COMC-701 Lessons

Beware the Sea Full of Monsters

Welcome back to the Care of Magical Creatures hut! The Ministry officials were very impressed with how in depth everyone went through the loft and looked for clues. I’m also incredibly pleased with how you all handled the situation. I hope you do just as well on your N.E.W.T.s at the end of the year!

Today I will be covering an overarching category of creatures that we haven’t covered yet in the course. Creatures that aren’t recognized as individuals, but as a group, due to the vast locations they can live in and sharing a similar suite of physical characteristics. There is always a chance that you will encounter one, especially as their habitat can be found on every continent. Today we will be covering water serpents! 

Water Serpents: Dwellers of the Seas, and Lakes, and Oceans

Physical Description

A water serpent is a creature with the body of a snake that resides in the water. They can vary in size and color, though cool tones, like purples and blues, are more common than warm tones. These creatures are found all over the world, so long as a large body of water is present. They can be in the oceans or in a lake in the middle of the woods and everything in between. Now, if you just go outside to a little creek, you will not find a water serpent. They enjoy living in deep, dark waters, meaning most rivers and creeks are not deep enough for them to live comfortably. Water serpents can have a variety of physical characteristics, such as fins or ridges. 

Two Types of Water Serpents

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures presently recognizes one branch of water serpents: sea serpents. Per the DRCMC definition, a sea serpent is a water-based creature with a snake-like body that resides in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans or the Mediterranean Sea. On average, the sea serpents found by the DRCMC are one hundred feet in length, but this varies greatly. I have seen one that was easily pushing one hundred and fifty feet, and one that was only 60 feet. The Ministry describes the sea serpent as having a “horse-like” head, but this is incredibly outdated and is in the process of being removed from the sea serpent definition. Some of the first sea serpents identified had long noses and faces, which at the time was associated with having a “horse-like” appearance. Modern magizoologists and department officials have come to recognize that this description is not accurate anymore. Therefore the physical description of sea serpents that have been discovered since this definition was created vary from this. 

However, the oceans and sea are not the only location water serpents are found today. They have also been found in lakes around the world. This causes some issues with the DRCMC simply calling them sea serpents, and defining their native range as oceans and seas. If they are living in lakes, they technically don’t fall under the classification of a sea serpent, by the Ministry’s standards, which can cause some legislative issues regarding jurisdiction. Because the DRCMC doesn’t recognize water serpents living in lakes, oftentimes if they are called out to handle a situation it is passed off. The Department is trying to remedy this by either expanding their sea serpent definition, or by adding a lake serpent definition. This may seem like an easy fix. You’re probably all asking yourselves why not just change the name to water serpents and add in that they can also live in lakes?

The location of these serpents is not their only distinction: sea serpents are more mild mannered than lake serpents. Sea serpents are much easier for a magizoologist to manage and contain, while lake serpents have a particular ferocity about them that makes them incredibly intimidating and frightening to approach. Per the current classification, sea serpents are classified as XXX by the Ministry of Magic. Do remember, this means the Ministry feels a competent wizard should be able to handle the creature. However, if lake serpents were their own entry, they would likely be rated at least as XXXX, depending on the lake serpents the classification is based on. Some are certainly more vicious than others, causing magizoologists to ask: do we classify based on the most extreme representation of a species? This is a question we will ponder more in the assignment today. 

It is also important to note that whether sea serpents and lake serpents are classified together or separately, there is a unique way of referring to each one. Each water serpent discovered is typically named after the body of water it is found in. Some have names that were developed by the individual who discovered them, but, as you will see from the water serpents I cover towards the end of the lesson, while some wizards can be incredibly original when naming new creatures, others are not. 

Diet

Though having different temperaments and habitats, both types of water serpents are carnivorous in nature, eating a wide variety of fish and mammals depending on their size. While water serpents in the oceans and sea have more options, such as sharks or whales, lake serpents are limited to the schools of fish and other organisms present in their lake. This means that lake serpents typically need to eat more to meet their caloric needs, causing them to deplenish their food resources pretty quickly. This means that the carrying capacity, or number of organisms that can live in one area, of their lakes is usually one. Sea serpents, because there is a whole sea or ocean to pull food from, can live with other sea serpents in close proximity. 

However, lake serpents are resourceful when trying to meet their caloric needs. There are some reports of them swiping terrestrial animals that come to the lake in search of water, like deer or rabbits. This is the key difference in their diets: sea serpents will consume marine mammals and fish, whereas lake serpents will consume terrestrial mammals in addition to marine mammals. In some areas, lake serpents actually eat more terrestrial mammals than marine ones, simply because the creature has been there long enough to completely deplete the lake’s resources. If you eat all the fish, there is nothing left to reproduce. 

Reproduction and Population Dynamics

Most water serpents live solitary lives, some because of the carrying capacity of their lake, others because they don’t get along well with others. As a whole, it is difficult for more than one water serpent to live in the same area, even if the environment can support it. Imagine two, one hundred foot long creatures trying to move around each other in a house, especially a house that might be a tad too small. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like living too close to someone else either. There are only two occasions in which water serpents typically interact with each other: mating and giving birth.

Mating happens year round with water serpents. There isn’t a mating season, as mating will occur whenever a male and female water serpent run into each other. Because this doesn't happen often, it is best for them to take advantage when it does. Gestation tends to be anywhere from five to seven months. This length seems to be heavily influenced by the size of the creature and the resources available. If the water serpent is trying to grow offspring during the off season for fish, it might be hard to meet the caloric needs of the fetus. 

After a successful gestation period, the offspring are born. All water serpents bear live young. The number of young often varies, but it is typically between one and four. These young are incredibly spritely, starting to swim within forty eight hours of birth. Within one week of birth, these babies are able to hunt and feed themselves. Soon after they will leave their mother in search of their own waters. This may seem a bit young. I mean, they are barely out of the womb and already feeding themselves and going off on their own. What I haven’t told you yet is that they come out of the womb already pretty large and self sustaining. In fact, when a one hundred foot long sea serpent gives birth to a baby, it comes out around thirty feet long, meaning nearly one third of its adult size. 

Now, I’m sure the following has come to your mind: how on earth does the female water serpent hold an offspring of that size in her body? Baby water serpents come out looking like pencils: very long and skinny. As a fetus, they are curled up pretty tightly in the womb, which is part of why they are swimming so soon after birth. They have to stretch their bodies! In stretching out their bodies, they are learning to swim and move around. After learning to swim and catch fish, they will move on, searching for their own waters. If they are in a lake, other smaller, connected bodies of water would be used to move on or to find a mate. In isolated lakes, no reproduction occurs, and a water serpent is only there because it was placed there, but that is a whole other issue. Water serpents grow quickly, reaching their adult size within six to eight months of age. If you think back to what I mentioned about carrying capacity, it will take quite a few calories to triple in size in that time frame. The only way to successfully do that is to have your own feeding ground. This means that offspring leave their mothers at an incredibly young age, fending for themselves and learning to live alone. This likely plays into why water serpents are such solitary creatures. 

Water Serpent Case Studies

I will now take some time to discuss three different examples of water serpents around the world. These are serpents that have been documented by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and are being used to redefine sea serpents and determine if lake serpents should have their own classification. Two of these case studies are meant to show you the difference in lake serpents, and one is meant to show you how the initial definition of sea serpents came to be. Let’s start with the most interesting story of the bunch, at least from my perspective.

Selma

The selma is a large lake serpent that is found throughout freshwater lakes in Norway. It is commonly found in Lake Seljord, which is the south eastern part of the country. This name may sound familiar if you are a Quidditch fan. The selma was brought to the Quidditch World Cup of 2014 by the Norwegian National Quidditch Team. The serpent was brought as a mascot, rather than the trained trolls that typically accompanied them. Unfortunately, the selma got into an altercation with the mascot of the Fijian National Quidditch Team, which acted like a domino, causing a variety of mascot conflicts. The Norwegian team manager, Arnulf Moe, was asked not to bring the creature to future matches. 

Now, a story about Quidditch seems irrelevant, I’m sure, but I discussed it to make a point. When Moe was asked why they chose to bring the selma as their mascot that year, he stated it was to show the team’s “steely determination and ferocity,” which apparently he felt was in question. A selma was used to show this because it is considered one of the most ferocious water serpents ever discovered. It is known for consuming human flesh as its main food source, eating fish only when humans aren’t available. It is incredibly aggressive and hard to control. When it comes out of the water, it towers over the shores at one hundred and twenty feet long, baring its fangs and forked tongue at its next meal. It moves effortlessly through the water, with no ridges or fins that could create drag. If a lake serpent classification was based off of this creature, it would be classified as XXXXX. 

It is unclear how Moe safely contained and moved the creature to Argentina, where the Quidditch World Cup was held that year. It is speculated he used a variety of spells to somehow contain the creature before it was placed in the magical lake near the match grounds. Once it was in the magical lake, everyone was safe as containment spells were put on the lake. The DRCMC has been working to track Moe down, but after Norway’s defeat in the Cup that year, he retired and disappeared. It is their hope that in understanding how he was able to safely move the lake serpent, magizoologists can use his method on similar creatures. 

Gloucester Sea Serpent

The Gloucester sea serpent is a water serpent found off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts in the United States. The earliest recordings of this sea serpent come from the 1600s, when wizards noted seeing a strange creature covered in black ridges out in the lake. These sightings continued until a photograph was finally captured in the 1800s. I have provided that photo below. If you have taken Magical Art, you might recall Developing Solution wasn’t created until 1893, meaning the photograph of the serpent I am presenting will not be moving, as it was taken before the potion was developed. 

Notice the small black ridges sticking off of the neck, and that long snout I discussed earlier in the lesson. As one of the first sea serpents found, that long snout was used to describe the “horse-like” appearance used in the initial definition of a sea serpent. While the serpent appears black in color in this photograph, it is actually more of a brown, which is an unusual color for sea serpents. The Gloucester sea serpent is also one of the most docile sea serpents you will ever meet. I have had the privilege of seeing this sea serpent in person, and it really is a fairly relaxed creature. Any competent wizard can certainly handle it, as it will eat fish right out of your hands. It’s a pretty wonderful experience. If you ever have the chance to go and see this creature, I recommend it.

Nahuelito

Lastly we have the nahuelito, a lake serpent living in Nahuel Huapi Lake, Argentina. It was first sighted in 1922 by Muggles, who immediately ran publications about the creature. This alerted the wizarding authorities to the possibility of an undiscovered water serpent. Investigation of the lake proved the Muggles weren’t mistaken, there was indeed a water serpent living in the lake. This meant a variety of memory charms had to be implemented, as well as the deployment of a campaign to convince the public that what had been seen was a hoax. I have provided two pictures below. The one on the left is a drawing of the nahuelito as we know it. Notice that it has fins, with ridges going down its back. The one on the right is the image wizarding authorities leaked to the Muggle media, and it was plastered in every newspaper in the area. Rather than further the narrative of the creature, this image squashed it. Notice how faked the photo looks, with the creature looking like it’s made of clay. Personally, I feel the head looks like a Mackled Malaclaw claw, but apparently that was too specific to provide in one of my essays as a student.

With that picture circulating, many Muggles disregarded the existence of such a creature. Those that were still convinced the creature existed turned to the field of cryptozoology to discuss what was seen and attempted to find it. However, these attempts are futile. Wizarding officials placed a spell on the lake, causing the creature to be hidden from Muggle eyes. The lake appears normal, but if the nahuelito pops up, only wizarding kind can see it. While this lake serpent isn’t as aggressive as the selma is, it is still fairly stand-offish, wary of humans and often keeping to itself. There are no recorded instances of it eating humans, which is certainly different from the selma. 

Closing

Well, I think that finishes the lesson for today! As you can see, there is quite a bit to consider when making classification and reclassification decisions. It requires a lot of input from different individuals and considering the characteristics of all known specimens of a species or group. Be sure to grab the two essay prompts on the way out. You do have an assignment related to your year-long project today, so be sure to go back over your notes from that lesson, as you will certainly need them. Until next time!

Lesson content written by Professor Elizabeth Anne

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