Natural History Museum bets on Loch Ness monster

Natural History Museum bets on Loch Ness monster
13 Sep 2009
By Alastair Jamieson
Telegraph.co.uk

The Loch Ness monster will go on display at London’s Natural History Museum if it is caught under a deal negotiated with bookmakers William Hill.

The museum has secured the rights to showcase Nessie’s remains should it be captured, in exchange for verifying her existence on behalf of the bookmakers.

Under the deal, formalised in 1987 and revealed in archive documents released by the museum, William Hill pays the museum an annual fee on return for the guarantee its experts will provide “positive identification” of the elusive creature.

The agreement, which has netted the museum at least £22,000, also covers the Yeti.

The bookmaker currently offers odds of 500/1 on the existence of the Loch Ness monster being proved within a year and 200/1 for the Yeti.

Graham Sharpe, spokesman for William Hill, said: "We have maintained our relationship with the Natural History Museum and are delighted to do so.

“As we rely on the Met Office to rule on white Christmases, we are dependent on the museum to tell us whether any carcass that may emerge from the loch is a haddock, or a previously unknown creature from the deep.”

Other archive documents include an internal letter to museum staff in 1959 warning them against taking part in monster hunts in case it "damaged the institution's reputation".

A Natural History Museum spokeswoman said: "The study of the diversity of life on earth is at the very heart of the Natural History Museum. It is estimated that 90 per cent of life on earth remains undiscovered and every year Natural History Museum scientists help discover, name, and generate vital information about new species and how they relate to similar ones.”

“In all circumstances, as a scientific institution the Natural History Museum relies on the objective use of scientific evidence to do this."
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