Nessie's English cousin

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

Bowness Monster

It is little more than a dark smudge near the surface of a lake - but it could still signify the birth of a new legend.

For this shadowy image is causing more than a ripple of interest among monster aficionados.

And to the man who took it, the picture is proof that something strange lurks in the waters of Windermere.

Could this be the feeblest attempt yet at creating a rival for the Loch Ness Monster?

[Richard W]

As usual they say it looked "huge" and about 50 feet long compared to nearby boats, but there's nothing in the rather blurry picture to give a scale. Whatever's making the wake looks much smaller than that to me. If it had a head like a labrador, then perhaps it was a labrador?

Aware of similar sightings in the lake, he began taking pictures of what he calls the "Bowness Monster".

"When I looked at them on my computer I realised I had something," he said. "It was spine-tingling."

...

His wife, 38, said: "I was just making excuses in my head for what it could be but when we saw the pictures we knew we had seen something really important."

Huh? If they showed the best picture in the article, then it's hardly that exciting... what about the pictures made them think it was so important?

Dr Charles Paxton, a Marine Biologist from St Andrews University in Edinburgh, said: "A fish or a water mammal would not be that big and deer would not go under the water."

He said that new species of water creatures are often discovered, so he "wouldn't rule out any possibilities".

It's quite unusual for new 50 foot long species to be discovered, though, let alone in a smallish lake that's been well-used by humans for centuries. That seems an odd thing for a marine biologist to say. I wonder how much context they gave him.

[Jay Tea]

There is quite a bit of marine life unique to the Lakes but that picture is pathetic it really is - at least there is a tiny bit of theatre about all the Nessie crap, but this is just a dark smear indeed.

Oh, and you weren't '1000ft up a mountain', you were 300 metres up a hill

[Hans Off]

I like that, they witnessed it, first hand, with their own eyes...

And only got excited when they looked at the pictures?

WTF?

I think these people are thick.

[Victoria J]

Originally Posted by Richard W

If it had a head like a labrador, then perhaps it was a labrador?

What sort of warped thinking is that ?

You should be ashamed of yourself.

It is obviously a sign that it is a monster with the head of a labrador, the body of an alligator and the tail of a sea otter.

Victoria J

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Victoria J

What sort of warped thinking is that ?

You should be ashamed of yourself.

It is obviously a sign that it is a monster with the head of a labrador, the body of an alligator and the tail of a sea otter.

Victoria J

Yeah, sorry. I should know better than to jump to unwarranted, unsupported conclusions. But let's face it, from their incredibly exciting picture it could just as well be a duck.

[Troberg]

Definately not a monster. Anything large would create a larger bow wave and more noticeable wake. What you see in the photo is the entire body, there is no huge body under that head. I'd guess beaver or otter or something else of that size that happens to live in the area. Or a fox with mange.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Y'all got water snakes? Cause that's what it looks like to me.....

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Ryda Wong, EBfCo.

Y'all got water snakes? Cause that's what it looks like to me.....

Grass snakes swim, but they're rarely more than a couple of feet long. I've seen one swimming across a river, and it did hold its head up like a little nessie.

I don't think the picture is clear enough to say it "looks like" anything though - other than that I doubt even the tree trunks in the background are as much as 50ft tall (they look like silver birch; that site gives 25m or about 80ft as a maximum overall height, and they don't seem especially large ones from the picture), and whatever's swimming is both nearer and much smaller than them.

[Lambda]

Dr Charles Paxton, a Marine Biologist from St Andrews University in Edinburgh, said: "A fish or a water mammal would not be that big and deer would not go under the water."

It's good to see they've given this piece to a reliable journalist. There's a good clue in the name as to where Dr Paxton works.

[FullMetal]

looks like a beaver or muskrat...

they both dive, and disappear for a while...

[Andrew of Ware]

Originally Posted by FullMetal

looks like a beaver or muskrat...

they both dive, and disappear for a while...

Unless they have been introduced very recently beavers don't live in Lake Windermere. They became extinct in England hundreds of years ago, but I believe they have been re-introduced in some places recently.

BBC story from 2005

I do not think muskrats have ever lived in England. (Apart from a song called 'Muskrat Love' I know nothing about them.)

[Jay Tea]

I don't think swamprat was ever introduced to the UK but they are a common pest on the continent. Easily trapped and very tasty - use the meat to augment dehydrated meal packs

Originally Posted by BBC report

The beaver was hunted almost to extinction for its fur and the pain-relieving properties of its anal gland secretions.

I couldn't stop laughing at that last bit, imaginie being hunted and wiped out for your Anal Gland secretions.