An audio recording of the Lake Champlain monster appears to contain echolocation, a technique used by dolphins.
The Lake Champlain Monster, commonly known as the Champ, is a legendary creature believed by some to live in Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vermont. Like the Scottish Loch Ness monster, Champ is considered by believers to be a lost relative of the aquatic dinosaurs. A photo from the 1970s taken by an amateur photographer shows a large creature in the lake, but whether the photo is real, distorted or a hoax is still a matter of great debate.
An alleged early history of the Lake Champlain monster is attributed to Samuel De Champlain, founder of Quebec and the man who gave the lake its name. In 1609, de Champlain reportedly reported seeing a large monster in the lake while fighting the Iroquois on the shores of Lake Champlain. There is no actual record of this sighting, and many experts believe the story to be a hoax.
In 1883, a local sheriff claimed to have seen the monster, and his public announcement sparked a flurry of other eyewitnesses to the mysterious Champ sightings. According to the bailiff’s claim, the monster was at least 6m long. He grew fervor to sample the Lake Champlain monster, and legendary showman PT Barnum offered a $50,000 reward for the animal’s carcass.
What many championship fans believe to be definitive proof of the monster’s existence came in the form of a photograph taken in the late 1970s by a woman named Sandra Mansi. Mansi’s photograph shows a startling image of what appears to be a long-necked dinosaur-like creature approximately 150 feet from the shore of Lake Champlain. Ms. Mansi saw the creature with her husband and her two children and stated that she kept her head above water for about four to seven minutes before submerging herself in the water. Experts are divided on what the photo actually shows, with some suggesting the creature in the photo is distorted in size and others suggesting it’s just a floating tree stump or a large bird.
Believers in the Lake Champlain Monster believe it to be related to the prehistoric plesiosaur, an aquatic reptile with a long, snake-like neck. The plesiosaur is thought to have become extinct as a result of the KT extinction, when many dinosaurs and other early animals went extinct due to immense environmental change. The Lake Champlain Monster, to be a plesiosaur, would either have to be a single 10,000-year-old animal or the result of a small, constant breeding group. The first hypothesis is considered unlikely because no creature is known to live that long, the second is often discounted because an active breeding population is likely to be seen more often.
Recent information in 2003 and 2005 stimulated renewed interest in the Lake Champlain Monster. In 2003, an audio recording was made by a film crew working for the Discovery Channel. The recording appears to contain echolocation, a technique used by dolphins and some whales to find food and locate obstacles. The recording, while similar to a beluga or killer whale, does not correspond to any known species that lives in the lake.
In 2005, a video taken by two fishermen appears to show an animal just below the surface of the lake’s waters. While the video is no longer available to the public, the photos appear to show an animal that looks like a fish, dolphin, or eel, but is claimed by believers to be the elusive Lake Champlain monster. Experts cannot conclude what the video shows and even the fishermen themselves are not sure what was filmed.
Studying the legends of champions is a favorite activity of cryptozoologists, people who study unclassified and possibly unreal animals. As with the Loch Ness Monster, it will probably never be possible to fully convince people that Champ doesn’t exist. Marine biology experts say the lake could not support a breeding population of plesiosaurs even if they had survived the KT extinction. To date, scientists have been unable to produce a consensus explanation for echolocation, the Mansi photograph, or the 2005 video.