

In the Amphipacifica Journal of Systematic Biology Drs. Paul H. LeBlond and Edward L. Bousfield review the large aquatic reptile known as "Caddy" from the Pacific coast of North America. Bousfield and LeBlond believe the historical records about this creature contain sufficient evidence of "specimens in hand" to conclude "the animal is real and merits formal taxonomic description," and propose it be named and diagnosed with vertebrate class Reptilia as Cadborosaurus willsi, new genus, new species.

Many people have spotted a large marine cryptid from coastal areas of the northeast Pacific Ocean and sporadically these sightings have been reported by the news media. Bousfield and LeBlond describe it as "a large serpentine animal (adult body length 15-20 meters), clearly unlike any whale, pinniped, fish, or other existing vertebrate animal that makes only brief appearances at the sea surface, presenting distinctive head, a long neck, and trunk region that often forms into number of vertical humps or loops. Its swimming speed is astonishing to those who try to approach it, invariably unsuccessfully."

And while the article the first link is from;Sea monsters: Not real, but good for business describes many fresh lake sea monster sightings, it basically claims they are all made up. Of course as per usual I believe many of them may be sightings of the rare and endangered ancient dinosaur fish the sturgeon.


See:

Die Vurm

Snakes Alive

Nessies Relative

Nessie?

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Giant sturgeon in the Fraser river, Canada

Majestic Nature is with Alban-laurent Loubiere and 2 others.

June 4 at 4:00 AM · 

FRESH WATER LAKE MONSTER 

PREHISTORIC FOSSIL FISH THAT IS PROTECTED IN CANADA AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

ALSO A #CRYPTID #CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Cryptozoology Part 2: plawiuk

https://plawiuk.livejournal.com/21403.html

LAKE MONSTERS Continued from Part 1 INDEPTH: FACT OR FICTION? Bigfoot and other beasts: A field guide to unproven animals CBC ...

'Pretty creepy': Okanagan man believes he's captured 'definitive ...

https://globalnews.ca/.../pretty-creepy-okanagan-man-believes-hes-captured-definitive...

10 hours ago - An Okanagan man says he has hard evidence that Okanagan lake's "Ogopogo" is ... the mysterious ripples breaking through the lake's glassy surface. ... The Kelowna retiree, who has dedicated his life to proving the creature's ...

Plesiosaur fossils found in the Sahara suggest they weren't just marine animals

by University of Bath

Credit: University of Bath

Fossils of small plesiosaurs, long-necked marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs, have been found in a 100-million year old river system that is now Morocco's Sahara Desert. This discovery suggests some species of plesiosaur, traditionally thought to be sea creatures, may have lived in freshwater.

Plesiosaurs, first found in 1823 by fossil hunter Mary Anning, were prehistoric reptiles with small heads, long necks, and four long flippers. They inspired reconstructions of the Loch Ness Monster, but unlike the monster of Lake Loch Ness, plesiosaurs were marine animals—or were widely thought to be.

Now, scientists from the University of Bath and University of Portsmouth in the U.K., and Université Hassan II in Morocco, have reported small plesiosaurs from a Cretaceous-aged river in Africa.

The fossils include bones and teeth from three-meter long adults and an arm bone from a 1.5 meter long baby. They hint that these creatures routinely lived and fed in freshwater, alongside frogs, crocodiles, turtles, fish, and the huge aquatic dinosaur Spinosaurus.

These fossils suggest the plesiosaurs were adapted to tolerate freshwater, possibly even spending their lives there, like today's river dolphins.

The new paper was headed by University of Bath Student Georgina Bunker, along with Nick Longrich from the University of Bath's Milner Center for Evolution, David Martill and Roy Smith from the University of Portsmouth, and Samir Zouhri from the Universite Hassan II.

Kem Kem plesiosaur silhouettes. Credit: University of Bath

The fossils include vertebrae from the neck, back, and tail, shed teeth, and an arm bone from a young juvenile.

"It's scrappy stuff, but isolated bones actually tell us a lot about ancient ecosystems and animals in them. They're so much more common than skeletons, they give you more information to work with" said Dr. Nick Longrich, corresponding author on the paper.

"The bones and teeth were found scattered and in different localities, not as a skeleton. So each bone and each tooth is a different animal. We have over a dozen animals in this collection."

While bones provide information on where animals died, the teeth are interesting because they were lost while the animal was alive—so they show where the animals lived.

Plesiosaur humerus. Credit: University of Bath

What's more, the teeth show heavy wear, like those fish-eating dinosaur Spinosaurus found in the same beds.

The scientists say that implies the plesiosaurs were eating the same food—chipping their teeth on the armored fish that lived in the river. This hints they spent a lot of time in the river, rather than being occasional visitors.

While marine animals like whales and dolphins wander up rivers, either to feed or because they're lost, the number of plesiosaur fossils in the river suggest that's unlikely.

A more likely possibility is that the plesiosaurs were able to tolerate fresh and salt water, like some whales, such as the beluga whale.

Credit: University of Bath

It's even possible that the plesiosaurs were permanent residents of the river, like modern river dolphins. The plesiosaurs' small size would have let them hunt in shallow rivers, and the fossils show an incredibly rich fish fauna.

Dr. Longrich said: "We don't really know why the plesiosaurs are in freshwater.

"It's a bit controversial, but who's to say that because we paleontologists have always called them 'marine reptiles,' they had to live in the sea? Lots of marine lineages invaded freshwater."

Freshwater dolphins evolved at least four times—in the Ganges River, the Yangtze River, and twice in the Amazon. A species of freshwater seal inhabits Lake Baikal, in Siberia, so it's possible plesiosaurs adapted to freshwater as well.

The plesiosaurs belong to the family Leptocleididae—a family of small plesiosaurs often found in brackish or freshwater elsewhere in England, Africa, and Australia. And other plesiosaurs, including the long-necked elasmosaurs, turn up in brackish or fresh waters in North America and China.

Plesiosaurs were a diverse and adaptable group, and were around for more than 100 million years. Based on what they've found in Africa—and what other scientists have found elsewhere—the authors suggest they might have repeatedly invaded freshwater to different degrees.

"We don't really know, honestly. That's how paleontology works. People ask, how can paleontologists know anything for certain about the lives of animals that went extinct millions of years ago? The reality is, we can't always. All we can do is make educated guesses based on the information we have. We'll find more fossils. Maybe they'll confirm those guesses. Maybe not."

"It's been really interesting to see the direction this project has gone in," said lead author Georgina Bunker. The study initially began as an undergraduate project involving a single bone, but over time, more plesiosaur fossils started turning up, slowly providing a clearer picture of the animal.

The new discovery also expands the diversity of Morocco's Cretaceous. Said Dr. Samir Zouhri, "This is another sensational discovery that adds to the many discoveries we have made in the Kem Kem over the past fifteen years of work in this region of Morocco. Kem Kem was truly an incredible biodiversity hotspot in the Cretaceous."

"What amazes me" said coauthor Dave Martill, "is that the ancient Moroccan river contained so many carnivores all living alongside each other. This was no place to go for a swim."

But what does this all mean for the Loch Ness Monster? On one level, it's plausible. Plesiosaurs weren't confined to the seas, they did inhabit freshwater. But the fossil record also suggests that after almost a hundred and fifty million years, the last plesiosaurs finally died out at the same time as the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.Medical scan reveals the secrets of New Zealand's extinct marine reptiles

More information: Georgina Bunker et al, Plesiosaurs from the fluvial Kem Kem Group (mid-Cretaceous) of eastern Morocco and a review of non-marine plesiosaurs, Cretaceous Research (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105310

Journal information: Cretaceous Research 

Provided by University of Bath 

Stunning sea of 'snow monsters' take over volcanic mountainside in Japan
By Zachary Rosenthal, Accuweather.com

Visitors walk before illuminated "Juhyo," trees covered with frozen snow, during a night event at the Zao hot springs ski resort in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Also called "snow monsters," the Juhyo phenomenon happens when small particles of crystallized ice and snow strike coniferous trees under the strong winter winds. File Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA-EFE

Feb 21 -- At an elevation of more than 6,000 feet near the top of a volcano exists a land of snow monsters, a mountainside that is home to fleeting figures that come each winter and then fade along with the cold weather as spring approaches.

It might sound like material for a scary children's book, but these monsters are nothing to fear -- they're just one of nature's quirky and unique creations that materialize in wintertime.

On the summit of the volcanic Mount Zao in Japan, about 220 miles north of Tokyo, an unusual natural phenomenon gives birth to snowy, monster-like figures every year.

The strange occurrence, which the Japanese call "Juhyo," leads to the creation of thousands of "snow monsters" that rest on the mountain during the winter.

Those who come to see the monsters can safely walk near them, ski or snowboard alongside the creatures, or view them from the comfort of a cable car while enjoying stunning views of Japan.

The snow monsters can look even cooler at night, as some of the monsters are illuminated in a variety of flashy colors. Drone footage captured recently from above shows a frozen sea of snow monsters festooning the mountainside.

According to reporting from The Atlantic, the seemingly mystical occurrence can be explained by the unique mechanics of a few different weather conditions that all come together in just the right way.

The snow monsters are created through the repeated process of high winds blowing snow onto rime ice that then binds to trees and tree branches, creating snow clumps that appear monster-like.

Strong high winds also blow water from a nearby lake toward the mountainside, and the water droplets freeze on the branches. Also, fresh snow can fall and also bind to the ice. This process happens over and over throughout the winter.

Much like a snowflake itself, the chaotic process that forms the monsters ensures that no two snow monsters are entirely identical.

The unusual snow creatures are considered by many to be one of Japan's best winter attractions. Thousands of tourists travel across Japan each year to see the so-called snow monsters, which typically are around from the end of January through mid-March.

The Ghosts of Warmia-Masuria 
Demons and Spirits from Polish-German Folklore

Przekrój
Warmia-Masuria is the home of the Polish lake district and a popular holiday destination. 
2020-04-21  Marcel Kruger

Illustration by Igor Kubik


Imagine it is winter, and you are late for an appointment. You wanted to make a shortcut through the old park that had been in the centre of the town since Prussian times, but now it’s getting dark and the paths all seem to be longer and more winding than you expected; there are not enough street lamps to light the falling dusk. In the bare trees around you, crows are sitting, cawing menacingly. You cross the small bridge that leads across the lake in the centre of the park, and suddenly there is movement in the water, strange motions under the surface – too many to be those of fish. You stop and lean over the railing to see what it might be. Then you see two eyes staring back at you.

The Polish province of Warmia-Masuria is a wonderful place, full of pleasant rolling fields and wooded hills, hundreds of deep lakes and rivers, big and small. This is a pleasant holiday destination and extremely popular with summer visitors who flock here for swimming, kayaking and sailing; who can enjoy the amazing food of this mostly agricultural area, namely fresh fish, mushrooms, blueberries and the delicious local beers brewed here.

When the summer visitors are gone, however, this is a very different place, especially in the autumn and winter. Dark, cold, the lakes frozen over and the trees on the shores no longer giving shade, but instead resembling menacing scarecrows. In between the rolling hills sit dark moors; the rivers no longer gurgle pleasantly, instead taking on a threatening air. It is a landscape that demands respect in all seasons, and the people living here have always known this. In winter, they hide inside to weather out the snowstorms, like they have done for centuries. The time spent inside is a good opportunity to retell the stories about the moors and lakes and the ghosts that inhabit them – folklore dressing danger as the supernatural to make it palatable for children, perhaps. No wonder, then, that this landscape breeds spirits and demons.

Maybe the inhabitants make this place special. Warmia and Masuria have seen many people make it their home. The original inhabitants (who gave their name to Warmia and Prussia itself) – the pagan Prūsai, Pruzzen or Old Prussians – were conquered by the German Teutonic Order of knights in the 13th century. The knights, who had slaughtered many of the Old Prussians, then in turn brought in German settlers from the West and Polish colonists from the region of Masovia, who became locally known as Masurians, Mazurzy. The myths and beliefs of the Old Prussians in nature deities merged with the new population over the centuries. Across a period of almost 200 years, the region saw various partitions, displacements and population exchanges, most recently when the borders of newly-independent Poland were drawn following the German defeat in World War II. During and after the war, almost all of the German population of Masuria either fled or was relocated to Germany. Yet many of the Warmian and Masurian families here – who spoke a Polish dialect and were often active in the cultural activities of the Polish minority before 1939 – stayed on and mixed with the newly-arriving Polish expellees from the East.

And so the old stories live on, the myths of Germans, Slavs and Old Prussians all intertwined. Little wonder, then, that a large part of Warmian and Masurian folklore to this day paints a dark, almost demonic picture of the landscape. Natural phenomena are demonized and appear as places of unpredictable dark forces. The horror of dark woods, black and menacing moors, of the frightening deep of the lakes is present in many folk tales. Ghost stories about wood spirits and the spirits of the dead that wander around the villages and haunt or lead the living astray is another popular theme in the local folklore. Here are some of the creatures (with their names given first in Polish, then in German) that you might want to avoid the next time you visit Warmia-Masuria:

Topnik or utopiec; Toppich – the drowned demon

The spirits of human souls that died drowning, residing in the element of their own demise, always looking for fresh victims. It is horrible to spend eternity alone as a topnik, the tortured spirit of one who has met a watery death – and so with a desire for company in its suffering, it waits for unsuspecting walkers in its quiet pond or moor, before grabbing and pulling them below the surface, where it holds them tight while the last bubbles of air and life escape from their lungs… According to some stories, the topnik can take the form of a child or a child-sized man in soaked, muddy clothes. It sometimes wears a red cap, which it can also use to draw its victims in by hanging it on on a tree branch or bush. Whoever wandered by and plucked it off would be grabbed by the demon and pulled to a watery death. It can also take on a more terrifying look: a hairy human torso supporting a red head.

Zmora; Smora – the life-sucking demon

Vicious half-demonic creatures. They draw energy from the living by feeding on their vital forces, but aren’t able to kill them directly. A zmora is a person alive or dead, such as a sinful woman, someone wronged, or someone who died without confession. They can take a variety of living and non-living forms: human, cat, dog, frog, and even threads, straws or apples. Activities such as going out to the stable with damp hair or washing dishes on Thursday after dinner might result in a zmora being brought into the house. Other signs of someone being a zmora include being the seventh daughter, having one’s name pronounced wrongly while being baptized, or having multi-coloured eyes. If a woman was promised to marry a man, but he then married another, the spurned woman could also become a zmora during the night.

Many German and Polish folk myths often describe the zmora as sitting on a sleeping person’s legs or chest, thereby causing sleep paralysis or breathing problems. The zmora would also harass animals, especially horses or cows. A horse visited by a zmora at night would be sweaty and visibly exhausted in the morning. To keep it away from the stable, you should place an axe under your doorstep. People can also protect themselves from zmora by fumigating the bedroom with special herbs, keeping holy water close to the bed, or going to sleep with an axe or another sharp metal object closeby. In an old tale from Hohenstein/Olsztynek (recorded in Superstitions in Masuria by the German folklorist Max Toeppen and printed in 1867), two travelling journeymen discover that the three daughters of the keeper of the inn where they are staying are all zmora, as the women are sleepless and can be overheard talking about their hard fate of being forced to draw life energy from humans, cattle and trees. They are healed by their father baptizing them again, which draws out the evil.

Mamuna or dziwożona – the swamp demon

Another swamp demon – a female one this time, but again a human soul turned monster. Most at risk of becoming a mamuna after death are midwives, old maids, unmarried mothers, pregnant women who die before childbirth, as well as abandoned children born out of wedlock.

The mamuna lives in thickets near rivers, streams and lakes, and can take the form of an ugly, old woman with a hairy body and long straight hair. However, she is also a shape-shifter and can appear as a beautiful nymph capable of luring men to their watery deaths. She often kidnaps human babies just after birth and replaces them with her own changeling offspring. A changeling can be recognized by its uncommon appearance: it has a huge abdomen, a head that is too small or too big, a hump, thin arms and legs, a hairy body and long claws. Mothers can prevent their children being abducted by the mamuna by tying a red ribbon around the child’s hand, placing a red hat on its head, or shielding its face from the light of the moon.

Diabeł; Teufel – the Devil

As Christianization approached the region, it needed another fiend, so it’s no wonder that the devil (diabeł or Teufel) makes an appearance in many Warmian-Masurian folk tales, too. A story about him was recorded by Priest Groß in Klaussen/Klusy in 1786, referring to older church records: in 1640, during mass, Pastor Wisniewski expelled the devil from a local woman who was possessed by it. The fiend appeared on the church threshold as a horrible shape, and was finally forced to flee when Wisniewski accused him of his sins, over which the devil became so irate that he shouted, “I have stopped torturing the woman, but as true as I am the devil, you should have a souvenir from me!” before slamming his crooked foot down on the threshold. To this day, four human toes and the heel of a rooster can be seen in the stone.

The news of this exorcism, in connection with the imprint of the devil’s foot, prompted the Poles and Tartars not to burn this church when they invaded in 1656. When the church was rebuilt in 1754, the stone was removed from its previous location in front of the church door so that pregnant women no longer had to step over it.

Kłobuk; Kaubuk – the benevolent chicken spirit

Speaking of chicken, the kłobuk is a benevolent spirit; a household deity like the Russian domovoy, and very popular in Warmia to this day. Instead of looking like the little old man that is the domovoy, the Warmian kłobuk is feathered and is said to mostly resemble a large chicken (or other birds, such as the magpie or duck). A kłobuk can be brought into the house, which it will then accept as its own if tempted with food – including its favourites, boiled eggs and noodles – or through the owners hugging a chicken. It is also possible to ‘grow’ a kłobuk, by burying a miscarried fetus under the threshold of the house, which after seven days, seven months or seven years will turn into the chicken-like spirit. The kłobuk ensures that the possessions of its homeowners will multiply, but does this mostly through stealing from neighbours. It can be extremely irksome and tenacious though, meaning that those living with a kłobuk should tread carefully. If they offend the creature, it might unexpectedly leave the house, or take revenge on the owners by setting fire to their abode.

Kautek; Kobold – the minuscule house spirit

Another friendly house spirit, but not in chicken form this time. These creatures have the appearance of men only a few centimeters tall, sometimes dressed in red clothes or wearing a red hat. The name allegedly derives from the Old Prussian language, where kauks means ‘the devil’. Yet despite its name, the kautek is actually quite benevolent once it picks a house to live in – it will do many small household chores overnight while the humans are asleep.

Like the kłobuk, it is somewhat capricious and has a darker side: it usually likes to play pranks on neighbours, and might bring illnesses to certain family members. It might even swap one of its own children with the babies of the host, leaving a changeling to grow up as a human child.

The landscape of Warmia-Masuria has left an imprint on its people and their imagination, both in the past and modern times. Indeed, up until this day, its inhabitants playfully and respectfully engage with their mythology: there are kłobuk statues made from wood strewn around many villages here, the Olsztyn arts magazine VariArt dedicated a whole issue to its artistic representation, and last year a topnik-themed exhibition took place in Olsztyn, where Polish artists not only engaged with monsters from folklore, but also with the German experience of flight and expulsion. The demons and spirits have seem to have finally found a less threatening place in the artistic culture of Warmia-Masuria, no longer luring people into the moors.


Or maybe they still do – so be careful next time you walk too close to a quiet and dark Masurian lake. You never really know what lurks beneath the surface…



While researching this article, I used the following texts and resources:


Max Toeppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren [Superstitions from Masuria], 1867


Sagen aus Pommern (Ermland, Masuren) [Legends from Pomerania (Warmia-Mazuria)], online


Agnieszka Grochocka, Masuren – vom Naturparadies zum Atlantis des Nordens, 2015 [Masuria – From Natural Paradise to the Atlantis of the North]


Online Encyclopedia of Warmia and Masuria (Polish)

KOBOLD ARE MINING CREATURES FROM ROLE PLAYING GAMES

Kobold

A kobold was a reptilian humanoid, standing between 2' and 2'6" (60cm – 75cm) tall, weighing 35 to 45 pounds (16 – 20kg), with scaled skin between reddish brown and black in color and burnt orange to red eyes. Their legs were sinewy and digitigrade. They had long, clawed fingers and a jaw …

 

Kobolds are aggressive, inward, yet industrious small humanoid creatures. They are noted for their skill at building traps and preparing ambushes, and mining. Kobolds are distantly related to dragons and urds and are often found serving the former as minions. Kobolds have specialized laborers, yet the majority of kobolds are miners.

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Classes: Various

Homeland (s): Various temperate forests

Type: Natural humanoid (draconic)

Kobold (D&D) | Officialbestiary Wiki | Fandom