Animal Yarn

Question: In a 1972 April Fools' prank, scientists—and the world—were tricked into believing an elephant seal carcass was what legendary creature?

Answer: Nessie

In what would soon become known as The Great Loch Ness Monster Prank of 1972, a team of eight scientists from the Flamingo Park Zoo in Yorkshire, England, were in Scotland to prove the existence of a “monster” in Loch Ness. They were optimistic that their investigation would yield results because they had developed a new type of “hormone sex bait.” Any creature lurking in the depths, they believed, would be lured to the surface and into their waiting traps. 

While the team were digging into breakfast in the dining room of the Foyers House Hotel, the manager came over to tell them that someone had just reported seeing a “large hump” floating in the loch near the hotel. Throwing down their forks, the scientists ran outside and, sure enough, they spotted a big, dark object bobbing up and down in the waves some 300 yards from shore. When they reached the creature, they realized it was dead but made quick work of tying it up and hauling the carcass to shore—where a crowd was gathering to see the legendary creature with their own eyes.

Witnesses on shore claimed what they had seen was a true monster. Some described it as nearly 18 feet long with green skin and protruding teeth. Others said it was covered in scales, had a massive head, and appeared to weigh close to two tons. The scientists were flummoxed and quickly loaded the corpse on the back of their research truck to take it back to Yorkshire to study it. While rushing back to England, however, they were pulled over by the Scottish police. Citing a 1933 Act of Parliament that prohibited the removal of any unknown and unidentified creatures from Loch Ness, the scientists and their precious cargo were forced to divert to a nearby town—where a Scottish zoologist would be summoned to examine the corpse of Nessie. 

Meanwhile, word about the discovery was spreading across the world. Excited TV anchors interrupted broadcasts to report that the Loch Ness Monster was real, and its body had been pulled from the lake. The front page of the LA Times rang out: “‘Green and Scaly’—‘Monster’ Hauled Out of Loch Ness”

Ugly and messy, but it sure isn’t Nessie ...

When the curator of the Edinburgh Zoo arrived to take a look at the contents of the research van, he took a slow walk around the carcass, gave it a few pokes, and announced his verdict. It is indeed a strange creature, he said, but it’s no lake monster. In fact, it is nothing more than a common bull elephant seal. Then he told the press, “It is a typical member of its species. It’s about three to four years old ... I have never known them to come near Great Britain, as their natural habitat is the South Atlantic or the Falkland Islands. I don’t know how long it’s been kept in a deep freeze, but this has obviously been done by some human hand.”

And just like that, the fervor and great mood generated by the Nessie discovery turned to deep disappointment—to say nothing of the deep embarrassment felt by the original eight-member team from England. But there was still one pressing mystery to solve. What was a dead bull elephant seal doing in Lock Ness in the first place?

Hoaxer admits it was all a bunch of bull

The Flamingo Park Zoo’s education officer, John Shields, stepped forward and confessed that he was responsible for the hoax. An expedition to the Falkland Islands had recently brought the seal back to Dudley Zoo in the UK, where it died shortly afterward. Getting wind of the seal’s death, Shields saw an opportunity to prank his colleagues, who he knew were heading to Loch Ness to search for Nessie. Once he got possession of the elephant seal, he quickly shaved off its whiskers, filled its cheeks with rocks to puff them up, and kept it on ice until April 1—which happened to coincide with his 23rd birthday. After calmly dumping the body into the water, he was also the one who made an anonymous phone call to the Foyers House Hotel, interrupting his colleagues’ breakfast. 

Initially, Shields was thrilled at the way his prank unfolded, but he hadn’t counted on the Scottish police getting involved, which turned his private joke into a front-page news story. What’s especially noteworthy is how the body that was dragged out of Loch Ness was described by almost everyone as 18 feet long, about 4,000 pounds, and covered in green scales. One eyewitness said, "I touched it and put my hand in its mouth. It's real, all right. I thought it looked half-bear and half-seal ... green in color ... with a horrific head like a bear with flat ears. I was shocked."

Even in the official police report filed by the Scottish officers that pulled over the research van, the carcass was described as “quite large in size, covered in scales, and green.” In actuality, the bull elephant seal was 9 feet long and weighed 350 pounds. It was not green and it had no scales.

Fool me once ...

Two weeks after the “Great Loch Ness Monster Prank of 1972,” a schoolteacher from Kenosha Wisconsin was on a fishing trip on Loch Ness when he dipped his hand into the water. He claimed to “sense” the presence of six large creatures in the waters—an entire family of Loch Ness Monsters. One was 70-90 feet in length, he said, with a large neck and a slim, worm-like body. Blame it on bad timing, but he wasn’t able to find a single reporter willing to take him seriously. 

A few more animal-related April Fool's Day pranks

• Just kitten’ around—In 2013, the U.S. Army sent out an official press release announcing that to cut down on military spending, cats would be drafted to serve their country. “Not only will the Army have a more cost-effective working animal,” it said, “but we will be doing our part in getting them off of the streets and finding them employment.”
• Pulling the wool over your eyes—A small news story about sheep was responsible for an online April Fool’s Day hoax then went viral in 2007. A fake but very convincing story from a fake scientist working at a fake institute in New Zealand claimed that the root of global warming was due to the country’s declining population of white sheep since less sunlight was being reflected back into space. Sounds about right ...
• I thought you wanted a pony?—On April Fool’s Day in 1984, the Orlando Sentinel ran a story about the "Tasmanian mock walrus," a creature that resembled a walrus but was only about four inches long. Calling it the "perfect pet," the newspaper was flooded with calls from reader seeking to get their own Tasmanian mock walrus.
• Meanwhile, across the pond—On that same April Fool’s Day in 1984, the BBC Show That's Life was airing a segment about an animal called the “Lirpa Loof,” a hairy ape-like creature from the Himalayas, that had just arrived at the London Zoo. Naturalist David Bellamy hammed it up about finally seeing this rare animal, which he had read about as a child. Know for its ability to mimic human behavior, he said it was already delighting crowds at the zoo. The audience bought everything, even after being told the scientific name of the Lirpa Loof was Eccevita mimicus ("Eccevita" is Latin for the program’s name, "That's Life.”)
• And he’s the most trusted guy in Britain—Beloved naturalist David Attenborough had some April Fool’s Day fun in 1975 by giving a report on BBC Radio 3 about a group of islands in the Pacific known as the Sheba Islands. Playing recordings of the island’s fauna, listeners were told they were the sounds of a night-singing, yodeling tree mouse called the Musendrophilus. He also described an indigenous web-footed species whose webs were prized by the island’s inhabitants to use as reeds for musical instruments.
• Th-th-that’s all folks!—In 2013, the French newspaper L'Indépendant reported that a fisherman had caught a bizarre creature that appeared to be a trout-pig hybrid from the Têt River in southeastern France. They wrote how he struggled for 51 minutes to reel it in, and as soon as the strange fish hit land, it attempted to burrow into the earth with its snout. Suspecting the fish may have been the result of genetically modified corn grown nearby, health authorities rushed to investigate. But by the time they arrived, the fisherman had already grilled and eaten the trout-pig, which he described as “a treat.”

Learn more about Scotland’s notable history when you join O.A.T for Scotland Revealed: Legends, Lochs & Highland Landscapes.