Located in the Altai region of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in the northern part of Burqin County, in a nature reserve, there is a beautiful lake - Kanas Lake.
"Kanas" means "beautiful and mysterious lake" in Mongolian, but this place, which is known as "the fairyland on earth and the garden of God", has seen the appearance of the sensational "water monster".
In 1980, Guangming Daily published a news story about "water monster found in Xinjiang lake, cattle and sheep were dragged into the water, no one dared to come near", which caused a big furore at home and abroad, and some adventure enthusiasts, biology experts and scholars rushed to Kanas Lake, and after several days of tracking and research, finally found out the "real culprit" that made people After several days of observation and research, they finally found out the "real culprit" that scared people.
A lake with a beautiful legend
According to legend, a long time ago, Genghis Khan passed through Kanas Lake during his western expedition and saw the stunning scenery of the lake area, so he ordered his men and horses to rest here.
Genghis Khan took a sip of the lake water handed to him by his men and, feeling refreshed, asked, "What kind of water is this?"
"This is Kanaus." A quick-witted attendant immediately replied that in Mongolian, Kanaus stood for "Water of Khan".
Genghis Khan pondered for a moment and pointed to the lake and said, "Then this lake should be called Lake Kanaus."
After the death of Genghis Khan, his body sank into Lake Kanaus, and the soldiers who were with him on his western expedition became the Tuvans, and in order to protect the royal tomb of Genghis Khan, the Tuvans have been guarding Lake Kanaus for generations, so there is a legend of the "lake monster" in Lake Kanas protecting Genghis Khan.
In 1980, Guangming Daily published the news of the discovery of the "water monster" in Kanas Lake. What is the connection between this "water monster" and the "lake monster" of the Tuvan population? Is it the same species, or is it something else?
What's special about Kanas Lake
Before we solve the mystery of the "water monster", let's find out what's so special about Kanas Lake.
According to the information in the Chinese National Geographic magazine Glacial Permafrost, based on the analysis of ancient glacial landforms, the Kanas Lake area has experienced three more pronounced ice ages, and the Kanas Lake was formed during the second ice age after a huge compound valley glacier dug in and eroded the lake.
Kanas Lake has a high altitude of 1374 meters and a depth of 188.5 meters, making it the deepest moraine weir lake in China.
Kanas Lake is located in the deep and dense forests of Altai, surrounded by snow-capped mountains on all sides and rich in vegetation, and is the only area in China where the flora and fauna of the South Siberian region are distributed.
The well-preserved glaciers and snow-capped mountains, jungles, grasslands, rivers and lakes form a complete natural ecosystem.
It is because of such an intact ecosystem that the Kanas Lake area is home to more than a thousand species of plants, 300 species of insects, and some countless birds, animals, and fish.
So, in an area with such a well-preserved ecosystem, could the fearful "water monster" that eats cattle and sheep be a real "water monster"?
Involvement of experts
In 1980, when the Guangming Daily's report on the "Xinjiang Water Monster" caused a great reaction in the society, some experts entered the Kanas Lake area.
They set up a giant fishing net hundreds of meters long on the lake based on eyewitness accounts, attempting to use the net to capture the monster in one fell swoop when it appeared, after all, to unravel the mystery of the "water monster", the best way is to capture it, then do research and give conclusions.
The crew of the expert group waited patiently for the rest of the night, and when the group arrived early the next morning at the place where the nets had been placed, they found that the nets were missing.
The first reaction of the experts was that the net had been swept away by the huge current, but the staff searched downstream for two days in the direction of the current and found nothing.
At this point, someone suggested whether it would be a good idea to look further upstream; after all, the likelihood of such a large net being stolen is almost nil, and with none downstream, the only place to look is upstream.
While everyone was searching for the net in an upstream direction without any hope, a miracle occurred and the huge lost net was found at a location two kilometers upstream from where it had been placed.
The staff of the expert group worked together to pull the net ashore and found that the net drift originally attached to the net had been severely deformed and the volume was reduced to the naked eye, this phenomenon was caused by excessive external pressure, and it was evident that the net was brought to the deep water area of tens or even hundreds of meters by a tremendous force, and the excessive pressure of the deep water caused the net drift to be deformed.
Meanwhile, in addition to the huge number of small fish caught in the nets, after fully unfolding the nets, the staff found that the nets had been torn by an external force with a huge opening, which, judging from the diameter of the opening, was a phenomenon of damage caused by the struggle of a huge organism after it had been caught in the nets.
So what kind of creature is so large and powerful that it can easily drive a huge fishing net, swim to the bottom of the lake, then rip it open and struggle to escape?
After the next few days of observations by the Group's staff at the lake yielded nothing, the Group's leader decided to set up camp at the lake and observe its movements on a twenty-four-hour shift.
Early one morning, the team in charge of the survey noticed that the sound of the lake had changed, a wave surged up from the calm surface of the lake, beneath the wave, a huge shadow, swiftly swam across the surface of the lake, through the binoculars, the huge shadow was a creature with a red surface, a few moments later, the shadow dived to the bottom of the lake, no more sound.
In order to get a clearer view of the unidentified creature that appeared in the lake, the leader of the group decided to lead the team to a higher observation point, the Glance Pavilion, in the hope of capturing the unidentified creature again.
That morning, just after the rain, the sun came out and the sky appeared with a beautiful rainbow and the Buddha's light that can only be found in Kanas Lake. While the team was immersed in the excitement of meeting the Buddha's light, the lake surface of Kanas Lake once again appeared abnormal.
"Teacher, look at the lake." A younger member of the team suddenly shouted, pointing to the lake in the distance.
The team's eyes were all focused on the lake in a flash, only to see the calm surface of the lake flooded with countless splashes of water, a mass of giant red creatures were swimming forward in a mass, according to an incomplete count, at least a hundred unidentified red organisms were diving through the lake.
The leader took a camera with him to capture the spectacle. After comparison, the bodies of those unknown creatures were spindle-shaped, very similar to the appearance of fish, only in size to be hundreds of times larger than ordinary fish, based on visual analysis of the results, the head of a red creature is the size of the canopy of the shore, based on this speculation, the length of the entire body of the unknown creatures should be able to reach more than ten meters.
Based on all these observations, the experts of the observation team believe that the "water monster" appearing in Kanas Lake is a kind of "big red fish" with a very large size.
Soon, the group's observations were confirmed by Professor Huang Renxin of Xinjiang University.
On the day after the group evacuated Kanas Lake, Professor Huang Renxin observed a similar sighting.
At first, Professor Huang thought that the large red unidentified object floating on the lake was just some red planktonic seaweed, but after being reminded by fellow members, Professor Huang used binoculars to look carefully and found that what was floating in the lake was indeed a big red fish.
It's just that the size of these big redfish is huge, even comparable to whales living in the ocean, but since Kanas Lake is just a freshwater lake and there can't be marine life, then the species of big redfish should also belong to freshwater fish, except that the size is hundreds of times bigger than ordinary freshwater fish, and according to the results of sightings at the scene, a big redfish is able to reach 5-15 meters in length.
The sockeye, also known as the churro salmon, is the sixth most ferocious freshwater fish in the world, preferring to feed on fish, water mice, ducks and other animals.
An adult giant redfish, capable of weighing up to 70 kg, is so named because of its red color.
At present, in our territory, the big red fish occurs only in the waters of the Erches River system and the Heilong River.
Since the big redfish is a cold-water, freshwater, predatory and ferocious fish, the right temperature for them is below 15 degrees Celsius.
Kanas Lake, which is located in the dense forests of the Altai Mountains in Xinjiang, has a secluded environment, rich vegetation and suitable temperature, leading to a large number of big red fish gathering here.
In June 2004, visitors to Kanas Lake in Xinjiang again witnessed the appearance of the great red fish
Just after 9 a.m., in the center of the lake, four giant red fish were swimming from the direction of Kanas Ichiban to IIchiban. When the big fish were exposed to the water, you could clearly see that the longest one was at least 7 meters, and the shortest one was more than 5 meters.
Since then, many more tourists have witnessed the big red fish in the Kanas Lake area of Xinjiang and have taken some precious photos.
In 2008, CCTV produced a documentary entitled "The Water Monster of Kanas Lake" for the "Water Monster" incident in Kanas Lake, Xinjiang, which was broadcast on TV, and Kanas Lake in Xinjiang appeared in people's eyes again.
The group of experts, led by Professor Wang Yuebing of the Hangzhou Institute of Applied Acoustics, once again set off into Kanas Lake.
When the expert team entered Kanas Lake, they were unfamiliar with the local terrain and were in desperate need of a local guide to understand the situation, and their first thought was the Tuvans.
As descendants of Genghis Khan, the Tuvans have lived on the shores of Kanas Lake for generations and are most familiar with the area.
However, when the Group's staff made their intentions clear, the Tuvan people were instantly alerted and not only refused to act as guides for the Group, but also warned the staff not to approach the "lake monster", which in their eyes is sacrosanct and a symbol of danger. It is also a symbol of danger.
Since the Tuvan people mentioned the "lake monster", at least it proves that there is indeed an unknown organism in Kanas Lake, and this phenomenon has been witnessed by the Tuvan people, but in the eyes of the experts who are concerned about everything based on scientific facts, the "water monster" and However, in the eyes of experts who are concerned with scientific facts, the "water monster" and "lake monster" are not necessarily "monsters", and anything that has not been verified is just blackmail.
After consultation with the local tourism bureau, members of the group were allowed to enter the uninhabited reserve of Kanas Lake to conduct the survey.
The team of experts carried with them two sets of sonar detectors and a hydrophone.
Sonar detectors, also known as sonar detectors, are electronic devices that mimic the "underwater sonar" possessed by marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, and use the propagation characteristics of sound waves underwater to accomplish underwater detection and communication tasks through electro-acoustic conversion and information processing.
A hydrophone is an underwater listening device, mainly used in the military field, which was used by the Americans in 1950 to detect Soviet submarines in time.
With the specialized equipment, even if the "water monster" does not appear on the surface of the water, as long as the other party appears in the monitored area, the above two devices can analyze the shape, size and number of the monitored creatures accurately by listening to the messages transmitted.
Although well prepared in their minds, when the panelists crossed into that mysterious uninhabited area, they were still stunned by the sight before them.
The remains of animals were piled up in the grass by the shore of Kanas Lake, and some of the carcasses even had clearly visible blood stains and gnawed remnants of flesh on them. Judging from the color and dryness of the animal remains, it was not long ago that these blood-stained animals were alive and well.
Although the scenes of animal remains piling up are alarming, the group is certain that this is not a so-called "water monster", and that the "real culprit" that gnawed at the animals is most likely to be A species that exists only in Kanas Lake.
In view of the fact that the photos and video tapes provided by the experts involved in the research of the "water monster" were taken from a distance, which inevitably had shortcomings such as unclear images, this time Professor Wang decided to set up a small boat on the surface of Kanas Lake and put the probe underwater to get a closer look and obtain more accurate data.
To observe the water monster in Kanas Lake, in addition to dealing with the sudden appearance of conditions in the lake, the weather in Kanas Lake, which was sunny and rainy, added difficulty to the group's observations, and for several days in a row, the group did not obtain any valuable data due to weather and other reasons.
Long hours of squatting and waiting still nothing, the mood of the group inevitably became anxious, in everyone thought, the operation is destined to return to no avail when a strange sound of movement from the lake, ignited the last hope.
The information from the hydrophone showed that an unidentified creature with the appearance of a dolphin and its resemblance to a dolphin swam by at a depth of about 6 m. The creature moved quickly and chased a large school of fish rapidly out of the hydrophone's monitoring range.
But it is this image of just a few seconds that provides the most solid evidence to uncover the true identity of the "water monster" of Kanas Lake.
After returning to Hangzhou, Professor Wang sent the captured images to the Chinese Institute of Aquatic Biology, where the information on the unidentified organisms captured in Kanas Lake was analyzed by relevant experts, together with the Tuvan description of the water monster's appearance, to conclude that
The "water monster" that appears in Kanas Lake is none other than the Chironomus salmon, also known as the sockeye, which is a fierce freshwater carnivorous fish and is so large that it naturally preys on the animals that occasionally intrude into the lake.
With the identity of the "water monster" of Kanas Lake being revealed, Kanas Lake, one of the most beautiful scenic spots in Xinjiang, has once again become a tourist mecca.
By 2022, tens of millions of tourists will have visited Kanas Lake in Xinjiang, and the pavilion used to observe the "water monster" has been renamed the "Fish Watching Pavilion" and has become one of the must-see attractions for visitors to Kanas Lake.
Reference.
Hangzhou professor "sound" to explore the Xinjiang water monster, suspected to be a 4-meter long Chero salmon, 7 March 2008 Zhejiang Online.
The "water monster" of Kanas Lake attracted a scientific research team, and the camera captured their strange discovery at that time" Yunnan TV Classic Human Geography.
