To some, this will seem impossible and even stupid, but Lake Baikal can be considered one of the most amazing places in Russia and in the world, not only because of its well-known features (fresh water supply, unique seal, etc.), but also due to unknown animals and phenomena.
However, you shouldn't get excited about this prematurely if you are an overly rational person. In fact, there are a number of convincing arguments that the lake is clearly not as simple as it seems.
Before starting a very controversial conversation about the presence of incredible animals in Lake Baikal, let us note its relationship with some other well-known geographical objects. Many of you have probably read more than once stories about monsters that may inhabit different lakes of the world.
Curiously, almost all the lakes that are under such suspicion have a number of surprisingly similar descriptions, which cannot be pure coincidence.
For example, what do Baikal have in common with the most famous anomalous lakes in the world like the Scottish Loch Ness and the Chinese Kanas? Let's put aside the fact that in Loch Ness there is definitely nothing unknown, except for huge otters and at times seals and other mammals swimming through a 10-kilometer channel. The very fact that there is a similarity is important.
First, all these lakes are deep.
Secondly, they are all located in places of geological faults.
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Third, they all have cold water.
Fourth, tectonic activity is observed under them.
These and a number of other features are inherent in both these lakes and many others, in which the presence of creatures unknown to science is suspected, albeit not even fantastic and not even dinosaurs, although not a fact.
In general, the geological portraits of these lakes could mean nothing if you do not know that Baikal itself is a huge mystery for scientists. Due to the fact that all new species of animals are discovered here every year, it is generally accepted that the real living world of the lake is known no more than 80%.
What can be hidden among the remaining 20%, only God knows. In theory, they could even include prehistoric dinosaurs, and there are compelling reasons for that.
Three quarters of the unknown 20% are probably animals that don't exist anywhere else and are naturally completely unknown to science. Who they might be is anyone's guess. We have every right to do so, because three quarters of the known Baikal creatures also live only here and they were first discovered in this huge lake.
Officially, the largest animal inhabiting Baikal is the Baikal seal
In addition, let us recall the age of the lake, which is at least 20 million years. Actually, just such a record lifespan of the lake allowed it to preserve such a unique flora and fauna. Many creatures have existed almost unchanged since then.
Of course, then there were no longer dinosaurs, since they became extinct 45 million years before the birth of the lake, but there were other, no less amazing creatures. And they could also survive.
We have no right to 100% rule out that among the supposed unknown 20% of living species there are even huge prehistoric monsters leading a particularly secretive lifestyle.
For example, until now, at the bottom and along the shores of the lake, the remains of creatures that once lived in it are found, which could survive in some quantities to this day, as others managed. Of course, this only applies to the inhabitants of waters, where climate changes were not as critical as on land.
Once the lake was in very warm climatic conditions, and a huge number of animal species lived in it and its surroundings. Everything on land died out. Moreover, the mammoths apparently died out quite recently, since their skeletons from time to time even come across fishing nets, which speaks of their historical youth, because otherwise they would have dissolved long ago or were buried under stones or silt.
There is a mass of evidence of encounters with creatures that are very similar to those seen in other similar anomalous lakes. But all this evidence would not be worth a penny if there were no well-known and competent scientists, who are also confident that the lake can harbor huge unseen creatures, which local residents and fishermen talk about with such persistence.
As such a competent person, first of all, it is worth mentioning the famous Soviet and Russian ecologist Matvey Shargaev.
Matvey Aleksandrovich Shargaev is a well-known scientist, Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation, born on October 26, 1932 in the village of Belchir, Irkutsk Region. In 1956 he graduated from the Irkutsk Agricultural Institute.
For many years he was an employee of the laboratory of zoology in one of the scientific research institutes of the Academy of Sciences. Candidate of Biological Sciences, author of many scientific developments, educational programs, books, articles, one of the creators of the Buryat Red Book. Has many government awards. Died on February 22, 2002.
This well-known Siberian ecologist, who knows nature well, has great authority as a scientist and fighter for saving the environment, was absolutely sure that the waters of Lake Baikal hold much more secrets than an ordinary person can imagine.
His confidence was so strong that, together with his like-minded people and followers, he organized several expeditions to find the unknown creature in the 1980s. Unfortunately, nothing was found. However, there is no smoke without fire.
The scientist was confident in the existence of an unknown animal, based on his theoretical knowledge of the capabilities of the lake biosphere and the information that was well known to him from the indigenous population.
It is clear that the scientist was not going to look for a two-headed dinosaur in Baikal the size of the Ostankino tower. According to M. Shargaev, it was probably always about some unknown mammal. By and large, it is simply impossible to refute his idea: it is theoretically justified and completely realistic.
As for the evidence of encounters with an unknown monster, there are really a lot of them, and it is a waste of time to list them. One has only to say that an unknown animal is especially often observed in the Baikal and Kabansky regions. Less often he is seen in some others. Frequent witnesses are fishermen and simple vacationers.
However, the “testimony” of the latter should be treated with caution. Especially if they are not local. It's all about … the seals.
Stories about unknown creatures in other lakes of the world many times boiled down to the fact that people saw simple seals, and not prehistoric dinosaurs. The only problem is that these animals shouldn't have been there.
However, many lakes have such a feature as a close connection with the seas, where there are just a lot of seals. They could easily swim deep into the continent along the rivers and thus find themselves in the most unexpected places. And if a person has not seen a seal alive, then he can take it for a monster, even if he sees it in its natural habitat. What can I say when you can meet him in the lake?
In the story of the unknown creatures of Lake Baikal, this situation is only getting worse. It is officially inhabited by a seal called the Baikal seal. In more than 90% of cases of encounters with an unprecedented monster, ordinary seals are mistaken for him.
Can such monsters live in Baikal?
Especially often, such cases occur with vacationers who decided to swim and noticed a huge carcass of a curious mammal under water. And if you really see such a spectacle "under the degree", then in general there is no chance for a reasonable explanation of what is happening.
Therefore, we should immediately sweep aside most of all the evidence that probably can relate to the seal.
As for the descriptions of a monster that has a chance to be a real animal, it has completely different external features. According to eyewitness accounts, this is an incredibly huge creature up to 10 meters long. It has a dark skin color. It can come ashore and attack livestock and sometimes even people.
Surprisingly, very similar descriptions appear in the areas of the famous anomalous Chinese lakes, and there were also, oddly enough, in relation to Loch Ness.
Summing up the possibility for an unknown huge creature to exist in the lake, we can confidently assert that the probability of this is very high. It is difficult to say how much a mysterious creature can match its external "gigantic" descriptions, since it can have a more modest physical body.
But this in no way can belittle the very uniqueness of such an unknown creature, which is still so successfully hidden from the competent human gaze.
Mikhail Raduga