Moha Moha

 


The moha moha is a cryptid from Australia, spotted on June 8th, 1890. It was seen my Selena Lovell, a school teacher and amateur naturalist, as well as a group of people accompanying her, while they were on an outing to Great Sandy Island. The creature was well known to the natives, who called it the moha moha, or danger turtle, as it was known for attacking their fishing camps and grabbing their legs in the water. With all the other strange Australian wildlife discovered Ms Lovell didn’t question the creature’s odd appearance and wrote up a report on it. This report was then used by Willian Saville-Kent to publish a formal description of the creature in Land And Water and give it the name Chelosauria lovelli. Little did either of them know that this creature would only ever be seen once, and become the topic of controversy.


The moha moha had a rounded head that was more like that of a lizard or other reptiles than a standard turtle. Ms Lovell didn’t see any nostrils and assumed it breathed through it’s mouth, but it’s possible the nostrils were just hard to notice. The creature had either sharp teeth or a serrated beak. The skin on its head and neck were glossy and smooth, without scales, green in colour with white around the eyes.


The moha moha’s neck was long for a sea turtle, but not unlike the snake necked turtle found in freshwater in Australia. Yet it held its neck aloft, unlike the snake neck turtle. The shell was slate coloured. It was dome shaped, more like a tortoise then a sea turtle. The creature had crocodile like legs.


Most unusually, the moha moha had a long fish like tail, complete with fins. The tail was covered in plate like scales that laid perpendicular to the length of the tail. The tail was greyish blue in colour, with chocolate brown fins. Ms Lovell commented that the tail looked like it belonged to a completely different animal. The whole creature measured about 30 feet long. When its neck was outstretched it was tall enough to look Ms Lovell in the eye.


Ms Lovell originally found the moha moha sun bathing on the beach right along the edge of the water, with its head upturned and mouth open. The creature stayed there for half an hour, allowing Ms Lovell and the other people with her to thoroughly observe it and make notes. Then after this time the moha moha pushed itself back into the water. It vigorously splashed its tail, sending water flying and swam off at a surprising speed.


Ms Lovell passed her notes onto Mr Saville-Kent who formally published a description of the beast. Immediately Ms Lovell, not Saville-Kent, received backlash for the article. Most people found the appearance of the moha moha too outlandish to be real, especially its fish like tail and size. While ridicule towards anyone reporting on strange creatures is common, the backlash Ms Lovell faced was unfortunately filled with misogyny, and focused mainly on the fact that the report came from a woman. One naturalist, Mr Heuvelmans, even went as far as to say Ms Lovell was hysterical, unfit as a naturalist, and he took pity on her students. After the backlash, even Mr Saville-Kent, who originally published the article, began mocking Ms Lovell, jokingly saying the turtle would be a good ingredient for soup. Unfortunately the moha moha has never been seen again, so we will never know what Ms Lovell actually saw on that beach.


Sources


https://abookofcreatures.com/2021/05/10/moha-moha/

https://itsmth.fandom.com/wiki/Moha_Moha

https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Moha_Moha

https://arcanebeastsandcritters.wordpress.com/2018/05/25/moha-moha/

https://creatures-of-myth.fandom.com/wiki/Moha_Moha



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