Trunko is the nickname for a large unidentified lump of flesh or a decomposed sea creature, a so-called "
globster", reportedly sighted in
Margate,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
on 25 October 1924. The initial source for Trunko was an article entitled "Fish Like A Polar Bear" published on 27 December 1924, edition of London's ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''. The animal was reportedly first seen off the coast battling two
killer whale
The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...
s, which fought the unusual creature for three hours. It used its tail to attack the whales and reportedly lifted itself out of the water by about . One of the witnesses, South African farmer Hugh Ballance, described the animal as looking like a "giant
polar bear" due to what was thought to be dense-white fur.
The creature reputedly washed up on Margate Beach but despite being there for 10 days, no scientist investigated the carcass while it was beached, so no reliable description has been published, and until September 2010 it was assumed that no photographs of it had ever been published. Some people who have never been identified were reported to have described the animal as possessing snowy-white
fur, and an
elephantine trunk
Trunk may refer to:
Biology
* Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso
* Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure
* Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy
* Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant
Computing
* Trunk (software), in rev ...
.
Commenting on the photos,
paleontologist Darren Naish wrote:
References
Bibliography
*
{{Globsters
Globsters
1924 in South Africa