The Centre for Fortean Zoology was founded in the UK in 1992 - nearly 20 years ago. Over the past two decades it has expanded to become a truly global organisation. We opened our American office in 2001, or Australian office in 2009, and now - in our 19th year - we are proud to welcome CFZ New Zealand to the CFZ global family.

Sunday 13 November 2011

A New Zealand Lake Creature?








Lake Coleridge is near Canterbury on the South Island of New Zealand and is 3 km wide by 17 km long. In the 1970’s sightings started to be reported of a monster in the lake. It was blamed for dragging away fisherman’s rods. The locals named it Lakey.



Then in 1972 the creature was cited as the culprit in the disappearance of a fisherman when the old man’s upturned boat was discovered but no body surfaced. There was blood in on the sides and the inside of the boat, indicating a struggle. Police decided no foul play had been involved and that the old man had slipped, hurt himself badly, then fallen into the water. The absence of a body was noted as "strange, but not implausible"

In1975 two women reported seeing a creature’s head rise up from the lake. It was described as wolf like in appearance but without any visible fur. Horrified they screamed, and the monster slunk back into the water. Also in 1975 a teacher and his wife were boating and observing the birdlife on the lake surface when they witnessed a creature. It grabbed and ate a large water bird from a flock resting on the surface.

In 1976 a farmer on the west side of the lake began losing sheep to some predator when they went to drink by the waters edge. While watching the flock he noticed a dark shadow just below the surface of the water when a lamb moved to take a drink. He shouted, and the huge shape disappeared .

In 1977 several witnesses saw a creature said to be 16 feet( 5 metres) long, rolling around on the surface, snapping its jaws. It was described as grey with four flippers and quite "fish-like".

A hunter from Otago decided to try and kill the creature . He had a boat rigged with radar and harpoons. After no luck on the surface he decided to go into the water to look and dived into the lake in a wetsuit. He found the wreck of a yacht, which was lying on the bottom of the lake. As he turned back up to surface, he was struck in the ribs by something powerful. He left and did not return

In 1979 some fisherman on the lake saw the creature. It seemed to stare at them with its head partially above water. For some time it swam in slow circles, not taking its eyes off the men, then sunk below the water. The next morning a trail was found in the mud, like something dragging itself along.




Robyn Gossets discusses the creature in her book New Zealand Mysteries. Gosset writes that the fisherman around the area tell stories about 'Lakey' the enormous, but seldom seen, sea animal that lives in the lake, capable of tearing a mans rod off him and creating huge ripples on the Lake surface.




There seem to have been no recent sightings and theories about Lakey being a leopard seal to a sturgeon or even a bunyip abound. Leopard seals are quite aggressive but whether they would venture this far inland and stay there is debatable. A 10 feet (approx 3 metres) leopard seal was caught in 1870, in the Shoalhaven River in Australia. Plus they don’t normally have four flippers that are evident. You would normally only see two front flippers. They are solitary animals said to come onto the ice to mate and then return to the sea. It has been known for them to pull a human being under the ice and at least one young researcher was killed this way. If it was a leopard seal it must have either died or returned to the sea. An interesting story and one which may simply be an out of place animal rather than a cryptid.

The only problem I have with these accounts is that alot of New Zealand Lakes have no sea access, this means any such creatures taking up residence would have to travel considerable distances over land, and on four flippers though not impossible, must have be a feat in itself.
Though there are rumors of a smaller than prehistoric size species of Mosasaur frequenting New Zealand waters and if this were the case, and one found itself somehow in a lake these are the sort of reports we would expect to get.

5 comments:

  1. It would have been nice if you had said you got this from my site .http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/

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  2. 'Tabitca', before you criticise 'stormwalkernz' for not giving due credit where this article came from, perhaps you should have given credit to Richard Freeman when you first posted it on your Blog, back on Monday, 2 November 2009 ( http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/11/lakey-of-lake-coleridge-lake-monster.html ). I mention this because an almost identical Blog entry was written by Freeman & posted on the CFZ Blog on Friday, March 13, 2009 ( http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/03/richard-freeman-lakey-horror-of.html ).
    The old adage about "stone throwing and glass houses" springs readily to mind.

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  3. Syd I have never Richards Article /blog. Though I have now. I presume he used the same sources I did to write his article. Mine was a rewrite of my own old peice of work .I originally wrote the first article in 2007 and used it for an academic exercise for students.It will still be in some archive in Durham University somewhere I suspect. So please do not accuse me of plagerism when I am not guilty of it.

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  4. A lot of these lakes are fed from springs (not all but many are, certainly clear blue water lakes). Some of these spring caverns are the size of a house, but who would find them on the floor of the lake. It is now being accepted that the Earth crust is very porous with water moving through openings, lavatubes and vast underground lakes. Some the size of small seas. Surface water is only a third of what is inside the Earth. All of the surface water is filtered through the Earth. So its not surprising to me that ancient aquatic animals exist within Earth and venturing out into the surface water from time to time, especially to feed - which invatiably would lead to sightings. Hence they also mysteriously dissapear as fast as they came.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A lot of these lakes are fed from springs (not all but many are, certainly clear blue water lakes). Some of these spring caverns are the size of a house, but who would find them on the floor of the lake. It is now being accepted that the Earth crust is very porous with water moving through openings, lavatubes and vast underground lakes. Some the size of small seas. Surface water is only a third of what is inside the Earth. All of the surface water is filtered through the Earth. So its not surprising to me that ancient aquatic animals exist within Earth and venturing out into the surface water from time to time, especially to feed - which invatiably would lead to sightings. Hence they also mysteriously dissapear as fast as they came.

    ReplyDelete