Comments on: Real Otter Sense

By: Bob K.

Bob K. — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:04:00 +0000

I’ve been privileged to see river otters swim in a line, but the line soon breaks up as the critters go their separate ways to find food, roam, and play. Anyway, it’s apparent that this “otter line dance” is made up of separate creatures. I would think that you could tell the difference between one large creature moving around and several smaller ones if the sighting takes any length of time at all-and if the sighting is too brief and the details too indistinct, then it simply has no value since no real information can be gleaned from the event.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:20:22 +0000

You can certainly see why skeptics would point to otters in line, based upon that picture!

Of course, there are plenty of other ‘usual suspects’, and the recent film doesn’t resemble this at all, though -one- otter or beaver, it could be.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:13:48 +0000

MattBille- Your experiment idea is a good one. I’d be curious to see what results would come up.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:04:23 +0000

Daniel Loxton, Lyndon- Thanks for the info regarding the experiment of witness expectations. I believe the one that Danial Loxton mentioned is the one I am thinking about. Any other interesting experiments done in the Loch along these lines?

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:33:52 +0000

“”There have probably been other experiments along these lines, but you’re probably thinking of the 2003 BBC fence post experiment. A post was raised from the water in front of a busload of unsuspecting tourists,”"

No Daniel I’m pretty sure he was thinking of the animatronic Nessie that was part of a Channel 5 programme and not the fence post one.

This was 2005. A 16ft fake Nessie was paraded at various places around the loch and even in front of a boatload of tourists:

By: Carol Maltby

Carol Maltby — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:31:55 +0000

Swimming in a line would probably produce a slipstream effect, which could make the going easier for younger otters. I wonder what differences would be evident from looking at the turbulence created by multiple animals, as opposed to that of a single larger animal?

By: Daniel Loxton

Daniel Loxton — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:11:35 +0000

Mystery_man writes:

I seem to remember reading somewhere about a little experiment that was pulled by which a tour boat full of Nessie seekers were out on the water and the experimenters pulled a large log out across the water.

There have probably been other experiments along these lines, but you’re probably thinking of the 2003 BBC fence post experiment. A post was raised from the water in front of a busload of unsuspecting tourists, who were then asked to sketch what they’d witnessed. As we’d expect from the daylight viewing conditions and terribly crude “monster” (again, just a regular square fence post), many of the witnesses did pretty well. However, as we’d expect from the known history of misidentification errors which plague lake monster cases, other fence post witnesses recalled seeing a round “neck” complete with head.

This confirms what we already know: given expectations primed by a lake monster legend, a significant subset of viewers will “see” ambiguous, relatively un-monster-like phenomena as lake monsters, even when viewing conditions are good.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:35:41 +0000

It would be an interesting experiment to take a bunch of volunteers (you’d pay their expenses - college students are always willign to do soemthing interesting on the cheap) and take them to a lake with no interesting monster sightings. You tell them there has been a spate of recent sightings, and see what reports, photos, etc. they turned in after a week of observation.

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:41:50 +0000

mystery man,

I believe it was a Loch Ness monster replica which fooled the tourists and I think the tour boat captain was in on it too. It was all part of an experiment designed to test people’s reactions.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 16:30:02 +0000

DWA- A lot of this Lake Monster stuff I’ve only recently been looking into, so I don’t claim to know a whole lot about it either. Some of my hypothesis could be off base and I may get some sightings facts wrong, but I sure do love to discuss this stuff regardless. More of a Bigfoot guy myself, though.