Loch Ness Monster Trivia Quiz Questions And Answers

Trivia quiz with answers about the Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.

Loch Ness Monster Trivia Quiz Questions And Answers

What is the Loch Ness Monster?
A: In Scottish folklore, the Loch Ness Monster or Nessie is a creature said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands.

How is it often described?
A: As large in size with a long neck and one or more humps protruding from the water.

Popular interest and belief in the creature has varied since it was brought to worldwide attention in what year?
A: 1933.

Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with a few disputed what?
A: Photographs and sonar readings.

The scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a phenomenon without what?
A: Biological basis, explaining sightings as hoaxes, wishful thinking, and the misidentification of mundane objects.

The creature has been affectionately called what?
A: Nessie, since the 1940s.

The word "monster" was reportedly applied for the first time to the creature on 2 May 1933 by whom?
A: Alex Campbell, water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist, in an Inverness Courier report.

On 4 August 1933 the Courier published a report by Londoner George Spicer that several weeks earlier, while they were driving around the loch, he and his wife saw what?
A: The nearest approach to a dragon or pre-historic animal that I have ever seen in my life" trundling across the road toward the loch with "an animal" in its mouth.

Letters began appearing in the Courier, often anonymously, claiming what?
A: Land or water sightings by the writer, their family or acquaintances or remembered stories.

The accounts reached the media, which described a what?
A: A “monster fish", "sea serpent", or "dragon" and eventually settled on "Loch Ness monster".

On 6 December 1933 the first purported photograph of the monster, taken by Hugh Gray, was published in what?
A: The Daily Express.

The Secretary of State for Scotland soon ordered police to do what?
A: To prevent any attacks on it.

In 1934, interest was further piqued by what?
A: The "surgeon's photograph".

That year, R. T. Gould published an account of what?
A: The author's investigation and a record of reports predating 1933.

Other authors have claimed sightings of the monster dating to when?
A: The sixth century AD.

The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written when?
A: In the sixth century AD.

In October 1871 (or 1872), D. Mackenzie of Balnain reportedly saw an object resembling a log or an upturned boat doing what?
A: Wriggling and churning up the water.

The object moved slowly at first, disappearing at a what?
A: Faster speed.

Mackenzie sent his story in a letter to Rupert Gould in 1934, shortly after what?
A: Popular interest in the monster increased.

Modern interest in the monster was sparked by a sighting when?
A: On 22 July 1933, when George Spicer and his wife saw "a most extraordinary form of animal" cross the road in front of their car.

How did they describe the creature?
A: As having a large body (about 4 feet (1.2 m) high and 25 feet (8 m) long) and a long, wavy, narrow neck, slightly thicker than an elephant's trunk and as long as the 10–12-foot (3–4 m) width of the road.

They saw no what?
A: Limbs.

It lurched across the road towards the loch 20 yards (20 m) away, leaving a trail of what in its wake?
A: Broken undergrowth.

It has been claimed that sightings of the monster increased after what?
A: After a road was built along the loch in early 1933, bringing workers and tourists to the formerly-isolated area.

However, Binns has described this as "the myth of the lonely loch", as it was far from isolated before then, due to what?
A: The construction of the Caledonian Canal.

Hugh Gray's photograph taken near Foyers on 12 November 1933 was the first photograph alleged to what?
A: Depict the monster.

The photo was slightly blurred, and it has been noted that if one looks closely what can be seen?
A: The head of a dog.

Gray had taken his Labrador for a walk that day, and it is suspected that the photograph depicts what?
A: His dog fetching a stick from the loch.

Others have suggested the photograph depicts what?
A: An otter or a swan.

The original negative was what?
A: Lost.

However, in 1963 Maurice Burton came into "possession of two lantern slides, contact positives from the original negative" and when projected on screen it revealed what?
A: An "otter rolling at the surface in characteristic fashion."

On 5 January 1934, a motorcyclist, Arthur Grant, claimed to have what?
A: Nearly hit the creature while approaching Abriachan (near the north-eastern end of the loch) at about 1 a.m. on a moonlit night.

According to Grant, it had a what?
A: A small head attached to a long neck.

The creature saw him, and did what?
A: Crossed the road back to the loch.

Grant, a veterinary student, described it how?
A: As a cross between a seal and a plesiosaur.

Grant produced a sketch of the creature which was examined by zoologist Maurice Burton, who stated it was consistent with the appearance and behavior of a what?
A: An otter.

The "surgeon's photograph" is reportedly the first photo of the creature's what?
A: Head and neck.

Supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynecologist, when was it published in the Daily Mail?
A: On 21 April 1934.

Wilson's refusal to have his name associated with it led to it being known as what?
A: The "surgeon's photograph".

According to Wilson, he was looking at the loch when he saw the monster and did what?
A: Grabbed his camera and snapped four photos.

Only two exposures came out clearly; the first reportedly shows a small head and back, and the second shows what?
A: A similar head in a diving position.

The first photo became well-known, and the second attracted little publicity because of what?
A: Its blurriness.

Although for a number of years the photo was considered evidence of the monster, skeptics dismissed it as what?
A: Driftwood, an elephant, an otter, or a bird.

Since 1994, most agree that the photo was what?
A: An elaborate hoax.

It had been accused of being a fake in a 7 December 1975 Sunday Telegraph article which did what?
A: Fell into obscurity.

Details of how the photo was taken were published in what book?
A: The 1999 book, Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed, which contains a facsimile of the 1975 Sunday Telegraph article.

The creature was reportedly a what?
A: A toy submarine built by Christian Spurling, the son-in-law of Marmaduke Wetherell.

Wetherell had been publicly ridiculed by his employer, the Daily Mail, after he found what?
A: "Nessie footprints" which turned out to be a hoax.

To get revenge on the Mail, Wetherell perpetrated his hoax with what co-conspirators?
A: Spurling (sculpture specialist), Ian Wetherell (his son, who bought the material for the fake), and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent).

The toy submarine was bought from where?
A: F. W. Woolworths, and its head and neck were made from wood putty.

On 29 May 1938, South African tourist G. E. Taylor did what?
A: Filmed something in the loch for three minutes on 16 mm color film.

The film was obtained by what popular science writer?
A: Maurice Burton, who did not show it to other researchers.

A single frame was published where?
A: In his 1961 book, The Elusive Monster.

His analysis concluded it was what?
A: A floating object, not an animal.