High-profile cryptids get a lot of attention. There are dozens of Bigfoot books, and the internet is full of Nessie info. But there are other beasts -- more obscure ones -- about which virtually nothing has been written. Try looking up the Lau and you'll see what I mean. I spent half an hour reading about this cryptid -- or trying to. What I learned can be summed up in a sentence: it's a thirty-foot Ugandan catfish.
A lesser crypto-blogger might give up in exasperation. But
lack of information won't stop me! This post will be an exercise in creativity
-- let’s see how far we can get with the facts we have. Personally, my hopes are high. Location, size and possible identity can tell
us quite a lot – especially when it comes to cryptids.
Let’s start with some geography.
The Lau is said to live in Uganda – in particular, in its larger
lakes. This does, in fact, sound fairly
plausible. Catfish are found on every
continent except Australia, and they tend to live in fresh water. The largest species (including, one would
imagine, the Lau) favor deep lakes and slow-flowing rivers. Uganda has plenty of these, and furthermore,
its lakes would provide plenty of food for a monster fish. There are hundreds of catfish species, and
their diets are highly variable. Some
eat worms, some eat fish, some eat insects – and some even snatch
waterbirds. The diverse fauna of Uganda’s
lakes would be a catfish buffet.
A new catfish in Africa would not be very surprising. It’s the Lau’s size that makes it
unusual. How realistic is a 30-foot
fish? Not very, but not as unlikely as
you’d think. The world’s biggest fish is
the whale shark, which can grow to 42 feet at the largest. No catfish comes close to that size – but some
of them can get very large. The Mekong catfish
averages nine feet in length – and the Wels catfish can reach up to fourteen.
Africa’s longest catfish is not so large. It’s called the Vundu, and the biggest specimens are about five feet long. That’s
a far cry from thirty. Still, it's not too unreasonable to imagine a bigger species out there. Large catfish dwell in the deeper parts of lakes -- they might not be easily accessible to anglers. And the Lau's size may also be exaggerated. Catfish are very strong; some have been known to pull humans underwater. This often leads to an overestimation of their size. The thirty-foot estimate is hard to believe, but a giant Ugandan catfish is certainly posisble.
Read more about catfish (you're not gonna find much about the Lau):
Image (of Jeremy Wade from "River Monsters" with a Wels catfish) from http://img.poptower.com/pic-9106/jeremy-wade.jpg?d=600
The Lau is also said to live in Sudan. Its size and appearance are conflicting. Some say its 100 feet long or more. It could be a giant form of snake, of a fish. Its also a man killer and man eater.
ReplyDeleteThe Lau is somewhat similar to the Lukwata of Lake Victoria. The Lukwata makes bellowing roars, kills and eats large crocodiles, and kills people. It could be a whale, a snake, a fish, or a Plesiosaur. Both the Lau and Lukwata have a foul temperament, both are aquatic or semi aquatic, both make roars, both are humongous, and both are dangerous predators. These are two of the most fearsome cryptids in the world.