Tales of Nessie
Loch Ness and its mythical monster have provided a wealth of material for hoaxers. In 1972 a team of zoologists from Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo had gone out in search of the legendary monster and soon discovered a large body floating in the water. They retrieved the corpse, which reportedly measured between 16 and 18 feet and weighed up to 1.5 tonnes, and was described by the Press Association as having "a bear's head and a brown scaly body with clawlike fins." The creature was put in a van to be taken away for testing, whereupon police chased them down and took the cadaver under an act of parliament which prohibits the removal of "unidentified creatures" from Loch Ness. The case attracted worldwide attention, with the press reporting the discovery of the "son of Nessie." But it was later revealed that Flamingo Park's education officer John Shields was responsible for setting up his colleagues in an elaborate hoax. He had shaved off the whiskers and disfigured a bull elephant seal which had died the week before, and dumped it in Loch Ness to dupe them.
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