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Mongolian Death Worm

Snook25

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Messages
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Death Worm in da house!!!!

Has anyone heard the story of the Mongolian Death Worm??

I believe it is like the film Dune. Big worm under sand eats cows and small ice cream caryying children etc. In Mongolia. Anyone got any more info on that?

I am never going to the beach again......

take y'all! Flower x :)
 
You'll like it, but not a lot...

I don't think it's quite as big as the ones in Dune. It's reported as 2 to 4 feet long, fat and gross, with the ability to spit electricity, scare horses and induce nightmares. A bit like Paul Daniels.
 
Have a look at Fortean Studies Volume 4 where there is an article by Karl Shuker on the Mongolian Death Worm
 
Man that worm can turn

Interesting topic

This couild exist easily if the conditions under the goby desert are right (under ground rivers etc..).
As well as this, the creature only seams to come out at a particular time of year inplying a long hibination or they feed to be able to mate ( ova production, egg sack's etc..)
It is also could the intetine worm and the electric it is supposed to spit out has also been called poison, the dream thing is strange espeacily when that reseacher woke up with those massive sores covering his back.
I for some reason have my money on a fish or water snake as some of the features fit both, slimy body, spiting electric/ poison, an abilty to move through sand as if swimming, nocturnal feeding habits and an elongated leglass and bumpy body not suted to limbless travil in a sand tone desert.
I must metion that the physical description (although it varies alot ) reminds me of a slime hag, which is a type of ocean bottom scavinger which feeds on any dead thing that happens to drop.
 
And That's Magic!

Check this link for more death worm goofiness...

parascope.com/en/cryptozoo/predators06.htm
Link is dead. The webpage seems to have disappeared after 2009.
See subsequent post for the MIA webpage's text.


Sounds like a cross between a viper and a spitting cobra to me. And Paul Daniels.
 
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Sound more like the classic invertibrate thriller comedy, 'Tremmors'. Big worm, spits stuff, bumpy, might have tenticles...lets go get some dinamite, a small weapons factory, and a rusty old jeep and try and blow it up. Oh and we sticks to get around on incase the jeep breaks down!
 
Just a quick thought here, but could the Death Worm possibly be a relative to the Tatzelwurm?
 
Tatzlwurm, Tremor, Death Worm. They're all serpentine-worm-lore. In other words, the number of species on this planet has rocketed since we started looking for stuff that the natives of whatever regions always knew and feared. We are still descovering and it is only a matter of time before we document these creatures as scientific fact and not superstision or folklore.
Just like the Sasquatch/Bigfoot/Yeti, The Death Worm is one of those oddities that scientist wish to deny as real because they have never shot one and disected it...
 
Giant mongolian worm

I remember seeing the tail end (er) of something on fortean TV (i think - TV anyway, and it was fortean). It was about a giant worm - creature that was reported in mongolia... I recall someone went to investigate, and that they concluded it was something to do with dreams :)confused:). however I am very interested and my memory has blanked, can anyone help? and will they?
 
from http://cryptozoo.monstrous.com/crypto_encyclo.htm#_Toc524971098
The Death worm
Aka : Allghoi khorkhoi means "intestine worm", also known as the Mongolian death worm



Description
A fat, bright red snakelike animal measuring two to four feet in length, which is vividly likened to a cow's intestine.



Origin
As many invertebrates, worms cannot survive in a brutally hot and dry climate like the Gobi desert. Mackerle has proposed the skink, a strange variety of lizard whose nondescript head is hard to distinguish from its tail. Skinks also live buried under desert sands but the smooth-bodied death worm has no legs. He has also suggested that it could be a type of lizard called the worm lizard, although that species is not poisonous. Among lizards, only the Mexican beaded lizard and the Gila monster possess poisonous venom, but they do not squirt it, and their venom definitely is not instantly lethal on contact. The only existing snake that sprays its venom and could survive in the Gobi environment is the death adder, a member of the cobra family but he is found only in Australia and New Guinea and is much smaller. More likely, the death worm is a mythological monster based on an exaggeration of some desert-dwelling snake or reptile, which is not truly as deadly as its reputation would suggest



Place
The desolate Gobi Desert



Powers
The death worm is so feared among the people of Mongolia that many consider the mere mention of its name bad luck. It is attributed with the dramatic ability to kill people and animals instantly at a range of several feet. It is even believed that the worm sprays an immensely lethal poison; a sort of acidic liquid that immediately makes anything it touches turn yellow and corroded. The nomads also said that the color yellow attracts the Allghoi khorkhoi. The analogy with the basilick (cockatrix) is strong as this creature has also the power to kill instantaneously anyone who tries to observe it.



Sightings
The worm was popularized by Czech author author Ivan Mackerle, who learned about the creature from a female student from Mongolia. After Communism collapsed in Mongolia in 1990, he mounted an expedition to the country's desert wastes to hunt for the worm. Except a few testimonies from locals, he did not bring back any evidence.

From http://wintersteel.homestead.com/Unexplained_Creatures.html
Allegedly, a fat, bright red snakelike animal measuring two to four feet in length that supposedly has the dramatic ability to kill people and animals instantly at a range of several feet. The Mongolian Death Worm is believed to accomplish this by either spraying an enormously lethal poison, or by somehow transmitting high electrical charges into its victims.


The worm is said to be found solely in the sand dunes of the southern part of the Gobi Desert; Allghoi Khorkhoi (local name, meaning "intestine worm," because of its color and appearance) is so feared among the people of Mongolia that the simple mention of it is considered bad luck. It is believed that touching any part of the worm will bring instant death, and its venom supposedly corrodes metal. Local folklore also tells of a predilection for the color yellow and local parasitic plants such as the Goyo.


First reported in 1929, the Mongolian Death Worm is said to emerge during the hot months of June and July and to hibernate the rest of the year.


Story:


One story said that a little boy was outside playing with a yellow toy box, when, suddenly, the Mongolian Death Worm crawled into the box. Out of curiosity, the little boy touched the worm and was instantly killed. When the parents saw his dead body and the wavy trail in the sand, they knew what happened to their son. They ran after the worm and tried to kill it, but the exact opposite happened. The parents died
 
One story said that a little boy was outside playing with a yellow toy box, when, suddenly, the Mongolian Death Worm crawled into the box. Out of curiosity, the little boy touched the worm and was instantly killed. When the parents saw his dead body and the wavy trail in the sand, they knew what happened to their son. They ran after the worm and tried to kill it, but the exact opposite happened. The parents died
Anyone else reminded of the US Air Force in Afghanistan dropping both bright yellow bombs and bright yellow food parcels? :( If people had not encountered explosives (or even some sort of electricic shock weapon thingy?) before, it would be quite logical to attribute such deaths to a legendary killer worm. Or maybe the "worm" is itself some sort of little-known experimental anti-personall weapon device? Any recent wars or dodgy military tests in Mongolia?
 
death worm/an also..

yeah I've seen the ' death worm' explained just as "Faggus'' explained in some mag or book . what about the "Irkuiem" that the russians sent an expedition out to find -An unidentified mammal which looks like a "polar bear ,but moves like a caterpillar.
 
The Deathworm is covered in-depth in the current WYRD magazine in an article by Richard Freeman
 
This is a new one to me. I love the name

The Mongolian Death Worm

The desolate Gobi Desert is said to be the home of a mysterious, deadly creature called Allghoi khorkhoi, also known as the Mongolian death worm. It is described as a fat, bright red snakelike animal measuring two to four feet in length, which is vividly likened to a cow's intestine. In fact, the name Allghoi khorkhoi means "intestine worm." The death worm is so feared among the people of Mongolia that many consider the mere mention of its name bad luck, and it is attributed with the dramatic ability to kill people and animals instantly at a range of several feet. It is believed that the worm sprays an immensely lethal poison, or that it somehow transmits high electrical charges into its victims.
the death worm The foremost investigator of the Mongolian death worm is Czech author Ivan Mackerle, who first learned about the creature from a female student from Mongolia. After Mackerle told her about a diving expedition he had made in search of the Loch Ness Monster, she told him in a conspiratorial whisper, "We, too, have a horrible creature living in Mongolia. We call it the Allghoi khorkhoi monster, and it lives buried in the Gobi Desert sand dunes. It can kill a man, a horse, even a camel." Intrigued, Mackerle set out to learn more about this Mongolian monster, but information on the topic was very hard to come by. As he would soon learn, this was primarily because most Mongolians were afraid to discuss the death worm. In addition, the Communist government of Mongolia had kept the nation isolated, and outlawed the search for Allghoi khorkhoi, which the government considered a "fairy tale." Communism collapsed in Mongolia in 1990, and the new political climate provided Mackerle the freedom to mount an expedition to the country's desert wastes to hunt for the worm. Mackerle and his colleagues befriended some Mongolian nomads who were willing to discuss the death worm, after a couple of bottles of Mongolian vodka loosened their tongues. They said that the worm squirts an acidic liquid that immediately makes anything it touches turn yellow and corroded. The nomads also said that the color yellow attracts the Allghoi khorkhoi. They told a story of a young boy who was playing outside with a yellow toy box, a death worm crawled inside. When the boy touched the worm, he was killed instantly. The boy's parents found his body and a wavy trail leading away in the sand. They knew what had happened and followed the trail to kill the worm, but it killed them instead. Mackerle's group also encountered an old woman named Puret who reluctantly agreed to discuss the worm. "I have never personally seen the Allghoi khorkhoi," she said, "but I have heard much about it. It is said to move about under the sand, and when it wants to kill someone, it moves half its length out of the sand. It starts to inflate. The bubble on its body keeps getting larger, and, in the end, the poison squirts out from it." If the Mongolian death worm is real, it's highly unlikely that it is literally a worm. Annelids and similar invertebrates are unable to survive in a brutally hot and dry climate like the Gobi desert, because their bodies cannot retain moisture and they would rapidly die of dessication. It has been suggested that Allghoi khorkhoi might be a worm that has adapted some sort of cuticle membrane to hold in moisture, but a more reasonable candidate would be a snake or other reptile.
Mackerle has posited that the creature might be a skink, a strange variety of lizard whose nondescript head is hard to distinguish from its tail. Skinks also live buried under desert sands. But they have four stubby legs and scales, unlike the reportedly smooth-bodied death worm. Mackerle has also suggested that it could be a type of lizard called the worm lizard, although that species is not poisonous. Among lizards, only the Mexican beaded lizard and the gila monster possess poisonous venom, but they do not squirt it, and their venom definitely is not instantly lethal on contact. Another possibility is that the death worm is a member of the cobra family called the death adder. This species has an appearance similar to the descriptions of the Allghoi khorkhoi, and it does spray its venom. But although the death adder could conceivably survive in the Gobi environment, they are found only in Australia and New Guinea. Then there is the matter of the death worm's reputed ability to kill its victims from a far distance, without even shooting venom. Some have proposed that this might be performed with an electrical shock of some sort. This hypothesis might have arisen from an association with the electric eel, but the eel and all similar electricity-discharging animals are fishes, and none of them could have the ability to live on land, much less in a desert. Most likely, the "death from a distance" component of the Allghoi khorkhoi legend is an exaggeration based on fear.
And the death worm itself is most likely a fiction based on some desert-dwelling snake or reptile, which is not truly as deadly as its reputation would suggest. Unless, of course, it really is a species that's never been identified before. Admittedly, any animal that can instantly kill anyone who tries to observe it would stand a good chance at escaping scientific classification.
 
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Fenris: It has come up a time or 2:

forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=307
forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4653

Links are obsolete. Those former threads have been merged into this consolidated thread.

I suspect it might be a good diea to get all these threads merged.

And do you a source for that text?

Emps
 
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-Oracle- said:
The Death Worm is one of those oddities that scientist wish to deny as real because they have never shot one and disected it...

I wish to volunteer my services for the first part of that.
 
There was a very interesting talk given at Weird Weekend recently, by Adam Davies who recently led an expedition to try and find the Mongolian Death Worm. The Centre for Fortean Zoology are planning an expedition next year to investigate. See http://www.cfz.org.uk

I believe there are plans afoot to make the talks available via internet. Failing that, I'm sure if you throw enough money at them, they'll send you a tape of the talks.:D
 
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And do you know I was racking my brains trying to remember the name of the site? I mean, extreme-expeditions, it's not that hard to remember, surely?:rolleyes:
 
Mongolian death worm blog entries:

http://cryptoworld.co.uk/category/death-worm/
Link is dead. This was a listing of blog entries categorized as relevant to the Death Worm, and it disappeared circa late 2005.
This listing page can still be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050702014723/http://cryptoworld.co.uk/category/death-worm/

However ... The items to which the listing's links point may or may not still be accessible.


Posted in today's news and his other broader blog:

www.davinian.co.uk/journal/2005/04/11/other-projects/
Link is dead. It apparently was a single blog entry for 11 April 2005:

Monday April 11th 2005, 11:01 pm
Filed under: News, Weirdness

Plug that other project!

Check cryptoworld.co.uk for my plans, problems and progress while on the hunt for the Mongolian Death Worm!

As you know I’m off to Mongolia at the end of April for four weeks. If all goes to plan (yeah right) we will prove the existence of this illusive critter – probably a new species of lizard or snake. In doing so I hope to be bloging almost live from the Gobi desert. Well, as long as I can power my laptop and connect to the net via sat-phone to send emails.

Who really knows what will happen?

SOURCE: https://web.archive.org/web/20050426002539/http://www.davinian.co.uk/journal/2005/04/
 
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here's the offical CFZ press release on the death worm expedition from Jon Downes :

ENGLISH SCIENTISTS GO IN SEARCH OF THE
MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM

A group of English scientists are to spend a month in the hostile Gobi desert in search of one of the world’s strangest and most elusive monsters, the Mongolian Death Worm. Known to the locals as Allghoi khorkhoi (Mongolian for intestine worm due to its resemblance to a length of cow’s stomach), the blood red creature is much feared.

Three to five feet long, the Death Worm is said to lurk beneath the sands, emerging only at certain times of the year to spread fear among the desert dwellers. The nomads insist that the beast can spit a corrosive yellow saliva that acts like acid and that they can generate blasts of electricity powerful enough to kill a full grown camel. It is a monster worthy of Dr Who but how true are the stories?
.
Expedition leader, cryptozologist Richard Freeman thinks it’s death dealing powers are apocryphal. “It’s like the salamander in medieval Europe, it was thought to be deadly poisonous. Alexander the Great was supposed to have lost hundreds of men after they drank from a stream that had a salamander living in it. But now we know it’s harmless. Even today in the Sudan, people think that the harmless sand boa is so venomous that you only have to touch it and you will die.”

What kind of animal is the Death Worm? Freeman has a theory. “I don’t think that it’s a worm at all. True worms need moisture. I think it is a limbless, burrowing reptile, probably a giant member of a group of reptiles known as amphisbaenas or worm lizards. These are a primitive group of poorly studied animals. They are not snakes or lizards but are related to both .I think the Death Worm is a giant member of this group.”

The team plans not only to catch the creatures but bring them back to England alive! They intend to force the Death Worms up from their burrows by damming local streams and flooding small areas of the desert.

The expedition consists of Richard Freeman, cryptozoologist. (35) Dr Chris Clark, astrophysicist, (59), Jon Hare, science writer, (29) and Dave Churchill, artist and designer (33). They will be accompanied by Mongolian guides.

The group are from the Exeter based Centre for Fortean Zoology, the world’s only full time, scientific organization, dedicated to the study of mystery animals. Past expeditions have included hunts for the Chupacabra, a blood drinking, nocturnal beast from Puerto Rico, the Naga, a 60 foot crested serpent in the jungles and caves of Thailand, and Orang-pendek, an ape man in the unexplored valleys of Sumatra

For more details contact Jon or Richard on +0044 1932 424811
Or telephone Richard on 07961483063
email [email protected]




NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The CFZ is a non profit making organisation registered with the British Government
2. The US Office is run by best selling author Nick Redfern
3. Nick Redfern’s new US Bestseller Three Men Seeking Monsters is on sale now through Paraview Pocket Books, and tells the story of one of the CFZ’s more exciting adventures
4. In recent years the CFZ have mounted expeditions to Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, Puerto Rico,and several parts of the United States, Britain and Europe.
5. Details of the Mongolia expedition can be found at www.deathworm.co.uk


The Centre for Fortean Zoology
15 Holne Court
Exwick
Exeter
EX4 2NA
 
Nick Redfern’s new US Bestseller Three Men Seeking Monsters -
those are the same guys richard and Jon I see (less nick) going after the " death worm" , really interesting ! ( I liked that book I got recently. Three Men Seeking Monsters, those three had some fun , and Nick did a good re-count of there adventures before moving to Texas) I'll keep my eye on that site.
 
Let's hope they catch one to flob out on the table at the next UnCon
 
Change of plan:
If caught it it'll be flopped out at the weird weekend, on account of uncon's cancellation this year it's the only large fortean conference in the country in 2005 and WW is run by the CFZ itself.
 
Yep, I'm the proud owner of a screamingly, aggressively bright yellow 'Operation Death Worm' tee-shirt. (The creatures are supposedly attracted to yellow.) It arrived this week. I'm almost positive it's the only one in the state of Kansas. :D

It'd be fantastic if they found some strange animal new to science.

EDITED: To add, it seemed slightly goofy to me that an eyeless creature would be attracted to a prticular color, so I re-read the FT cover story from last year. It's that they appear when a certain yellow flower is in bloom.
 
Mongolian Death Worm Eludes Researchers

Mongolian Death Worm Eludes Researchers
A group of English scientists are combing the Gobi Desert in search of the legendary Mongolian Death Worm, also known as the Allghoi khorkhoi. Nomads in the area claim that the Death Worm can spit yellow saliva that works like powerful acid, and that it generates electrical discharges powerful enough to kill a camel.
The expedition, being sponsored by the British Centre for Fortean Zoology, is led by Richard Freeman, who comments in a press release:

“I don’t think that it’s a worm at all. True worms need moisture. I think it is a limbless, burrowing reptile, probably a giant member of a group of reptiles known as amphisbaenas or worm lizards." "These are a primitive group of poorly studied animals" Freeman continued. "They are not snakes or lizards but are related to both. I think the Death Worm is a giant member of this group.”

As of May 7, 2005, the researchers offered the following update:

"We have found ourselves in the Little Gobi and heading so far south that we were only 30 miles away from the Chinese border. Unfortunately, still no Deathworm, but we have visited an area where a Deathworm was seen only three years ago, so we feel we are on the right track because all of the reports we have heard so far are at least 30 years old."

The photo shows the area where the Deathworm was last seen three years ago.

To keep up with the expedition, click here.

Is this a legend?--or are the Deathworm and other cryptids quite real? Subscribers can listen to fascinating interviews with cryptozoologists such as Loren Coleman and Mark Hall!

SOURCE http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4596
Link is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted in full above) can be viewed at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080331051315/http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4596
 
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Hopefully someone keeps posting us updates on this. Good job ruff!
 
Just stumbled across this older article from Thursday June 9, 2005:

The worm that didn't turn up

For most people holiday wildlife starts and finishes with either pesky mozzies or hotel cockroaches. For the group of four British scientists and investigators representing the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) such insect life is small fry - they've just spent a month in the Gobi Desert looking for the Mongolian deathworm.

Known locally as allghoi khorkhoi, or "intestine worm" due to its resemblance to a length of stomach, red in colour, and ranging from three to five feet in length, the deathworm has been sighted on many occasions, but no one has ever managed to capture or photograph a specimen. Which makes it a highly suitable subject for the discipline of cryptozoology.

Coined as a term by the zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans in 1955, cryptozoology has been frustrated ever since in its attempts to gain credibility among the scientific community. It is not possible, for example, to take a degree in the subject. Yet the completely unexpected discovery of Homo floresiensis in 2003, may have turned the tide, leading the respected journal Nature to declare that it was time for cryptozoology to "come in from the cold".

The CFZ expedition was led by Richard Freeman, an experienced zoologist in his own right. He dismisses the deathworm's deadliness as an apocryphal add-on. "I don't think it's a worm at all," he says. "True worms need moisture. I think it is a limbless, burrowing reptile, probably a giant member of a group of reptiles known as amphisbaenas or 'worm lizards'."

Not for the first time in the history of cryptozoology, Freeman's expedition - funded from their own pockets at more than £2,000 per person - returned home empty-handed, having failed to capture or photograph a deathworm. They did manage, however, to gather reports of new sightings, "ranging from a guy who saw one in the 1930s to someone who saw one only nine months ago", as well as three reports of modern-day dragons.

Freeman remains upbeat about the trip. In a new book about dragon lore and reality, due for publication in the next month, Freeman argues that the stuff of myths and legends is inspired by zoological fact. But what about the sceptics who don't view cryptozoology as a real science? "I couldn't give a monkey's toss about them. They're armchair zoologists, people like Richard Dawkins - they never get out and do any field work." Something that no one can accuse Richard Freeman of.

www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1502201,00.html
 
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