"It’s not every day—or every expedition—that begins with a request
from a country’s head of government formally requesting that a
specimen be captured of a creature so elusive, and deadly, that
western science does not even recognise its existence. Nevertheless,
that is precisely what happened in 1922 when eminent American
palaeontologist Prof. Roy Chapman Andrews met the Mongolian
premier in order to obtain the necessary permits for the American
Museum of Natural History’s Central Asiatic Expedition to search
for dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert. And the creature that the
Mongolian premier instructed him to procure? None other than
the lethal allghoi khorkhoi (sometimes spelled olgoj-chorchoj)—or,
as it is nowadays commonly referred to throughout the world, the
Mongolian death worm.
"Although in the 1920s this extraordinary mystery beast was
totally unheard of outside Mongolia, today it is one of the most
(in)famous of all cryptozoological creatures—thanks to the series
of pioneering expeditions to its southern Gobi homeland launched
by Czech explorer Ivan Mackerle (d. 2013). The first of these
took place during June and July 1990, and subsequently attracted
considerable interest internationally. During his searches, Ivan collected a very impressive dossier of information concerning the death
worm, based upon eyewitness reports and other anecdotal evidence,
which he very kindly made freely available to me to use as I wished
in my own writings, and which can be summarised as follows.
"Its local names—allghoi khorkhoi and allergorhai horhai—translate as ‘intestine worm’, because according to eyewitness testimony this mysterious sausage-shaped creature resembles a living
intestine. Red in colour with darker blotches, it measures 3-5 ft
long and is as thick as a man’s arm, but has no discernible scales,
mouth, nor even any eyes or other recognisable sensory organs. It is
said to be truncated at both ends, but according to some accounts at
least one end also bears a series of long pointed structures at its tip.
"For much of the year, the death worm remains concealed be
neath the Gobi’s sands, but during the two hottest months—June
and July—it can sometimes be encountered lying on the surface,
particularly after a downpour of rain. Locals claim that it can also
be found in association with the black saxaul Haloxylon ammodendron, a yellow-flowered desert shrub belonging to the amaranth
family, whose roots are parasitized by the goyo or Central Asian
desert thumb Cynomorium songaricum. This is a strange, cigar-shaped plant, one of only two members of the genus Cynomorium,
seemingly most closely allied to the saxifrages."
