The Tatzelwurm
Alpine farmers describe a stubby, cat-faced lizard with short legs, and a 1934 photo seemed to show one.
What was reported
In the Alps of Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria and northern Italy, the Tatzelwurm, or 'clawed worm', is said to be a lizard-like creature a metre or so long, with a cat-like face and short legs, sometimes only two. Accounts go back centuries, and some say it hisses.
In 1934 a Swiss photographer named Balkin published a picture of what he said was a Tatzelwurm, taken near Meiringen.
Explanations offered
The 1934 photo is generally thought to show a ceramic fish or similar model. Sightings may have been of large lizards, salamanders, otters or martens glimpsed among rocks. No specimen has ever been collected.
- When
- Reported for centuries
- Where
- Near Meiringen, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland
- Witnesses
- Alpine farmers and hunters
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.