Lough Dubh Monster: The Irish Hogzilla?

Lough Dubh or Black’s Lake was the scene of a possible monster sighting in the early 1960’s. Dale A. Drinnon wonders if the Lough Dubh Monster is the Irish Hogzilla.

Lough Dubh Monster

After some wrangling over the point and in response to a anonymous posting at one of Karl Shuker's blog postings (suggesting a hippopotamus as a possible culprit), the easiest and most economic solution would seem to be that it was a feral boar hog, probably mixed feral domestic and wild boar hog. For one thing, whenever there is mention of a white or ivory horn on the snout it means a tusk, since ivory is what teeth are made out of and horns are made out of something else. This point turns up also in discussions of the "Congo Dragons" said to have "Ivory horns" which must also be regarded as references to tusks. The anonymous commentator suggested that if it was only one tusk that was seen instead of a horn, then it could have been a hippopotamus as well as a rhinoceros. And I replied then that a hog would be closely related to a hippo and more likely to turn up in Ireland. It could have been a feral pig wallowing on the mudbank that took the bait when a tasty morsel presented itself. Swine are also opportunistic omnivores which none of the other candidates would be. None of the other candidates would have taken the bait. Read more