Whether for a bit of fun, or because they genuinely believe that she exists, thousands of people go in search of Nessie, or the Loch Ness Monster every year.

In fact, in a post from 2024, the Loch Ness Centre (which has a Nessie outline as its logo) reports that over 85,000 people from 118 countries visited to search for the monster over the course of a year, with only 23% of people reporting that they thought the monster was ‘nonsense’ after their visit.

So proves the prevalence and mystique of what is known as ‘cryptozoology’, the search for and study of mythical animals whose existence remains unproven, or more accurately ‘the study of hidden animals’.

And while it’s a controversial field, there’s no doubt that our obsession with these mysterious creatures – yetis and monsters being the most common – is both a source of delight, curiosity, and touristic income across the world. And there’s no denying that humans are a curious species.

There’s a lot of backlash toward cryptozoology, with scientists and cryptozoologists sometimes at odds over the purported existence of these creatures, and the search for them which many regard as a waste of time and money.

But it’s worth remembering that once upon a time, some of the animals we now know and love were regarded a part of this field, with incredible species like the Komodo Dragon, the platypus, and the Giant Squid among those that were believed for along time to be the stuff of hoax or legend.

And according to an article published by The Biologist in 2022, cryptozoology can actually tell us a lot about human curiosity and scientific knowledge, with the perceptions of these mythical creatures changing dramatically in line with societal knowledge including the prior existence of dinosaurs:

“Sea monsters were predominantly described as serpent or snake-like prior to the 1850s. However, beyond this they were increasingly described as long necked and compared to plesiosaurs, a group of animals unveiled to science in 1824 and made popular to the public during the 1840s and 1850s. Rather than arguing that certain sea monster species had gone into decline and been replaced by evolutionarily younger forms (a claim that has actually been made in cryptozoological writings), our conclusion is that expectations of what sea monsters are like has been, and still is, based on images familiar in popular culture.”

So what of committed zoologists and the search for the yeti and the Loch Ness Monster? Are they deluded pseudo-scientists wasting their time in the face of real evidence? Or are they determined investigators on the cusp of something?

Arguably, a bit of both. While it’s unlikely that anyone is going to come across the Loch Ness Monster after almost 100 years of searching (though she has been rumoured in folklore for around 1,500 years) that doesn’t mean they should stop.

After all, what’s the harm in people having hobbies and interests, even if their searching turns out ultimately to be futile? At least they’re doing something with their time, and with their lives. If it gets them out of the house and into beautiful surrounds like the Loch Ness, that’s surely worthwhile.

As long as they’re doing no harm, and not spreading dangerous misinformation (a hobby of far too many people in our current times), there’s nothing wrong with a little curiosity making life worth living.

Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium