THE KILLER DEATH -FILES WORM OF THE DESERT
IT sounds like something plucked straight from a Hollywood monster movie: a gigantic, spiky serpent which spits deadly acid while unleashing a fatal electric charge...
Yet for some terrified eye- witnesses, this beast isn’t a work of fiction, it’s the blood- curdling Mongolian Death Worm – and it’s lurking in the sands right now!
Those plucky souls who inhabit Mongolia’s Gobi Desert call it “olgoi- khorkhoi”, which translates as “large intestine worm”.
Petrified
And while it’s rarely glimpsed, the locals are absolutely petrified of this fat snake- like creature which glistens a dark red – like a swollen length of human entrail.
Documented for centuries in the mountainous land of Genghis Khan, it was only brought to the attention of the western world in 1926, when U. S. explorer and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews described dozens of sightings by terrified tribesmen.
The reports sent shockwaves through the biology community, and sparked a slew of adventurers heading to the region to try and find a real, live specimen of the creature.
Andrews wrote in his book On The Trail of Ancient Man: “Every northern Mongol firmly believes in the Death Worm’s existence and gives essentially the same description.
Poisonous
“It is said to be about five feet long, the body shaped like a sausage, and to have no head or legs. It is so poisonous that even to touch it means instant death.
“It is reported to live in the most arid, sandy regions of the western Gobi.
“What reptile could have furnished the basis for the description is a mystery!”
So far no- one has been able to photograph one of these legless lizards.
But British cryptozoologist Nick Redfern, 51, has long studied the slithering horror, and has a chilling description of how the worm kills those who cross its path.
He says: “The creature has two ways in which it brings down its prey – which, on occasion, has reportedly included people.
“It has the ability to spit, over distances of up to around 12 feet, an acid- like venom that can burn through clothing, skin, muscle, and right down to the bone; something which causes the victim to turn a sickly, jaundice- like yellow.
But when the late Czech explorer Ivan Mackerle, who died in 2013, visited the region in 1990 he brought back a vivid account of a gruesome human slaying by the worm.
Author, lecturer and former zoo keeper Richard Freeman – who has studied Mackerle’s early work – says: “The party’s interpreter, Sugi, told them of a dramatic incident from his childhood.
“A party of geologists had been visiting Sugi’s home region. One of them was poking into the
to the Gobi desert in search of the beast in 2005.
The 45- year- old returned empty handed, having failed to locate one, but he’s convinced they’re real.
Certain
He explained: certainly exists.
“When we talked to people during our trip in Mongolia, they were all quite certain of that. They believed it was venomous.
“And they’re very afraid of it. A whole family packed up their tent hut and moved when they heard of
“The
worm sightings of the worm. Nobody knows anyone directly who was killed by the worm, but there are many who say they’ve seen it.
“There’s a recent rumour of a child who poked the worm with a stick, got spat at, and died.
“I think it’s a reptile. It’s either an unknown species of worm lizard or an unknown species of sand boa.
“Nobody thinks of it as a mythical creature in Mongolia, but a real living animal.”
Meanwhile British zoologist Karl Shuker, 55, is equally sure of the worm’s actuality.
Offering a scientific explanation for the Death Worm’s electric eel- like ability to zap its prey, he said: “The thought- provoking prospect for me is that the creature may be a highly specialised species of snake.
“Spitting cobras also offer a famous precedent for an elongate creature that can eject a stream of corrosive venom with deadly accuracy at a potential aggressor.
“Moreover, the spine- bearing tip described for the Death Worm recalls a genus of cobra- related species known as death adders, which possess a spiny worm- like projection at the tip of their tail that acts as a lure for potential prey.”
Scales
What about its alleged powers of electrocution?
“Remarkably, this too may be more than just a myth.
“For if the Death Worm were indeed a snake and perhaps sported such smooth, fine, tiny scales that they were not readily discernable, when it was crawling through sand these scales may be able to generate an electrical current via friction – a process known as triboelectricity.”
Almost impossible to find, then, yet you’d be unlikely to surveive even if you did.
No wonder, then, that most who cross the Gobi Desert in modern times do so in 4x4 vehicles, rather than camels… with their long legs exposed to a Death Worm attack!