Trunko and other Elephant fish

I accidentally stumbled across this legend of Trunko, which is quite curious...

On the morning of November 1 1922, visitors to the beach at Margate, South Africa, were treated to an amazing spectacle out at sea: two whales could be clearly observed engaging in battle with a bizarre sea monster with snowy-white fur and a huge elephantine trunk. As the titanic battle progressed, the monster seemed to weaken, and three hours later it was dead. During the evening it's lifeless body was washed ashore and proved to be truly colossal, measuring just over 14 meters(47 feet) in length, and including a 3 meter (10 foot) tail. Apart from it's luxuriant 20-cm (8-inch) long fur, however, the most remarkable feature about this creature is that it did not possess a distinct head; instead, it bore only the trunk-like appendage, 1.5 meters (5 feet) long, that had been visible during it's fatal encounter with the whales. This creature was dubbed "Trunko".

Detailed Article



I was completely unaware of this local legend, and did a couple of searches but all of them gave the same information. With the exception of one site that made a reference to India's legendry "Sea-Elephants" or Makara...



Because of the age of the case, it's more or less a cold case, but I would love to hear some theories...

The popular theory is that Trunko was a Polar Bear. But there are quite a few problems with this theory... There are no wild polar bears in the Southern Hemisphere. Polar bears don't exactly grow to that size, and they don't have trunks either.

Manatee? Aquatic elephant? Polar bear? Family of Nessie?

What say you?

thats a cool story .
maybe it was a creature of some type yet to be discovered.

wasnt the icthesaurus re-discovered off the coast of south africa, after being thought of as extinc for millions of yrs . back in the late 70's i think it was .


who knows what else could be down there .

One thing definately speaks against this story - The fur. NO ocean creature has ever had fur, and theres simply no reason to get it. I call bogus from a drunk sailer..

This is a facinating story which I've heard before, but I cannot get enough of. Too bad the carcass was never collected, I'd love to know what the heck that thing was.

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch
One thing definately speaks against this story - The fur. NO ocean creature has ever had fur, and theres simply no reason to get it. I call bogus from a drunk sailer..

I have to agree with the drunk sailor factor, but there are some ocean animals with fur. One example is the fur seal. I still find it highly illogical that a large ocean going creature would have fur.

Originally posted by Briggs
wasnt the icthesaurus re-discovered off the coast of south africa, after being thought of as extinc for millions of yrs . back in the late 70's i think it was .

I think you're referring to the "coelacanth".

As to "trunko", that is an interesting story.

Nice find

I'll definately have to do some digging on that one.

I'm not sure why a sea critter would have a trunk though... Any practical uses for one underwater? Perhaps it could use it to probe the surface and breathe air, which would make it a mammal. Or, perhaps it doesn't have a trunk but an appendage that looks like a trunk... Too many questions hurting my brain!!

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch
One thing definately speaks against this story - The fur. NO ocean creature has ever had fur, and theres simply no reason to get it. I call bogus from a drunk sailer..

Whales are ocean creatures. Not exactly fish but they do have hair... not fur tho. Quick search of google returned this:

whale.wheelock.edu...

- Nazgarn

Originally posted by nazgarn
Whales are ocean creatures. Not exactly fish but they do have hair... not fur tho.

Indeed. All ocean mammals from seals to whales have hair that may vary from thick fur to a couple of whiskers.

White fur - as with polar bears - would be ideal for camouflage in the snow. Maybe this animal wandered too far from the South Pole - its natural habitat? Maybe this animal remains to be discovered in the mostly unexplored South Pole?

Another theory that came to mind was the elephant evolution theory... (I couldn't find any proper references)...
According to this theory that supports evolution (Darwinism?), elephants are the "furthest" in evolution. Their ancestors supposedly evolved from aquatic animals - as with everything else? - into land animals, i.e. mammals - then back into aquatic animals (such as whales and dolphins), and finally evolved to walk the land again... Maybe Trunko is a piece of this evolution? Dugongs support this theory... Why not another cousin of the elephant?


[edit on 16-2-2006 by Gemwolf]

The prevailing (and in my opinion most probable) theory, is that what people witnessed was two orcas feeding upon the decaying carcass of a whale, possibly a Right, or Humpback Whale.

Decaying carcass certainly will appear as 'white' and fibrous (hairy) and without blood (a description provided pertaining to the carcass that washed up.)

I'm all for sea-monster lore, but c'mon ... eight inch long, snow-white fur, and a trunk ... in the ocean? Bit of an environmental handicap don't you think?

If it was a real creature ... natural selection made the right decision by making it snack food - and not another of it's kind has been seen since.

Still, must have been something to see at the time.

Originally posted by Briggs
thats a cool story .
maybe it was a creature of some type yet to be discovered.

wasnt the icthesaurus re-discovered off the coast of south africa, after being thought of as extinc for millions of yrs . back in the late 70's i think it was .


who knows what else could be down there .

Actually nobody has ever found any live sauruses of any type, although they did find an ancient fish called a coelacanth.

White fur - as with polar bears - would be ideal for camouflage in the snow. Maybe this animal wandered too far from the South Pole - its natural habitat? Maybe this animal remains to be discovered in the mostly unexplored South Pole?

[edit on 16-2-2006 by Gemwolf]

Au Contrair, Polar bears have clear fur, but in the Arctic the fur reflects the light of the snow and makes it appear snow white. This wouldn't explain the so called "trunko" because if the polar bear stayed in the water for a long period of time, it would appear bluish/clearish... or some other sort of color like dat... Don't ask me why I know that, I just read way too much...

Originally posted by TheB1ueSoldier
Au Contrair, Polar bears have clear fur, but in the Arctic the fur reflects the light of the snow and makes it appear snow white. This wouldn't explain the so called "trunko" because if the polar bear stayed in the water for a long period of time, it would appear bluish/clearish... or some other sort of color like dat... Don't ask me why I know that, I just read way too much...

That's true... I knew this (Learned about it while "investigating" the Green Children legend) ... Just didn't really think much about "polar bear fur" vs. white fur theory... But still even if the animal had white fur, and not fur like polar bears, it can be a valid theory?

Found agood image and a wikipedia article on Trunko Article

I found this interesting

One of the witnesses,Hugh Ballance, described the animal as looking like a "giant polar bear" during a final fight.

How can something that looks like a lobster-elephant-whale hybrid look 'like a giant polar bear'?

Edit:

www.china.org.cn/english/Life/136739.htm

"The animal reportedly has a long thin head and a snout nearly one meter long. "

It sounds like a smaller Trunko, possibly a juvenile?

Oh, and lo and behold...."Many experts said that, being seriously rotten and deprived of lower limbs and tail, the monster is unlikely to be identified or to be made into a specimen."


[edit on 20-2-2006 by JackofBlades]

there is a species of fish called Mormyrids (Gnathonemus petersii) of which some have a long 'trunk' hence their name elephant-nosed mormyrids. there are also albino varieties - www.dolphin-int.com... there are fish diseases like fungus which can make them look white and 'furry'

Mormyrids can be found around africa, usually hanging around caves but they are never that size. what was seen does sound like a mormyrid though.

This mythical creature came to mind when I read about the very interesting White haired Lobster... And suddenly the white-haired Trunko doesn't sound as far-fetched as I first suspected... What if this newly discovered Kiwa is just a baby Trunko? Truth is we don't know anything about these "lobsters" because of the depths they live in... We only discovered this hairy lobster now, so what else don't we know? Yes, the Kiwa differs quite a bit from the illustration of Trunko – but it is only an artist’s impression. And it’s not unknown for an infant animal to differ completely from the adult animal. Could Kiwa the "baby" form of a much larger creature that lives in the ocean depths? We can’t say for sure, can we?

Well, just a thought...


[edit on 13-3-2006 by Gemwolf]

reply to post by Briggs

reply to post by Gemwolf


well, I have this book and has a page about Elephant Fishes and it says it is very rare indeed.I think i've heard that divers are trying to find one and study it.

The description sounds a bit like a goblin shark

And the first drawing link you attached reminds me of chimaera fish