Thomas Finley's Plesioturtle |
With all the modern technology
hearing aids of the 21st Century
listening into the quiet
And lo - this is no longer a world of amber and silence.
This is a world full of voices and songs.
Ancient melodies modulating to a 200 million year old beat
And now that we have heard the songs and voices in the
amber what would they tell us
and are we going to listen ?
by Dr. Jacqueline Giles
At Lake Champlain, the most common statement attributed to the famous Fauna Communications archives of unknown animals producing bioacoustics in the lake is that it must be a whale of some kind in order to create the type of signals obtained by Liz Von Muggenthaler and her team. The Beluga Whale is commonly evoked mostly because they are already known to produce echolocation and there have been 30 fossil specimens that have been dug up over the years in the Champlain valley, ancient remnants of a time when Champlain was still connected to the open sea - before about 10,000 years ago.
Dr. Lance Barrett Lennard with friends |
If they are not echolocation signals, then perhaps it's a form of communication. And if it doesn't seem to be marine mammal in origin, then what else in nature can make these kinds of sounds ?
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Australian Snake neck Turtle compared to the Bodette animal |
In the past, turtles have not usually been considered much by lake cryptid researchers who generally believe that the creatures are Tanystropheus, whales, plesiosaurs, giant eels, Super Otters, long neck seals, giant salamanders, sturgeon, claims by attention getting people or claims by well intentioned, but mistaken folks.
Part of the previously mentioned turtle diversity is being borne out by new discoveries that include unheralded findings in the study of animal acoustics in recognizing a new echo-locating aquatic animal. It's been found that there are echolocation type signals being generated by one of the world's more unusual and little known species of animals, from an order of animal that was here on earth long before the dinosaurs arrived and continues to thrive today, surviving countless extinctions of reptiles, mammals and fish over a quarter BILLION year survival.
A creature that amazingly fits the exact description of many Champ sightings, except for currently known size ...... the Snake Neck Turtle.
Top: Ben Radford's detailed rendering of original Mansi photograph Bottom: Roti Island Snake Necked Turtle |
The family chelidae have been recognized for their similarity to long necked aquatic cryptids or "longnecks" as researchers call them, for some time. Then popular naturalist, "Land and Sea" author J.W. Buel commented over 100 years ago, "what a marvelous, miniature sea serpent the snake necked turtle is."
Roti Island Snake Neck Turtle |
Oblonga in tannin stained water |
Australia, home of the turtles being investigated. Many distinct calls with a wide frequency variation were observed, revealing that these serpent necked turtles utilize an underwater acoustic communication system involving a repertoire of both complex percussive sounds and oscillations with short, medium and potentially long range propagation characteristics. Ultimately detected were calls of complex structures including rich and sparse harmonically related elements with different rates of frequency modulation. Frequency use extended beyond the in- air auditory sensitivity known from the family chelidae, with calls ranging from Bass register 100 hz to the Maria Carey-esque 20 kHz, which was the upper limit of the digital DAT recorder used, suggesting that the signal may have exceeded the limits of the machine.
The Giles tests, extending over 230 days, unexpectedly revealed that the snake necked turtles demonstrated 17 categories of vocal calls including clacks, clicks, squawks, hoots, chirps of various lengths, high calls, cries and wailing, cat whines, grunts, growls, bursts, staccatos, wild howls and drum rolling. Also noted were sustained pulse bouts used during breeding months though to be "calling songs." Echo-locating type signals were also detected and attributed to a clicking high frequency sound, with a high end of 20 kHz.
Later on the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) confirmed the findings went far beyond just echolocation and showed evidence of displaying complex social behavior, something never remotely attributed to "dumb" turtles before ..... except by Dr. Theodore Seuss.
The underwater bioacoustics of animals in a fresh water environment is a little explored realm, with most of the aquatic sound research so far being conducted in marine situations, and little of that research is dedicated to Chelonians. Until recently they had been considered "the silent group," not because they were silent - but because sound production in turtles was not given importance among scientists.
Fresh water lakes and ponds like the oceans and seas can have visibility impaired water by suspended vegetative matter such as peat stained Loch Ness, tannin stained waters and turbidity experienced on churning Lake Champlain, so sound production remains the best way for underwater animals to communicate in those conditions, also being that chemical and light sensing can be restricted by lack of light and direction of water current.
Leatherback Turtles (Derochelys Coriacea) living in turbid coastal conditions have been said to keep in touch with each other thru a series of audible (to us) chirps.
Leatherback Turtle by Rena Ekmanis |
Skin divers in Florida who are lucky enough to swim with Manatees will attest to their underwater clicking and knocking sounds. No echolocation is detected though.
Wild Manatees visiting Homosassa Springs Florida |
For animals living at depth in light restricting waters, it has long been suggested that auditory and vibratory stimulus would be an important type of communicating.
Countless other animals use vibratory sensors of different functions. Crocodiles for instance have a specialized organ called the "Dome Pressure Receptor" on the face that detects surface water disturbances.
The face of the Australian Snake Neck Turtle and other Pleurodira can also be festooned with barbels, tubercles and whiskers thought to perform multiple functions, one of them now being "receptor" like antenna for their communications.
Mata Mata Turtle from JW Buel's "Sea and Land" 1889 |
The huge terrestrial Galapagos Tortise are also known to bellow and roar |
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RESEARCH METHODS
Suggestions for active follow ups on this idea might simply be to check different lakes said to be inhabited by large unknown animals for similar bioacoustic activity as that recorded by pioneering Fauna Communications over the last 10 years. Monster reported lakes such as Okanagan, Loch Ness, Muskrat Lake, Lake Washington, Lake Chelan, Seneca lake and many others across North America could be targeted by researchers. Television specials featuring lake cryptids such as the various National Geographic shows could make it a part of their investigations in the future to drop a hydrophone overboard and see (hear) what happens. The pay-off would seem to be of great importance for the effort.
Researcher Scott Mardis has produced a chart that shows hydrophone findings from Lake Seljord in Sweden, said by many to be home to an aquatic cryptid. The graph seems to indicate a curious coincidence .... unknown high amplitude bioacoustic activity in two different lakes. Could it be collaborating evidence of the same species of large animals echolocating or communicating in two different places ?
Scott explains "the top image is an FFT of the mysterious sounds recorded in Lake Seljord, Norway in 2002. The bottom FFT is of the Lake Champlain sounds recorded by Liz Von Muggenthaler in 2003. There appear to be similarities in frequency and waveform between the two signals. "
HOBBY TIME USA
Despite in the past needing expensive equipment, a hobbiest can now buy a portable personal recorder fairly inexpensively. Ideally, modern laptop computers can be fitted with USB soundcards and mini break-out boxes capable of 24 bit - 96 kHz performance, which would capture more of the signal than was ever previously possible and then allow instant access to the acoustic data for sound analysis via a dedicated audio program. Affordable mini- hydrophones are now available that employ good sensitivity and a excellent frequency response.
Aquarian Audio Products http://www.aquarianaudio.com/
Dolphin Ear Hydrophones http://www.dolphinear.com/112-order.htm
Now that Summer is here it's time to break out the lake monster detecting tools.
Recent advances in recording tech offer an ideal system for portable recording.
An example would be a new - old stock Zoom H4 - 24 bit 96khz response recorder
and the Aquarian 100 kHz top end hydrophone microphone. Total cost about $350.
Hip Hip Hooray .... Nessy is OK ! |
Some Champ researchers have pointed out shortcomings. The inability of other parties in obtaining similar data to Fauna, ( Liz claimed it took her 1st team 3 days until they hit paydirt) and Von Muggenthaler's supposed academically unqualified status for recording monster bioacoustics, and the desire of television producers to choose a colorful TV representative. Whether or not any of that is true, it's now been 10 years since the original data and there are no "professional" follow-ups in sight.
Liz VM - From The Thomas Finley Art Gallery |
Whales have previously been the only animal considered able to produce the Champlain bioacoustics ever since the discovery of the signals in 2003.
The new information on Chelodina Oblonga being able to produce similar signals might allow something closely related to them to be considered for the origin of the signals.
The statement that "only whales" produce aquatic bioacoustics is no longer true. A type of snake necked turtle that matches many eyewitness reports of Champ (except for size) is also a producer of aquatic bioacoustics.
Chelodina |
Enter: The Plesioturtle
http://aquaticandaerialanomolyassociation.blogspot.com/
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