In 1972, zoologists from Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo discovered the body of a large animal at Loch Ness in Scotland. Initially reported to weigh a ton and a half and stretch more than 15 feet, the media speculated that this was the famed Loch Ness Monster, with the British press dubbing the creature the “son of Nessie.”
The Flamingo Park Zoo team took the body away in their van to study it. Scientists in Edinburgh determined it was the body of a bull seal, not a prehistoric creature. A day later, Flamingo Park Zoo’s education officer John Shields admitted he had planted the body as a prank on his colleagues. The bull seal had died earlier, and Mr. Shields had shaved off its whiskers and put stones in its cheeks to change its appearance.
