Latest Lake Champlain Photo, Comparison

Scott Mardis posted this on my Facebook wall yesterday and it comes from the owner of Nora's Loch Ness page. Comparing the photos I can see what the points are about the head: the top photo seems to show a much larger kind of head with the ears set higer up and a more elongated snout.

Compared to both the South American giant otter and the North American river otter, the Champlain creatture does seem to have a head of about the same dimensions as the South American otter, meaning it has a head of very large actual or absolute size. But the head is not shaped the same. The ears are indeed mare prominent and higer on the head, the eye are  further back from the end of the snoutand the snout is more elongated in the top photo.The eye is also further back and the snout more elongated relatively in comparison to the normal North American river otter. My impression is still that this is a giant otter at least the same size as the South American giant otter, but with a head of a much different shape: the Master-Otter of Ireland more than likely. And although it also seems to be seen in Loch Ness, its neck falls far short of the longer-necked creature reports from both Loch Ness and Lake Champlain (see giant otter photo below). But it is a much smaller and more agile creature than the Plesiosauriian type of Water-monsters and therefore likely to be more common and more commonly reported. We do seem to be seeing more photos of this type more often in recent years,  in Britain and in Europe, in Russia and Northern China, in Alaska and in Canada. One of the things that determine this category are the swimming posture in the water, which is often the same as this Lake Champlain photo at the top.