What is the Mongolian death worm?
The Mongolian death worm is an unidentified creature said to live in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Locally it is called “olgoi-khorkhoi” (intestine worm). It is said to look like a thick red worm or a large intestine about 60 cm to 1.5 m long, with no way to tell its head from its tail.
A worm that brings death
Among Mongolians, the olgoi-khorkhoi has been feared for killing people and livestock by spitting a deadly venom at them, or by striking them down from a distance with an electric-like power. It is said to emerge from the sand only at limited times, such as after summer rains. It became known in the West when the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, who explored the Gobi Desert in the 1920s, recorded in his book what he had heard from Mongolians.
What is the Mongolian death worm really?
Expeditions have visited the Gobi Desert many times, but none has captured one. It is thought to be a legless lizard living in the sand (such as skinks or worm lizards) or a desert snake mistaken for something else. It is a popular cryptid that often appears in films and games.
