Breaking News: Nahuelito Photographed

Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 17th, 2006

Cryptozoologist Scott Corrales of Inexplicata is sharing that the latest photographs of a famed Lake Monster of Argentina has surfaced on April 15, 2006.

Giving as a source El Cordillerano Edicion of Argentina for Monday, April 17, 2006, the article translated is "The Latest Photo of Lake Nahuel Huapi Monster." Here’s Corrales’ text, from Spanish to English:

Photos were left behind by anonymous reader at the newsroom

The man came to our newsroom, spoke to the receptionist and left her an envelope with three photos and a note that read: "This is not a tree trunk with a capricious shape. This is not a wave. Nahuelito showed his face. Lake Nahuel Huapi, Saturday, April 15, 9 a.m. I’m not giving my personal information to avoid future headaches." We are presenting the images. Let each one reach his/her own conclusions.

This translation is copyrighted 2006 Scott Corrales, with special thanks to Ricardo Lopez Rende.

The creature of Nahuel Huapi Lake in Argentina and Patagonia is called Nahuelito. This cryptid is sometimes referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur, the story of which first attracted press coverage in the 1920s, though sightings date back well into the previous century. Please see here, pages 119-121 and 294-295, for more on the sightings of Nahuelito.

See below, the two photographs.

Nahuelito

Nahuelito

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


84 Responses to “Breaking News: Nahuelito Photographed”

  1. Marlantis Buzz responds:

    POST # 19 continued…
    This page is now posted on the front page C2C web site today and so I’d like to say hi to the members of Imaginative Worlds Forum and the Fantastic Forum.

    Keep up the good work Loren.
    Marlantis Buzz

  2. john5 responds:

    When I first saw the pictures I was Amazed and then ‘too good to be true’ flashed through my thoughts. Upon a closer examination immediately I could see that the length of the creature twists to the right between the 1st and 2nd hump. After the 2nd hump the length appears to bend back toward the left (or more closely aligned with the center of the animals streamline!).

    This makes the more definitely serpent-like animal (rather than pleiseosaur-like) appear to writhe through the water for its propulsion at least at the water surface. The form of motion appears to be almost an undulating corkscrew-like movement through the water. Capturing this type of motion in a photograph is good fortune and would be difficult to do unless a photographer was within a reasonably close distance and slightly above the object or with a very good telephoto lens and steady hand or tripod.

    The watery area just behind the second hump and to the far side of the body gives the indication of movement. The disturbance caused by the submerged portion of the body (behind 2nd hump) sweeping back towards the middle of the animals center streamline can be plainly observed. The girth of the animals body decreases in this area as well. Visualizing the oddity in motion of a sidewinder rattlesnake seems to help me visualize this animals motion through the surface water.

    The 2nd photo appears closer than the first however the profile of the animals’ neck behind the head has appeared to have shifted. The head and neck have slightly stretched out to alter the angle of the head to neck by ~30 degrees. The enlarged throaty portion (pouch?)under the head is of interest. The 1st hump behind the head is now almost level with the head as the animal appears to be submerging. The distance between the head and the top of the first hump has increased compared to the first photo lending support to motion being caught on film. An S-mtion can de seen in the ripples of water behind the hump.

    With due respect to all other opinions expressed here Nauelito appears to be alive and well in these odd photograph in my humble opinion. I am an avid investigator of cryptozoology for more than 35 years and do my best not to jump to any conclusions. I was trained as a wildlife biologist in the early 80s and apply this scientific training to my investigations whatever they may be. However I do not hold the all too common scientific skepticism of the possibility of our earth being filled with rare, unique and cryptic lifeforms to be revealed.

  3. john5 responds:

    I apologize for the typos at the end of my above message and especially for mispelling ‘Nahuelito’. I meant to mention that I used a light-gauge wire twist tie to form out the shape of the animal overtop of the photograph to assist in visualization and angle measurements. Very helpful! As well I only used the two above photos for analysis and have no vested interest in these astonishing pics.

  4. anomalocaris responds:

    In response to the comments on there aren’t more “true believers” here, I would have to say that is to the site’s credit. Cryptozoology is a science, not a religion. There is no place in it for “true believers.” If folks want things taken on faith, rather than examined critically, there are any number of religions out there happy to take your money. The only way to identify new species is to examine the physical evidence and systematically rule out all other possible answers and all known species before deciding there is a new species to add to the books. Anything less is wishful thinking and poor science. It also makes it difficult for serious investigators to gain credibility, because for every serious investigator out there avoiding the media and focusing on the science of cryptozoology, there are two dozen wishful thinkers, believers and attention seekers showing up in the news, claiming to be cryptozoologists and giving the field a bad name. Harsh, but there you have it.

  5. Redoubt responds:

    Woe unto those of us who share a daring vision of a wonderful and mysterious universe! We are the lepers of science because our minds were not privileged enough to have been squeezed into a tuna can at birth!

    I appreciate even the most outlandish and seemingly impossible claim. I may not necessarily believe it… nor will I feel obliged to write something kind for the price of admission, but I’m still grateful for the chance to exercise my own judgment.

    Believers, non-believers, faithful and heretics…

    There are a lot of people who would gladly take the job of thinking for each of us… telling us what to believe, who to vote for, what to eat. Any time when there is a chance for us to observe and judge for ourselves on any subject, it is a good thing.

  6. Harpo responds:

    First I think it’s interesting that some people automatically think “hoax” just because whatever is in the picture is apparently small and close to shore -neither of these things should automatically disqualify a crypto picture from consideration. Secondly, for every “negative” thing I find in these pictures, I find a “positive” and vice-versa, which is sort of unusual. I should also mention that I’ve lived on a lake my whole life and have spent considerable time in and around water, which I think makes a big difference in evaluating “water” pictures. Some people just don’t have a lot of experience looking at things in the water and, while not done on purpose, miss or misconstrue certain things. An example of this is the Surgeon’s photo of Nessie. Anyone with experience around water who has seen the whole picture (not the common, cropped version) can tell that it was a very small object floating in the water, not a large moving object. As far as these pictures are concerned, the obvious “negatives” are 1) some unusual blur in parts of the first picture (possibly as a result of poor photoshopping); 2) pictures appear to be taken at different times of the day, even accounting for the photographer facing different directions for each; 3) Very similiar, possibly identical body position in both pictures. On the positive side, there does appear to be quite a bit of independent lateral motion in both pictures, which would be hard to create with a model. Although quite a bit of it in photo 1 is in the “possibly photoshopped” portions. A few people have commmented that animals don’t move thru the water that way (what I would call a vertical “sine wave” motion) I agree completely but I get the sense that rather than moving that way, whatever is in this picture is more “throwing” that second loop forward, toward the location of the camera, which would be a little more believable. The tail appears to be moving laterally. A few things I’ve gone back and forth on are the open mouth, the eye in #1 and the “neck pouch/frill” for lack of a better term. I’ve seen a lot of animals with this “open mouth” stance who were either sick or threatened (or I’m sure for other reasons) so I don’t think it should be discounted just for that reason. As for the “eye” in #1, could be reflection from the sun, could be camera “red eye” – whatever it is, it definitely adds to the perception of it being fake. The neck pouch/frill is interesting because certain lizards definitely have similiar features and it seems unlikely that a model maker would include one. The only other issue is that I too initially thought the head/neck and second hump were in identical position in both pictures but the more I look at them, the more I don’t think that they are – similiar but not identical. My final thought would be that #1 looks more fake, and possibly computer modified, while #2 appears to actually show something relatively small (30″ -48″)moving thru the water – but unable to determine whether it’s a model, an animal, or something else. Anyway, that’s my more than two cents worth.

  7. youcantryreachingme responds:

    Inexplicata? Is that a real place? Did we all miss the joke by actually analyzing the image??? 😀

  8. Marlantis Buzz responds:

    Well, YOUCANTRYREACHINGME, one could say this is either a Wild Goose Chase or a Canadian Wild Goose Chase…if I’ve figured it out right but I’ve got a few more other things to try next to make sure I’m not falling for the easy wild goose chase answer…can’t belive I’m spending time on this but you got me going now. Save me time if I’ve won the toaster by telling me…thanks Buzz.

  9. youcantryreachingme responds:

    Foster’s? Ouch! You can’t be in Australia, surely?? 😀

    At a *very* casual glance, the tonal qualities between the two photos are totally different, which to me says “caution”.

    If I could examine the original image files, I’d happily do a more thorough analysis, but another “caution” is that the mouth is open in exactly the same way in both photos (read “a dummy or model”) and so is the body posture.

    I’d say it quite likely that there *is* something in the water (the reflections look realistic enough), but I’d say it’s an inanimate object being propped up.

    Now. I can’t believe I’ve given it that much time. To the fridge for a real beer – Cascade – after all, it’s got a couple of thylacines on it! 😀

    Chris.

    Doh. Foster’s make that too, don’t they!?

  10. blue flame responds:

    the problems i have with this photo are all pointed out above, what suggests this is a hoax to me is there are no ripples on the water or anything to suggest it was moving, the pictures are a little too perfect

  11. Marlantis Buzz responds:

    Well, I’m beered out and holding a good Napa Valley Merlot. grinning at the effort involved here.

    Thanks for the friendly reply.

  12. youcantryreachingme responds:

    saintly (24) does have a valid point. the cry for “fake” came thick and fast, yet the photos bear resemblance to the Searle photos of the Loch Ness monster – right down to the apparent nearness of the subject to the camera, small waves, small subject, etc… Who said a crypto had to be large? Why do we trust Searle’s photos? Mind you – it’s odd the same man snapped photos of both the Loch Ness monster and a UFO… Personally I don’t find the Searle photos convincing either 🙂

    As for smmoulder (30) and others who question an animal having their head that far out of water – Whales (killer, beluga, narwahl, pilot) do, although I’ll concede they’re not as slender as this thing.

    In fact, a pod of breaching whales can do a good job of resembling a cryptid creature.

    shovethenos (32) who has never seen a lower jaw longer than an upper jaw, really needs to check out some halfbeaks.

    And Mansi Champ photo? I’d never heard of it, but come on! Looks like a guy swimming freestyle – look at the shadows under the water – the left hand is visible out front, the (human’s) head is just to the side of the Champ’s head (and not where you’d expect a body to be if Champ was real), Champ’s “body” is the human hip and the trailing leg is also visible under the water. The “head” itself, it should be mentioned, is the swimmer’s arm; the upper arm is the dark portion at the bottom, it then bends at the elbow showing the forearm (near parallel to the water surface, and suitably lighted from above) with the hand bent backwards at the wrist and all fingers together (giving Champ’s “head”). Again, from the grasses in the foreground, the swimmer is not far offshore, and the size about matches a human swimmer….

    Shout me down – that’s what we’re all here for – but Champ doesn’t sell on me either 🙁

    Oh, and fuzzy (37) – Larry didn’t lose his lips; but he sure was scared of it!

    Apologies in advance if I’ve killed any of my links!

  13. youcantryreachingme responds:

    Actually, this swimmer is just what I was talking about (Champ in 62). Just pretend his head was underwater and the photo was taken from the other side… Seriously!

    You know what they say – we’ll all see what we want to see!

  14. youcantryreachingme responds:

    Weren’t convinced? Try this one.

    And now I really must give up.

  15. sst responds:

    Some random thoughts…..

    Calling into question the size, shape and apparent swimming style do not prove or disprove authenticity and is not relevant when examining an unknown creature. That is like saying Sasquatch can’t have big human looking feet.

    In the first photo, the shadow from the neck would indicate that the photographer is facing the sun and that the time of day is after noon. There should not be red eye in the photo because the sun is shining on the other eye. In the second photo, the shadow from the neck looks like the sun is coming from the right and maybe even slightly behind the photographer and the time of day is midday. Now the animal could have turned 90 degrees in the water to create this anomaly but that would mean the photographer would have had to move to the other shore of the water, 90 degrees away since the shot is not head on. Also, it appears as though there are two shadows of the head in the second photo.

    There is no “order” indicated for the photos nor is there any indication that the photos were immediately successive which would easily explain the apparent lighting and time of day difference.

    Who still uses black and white film for taking snapshots, unless this is a very old photo?

  16. lochsquatch responds:

    Waves are too big
    Just like the famous pic of nessy.
    Looks about 4 feet long.
    Who knows how it would swim.
    You can’t really base anything on
    whether the mouth is open in both pics,
    or head in same position.
    Looks pretty fake to me, though,
    but who knows?

  17. shovethenos responds:

    youcan….-

    Thanks for posting the picture, I’ve never seen a half-beak before. But they aren’t the “usual suspects” for what surviving sea or lake monsters might be. They’re fish, therefore they wouldn’t be likely to hold their heads that far out of the water, have a long flexible neck, etc.

    I’m not convinced by the “swimmer” pics. They don’t agree with the eyewitness account – and within seconds you would be able to tell its a person swimming. The arm structure is off – “hand” seems more than a quarter of arm length, no defined “elbow”, the “elbow bend” seems to be in the middle of where most people’s upper arm would be, the “hand” seems to be awkwardly flexed for swimming, etc. Also, the whole appendage seems to be twisted to some degree – like its one flexible structure like a snakelike neck rather than fixed long bones with only three joints providing the flexibility.

    As far as the other dark objects that are under the water are concerned, it might be other parts of the same animal. (One of the prime suspects, tanystropheus, has a near-impossibly long, lanky neck, body, and tail.) It might also be another animal. (The video footage from 02 or 03 shows two animals together in an area of the lake that looks similar to the area where this was taken – a large, shallow area.)

    I haven’t gotten around to reading the Radford analysis of the picture, I’ll comment when I have read it.

  18. joe levit responds:

    Yes, I have to say the Mansi photo looks nothing like a swimmer.

  19. youcantryreachingme responds:

    To all – Craig posted a new thread dedicated to discussing the Mansi Champ photo; hop on over to continue the debate.

  20. Marlantis Buzz responds:

    All I have to say is SERPENT ….

    youcantryreachingme pretty much sums it up.

    Now back to our regular programming…

  21. Mnynames responds:

    Nice to see the Surgeon is still snapping photos almost a century later…

    70+ comments in, I imagine it’s already been said in one way or another, but to those who say that they shouldn’t post such obvious fakes here, it seems to me that someone would only make a comment about them anyway, which would lead to an explanation. Whether it is true or not, it IS news, and worthy of discussion, even if it is derision.

    And as for the whole skeptic-believer issue, I think that those interested in cryptozoology do tend to be a tad more…let’s say analytical, rather than skeptical. I myself have posted comments suggesting ways that certain incidents might have been faked, even though I am persuaded that they are genuine. I think that, rather than belief, many that post here operate under a suspension-of-belief, prefering to look at a topic from many different angles and possibilities.

  22. SCorrales responds:

    The report from the Bariloche newspaper was just that–a newspaper article with uncredited photographs, not a declaration of the existence of an unknown lacustrine creature. Information like this–strictly from journalistic sources–is provided to Inexplicata on a daily basis by its network of correspondents, and it is submitted for the consideration of the Internet reading audience (uncritically, as Mr. Radford might point out)for purposes of information only. No other representation is made nor implied, and the same goes for the UFO information we provide. If anyone felt that the news item and photos were meant to suggest “finally! we have proof!” I’m afraid they were misled.

  23. Loren Coleman responds:

    Scott Corrales’s information dissemination is extremely appreciated here. His opening of the door to Hispanic America has been a godsend for trying to get news from a formerly routinely inaccessible but important and growing population of folks with a rising interest in cryptozoology. Thanks to Scott Corrales for the gateway.

    What people do with the information, and what it pans out to be is not anyone’s blame. Let us not kill the messenger.

  24. john5 responds:

    It is obvious that many negative comments on the photos of this animal are made by people who are not very familiar with the actions of water and dimensions of waves & ripples. Having spent much time on and around rivers, Georgian Bay, Lake Erie and Huron, as well as the Gulf of Mexico I am very familiar with water motions and can plainly see that the ripples around the animal and in the background are not tiny (the animal is not a stick!.

    There is a large long ripple that is running parallel several feet behind the animal in the first photo. This ripple must be at least 4-6 inches high, possibly a wake from a distance water craft!? The first hump would therefore measure ~2+ feet above the water. The curious ripple in the foreground of the picture suggests a location close to a shoreline given the irregularity. This would be a location where many other giant eel-like animals are frequently observed (landlubbards!).

    The foreground of the second picture showsa rather wide, shallow swell that runs parallel to the animal, almost as if the water here is gathering against a shoreline. The swell must be several feet across front to back to give a scale for the animal.

    Does anyone else see in the first photo that the length of the animal is offset side to side like a snake that slithers side to side in a 2 dimension fashion. However unlike a snake this water animal appears to also use the third dimension of up and down as well as back and forth in its locomotion. Weaving itself through the surface of the water. It is the first picture capturing this historically typical view of a sea serpent and its bizarre locomotion that caught my immediate attention and appreciation.

    There are more details in the pictures that speak of a real animal than any details that speak of a fabrication (see comments 52 & 53). No one has found contridications with my previous posts and that in itself is of great interest.

    Peace

  25. Albert Mond responds:

    Interesting. Very interesting. Finally… SOME picture of it.

  26. sasquatch responds:

    I haven’t looked at these pictures in a few weeks and just now noticed that contrary to what some said about it being in the “exact” same position, just lower in the water; I’d have to disagree. It looks to me that the first hump is farther away from the camera than in the second picture. The second picture seems to have the first hump totally in line with the head/neck, while the first shot shows the first hump and head/neck not at all aligned as in a straight profile like the second. -hard to explain, but I’m starting to lean toward the REAL explanation on this.

  27. Redoubt responds:

    I suppose it could be a sea serpent… though the images are not like-sized and there is some good degree of variation in texture and lighting. My personal interpretation is that there is not enough resolution or consistency to form a firm opinion.

    But just for fun, I thought I’d show them around some…

    To help refine the process, I first took copies to an acquaintance at Bubba’s Transmission Repair and Barbecue… and he said they looked like jumper cables.

    From there, I shared the photos with one of my son’s friends… his name is Lenny. He is a junior at the local high school and his impression was that it looked like an electric plug on the end of a cord.

    Finally, I looked up an old buddy of mine from the 1960s. His name is Ratso… he used to be a junkie… until he got religion and now he’s a priest for the Church of the Divine Lady in the Mist, which has its headquarters in an old school bus just outside of Statesboro, Georgia. His main thing these days is growing mushrooms. He likes the pics and said he’s gonna do a blow up of them for Friday night services because whatever it is, they would probably look good under a black light.

    I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder…

  28. john5 responds:

    Sarcasm does not make the pictures fake and simply calling them fake does not make them fake. There is far more detail in the first picture than in many other ‘sea serpent’ pictures and videos and yet there is surprisingly little mentioned about this fact. Maybe most people are too unnerved by the possible existence of the animals blinding them to any proof-positive detail in the photos.
    Peace

  29. Redoubt responds:

    Actually, no sarcasm at all… just an attempt at some humor with my fellow posters here at the Crypto Board… and I really did share the photos with some outside acquaintances… I just took some liberties in retelling their stories.

    You know, it takes an open mind to even consider some of the subject matter here… and that is a good thing because closed minds get lost easily in open spaces.

    But at the same time, if we can’t laugh at ourselves and our subject matter just a little… well, then we just look like an asylum full of cranky eccentrics, is all.

    Anyway, if anyone was offended, I do apologize.

    (Personally, I’m a big fan of Nessie and the variety of similarly strange critters worldwide.)

    -Redoubt

  30. john5 responds:

    Thanks for your words Redoubt. I made a comment about sarcasm in a previous post as the topic of cryptozoology has long drawn sarcastic retorts from the very scientists (people) who should be involved in the serious research this interesting field requires. Jokes come easy but the proof takes work, effort and thought. Sadly Redoubt comments about these Nahualito pictures were largely from a sarcastic angle and without an obvious attention to the details provided (at least on my little computer screen).

    I also apologize for a somewhat cranky attitude toward an abundance of humour based scoffing throughout this posting. One definitely needs a sense of humour to live a healthy life here on earth and to be involved in cryptozoology. To be able to laugh at one’s self is another important trait to develop, especially if photos, etc of some rare animal or plant that are thought to be real turn out to be a fraud. No one wants to be the butt of a prank. This is why I debated a while before giving my opinion on these photos. What I see clearly in the first photo overrides any fear of it being a fraud.

    Peace on the Path and Happy Sightings

  31. josh W. responds:

    This photo is EXTREMELY sketchy. the water and the creature look like some kind of movie prop.

  32. shumway10973 responds:

    I don’t need other objects to see that these are fakes. In the first one look at how close the water is to the camera and how small it is. besides the facial feature remindes me of the jabberwocky. the natural waves of the lake are bigger than anything around the creature. Something of its reported size would be causing wakes like a boat.

  33. youcantryreachingme responds:

    Redoubt (79) said “closed minds get lost easily in open spaces”. Is that an original? Can I quote it? It would make a great email signature! 🙂

    By the way – the original post mentioned three photographs, but we have only two. Loren – could you please clarify whether we can view the third photo, etc?

    Thanks.

  34. gorilin responds:

    In fact these pics were taken at Lake Masdcardi, and not Nahuel Huapi.Nahuelito is a plesiosaur-like creature, while this one has often been described as a sea-serpent.Once,a group of soldiers,who were mounting guard in the zone,saw a long snake-like creature on the shore.Immediatly they started shooting,and the creature got into the lake moving up and down and not sideways.It was strange,cause they said the had never seen a serpent move in that way.IN THE PICTURE IT IS MOVING IN THAT WAY.
    Sincerily, from Argentina.

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