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<H1>Fact vs. Fiction: The Loch Ness Monster</H1>
 


No matter if you actually live near the Loch Ness located in Scotland or you’re across the globe, there’s a pretty big chance you’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster. For those who may need a refresher, it’s a humungous reptilian creature that has swam around the Loch Ness body of water for centuries. While many of the stories circulating in more recent times have been debunked as hoaxes, there is actually some truth to this creature’s story. In this article, we’ll stack the facts against the fiction to see what’s really going on with the Loch Ness Monster.

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<CENTER>Photo Source: Pixabay</CENTER>

<H1>1.) Fiction</H1> The Loch Ness Monster was first sighted in 1934.
<H1>Fact</H1> The very first report of the Loch Ness Monster was actually in 565 A.D. A group of missionaries wrote a detailed description of a large monster living within the waters of the Loch Ness. They took it as a sign of Satan being present due to such religious fervency at the time. Regardless of supernatural beliefs, however, the fact remains clear that the monster existed, whether it actually considered to the devil incarnate or not. 

<H1>2.) Fiction</H1> The Loch Ness Monster is actually a dinosaur.
<H1>Fact</H1> Most experts had once believed that the monster was a direct descendant of either a sauropod or a plesiosaurus. This can’t be true, though, because the diet required for both of these types of dinosaurs to sustain life is not found near or even inside of the Loch Ness. Instead, it is believed that the monster is an ancestor of the lizard, living off of insects and plants. Taking a step back, this actually makes more sense.

<H1>3.) Fiction</H1>The Loch Ness Monster was sighted in 1936 by a surgeon.
<H1>Fact</H1> Unfortunately, perhaps the most famed photo ever “taken” of the Loch Ness Monster is actually a complete and total hoax. It was submitted to a newspaper in 1936 by a surgeon who stated he was riding his motorcycle on a bridge that went over the Loch Ness and he saw it. However, in 1975 and again in 1993, this photo was completely debunked. The man who submitted the photo actually made a tiny version of the Loch Ness Monster out of clay, affixed it to a wooden plank that floated, and placed the little monster in a tiny pool of water. He then proceeded to put a fan on the water within the pool to create a wavy, ripple-like effect. Modern science was able to tell us that the size of the waves in the water are not in scale whatsoever to the size that the Loch Ness Monster had been reported to be.
	
<H1>4.) Fiction</H1>The body of the Loch Ness washed up to shore in 1972, proving its existence.
<H1>Fact</H1> In 1972, a carcass did wash up on the shore of the Loch Ness. It was about nineteen feet long and weighed in at around one ton. It actually ended up being an elephant seal, which is one the largest sea animals on the planet. The male variety of this species is known to sometimes grow over twenty feet long and can reach weights totaling more than two thousand pounds. It was a disappointment to hopeful Loch Ness Monster catchers everywhere. 
	
<H1>5.) Fiction</H1> The Loch Ness Monster has to be real because there are over twenty sightings of it per year—even in more recent times. 
<H1>Fact</H1> The sad truth about the Loch Ness Monster is that there has never been any definitive proof that it ever existed. Since the surgeon who first got his hoax photo published in 1936, many people have capitalized on the existence of this monster. At one point, there was even an entire crew that was getting paid to search the waters of the Loch Ness for any sign of a monster swimming around. There have been multiple television shows, tours, museum exhibits, and other spectacle types of exhibits on the topic in which all involved parties were compensated handsomely for. 

All in all, for those who are really into cryptozoology, this might come as quite a shock and disappointment. Some theorize that the Loch Ness Monster is actually real, but in similarity to conspiracy theorists in the United States, they believe that the existence of this monster is being covered up by Scottish government officials. Admittedly, it is rather strange that over eighty years after the first “sighting” of the Loch Ness Monster, it remains a hot topic. Is that an indication of some truth in the subject, or is it the greed of those who know a moneymaker when they see one?  We’ll never really know for sure