Open season on Great Lake Monster
• Wishful Thinking
Sweden's Great Lake Monster may not be a valid species but it has been a powerful tourist attraction.
The legend dates back at least to the 1600s and tells of a huge black serpent with a cat-like head. But a snake-like beast is also depicted on a Viking rune-stone from hundreds of years earlier on an island in the middle of the lake.
Now the law protecting the beast, in place since 1986, is to be lifted after a request from a local man for permission to collect its eggs forced local authorities to acknowledge they lack scientific evidence that it is a valid species.