Mongolian Death Worm

Known as the Allghoi khorkhoi, or the Mongolian Death Worm, this dreaded creature has reportedly killed hundreds of people since the late 1800s when its existence was verified by a team of Russian scientists. Witnesses describe the killer as a fat, bright-red, snakelike animal measuring 2 to 4 feet in length and weighing more than 20 pounds. Some people who have seen it have likened the worm to a cow's intestine.

The name, Allghoi khorkhoi, means ``intestine worm.''


The death worm is so feared among Mongolians that many consider the mere mention of its name bad luck. Legends say the worm is capable of striking from several feet away. Victims are said to die either by inhaling poisonous vapors sprayed by the creature or from some kind of electrical charge emitted from its head.

Czech cryptozoologist Ivan Mackerle, famed for his efforts to find the legendary Loch Ness monster in Scotland, has spent years interviewing the desert people of Mongolia about their terrible secret. ``The truth about this worm was long suppressed by the Communist government,'' Mr. Mackerle explained in an interview. ``But with the fall of the Communist regime in 1990, we've been able to get into some of those remote areas and see things for ourselves.''

Mr. Mackerle and his team interviewed dozens of witnesses before concluding that the creature is real.

``The stories are true. This thing does exist,'' he said. ``Too many people have seen it. Too many people have been killed by it for me to dismiss it as a fairy tale.''

Locals say the creature lives and moves about under the sand and can strike at will. ``And when it wants to kill someone -- whether out of fear, hunger or rage -- it moves half its length out of the sand and starts to inflate,'' said Mr. Mackerle. ``The bubble on its body keeps getting larger and, in the end, the poison squirts out from it.''

Although Mr. Mackerle firmly believes in the creature's existence, he and his colleagues doubt it is a true worm. That's because annelids and similar invertebrates are unable to survive in a brutally hot and dry climate like the Gobi desert. ``Their bodies cannot retain moisture, and they would rapidly die of dessication,'' he said.

It has been suggested that Allghoi khorkhoi might be a worm that has adapted some sort of cuticle membrane to hold moisture, but a more reasonable candidate would be a snake or other reptile.

British author John David Hume has suggested that the creature might be a skink, a variety of lizard whose nondescript head is hard to distinguish from its tail. Skinks also live buried under desert sands.

Other scientists have theorized that the creature 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 is not 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 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 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 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.

www.augustachronicle.com...

Also here:
www.houseogroove.com...
And here:
parascope.com...

I dont think a creature about that size described can move under sand...

How is the sand in the Mongolian Desert compared to like, the Saharah desert? I thought the Mongolian Desert was more like... Rocks and stuff..

that is one worm I would not like to ever encounter.
crosses Mongolia off of list of places I want to visit.

it is possible that such creatures do exist in remote areas of the world, maybe just maybe, there is a scary world underneath our feet.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
it is possible that such creatures do exist in remote areas of the world, maybe just maybe, there is a scary world underneath our feet.

I never really thought about it, but was is the deepest that a living organism has ever been found (not counting caves or tunnels that they did not create themselves).

Originally posted by Jonna

I never really thought about it, but was is the deepest that a living organism has ever been found (not counting caves or tunnels that they did not create themselves).

Well, the deepest that they could be would only be until you hit magma. And I wouldn't be surprised if we saw bacteria living all the way down to the very border..

"...Dracunculus medinensis causes the disease known as dracunculiasis, and the parasite is often referred to as the guinea worm or fiery serpent. This parasite and the disease that it causes have been mentioned in the ancient writings of Greek, Roman, and Arabian scholars. Some authorities believe that the "fiery serpents" that plagued the Israelites were, in fact, Dracunculus, while others state that the "serpents" depicted in caducei (various medical symbols) are guinea worms. Although these interpretations remain open to conjecture, it is clear that this parasite and its association with humans have a rich history...."

Check out this site for pics.
The only way to remove the bitch (other than surgery) is to tie the worm to a stick and pull it out a little each day. It could take months.

I bet there will be some serious folklore about these worms once they are eradicated


www.biosci.ohio-state.edu...

Theres an article on the Mongolian Death Worm in the May issue of Fortean Times by a guy named Adam Davies.

It's a good well written article, but in the end the Gobi seems far worse than any worm you'd come across.

They in fact didn't find a death worm but did actually run accross some spiders who were less than afraid of the explorers as the spiders themselves would attack if provoked.

Screw the Gobi Desert.

Of course the only proof they found of the worm was a wooden carving someone made of it, which to be honest is a pretty crappy carving, it's a worm how difficult can it be to carve a worm?

I find it intriguing but very suspect.

Maybe in fact it isn't electrical but has adapted to the arid envrioment storing up static charges for something.

Spiderj

Could be a grain of truth about the worm somewhere in the myth.

It reminds of that movie with Kevin Bacon called tremors, i think, with those giant creatures that move under the sand. They should make a trap for it, or have a weapon with them always.

It reminds of that movie with Kevin Bacon called tremors, i think, with those giant creatures that move under the sand. They should make a trap for it, or have a weapon with them always.

Yeah, the cover of Fortean times has an "Artists Rendering" of the beastie and it's very Tremors.

Spiderj

AWwwghgh Sick!!! xxKrissxx that's freakin disgusting. I'd love to just pull one of those suckers out and freakin burn the hell out of it. Then drown in, then burn it again. ewww. Anything that burrows into something else, and lives there or hatches eggs in it just grosses me out so bad...

Well crap. Last year God called me to go do at least a year of missions work in Mongolia, and he might be calling me there for many more years.

In a few years I might have to resurrect this thread with an update.

Originally posted by Herman
AWwwghgh Sick!!! xxKrissxx that's freakin disgusting. I'd love to just pull one of those suckers out and freakin burn the hell out of it. Then drown in, then burn it again. ewww. Anything that burrows into something else, and lives there or hatches eggs in it just grosses me out so bad...

nightmare central ! Thats my favorite worm...Im so glad someone acknowleged that

Ive brought it up soo m any times because it is, by far, THE worst mystical beast Iv e ever encountered!

Just think about having to twist some WORM out of your body with a stick over the period of mmonths...Knowin that # was living in you and BREEDING no less...how bout that pick!

WHOS YOUR DADDY!

Originally posted by xxKrisxx
"...Dracunculus medinensis causes the disease known as dracunculiasis, and the parasite is often referred to as the guinea worm or fiery serpent. This parasite and the disease that it causes have been mentioned in the ancient writings of Greek, Roman, and Arabian scholars. Some authorities believe that the "fiery serpents" that plagued the Israelites were, in fact, Dracunculus, while others state that the "serpents" depicted in caducei (various medical symbols) are guinea worms. Although these interpretations remain open to conjecture, it is clear that this parasite and its association with humans have a rich history...."

Check out this site for pics.
The only way to remove the bitch (other than surgery) is to tie the worm to a stick and pull it out a little each day. It could take months.

I bet there will be some serious folklore about these worms once they are eradicated


www.biosci.ohio-state.edu...

Yuck... Thats digusting!

But really, there's a long way from this parasite to a 30+ feet worm crawling undergound...

Originally posted by Jonna

Originally posted by worldwatcher
it is possible that such creatures do exist in remote areas of the world, maybe just maybe, there is a scary world underneath our feet.

I never really thought about it, but was is the deepest that a living organism has ever been found (not counting caves or tunnels that they did not create themselves).

There has been found organisms down to 3 kilometer's underground. But hey, we havent been much further down anyway..

And on a second note, certain bacteria has been found to live in lava.

Originally posted by Herman
Anything that burrows into something else, and lives there or hatches eggs in it just grosses me out so bad...

I couldn't agree more. Nothing nastier than parasites.

xxKrisxx you had to put the website there it made me shudder, parasites are my number two worst fear, that last pic was terrible you could see the skin coming off


I wouldn't want to see that Mongolian death worm I would run so fast.
Do they have a specimen yet I am not going to really be convinced until then.

[edit on 17-6-2004 by thegreat59]

Holy crap if one of those was in my leg i would cut my leg off, throw it, and run.

Wouldnt a "death" worm that big be considered a snake? In my openion the only way to conclude that the creature does exist is either by finding a specimen or by conducting an autopsy on one of its victims that concludes the victim died from some sort of unexplainable phenomenon that resembles that of the "death worm".

Dip it in water and we can all have the "water of life" .

Here is an artists representation of the Death Worm and how it strikes.



www.geocities.com...

The image is not showing up so here is the link
www.geocities.com...

[edit on 23-6-2004 by BlackJackal]

Cool. As cool as it might be tho I would HATE to meet one.

[edit on 24-6-2004 by Reaper]