Have a favourite water beast? It's Loch Ness Monster Day, Piggies! 🐹 💚 🖤 💚 🐉 🐉 🐉 🥕

Cryptid-hunting cavies ... got a local legend about a strange creature who haunts the neighborhood? Bigfoot/Sasquatch (US) Chupacabra (Puerto Rico), Bunyip (Australia) ... it's a long list!

Well ... in a "dark Scottish lake ... " (and apparently elsewhere because Nessie and her ilk get around) lives the Loch Ness Monster who has the best public relations team and her own special day!

The Loch Ness Monster has been popping up in Scottish lore for well over a millennium, with one of the earliest mentions appearing in the 7th-century Life of St. Columba, where a mysterious and very annoying water beast allegedly made a rather dramatic appearance in the River Ness, tried to eat a few lake crossers, and had to be repelled by St. Columba.

Fast forward to today in 1933, when "Nessie" truly hits celebrity status thanks to a roadside sighting (and a conveniently timed new road with better views), launching decades of blurry photos, excited tourists, and the occasional floating log getting far more attention than it ever expected.

In recent years, science has had its say too. modern plesiosaurs? misidentified whales? basking sharks, or ...

A recent large-scale environmental DNA study of Loch Ness found no evidence of giant reptiles or prehistoric survivors—but it did uncover a surprisingly high amount of eel DNA!

So while the idea of a massive serpent gliding beneath the surface may be a stretch, a loch full of wriggly eels of unusual size (EOUS). Entirely plausible.

Believe it or not, Nessie or her sea-serpent cousins have been spotted throughout the globe and centuries, even recently in the San Francisco Bay in 2009 when the Clark brothers, sighted a live sea serpent (deemed credible). They also reported sightings between 1985 and 1987 and took video footage in 2004. Hmmm ...

Keep your eyes and your carrots peeled today!

Wheek! Wheek!