Michael Kirokosyan. The Search of Mysterious Cryptids. Astrakhan publ. 2002, 72 p. (in Russian)

The book by the researcher of rare animals includes both information gathered from the various publications and own results that are known till now to a narrow circle of friends.

Naturally the main interest is attracted to this part. Unlike to authors of other books reviewed on this site Michael Kirokosyan presents many observations of the huge snakes on the territory of Russia, first of all in his native regions to the North of Caspian Sea.

Some records obtained by the author from eyewitnesses show the presence of unusual snakes in the mouth of Volga. The observed snakes had length about 2,5 meters and were 10 cm thick and more. The witnesses noted that some of the snakes moved in water by twisting its body in vertical way and that moving bends were visible above water. There were some cases when such snakes appeared in settlements and were killed by villagers with sticks and rocks. M.Kirokosyan had met a taxidermist who once made a stuffed figure from skin of a such snake. The most huge snakes had length up to 4 meters.

There is a sparsely inhabited place named Bish-chokho in West Kazakhstan near to Astrakhan region. The author has received information that unknown snakes with disproportional large heads live there. He was told by an observer that a snake of about 2,5 meters length and 10 cm thick was killed there in a karst sink. It had the head 20 cm wide as "young camel" said the witness.

The book includes also many interesting observations of mysterious snakes and animals from other areas of the CIS.

Unfortunately, this interesting book is issued with very small number of copies at own expense of the author and practically inaccessible to purchase.

M.S.Trachtengerts