The world-famous Loch Ness monster is said to be between 1 and 2 meters tall, based on its iconic photograph. Looking at some other photos, there are also claims that it may be between 15 and 20 meters.
An eDNA study in 2018 said there was plenty of A.anguilla DNA in the lake, possibly indicating large, coiled eels. This indicated that the monster might actually be a large eel.
But what are the odds that the monster really is a giant eel? The researchers looked at fishing data from lake Loch Ness to determine the number of eels and their average body size when removed from the huge body of water. They concluded that your chances of finding a large eel (minimum 1 meter) in the lake are about 1 in 50,000.
“However, this doesn’t look like the supposed beast,” the authors say. Indeed, the probability of finding a 6-foot-long eel in Loch Ness turns out to be zero. So, although large eels seem to explain what some eyewitnesses have seen on the lake surface, makes the existence of extraordinarily large animals unlikely.
So where did this eel theory come from?
In the 1970s, biologist Roy Mackal came to the conclusion that large eels may exist in the lake, after collecting a distorted sample with a trap he set up. When you consider Nessie’s defining features, it actually didn’t seem completely absurd: a head over a long, slender neck, extreme flexibility, pectoral fins, and dark colour.
But new research seems to have largely disproved the giant eel theory. So the Loch Ness monster is unlikely to be a giant eel…
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