DINOSAURS THAT LOOK LIKE SEALS,
OR SEALS THAT LOOK LIKE DINOSAURS?
" Returning from a hunting trip, Orde-Lees, travelling on skis across the rotting surface of the ice, had just about reached camp when an evil, knob like head burst out of the water just in front of him. He turned and fled, pushing as hard as he could with the ski poles and shouting to Wild to bring his rifle. The animal sprang out of the water and came after him, bounding across the ice with the peculiar rocking horse gait of a seal on land. The beast looked like a small dinosaur, with a long serpentine neck. After a half dozen leaps, the sea leopard had almost caught up with Orde-Lees when it unaccountably wheeled and plunged again into the water. By then Orde-Lees had nearly reached the opposite side of the floe; he was about to cross when the sea leopards head exploded out of the water directly ahead of him. The animal had tracked his shadow across the ice. It made a savage lunge for Orde-Lees with its mouth open, revealing an enormous array of saw like teeth .Orde-Lees` shouts for help rose to screams and he turned and raced away from his attacker. The animal leaped out of the water again in pursuit just as Wild arrived with his rifle. The sea leopard spotted Wild and turned to attack him. Wild dropped to one knee and fired again and again at the onrushing beast. It was less than 30ft. away when it finally dropped."
The above account, gripping in the extreme, is not an encounter with some unknown animal, but a chance encounter with a leopard seal, as related in Ernest Shackleton`s "Endurance", a record of his Antarctic expedition. A similarly harrowing encounter with such creatures is related in 1980, when two Antarctic scientists, scuba diving, were confronted with three leopard seals that became unduly aggressive towards them. The divers had to try and defend themselves with two metre lengths of angle iron. The seals apparently repeatedly dived at these, coiling up their necks to strike at them as they attacked.
More recently in 2003, a 28-year-old marine biologist who was snorkelling near an Antarctic research station was attacked and pulled underwater by a leopard seal. 1 Despite her colleagues rescuing her, and attempting resuscitation she died as a result of this tragic and unusual incident.
The reason for including these short diversions is to consider another possibly related but altogether more fearsome long necked animal.
Roy Mackal in his book, "Searching for Hidden Animals", related some very interesting information about an animal that is apparently the scourge of the native Eskimos around King Island in Alaska. The island lies 110 miles south of the Arctic Circle and is only two and a half square miles in area with a small Eskimo population. It is situated in the Bering Sea and is part of the Aleutian Island chain. 2
The information was given to Mackal by a naturalist, Dr John White, who had apparently met and talked with the native people of this area at great length, obtaining a description of a frightening creature, referred to as Tizheruk locally and as Palraiyuk further south around the island of Nunivak. This fearsome animal was usually noticeable sporting a 7-8ft. neck and snake like head, which it would show out of the water and had a tail that had a flipper on the end of it. It was often encountered in bay areas and had been known to attack man on occasion. The natives could apparently detect its presence by ear and it could be called by tapping on the side of a boat, which as Mackal discovered, was a sure fire way of attracting a leopard seal, (should anyone wish to do so). Based on this information, Mackal speculated that a northern counterpart, to the Antarctic leopard seal might exist. If it did, Mackal thought that it might have evolved a more elongated neck while possibly losing its fore flippers heightening its reptilian appearance.
As already mentioned, The leopard seal, which already looks quite reptilian, fits the aggressive nature of such an animal, (although scientists feel that this behaviour is more often than not based on mistaken identity on the part of the seal), and Mackal concluded that the isolated nature of the locality and Alaska in general, could conceivably conceal such a creature quite easily.
Unfortunately, apart from the information given to Mackal by Dr White, subsequent detail from any source appears to be lacking. Indeed what further information can be gathered becomes rather confusing.
The Indian lore of North America and the British Columbian coast portrays many sea animal counterparts to the more familiar land ones, universal among them is one very similar animal to Mackals. 3 Generally seen as some type of `sea wolf` and variously named as Sisiutl, Wasgo or Haetelik / Hiyit`lik this belief seems to extend further north to Alaska where a similar beast is called either Tirichik (?Tizheruk), Mauraa, Nikaseenitluloyee or Palraiyuk. Petroglyphs created by the native tribes in these regions all seem to depict a similar animal. The Manhousat people of Flores Island and Sydney Inlet around West Vancouver Island apparently described Hiyit`lik as being a creature 7-8feet long and fast moving on land or in the water. It had legs but used its body rather than its legs for propulsion on land, moving like a snake. It could grow wings at will its head and back was covered with long hair.
Sisiutl appears to be no less strange associated with war, death and revival; it possessed supernatural traits, (such as being able to shape shift into a self propelled canoe! and having up to three heads or faces incorporated into its body, one being human like). The Indians however believed it to be a living, breathing creature. Depictions of these beasts from Eskimo and Indian representations, all seem to show common features, a serpentine body, crocodile like head and four to six limbs with a fluked tail. These graphic representations are usually adorned on local handicrafts and kayaks.
A significant, long and distinct neck is hard to identify from any of them and for an animal with a specific trait as reported by Mackal you would expect this to be a more prominent feature. My own enquiries to this region of the world have also so far been disappointing.
Following an email I sent to the Nunivak Island community I received a friendly but brief reply informing me that with regard to Palraiyuk the Eskimos did indeed use its symbolic form on their kayaks but were unsure of its origin. Tizheruk was not a known creature of this area and it was suggested that it may be a creature from further `north`. 4 I have subsequently emailed the King Island community but as of yet have not received a reply. The only supporting evidence in favour of Tizheruk appears to come from Heuvelmans who included an account from a Russian explorer, Otto Von Kotzebue in “In The Wake of The Sea Serpents”.
During his first voyage around the world in 1815-1818 Kotzebue passed through the Bering Straits. He describes how he met an American working for a company in the region there since 1795 who related a tale of how he along with some others, had been chased by a huge sea monster.
The description of the creature was found to tally well with native Aleutian belief.
It was the shape of a `red` serpent, immensely long with a head that resembled a sea lion. It had two disproportionately large eyes and stretched its head far above the water, looking for prey. It did this on a couple of occasions, scaring the local otariids into the water as it did so.
So here again we have a fearsome sounding creature although we cannot say that it is normally so.
It appears to conform to traditional descriptions of the feared creatures from this region and appears similar to Tizheruk.
As far as this present work is concerned, if Dr Whites information was accurate and Mackals notion of a pinniped is correct then it throws up an interesting question. For in all the accounts of long necked animals that appear in this work, there is no evidence at any time of aggression on the part of the witnessed creatures. Just the opposite in fact, for the animals described seem to be quite the reverse, shy and timid, inspiring rather than terrifying. So if therefore, the accounts included in this book represent one species of seal with a long neck and Tizheruk/Palruiyuk also turns out to be the same sort of animal, then are we dealing here, with another, different species?
When seals attack….
Of course animals do get aggressive at times, for instance when injured, threatened or defending their young but usually there is some reason behind it. With regard to seals, aggression is usually aimed at their own kind especially when mating time is upon them (apart from of course the leopard seal).
There do seem to be exceptions to the rule as a swimmer off Leigh on Sea in Essex found out in 2003 when a six-foot seal attacked him and left him with a broken foot for no apparent reason (seal attacks in Britain are virtually unknown). 5 More recently `sick` sea lions, suffering from domoic poisoning, a toxin produced by algae, were seen beaching themselves daily at Manhattan Pier Beach, California.
On one particular occasion a sea lion charged at a local surfer biting through his wetsuit and into his thigh. 6 A lifeguard in Santa Barbara similarly received thirty stitches to a sea lion bite7 while a 13 year old `boogie boarder` was chased by a sea lion that took a chunk out of his board8. More disturbingly a Cape Fur Seal in South Africa has recently bitten of a woman’s nose for which she must undergo reconstructive surgery9.
If Tizheruk does exist however and is a seal, then the aggressive behaviour, which it displays, makes me inclined to think that this could indeed be a separate species. It is also worth remembering that Alaska is a rather cold place to be and although relict saurians may have been warm blooded, it would probably be much more comfortable for a pinniped or a whale.
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