Hello fellow fourm goers, i have a subject that i dont believe was mentioned on this site.

Is the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) an elephant??
At first this seemed crazy, but when i examined photos of nessie's back and neck coming out of the water, the more it looked like the tip of an elephants head and its trunk.

Im going to try and get pics and show ye.

It seems like a good sugestion. Supposedly their was a circus near the loch and a family of elephants escaped (the period this took place happened aroud the 1970's i believe) and went into the loch. Elephants are exellent swimmers ands can stay submerged for long periods. Another theory is passing circusus stop off at the loch and let the elephants out for a swim.

So what do u think???

bUT BEFORE U ANSWER TAKEA GOOD LOOK AT THE PICTURE!!!!
here is a link.

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http...l%3Den%26sa%3DN


Now the picture that is secound to the left is a what fits the description of most sightings of the monster, long neck, small head, hump, infact its an elephant!!!

it's plausable, but in the picture on the right, the little inset picture was proved to be fake...

It's not an elephant.

That's pretty neat, I've never heard of that theory.

Could an elephant stand the temperatures and how far can they swim?

Yea it was fake but i suppose it was the best example of an elephant

Im not sure the maximum tempiture an elephant can withstand, it would be interesting to know

I hate to draw attention to the 'elephant in the room', but given that Loch Ness is one of the most photographed bodies of water in the world; that people literally camp around it 24/7 with video cameras trained on it; that hundreds of people scour the shores for signs of odd-looking footprints; and that elephants are, well, quite noticeable, generally, don't you think a family of elephants, or even a solitary elephant, would have been... well... noticed by someone?

Elephants would have nowhere to hide (the only plausible explanation for why the very implausible LNM isn't often sighted is that it can breathe water and usually lives at depth); the picture you show doesn't seem to be 'elephant-shaped' (check the position of the head in relation to the body in the diagram); the picture actually looks as though it was taken before the 1970s; and sightings and photographs began to appear in the 1930s.

But apart from that the theory has a lot going for it, yes

Nessie ate the elephants.

Yes it was taken before the 1970's but to me it kida resembles an elephant. And ur ideas about elephants not being noticed is true, unless they're mutant elepahnt fish

Well, armadillos escaped from a carnival in Florida and now they are all over the place.

Hmmm, wonder what Merelephant would taste like....

An elephant? Sure . . .why not? Or a hippo . . . or a whale . . .or a giant eel . . . or . . . . well, you get the point.

Sea Monsters

Below is a vid of elephants swimming. From the footage that's out there it would seem that this nessie-elephant would have to be a quiet swimmer. A trained swimmer.

Swimming elephants

More swimming elephants

Well first we must ask the question; are there any elephants in Scotland? Last time I checked there weren't any unless they have a zoo or something.

Second Loch Ness is way too deep for an elephant, I don't know how good of swimmers they are.

I wasn't able to find much, just this:

http://www.upali.ch/swim_en.html

Can Elephants swim?

Like all mammals (except humans and apes, who have to learn how to swim), elephants are very good, untiring swimmers.

Elephants move all four legs to swim and are able to move quite fast like that. Their big body provides enough floatation while the trunk acts like a snorkel.


How do Elephants Swim?

Elephants mostly swim with their face above and their mouth below the water surface. They breathe through their trunk which they use as a snorkel.


Can Elephants Swim Long Distances?

These strong animals can swim long distances without a problem. Experts suppose that elephants once swam from Southern India to Sri Lanka where they settled.


Do Elephants Like to Swim?

Particularly young elephants love swimming and diving. They "fight" the waves in wild abandon, climb about on the older group members and splash back into the water. They are also untiring divers. When watching the animals in the water, the elephant keepers are always relieved to spot the small elephant's trunk peeping out of the water again to take another breath.

That really cool

The only flaw in the theory is how do a family of elephants hide so well at a lake that so many visit.???

What an interesting suggestion!!

That picture of 'Nessie' in your OP.....really COULD be an elephant.....

Now comes the question of how it all fits in.....I surpose that someone with an elephant
could have set it up....just on the one occasion.....and all the other pics are more contrived
fakes....?

It really looks like an elephant's trunk in that picture!!!

It does dosnt it, and the reason some people believe there are elephents around is because when circusus are travelling along the road beside loch ness, they stop, let the elephants out for a swim, pack them up again and continue the journey.

Okay, first of all, most of the pictures for Nessie have been proven fake. It does look like an elephent's trunk, but Nessie has been supposedly sighted for a long time. So we must assume that there is more than one elephant. Now there are literally thousands of people that visit the Loch every year, with video cameras and camers all camped out and around the Loch ever single flipping day. Elephants arn't very subtle. We would have seen footprints in the mud, along with heard their calls and seen them come out and hang out around the Loch.

Oh, but it is a fun theory to play around with

Oooh, yes! Why don't we say that the elephents are working with the Michigan Dogmen and rocket-powered flying rabbits?

Sounds good to me.

Course, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the locals are playing hoaxes to keep the $ flowing in from tourism.

It's not actually as odd as it sounds, and it's been suggested before.
Some info here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4779248.stm

The theory is that passing circuses may have stopped to let their animals have a swim in the lake, rather than that there's a rogue elephant population haunting the och, though unless they can swim really far I'm not sure how any passing photographers could have failed to notice a circus camped out on the shore...

Yes, elephants are big. However, they're so big that people tend to "miss" them. Near where my great-grandmother lives, there used to be a circus (yes with elephants). They would let the elephants go and take a swim in the nearby lake to cool off. Naturally, people thought there were lake monsters. So I agree with this theory.

Yes, but surely an elephent would have walked out into a slightly-public area by now? There are so many tourists that it would be impossible to go unmissed. Maybe a few months undetected, but how could a gaggle of excited tourists miss a large elephent walking across their path?

I don't think the suggestion is that a population of elephants permanently exists at the loch, more that some of the photos, particularly those taken around the 1930s, were the result of photographers capturing an elephant from a circus swimming in the loch.

Perhaps, it is possible, I suppose.

Elephants are skilled swimmers. I believe elephants swim between fairly distant islands in the south Pacific.

Okay, the theory seems to have more going for it than at first sight - particularly the facts that there were (apparently) travelling circuses which went through the area, and that the theory isn't that there is actually a feral population of elephants heretofore undetected on the shores of Loch Ness. The guy putting forward the theory also links the £20,000 reward for capturing Nessie offered by Bertram Mills in 1933 with the theory, stating that the showman may well have been very certain that he wouldn't have to pay up (link).

To my mind though the biggest problems still with the idea are that there is really no evidence (it's all surmising, 'could have', 'maybe', etc.), and that many alleged sightings and photos don't fit at all with the Elephant Hypothesis. In fact, a quick flick through a book I have coupled with a Google image search only really turns up two photos which fit the bill (or trunk): the one the OP posted (which, it turns out, was taken in 1972, so apologies for my mistake earlier), and the Surgeon photo, which was admitted to be a hoax with no elephant element at all.

The other (very few) photos, the famous Dinsdale video, and many eyewitness reports don't tally with an elephant at all, and neither does the fact that sightings have been reported from the 1800s to the present day, apparently. It's interesting when you look through the list of sightings on that and other websites that sometimes the 'monster' is compared to an elephant in some respect; whilst it'd be tempting to take this as evidence for the Elephant Hypothesis, in fact it more likely indicates that those alleged eyewitnesses were familiar enough with elephants to say "colour of an elephant" or "neck thicker than an elephant's trunk", and therefore probably as likely as you or I to know an elephant when we see one. Although there is the problem of context (if you see an elephant in a place where there really probably shouldn't be an elephant, it's easier to make a misidentification I guess).

It would be very interesting to see if there's any correlation between the list of sightings and known times when there was a circus in the area.

I'd personally quite like a nice, convenient catch-all explanation, but I just doubt this is one. Not that I think 'real monster' is a better explanation - my own pov would be that some people saw things they were unfamiliar with; others made deliberate hoaxes or lies; others had pranks played on them; and some people are just weird. Maybe a couple of them did see an elephant. All of these events centre around the pre-existing monster legend, which as we know isn't uncommon these days around deep lakes (and probably just reflects our own wishful thinking and fear of deep things) and so becomes part of an illusory coherent narrative.

Isn't the loch ness monster sightings been seen for hundreds of years now?

Eugh, this is stupid.

Elephants swim very well, yes.

But lake that is cold and a wild elephant randomly living up there wouldn't just get in it and swim about for no reason.

Since elephants are LAND animals, it's a bit odd that none of the photos of a debatable elephant like thing are on land, huh?

Some say so - but really the only sighting I'm aware of before the late nineteenth century was in Adomnán's absurd account of St Columba (the warrior saint) in his Vita Columbae ('Life of St Columba'; Book II, Chapter XXVIII) in the 6th century - have a read of some of the other tales in it to judge the work's trustworthiness. That episode took place in the River Ness, rather than the Loch.

Oh wow. What did he see? A dark shape?

Actually he saw a giant serpant which killed a monk that was with him. He banished it to the bottom of the lake and made it stay there for entrnity.

I expect an elephant could survive the temperatures, hannibal crossed the alps with elephants afrer all...

Thats true!!!

There is not elephant in Loch Ness, it is surronded by hills and mountains, has numerous towns around the edge and is no where near any possible elephants.
Also cold on land is NOT the same as cold in water where heat loss occurs a far greater rate.

I think elephant pictures have been passed off as the Mokèlé-mbèmbé from the congo but Scotland? I agree, too cold, too deep, and someone would see it coming out of the water.

Well Elephants can swim in deep water, and im not 100% sure about the temperature though!!!

This would be a good theory but there's one flaw, i'm pretty sure that there are no elephants in Scotland.

There arent suppose to be elephants here in Ireland, yet i see them all the time at local circusus!!!

They could cope for a short time in the cold in air, the water would be deadly


That is probably the most important point.

Just to reiterate for the people who blatantly haven't read the thread - the claim ISN'T that there are inexplicable elephants roaming the wilds of Scotland, but that elephants that were a part of travelling circuses in days gone by, which certainly DID exist in Scotland, may have been responsible for some of the 'Nessie' photos.

Yea but would these travelling circuses let the elephants loose? I doubt they would let them roam free around Scotland.

No, but it's quite likely they may have stopped by the shores of the loch to let the animals out for a bit.

Be a very out of the way route in terms of population centres.

Maybe, it's possible although I don't think they would trust them on the loose like that unless they were well trained. Circus animals usually are trained but they are still wild and unpredictable, they're never really domesticated.

That is very true, wild animals are truly domesticated, even when they are breed in captivity.

No doubt this accounts for some sightings, but not all. Nessie is a collection of misidentifications. One answer is not enough to explain this enigma. Circuses were actually quite common in the 30's through the area - from the BBC website



Link to BBC story

Although this theory cannot explain all the sightings, perhaps it could explain the real start of the hysteria surrounding the legend.

Elephants, logs, wakes and plain out and out hoaxes are but a few items that make up the very large Nessie. Weren't we going to tie a virgin to a raft or something to reveal the beast? I'd go but I do not think I qualify. I get seasick real quick. Maybe burley might help.......

Here's an example of a quality posting that cut to the heart of the thread topic. Excellent!

As for virgins on a raft, could we accomplish the mission with a slightly more tawdry lass? I vastly prefer them, and find virgins a pain in the a***.

Yes, this theory may not explain all sightings, but as u said maybe its what started the legends!!!!