Is the Loch Ness Monster Real?
The short answer
No good evidence says so. Her most famous photo, the 1934 "surgeon's photograph", shows a toy submarine with a head and neck of wood putty. It fooled the world for about 60 years, until the man who built it confessed.
The loch is also far too young. It is only about 10,000 years old, and plesiosaurs, the reptiles Nessie is usually said to be, died out 66 million years ago.
A hoax built for revenge
In 1933 the Daily Mail hired a big game hunter, Marmaduke Wetherell, to find the monster. That December he reported huge footprints on the shore. Researchers at the Natural History Museum found they were made with a dried hippo's foot, the kind people kept as umbrella stands. The paper turned on him.
His son later remembered his answer: "We'll give them their monster." Wetherell's stepson, Christian Spurling, built the model on a toy submarine. A respected London doctor, Robert Kenneth Wilson, took the undeveloped glass plates to a chemist in Inverness and sold the photos to the paper for 100 pounds.
The picture most people know is cropped. The full frame shows the far shore of the loch, and next to it the model looks small. No source says who did the cropping. In 1994, after Spurling confessed, newspapers around the world reported the hoax.
Could anything big live there?
The water is young. Loch Ness formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. For about 20,000 years before that, the glen was frozen. The rock valley is much older. The lake in it is not.
In June 2018, scientists collected 250 water samples from around the loch and read the DNA that living things leave in the water. They found no reptile DNA at all. They found eel DNA at almost every spot they sampled.
The only monsters known to be in the loch are fakes. When a water bailiff came near, Wetherell sank the model with his foot. It is presumably still somewhere in the loch. It has company: a Nessie prop built for the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes sank during a test, and a robot sub found it in 2016.
Key numbers
| What | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Year the Daily Mail sent a hunter to find the monster | 1933 | Museum of Hoaxes (hoaxes.org), The Surgeon's Photo |
| Year the surgeon's photograph was first published | 1934 | PBS NOVA, The Legend of Loch Ness |
| What the doctor was paid for the photos | 100 pounds | Hektoen International, 2022 |
| How long the photo fooled the world | about 60 years (1934 to 1994) | PBS NOVA, The Legend of Loch Ness |
| Age of Loch Ness | about 10,000 years | Wikipedia, Loch Ness Monster |
| How long the glen was frozen before the loch formed | about 20,000 years | Wikipedia, Loch Ness Monster |
| When plesiosaurs died out | 66 million years ago | National Geographic, The Loch Ness Monster legend |
| How many times longer ago the plesiosaurs died out than the loch formed | about 6,600 times | Our arithmetic from National Geographic, The Loch Ness Monster legend |
| Water samples in the loch's DNA survey (collected June 2018) | 250 | Sci.News, 2019 |
| Reptile DNA found in the survey | none | Wikipedia, Loch Ness Monster |
What the film simplifies
- The museum identified a dried hippo's foot. The umbrella stand is Nessie's joke: such feet were popular umbrella stands, but this one was never identified, and an ashtray is the other guess.
- "The paper dropped him" is the safe wording. Some sources say the Daily Mail ridiculed him in public, and one says it fired him.
- "Sixty years" counts from 1934 to 1994. The hunter's son called the photo a fake in a 1975 newspaper story, but it drew little attention.
- "About 10,000 years" is the low end. The loch was first free of ice about 13,000 years ago, then the ice came back to its southern end before melting again.
- "We'll give them their monster" is how the hunter's son remembered it, decades later. It rests on one man's memory.
- The talking photo and the talking loch are cartoon. So is the uncropped shot, with a giant boot and a box camera beside the toy: the real full frame shows the far shore. No record says what camera took the photos or exactly where the toy sank.
At a glance
Runtime 1 minute 3 seconds · Topics: Hoaxes, Evidence and photos, Loch Ness, Environmental DNA · Captions on YouTube · Full script below
Test yourself
The surgeon's photograph was printed cropped. What did the full photo show, and why did that matter?
Answer
It showed the far shore of the loch. Next to the shore the model looks small, so the cropped version made the monster look much bigger.
Plesiosaurs died out 66 million years ago. Loch Ness is about 10,000 years old. How many times longer ago did the plesiosaurs die out than the loch formed?
Answer
About 6,600 times, because 66,000,000 divided by 10,000 is 6,600.
Wetherell's footprints and the surgeon's photograph were both fakes. What gave each one away?
Answer
Museum researchers found the footprints were made with a dried hippo's foot. The photo was exposed when the stepson who built the model confessed, and the uncropped frame shows how small the model was.
The script
Nessie: The most famous photo of the Loch Ness Monster. That's me.
Host: Now uncrop it.
Nessie: I photograph big.
Host: She's a toy submarine with a putty head. Built for revenge.
Host: In 1933, a newspaper sent a hunter to find the monster.
Host: He found footprints!
Host: The museum said: a hippo's foot.
Nessie: From somebody's umbrella stand.
Host: The paper dropped him.
The Hunter: We'll give them their monster.
Host: His stepson built her. A respectable doctor sent in the photos.
Nessie: My agent.
Host: The photo got cropped, so you couldn't see how small she was.
Host: It fooled the world for sixty years, until the stepson confessed.
Nessie: Snitch.
The Loch: A real one? In me? I'm only about 10,000 years old.
The Loch: Before that, I was ice.
Host: She's meant to be a plesiosaur. Extinct for 66 million years.
The Loch: She's 66 million years late.
Nessie: Fashionably.
Host: And the toy? The hunter sank it.
Host: It's probably still down there.
The Loch: So there is a monster in me.
Nessie: Ready for my close up.
Sources
- The surgeon's photograph was a head and neck of plastic wood grafted onto a toy submarine; Wetherell set out to get his revenge; Spurling built the model; the photo was first published in 1934 and the hoax was reported around the world in 1994, 60 years later; the uncropped photo includes a bit of the far shoreline; the son's 1975 claim that the photo was a hoax attracted little attention.PBS NOVA, The Legend of Loch Ness
- Plesiosaurs lived between 252 and 66 million years ago; the respected Wilson was persuaded to send the photos to the Daily Mail; Wetherell sank the model.National Geographic, The Loch Ness Monster legend
- In 1933 the Daily Mail hired big game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell; in December 1933 he reported enormous footprints; Natural History Museum researchers found they were made with a dried hippo's foot, the kind popularly used as umbrella stands; his son recalled him saying "We'll give them their monster"; Christian Spurling confessed.Museum of Hoaxes (hoaxes.org), The Surgeon's Photo
- The image given to the media was cropped, hiding how small the model was next to the loch.Museum of Hoaxes (hoaxes.org), Hoax Photo Database
- The Daily Mail publicly ridiculed Wetherell; the hoax came as his revenge; Wilson took undeveloped plates to a chemist in Inverness and sold the photographs to the newspaper for 100 pounds.Hektoen International, 2022
- The head and neck were made from wood putty; Wetherell sank the model with his foot when a water bailiff approached, and it is presumably still somewhere in Loch Ness; the loch is about 10,000 years old and was frozen for about 20,000 years before that; the loch was surveyed for DNA in June 2018, with a lot of eel DNA and no reptilian sequences found; a Nessie prop made for the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes sank during a test and was found in a 2016 survey.Wikipedia, Loch Ness Monster
- Loch Ness was sealed off from the ocean at the end of the last Ice Age, at least 10,000 years ago.Palci, The Conversation (Flinders University)
- The first environmental DNA study of Loch Ness found no reptile DNA and eel DNA at nearly every site.University of Otago, eDNA study of Loch Ness
- The team took 250 water samples from many places in Loch Ness; it found no evidence of any creature remotely related to a plesiosaur; eel DNA was found at pretty much every location sampled.Sci.News, 2019
- The loch was free of ice about 13,000 years ago, ice reached its southern end again about 11,000 years ago, and melting resumed about 10,000 years ago.Loch Ness Project, archive timeline
- A Nessie prop built for the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes sank during a test and was found by a robot sub in 2016.CNBC, 2016