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Ogopogo |
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“N’haaitk” or “naitakas”, and more recently “Ogopogo”, are names for a strange animal sighted in British Colombia’s Lake Okanagan. It has been witnessed for hundreds of years, and has retained its basic appearance, that of a great serpentine creature about fifteen to twenty feet (4 1/2 - 6 meters) in length, though it is occasionally reported as being as long as forty feet (12 meters). It is reportedly about one to two feet (1/3 - 2/3 meters) in diameter. The skin is usually shiny and ranges from brown to grayish-blue to green, with a lighter-colored underbelly. The body has been described as cigar-shaped, and is often initially mistaken for a log by witnesses. The head is described as horselike, snakelike, or flattened and reptilian in appearance, and it occasionally bears horns and serrations or a mane at the nape of the neck. The tail is either described as being absent, or, less frequently, as like a whale’s flukes. The creature always swims in vertical undulations, creating several humps behind it, and it usually holds its head above the surface. Perhaps the most convincing sighting of Ogopogo took place in 1926, when no less than thirty people on the shores of the Okanagan witnessed the creature not far away. The editor of the newspaper ‘Vancouver Sun’ remarked, “Too many reputable people have seen [the creature] to ignore the seriousness of actual facts.” And this is just one of hundreds of sightings, some of which have photographs to accompany them. Various identities have been assigned to Ogopogo, including the classic (but rather unlikely) plesiosaur, the zeuglodon (an archaeocete, or primitive whale), gigantic eel, and various others. Each theory has its strengths and weaknesses, and until one of these creatures has been studied scientifically, one can only guess at the true identity of Ogopogo. - entry provided by Willie Shughart, polevik99@hotmail.com
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