COMMENTARY | A recent video purported to be that of a woolly mammoth crossing a river in Siberia has proven to be a hoax, according to LiveScience.Com. The original, undoctored video does not show any animal, extinct or otherwise.
According to Fossil Treasures of Florida, the woolly mammoth was a 9-foot tall animal, related to the modern Indian elephant, with thick, shaggy hair. It had huge tusks that were used to scrape away snow to get at grass and other plant matter which constituted its diet. Ancient cave paintings show that early man hunted the wooly mammoth for its flesh and hide. The animal at one time roamed North America, Europe and Asia. It went extinct about 10,000 years ago. Some mammoth remains have been found frozen in Siberia with some of the soft tissue intact.
The hoax video might have been that of a real animal -- a bear with a fish in its mouth it is speculated -- deliberately blurred or else completely computer generated.
The video joins similar videos of the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot in the annals of footage that has excited the imagination of believers in cryptozoology, "the study of hidden animals," and the annoyance in skeptics of the same.
People have seen strange creatures since the dawn of civilization. Sailors have been very certain of sightings of sea monsters or mermaids. The ancients believed in all sorts of strange creatures, including unicorns, gryphons, dragons and other mythical beasts. Belief in creatures like the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot or else previously thought to be extinct animals surviving to the modern world is just the current manifestation.
The world has been thoroughly explored and new species of creatures that are located tend to be sadly less spectacular that those imagined by the cryptozoologists. They tend to be microscopic or else variations of commonly known species. Hidden places in the world where unknown creatures might lurk are few and far between.
That will not prevent the will to believe in such animals. For there would be few things more wonderful than meeting such a beast, either one thought to be extinct or else previously unknown, face to face.
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