What is ECHOLOCATING in LAKE CHAMPLAIN ?

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.



The Charlotte Whale

Television specials on Champ quote biologists who state that "only whales" can produce these types of signals, and the sentiments are echoed often when basic aspects of the data are examined by lake cryptid investigators and fans.

 

Dr. Lance Barrett Lennard with friends

   One voice of exception is Dr. Lance Barret Lennard, who has expressed doubt that the signals he analyzed from Fauna's charts were of cetaceans. Lance is well versed in analyzing whale signals in his day to day work at the respected Vancouver Cetacean Research Center. Dr. Lennard points out a quickly changing tempo of "calls" detected on the Fauna recordings that to him does not exactly resemble whale speech patterns. He feels that they are probably NOT signals of marine mammals.

   He explains ... "A couple of features of this sound that don't particularly look like echolocation to me are that we don't hear an echo after each click and that the clicks are a bit uneven in their spacing, where as in cetaceans the intervals are evenly spaced, consistently" and if they increase or decrease in speed then it is done in a gradual ramping up or down fashion, "so this spacing would be unusual to hear in a marine mammal."
   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.



This is a job for SUPER-OTTER !

Upon investigating the order of Testudines it becomes clear that turtles, although not usually considered, are also one of the best candidates for some lake cryptid nominations, being that they are still alive (as in not extinct) as an order of animals and demonstrate extreme diversity and survivability in their present and past incarnations. There are no fossil examples of longneck seals or long necked whales, but there are fossil examples of huge Chelonians.
The world's largest lake turtle Stupendemys, lived recently, at the dawn of time for humans.


Stupendemys Geicographicus

   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

    One of  the papers found while investigating was written by an Australian turtle researcher named Jacqueline Giles, who had discovered in 2003 that aquatic snake necked turtles indigenous to western Australia actually produced underwater acoustics of  various complex types, with some signals exceeding the human hearing limitations - at times attaining frequencies inherent in cetacean recordings.
    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

  The original Giles report was published in 2005. The main objective of the research was to determine if the freshwater turtle Chelodina Oblonga produces underwater acoustics and whether their vocal activity could be related to behavioural or ecological aspects. One of the techniques used to determine that was to apply "call-blasting" of the recorded signals, that is playing back acoustically the recordings of the turtles and noting their reactions, a technique used by, but not invented by Bigfoot field investigators. Chelidae are a family within the sub-order Pleurodira. Mata Mata Turtles are Chelidae. This family is mostly noted for their extremely long necks.


  These turtles often live in yellow - brownish - tannin stained waters, with impaired visibility - very similar to Loch Ness and Lake Champlain conditions.  For aquatic animals like whales, sound is the most useful means of communication beyond their visual range.


Oblonga in tannin stained water

   500 hours of recordings were analyzed - taken at various wetlands through out southern
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

Cetaceans like the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, which live in turbid or muddy coastal waters - use echolocation to find food and to navigate.  Experiments with Dolphins  indicate that they detect great detail with their bioacoustic gifts. (Wood and Evans 1979)

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.

  

                                                    Head of Champ with facial barbels ?




Mata Mata Turtle from JW Buel's "Sea and Land" 1889

   Turtle sound research has focused on the sounds made by turtles when mating. Other late century contributions to turtle auditory research include the ideas of some experts that sea turtles emit "involuntary" shrieks when violently killed or hurt. Also noted are the sounds of Gopher Tortoise mewing and hissing. Other in air sounds are made by the Wood Turtle and the  mentioned Oblonga snake neck turtle of Australia.


The huge terrestrial Galapagos Tortise are also known to bellow and roar

The Underwater Vocalisations of the Australian Long Neck Turtle :    http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/39/2/02Whole.pdf
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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.

http://gamesounddesign.com/Using-a-hydrophone-to-record-underwater-sounds.html

   It would seem to be one of the best ways of adding a huge credibility boost to the existence of the now rumored to be dead Nessie if acoustic data similar to Fauna's were to be obtained at Loch Ness. It's been thought by many lake monster fans that Champ and Nessie could be the same  kind of animal. Bioacoustic data alone might prove this.



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.

   There should be no reason that anyone interested nowadays can't take a crack at it. After all, enthusiastic amateurs like Clyde Tombaugh have made many important discoveries and contributions to the world of science, and scientifically "qualified" Lake Cryptid investigators probably won't be crowding the shores of  Champlain, Ness or the Okanagan anytime soon.


Liz VM - From The Thomas Finley Art Gallery

Liz and team claim to have garnered much valuable data the last 10 years. She says they've collected 200 examples of the bioacoustic signals from her many ventures onto the lake. The signals that she has collected are individually different in subtle ways and she figures that there are at least 15 different animals of the same species creating the signals she's examined.  
   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

   What if there were a species of un-captured 15 foot long, fully aquatic snake neck turtles in Lake Champlain ? Could they be the producers of the famous "echolocation" signals we've heard so much about ? The only known indigenous reptiles actually living in Lake Champlain are 5 species of water loving turtles. Could it be that there might just be another species yet to be classified ?



                  Enter: The Plesioturtle
http://aquaticandaerialanomolyassociation.blogspot.com/














                                                                                                                

Enter: The Plesi-O-Turtle

 

   In May of 2012 I was afforded the opportunity to view in it's entirety, the original 2005 "ABC news" series of clips shot on Lake Champlain by Peter Bodette, which supposedly contained images of the famous beast.
    After the footage was originally shot, ABC news was told they were free to use the entire video in a feature news presentation. For unknown reasons, producers chose instead to broadcast just a fraction of the total footage that was shot that day. Several deleted sequences, when freeze framed and enhanced, revealed what seemed to be an enormous, flippered Snake Necked Turtle with the tell tale carapace (shell) being noticeably visible. I was surprised to believe that a Plesiosaur look alike turtle was the culprit, not having heard much speculation in the past that a Chelonian could be seriously considered for the role of the famous "Monster." Later, when I did some basic research on them I was again surprised to find that turtles have many positive attributes for lake monster nomination that have not been discussed.
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   For Lake Monster fans, many automatically think of a Plesiosaur when we hear and read the details of some of the hundreds of sightings on record and presently occurring around the world. Reports come in that mention long necks, humped back with flippers and swimming freely like what we have publicly envisioned Plesiosaurs to be since even before Charles Knight's depictions more than 100 years ago.

The SINCLAIR DINOSAUR

   Some of the 250 listed Champ sightings from Joe Zarznyski's "Beyond the Legend" evoke classic iconic imagery with descriptions like "it looked like the (1960's) Sinclair dinosaur" (a Brontosaurus) and "that swimming dinosaur with the long neck."
(Plesiosaurs are not actually dinosaurs, but ancient reptiles from the Super-Order Sauropterygia).
   Like all our favorite Cryptids in general, many zoologists find fault with the Plesiosaur is "it" theory, but surprisingly there is an order of animal, that if it existed in the form of an unknown species, could also be a candidate for the long hidden identity of the elusive monsters, for reasons including that they're an order of animal well known to still exist today and are widely diversified, to the degree of some actually resembling the beloved Plesi in basic shape and perhaps even in size.
   The order is Testudines, better known as Turtles, and potential candidates for the lake monster ID are both the family Chelidae of the sub-order Pleuodira, which include the often mentioned "World's strangest animal," the Mata Mata turtle, along with the exotic Snake Neck and Side Neck Turtles of Gondwana. The other valid turtle candidates could be the more geographically dispersed Trionychids, or soft shell turtles.

Chelidae

Trionychid

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   When you consider these two  possibilities, and take into account what we already know about them, rather / or in addition to what a 60 million year displaced Sauropterygia might be able to do, then right from the get go, turtles should be a top contender as lake monsters.
   Did Plesiosaurs stay at the surface or did they stay down below where we wouldn't see them ?
Some Paleontologists paint them to be warm shallow sea loving, close to the surface kind of creatures - not exactly covert sounding, and if they were still around, might be expected to be seen more often than they are, especially on crowded Summer Champlain.
                    (Champ and Nessie sightings are at an all time low). 

"On the Rocks of Valcour Island"

   But we already know that some turtles prefer to sit on the bottom of fresh water ponds, rivers and lakes, sometimes burying themselves completely .... and occasionally extend their necks - which in the case of both Chelidae and Trionychids can be as long or longer than their shells, getting fresh air using just the tip of their nostrils to break the water surface- thus always ensuring maximum stealth mode.

   
   Could the Plesiosaurs stand the cold water associated with glacial lakes ? There is no real evidence that says they couldn't and some recent claims are that they could perhaps withstand the constant numbing conditions at Loch Ness? Turtles are already well known for their cold tolerating powers, with certain aquatic species even mating in water as chilly as 42 degree Loch Ness kind of cold.
   Champlain's Softshell turtle restoration champion, Wildlife biologist Steve Parren, told me that he has been ice skating on Winter Champlain and seen brumating turtles swimming UNDER the ice. Few have ever imagined that a cold blooded reptile could be active tolerating such frigid conditions. ___________________________________________________________________________

     The biggest hurtle for ancient reptile fans is that no Dinosaur, Archosaur, Sauropterygia or any individual species of deemed extinct Reptile has ever been known to survive to the present day.
    Even the symbol of extinction exception, the lobe finned Coelocanth, is declared
by contemporary DNA experts as to not be the same fish as what is said to be it's present day "unchanged over time" form. Many modern Scientists are not cotten to the Canth's "living fossil" moniker, and the idea that even they represent an exception to general extinction theories.



Jay's first Coelacanth

   Turtles, on the other hand have been around for upwards a quarter BILLION years, long before the Dinosaurs and probably the Archosaurs as well. To this day they have never gone extinct as an order. Who knows what could have happened in that time ?



POGANOCHELYS lived 200+ million years ago
 

    As far as finding all of the fossilized permutations from 245 million years of known Chelonian existence, the largest recovered lake turtle so far, the mini-van sized Stupendemys Geographicus, lived very recently, during the Pleistocene era (4-10 million years  ago), and only 1 gigantic crushed shell with fragments and a Hulk- Buster humerus bone have ever been recovered.


STUPENDEMYS GEOGRAPHICUS

   Most Lake Monster fans are optimistic about the possibility of ancient Reptiles surviving
to the present day. One bugaboo is that most every card  carrying Paleontologist is not supportive of that kind of hopefulness.

Since what some experts think they know about Plesiosaurs is not positive for lake monster

nomination, perhaps we should re-consider what turtles can do and be, and apply it to the question.
                                Could some Lake Monsters be turtles ?
   Here's what we already know about what the order of Testudines CAN do
                  (along with the oddball divergent sub-order Pleurodira)
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turtles CAN have very long necks, like what is descibed on some Lake Monster sightings.
            (Chelidae and Trionychids)
Turtles can retract their necks making it appear to have a short neck as described on
            some eyewitness reports on those same lakes
            (An inconsistency that skeptics have pointed out).
Turtles can be omnivorous - a definite plus for survivability.
Turtles can thrive in cold water. With at least 5 remaining species of water loving turtles
            already indigenous to Lake Champlain, it's certainly not "bad science"
            to think reptiles could live there.
Turts can grow to large sizes - some captured and released modern Leatherbacks being over a
            ton in weight. The dead record being 2076 lbs. found on the shore of Wales.                     
Turtles, not magician David Blaine, are the vertebrate breath holding champions of the world.
            Some lake turts can hold their breath for more than a day without surfacing.

Turtles can also have supplemental biological scuba breathing apparatus. One species discovered by the late Steve Irwin he nicknamed the "bum-breather" because of a gill system in
 it's cloaca (anus) that takes oxygen out of the water and sends it to the bloodstream.





Turtles can attain swimming speeds that match that of an Olympic sprinter.
            (Dermochelys 22 mph - Jamaica's Usian Bolt 23 mph)

 

Turtles can dive to a depth of over 1/2 a mile. That's the depth of 4 Loch Ness stacked on top of
              each other. (Leatherback)
Turtles have the widest distribution range of any animal presently known to be
              alive except for some whales (Dermo again)
Turtles can choose their offspring's sex - insuring their maximum future reproduction.
Turtles can hibernate (or brumate) through-out intense winter conditions (like this last one),
              sometimes for close to half the year in the Northern extremities (Canada) where lake turtles
              are still found.
   Plus, the Australian Snake Neck Turtle can actually squirt the infamous Reptile stink juice
in great abundance earning it the down-under nickname "Stinkpot." There's a smaller turtle in Champlain, the Musk Turtle (S.Odorotus) that is also known for ruining picnics.
Several possible Champ encounters on land, including Dennis Hall's "Orville's Marsh" sighting and the one Katy Elizabeth of Champ Search recently had, mention the pungent and unforgettable reptilian smell being very noticeable. Countless other Sea Serpent and Lake Monster reports include descriptions of foul smell accompanying the sighting.
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   OK, now here's what may be the secret "Champ is a Whale" knockout punch. In 2005, an Australian researcher named  Dr. Jacqueline Giles became the first person to ever record and confirm that the Australian Snake Necked Turtle (Oblonga) is able to use echo location and/or bioacoustic communications in a fashion that was never previously attributed to any aquatic animal other than Whales and Dolphins.

Later when the American Society of Acoustics checked the findings, they confirmed that these Snake Necked Turtles produce bioacoustics so advanced, that it suggested to the scientists complex social behavior, something never remotely attributed to "dumb" turtles before.
   The bioacoustics they produced actually resembled Cetaceans, attaining high frequencies, and the conclusion of the report stressed the importance of the findings and the need for more research.
   With these unpublicized discoveries, the previous notion that aquatically, "only Whales echolocate" can be put to the wayside. The Oblonga  (Aussie Snakeneck Turtles) were in an aquatic envirnoment when they were producing bioacoustics. What if they were 15 feet long and living in a huge fresh water lake ? Could we not assume that they too might be able to do the same thing, and much louder to boot ? It seems almost too coincidental that the second animal ever confirmed to produce aquatic bioacoustics just happens to look the most like what Champ has been described to look like.

   So are the famous Fauna Communication recordings, with it's now numerous documented contacts
really turtle talk and NOT whales ?

Lance B. Lennard with Hydrophone

Whale expert Dr. Lance Barrett Lennard, a research Scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Center does not believe that the evidence he has heard and examined from Liz Von Muggenthaler's FAUNA communications ARE of a marine mammal, but are something else instead. Something unknown to him.      Could it be a GIANT Snake Neck Turtle ?
   Plesiosaurs were amazing when they were alive but it would be unprecedented if they have somehow miraculously survived the cretaceous-tertiary event. But if there is also an unidentified species from a non-extinct order of animal that may look like them, be large like them, swim like them, and some already live in cold lakes, shouldn't they be considered as prospects too ?

   Hopefully this Snake Neck Turtle bioacoustics data will be given more focus and  people who have
claimed there's no present day evidence for large unknown creatures in the lakes and waterways of
the world might re-consider, without breaking the extinction rule, that some Lake Monsters, rather than NOT exist, just could be a large unclassified species of the mighty, misunderstood and ever present Turtle.
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                                         references
Champ - Beyond the Legend - Joe Zarznyski
Why coelacanths are not ‘living fossils’ A review of molecular and morphological data
                    - Didier Casane and Patrick Laurenti
Lake Monster Mysteries - Joe Nickell - Ben Radford
Water Horse of Lake Champlain - Katy Elizabeth
The Ultimate Survivors - Justin Gerlach
Biology of Turtles - various contributors
The Handbook of Turtles - A. Carr
Vancouver Aquarium Cetacean Research Program - Dr Lance Barrett Lennard
The Monster Project. Stranger than Nature - Nat Geo
Voyage of the Turtle/Last of the Dinosaurs- Carl Safina
The underwater acoustic repertoire of the long-necked, freshwater turtle Chelodina oblonga
- Dr Jacqueline Giles http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/39/2/02Whole.pdf
American Society of Acoustics - The Underwater repertoire of the long necked
                                                                                                 freshwater turtle - report on
Turtles - An Extraordinary Natural History 245 Million Years in the Making - Carl J. Franklin
2014 Guinness World Record Book
Unedited Bodette Champ series of clips - c/o  Pete Bodette
Fauna Communications Champ findings
Stupendemys Geographicus: The World's largest Turtle - Roger C. Wood
Reptile Magazine
The Truth Behind the Loch ness Monster - Darren Naish - Nat Geo
           thanks to John Whitesel, Jay Cooney, Scott Mardis, Katy Elizabeth,
                                Dr. Jacqueline Giles, Steve Parren,    
         http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/95038/tiny-turtles-released-into-lake-champlain/
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