Olgoi-Khorkhoi is a killer worm from the Mongolian Gobi Desert. The elusive worm of the Mongolian desert: reality or fiction Mysterious monster of the sands

The hero of Mongolian folklore - a giant worm - lives in the desert sandy areas of the Gobi. In its appearance, it most closely resembles the insides of an animal. It is impossible to distinguish either a head or eyes on his body. The Mongols call him olga-khorkha, and more than anything else they are afraid of meeting him.

Not a single scientist in the world had a chance to see with his own eyes mysterious inhabitant Mongolian deserts. And therefore, for many years, the Olgoi-Khorkhoi was considered exclusively a folklore character - a fictitious monster.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, researchers drew attention to the fact that legends about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi are told everywhere in Mongolia, and in the most different and remote corners of the country, legends about the giant worm are repeated word for word and are replete with the same details. And therefore, scientists decided that the truth lies at the heart of the ancient legends. It may very well be that no one lives in the Gobi Desert. known to science strange creature, perhaps a miraculously surviving representative of the ancient, long-extinct “population” of the Earth.
Translated from Mongolian, “olgoy” means “large intestine”, and “khorkhoi” means worm. According to legend, the half-meter worm lives in inaccessible waterless areas of the Gobi Desert. The Olgoi-Khorkhoi spends almost all of its time in hibernation - it sleeps in burrows made in the sand. The worm comes to the surface only in the hottest months of summer, and woe to the person who meets it on the way: the olgoi-khorkhoi kills the victim from a distance, throwing out deadly poison, or kills with an electric discharge upon contact. In a word, you can’t escape him alive...
The isolated position of Mongolia and the policies of its authorities have made the fauna of this country practically inaccessible to foreign zoologists. Therefore, the scientific community knows practically nothing about Olgoy-Khorkhoy. However, in 1926, the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in the book “In the Wake of ancient man"talked about his conversation with the Prime Minister of Mongolia. The latter asked the paleontologist to catch the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. At the same time, the minister pursued personal goals: desert worms once killed one of his family members. But, to Andrews’ great regret, he was never able to not only catch, but even just see the mysterious worm. Many years later, in 1958, the Soviet science fiction writer, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Efremov returned to the topic of Olgoi-Khorkhoy in the book “The Road of the Winds.” In it, he recounted all the information that he collected on this matter during reconnaissance expeditions to the Gobi from 1946 to 1949.
In his book, among other evidence, Ivan Efremov cites the story of an old Mongolian named Tseven from the village of Dalandzadgad, who claimed that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi live 130 kilometers southeast of the agricultural region of Aimak. “Nobody knows what they are, but olgoy-khorkhoi is terrible,” said the old Mongol. Efremov used these stories about the sand monster in his fantasy story, which was originally entitled “Olgoy-Khorkhoi.” It tells about the death of two Russian explorers who died from the poison of desert worms. The story was entirely fictitious, but it was based solely on Mongol folklore.
Ivan Makarle, a Czech writer and journalist, author of many works about the mysteries of the Earth, was the next to follow the trail of the mysterious inhabitant of the Asian desert. In the 1990s, Makarle, together with Dr. Jaroslav Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman Jiri Skupen, led two expeditions into the most remote corners of the Gobi Desert. Unfortunately, they also failed to catch a single specimen of the worm alive. However, they received evidence of it real existence. Moreover, this evidence was so numerous that it allowed Czech researchers to make and launch a program on television, which was called: “The Mysterious Monster of the Sands.”
This was not the last attempt to unravel the mystery of the existence of the Olgoy-Khorkhoy. In the summer of 1996, another group of researchers - also Czechs - led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava followed the worm's tracks through a good half of the Gobi Desert. Alas, also to no avail.
Today almost nothing is heard about Olgoy-Khorkhoy. For now, this Mongolian cryptozoological puzzle is being solved by Mongolian researchers. One of them, the scientist Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, suggests that there is not one type of worm, but at least two. He was forced to draw a similar conclusion again folk legends: Local residents often talk about shar-khorkhoi - that is, a yellow worm.
In one of his books, Dondogizhin Tsevegmid mentions the story of a camel driver who came face to face with such Shar-Khorkhoi in the mountains. At one far from wonderful moment, the driver noticed that yellow worms were crawling out of holes in the ground and crawling towards him. Mad with fear, he rushed to run, and then discovered that almost fifty of these disgusting creatures were trying to surround him. The poor fellow was lucky: he still managed to escape...
So, today, researchers of the Mongolian phenomenon are inclined to believe that we are talking about a living creature completely unknown to science. However, zoologist John L. Cloudsey-Thompson is one of the renowned specialists in desert fauna– I suspected the Olgoy-Khorkhoy was a species of snake that the scientific community had yet to become acquainted with. Cloudsey-Thompson himself is confident that the unknown desert worm is related to the Oceanic viper. The latter is distinguished by an equally “attractive” appearance. In addition, like the olgoi-khorkhoi, the viper is capable of destroying its victims at a distance, spraying poison.
A completely different version is shared by French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal and Czech Jaroslav Mares. Scientists classify the Mongolian desert dweller as a two-walker reptile that lost its legs during evolution. These reptiles, like desert worms, can be red or brown in color. In addition, it is extremely difficult for them to distinguish between their head and neck. Opponents of this version, however, rightly point out: no one has heard of these reptiles being poisonous or having an organ capable of producing electric current.
According to the third version, Olgoy-Khorkhoy is ringworm, who acquired special protective skin in desert conditions. Some of these earthworms are known to spray venom in self-defense.
Be that as it may, Olgoi-Khorkhoi remains a mystery for zoologists, which has not yet received a single satisfactory explanation.

Researcher Nikolai Nepomnyashchy wrote the following about him: “What else do they have,” the driver Grigory said with annoyance, but suddenly he braked sharply and shouted to me: “Look quickly!” What's happened?"

The cockpit window was obscured by the radio operator who jumped from above. With a gun in his hand, he rushed towards the large dune. Something living was moving along its surface. This creature had no visible legs, or even a mouth or eyes. Most of all, it looked like a stump of thick sausage about a meter long. A large and thick worm, an unknown inhabitant of the desert, wriggled on the purple sand. Not being an expert in zoology, I still immediately realized that this was an unknown animal. There were two of them."

This is a fragment from the story of the famous paleontologist and writer I.A. Efremov, written by him after an expedition to the Gobi Desert. Next, Efremov talks about how people ran up to mysterious creatures that resembled worms. Suddenly, each worm curled into a ring. Their color changed from yellow-gray to violet-blue, and at the ends - bright blue. Suddenly the radio operator fell face down on the sand and remained motionless. The driver ran up to the radio operator, who was lying four meters from the worms, and suddenly, bending strangely, fell on his side... The worms disappeared somewhere.

Explanation mysterious death his comrades, which the hero of the story received from the guide and all other experts in Mongolia, was that in the lifeless deserts there lives an animal called olga-khorkha. It has never fallen into the hands of any person, partly because it lives in waterless sands, partly because of the fear that the Mongols have of it. This fear is understandable: the animal kills from a distance. No one knows what this mysterious power that the Olgoi-Khorkhoy possesses is. Maybe it's a huge electrical discharge or poison sprayed by an animal.

Tales of a mysterious creature living in arid deserts Central Asia, have been around for a long time. In particular, the famous Russian explorer and traveler N.M. mentions him. Przhevalsky. In the 50s of the 20th century, the American A. Nisbet went in search of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi in Inner Mongolia. For a long time The MPR authorities did not give him permission to enter, believing that the American might have other interests besides zoological ones.

In 1954, having received permission, the expedition left the village of Sainshand in two Land Rovers and disappeared. A few months later, at the request of the US government, the MPR authorities organized a search for her. The cars were found in a remote area of the desert in full working order, not far from them lay the bodies of five members of the expedition and a little further away - the sixth. The bodies of the Americans lay in the sun for a long time, and the cause of death could not be determined.

Some scientists, analyzing reports about olgoy-khorkhoy, are inclined to the hypothesis that it kills potent poison, for example hydrocyanic acid. There are creatures known in nature, in particular the millipede, which kills its victims at a distance with a stream of hydrocyanic acid. However, there is a more exotic hypothesis: Olgoi-Khorkhoi kills with the help of small ball lightning, which are formed during a powerful electrical discharge.

In the summer of 1988, the newspapers “Semilukskaya Zhizn” and “Left Bank” reported strange events that occurred in Lugansk. On May 16, during excavation work in the area of the plant’s town. October Revolution one of the workers was injured. He was taken to hospital unconscious, with a snake-shaped burn on his left arm. When he woke up, the victim explained that he felt an electric shock, although there were no electrical cables nearby.

Two months later, six-year-old Dima G died. The cause of death was defeat electric shock from an unknown source. Several more similar cases were recorded in 1989 and 1990. All cases are related to earthworks or with fresh soil delivered from another place. One of the victims said that before losing consciousness, he heard a strange sound, similar to the sobbing of a child.

Finally, in winter, near a heating main, while digging a hole on the territory of an estate in the Artemovsky district of Lugansk, a strange creature was caught, which made a similar sound when attacked. Luckily for himself, the person digging the hole was wearing thick gloves and was not injured. He grabbed the creature, put it in a plastic bag and took it to show it to a neighbor who worked in a biology laboratory.

So the animal, unknown to science, ended up in a metal box in the laboratory behind thick armored glass. It looks like a thick lilac worm about half a meter long. Candidate Laboratory Head biological sciences V.M. Kulikov claims that this is most likely an unknown mutant. But a certain similarity with the mysterious Olgoy-Khorkhoy is undeniable.

At the beginning of the last century, researchers became interested in the fact that legends about the Olgoy-Khorkhoy in Mongolia can be heard everywhere. At the same time, in the most different parts of the country they sound almost the same and are decorated with the same details. Scientists have concluded that the ancient legends are true and that a strange creature unknown to science lives in the sands of the Gobi. Perhaps this is a surviving representative of a long-extinct earthly “population”...

Appearance

Why was the worm given this? unusual name- Olgoy-Khorkhoy?

If you translate these words from Mongolian, then everything becomes extremely clear: “olgoy” means large intestine, “khorkhoy” means a worm. This name is consistent with the appearance of the monster.

A few eyewitness accounts say that it looks like the insides of an animal, a stump of intestine or sausage.

The body of the worm is dark red in color and its length ranges from 50 cm to 1.5 meters. There is no visible difference between the ends of the body: the head and tail parts look approximately the same, and have small processes or spines.

The worm has no eyes or teeth. However, he is considered extremely dangerous even without these organs. Residents of Mongolia are confident that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi is capable of killing from a distance. But how does he do this? There are 2 versions:

I. The monster releases a stream potent substance, hitting its victims.
Electric discharge current.

It is possible that the killer worm is capable of using both options, alternating them or using them simultaneously, enhancing the effect.

A mysterious creature lives in sand dunes, appearing on the surface only in the hottest months after rain, when the ground becomes wet. Apparently he spends the rest of his time hibernating.

The Olga-Khorkhoi easily kills its prey from a decent distance by shooting at it deadly poison, or strikes upon contact with an electric discharge. In a word, it is impossible to leave him alive...

Mongolian politics power structures, as well as the isolated position of this country, made its fauna inaccessible to all foreign zoologists. For this simple reason, the scientific community knows practically nothing about the terrible Olgoy-Khorkhoy.

The broad masses were able to learn about Olgoy-Khorkhoy only in the second half of the 19th century after the famous traveler and scientist mentioned the worm in his works N. M. Przhevalsky. Curious scientists and researchers different countries could not pass by the unusual creature. Therefore, several expeditions were undertaken, not all of which ended successfully.

Roy Andrews

In 1922, Andrews led a superbly equipped, numerous expedition that worked in Mongolia for 3 years, devoting much time to exploring the Gobi Desert.

Roy's memoirs tell how the prime minister of Mongolia once approached him with an unusual request. He wanted Andrews to catch the killer worm, leaving it to the national government. It later turned out that the prime minister had his own motives: a monster from the desert once killed one of his family members. And despite the fact that to prove the reality of this underground dweller is not possible, almost the entire country unquestioningly believes in its existence. Unfortunately, the expedition was not successful: Andrews was unable to catch or see the worm.

Ivan Efremov and Tseven's story

The Soviet geologist and writer, I. Efremov, also published some information about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi in the book “The Road of the Winds,” collected during expeditions to the Gobi Desert in 1946-1949.

In addition to standard descriptions and attempts to prove the existence of an underground monster, Efremov cites the story of the Mongolian old man Tseven, who lived in the village of Dalandzadgad.

Tseven argued that such creatures are a reality, and they can be found. Talking about the Horkhoi, the old man described them as the most disgusting and terrible creatures. It was these stories that formed the basis of the fantastic story, originally called “Olgoy-Khorkhoi,” about Russian explorers who died from the poison of giant worms. The work is a work of fiction from beginning to end, and is based only on Mongolian folklore.

Ivan Makarle

The next researcher who wanted to find the monster of the Gobi Desert was Ivan Makarle, a Czech journalist, writer, and author of works about the mysteries of the Earth.

In the early 90s of the 20th century, he, together with Dr. J. Prokopec, a specialist in tropical medicine, and operator I. Skupen, made 2 research expeditions to remote corners of the desert.

Oddly enough, they failed to catch the worm, like previous scientists, but Makarla was lucky enough to obtain strong evidence of the existence of the monster. There was so much data that Czech scientists launched television program, calling her "The Mysterious Monster of the Mongolian Sands."

Describing appearance Olgoy-Khorkhoy, I. Makarle said that the worm looks like sausage or intestine. The body length is 0.5 m, and the thickness is approximately the size of a human hand. It is difficult to determine where the head is and where the tail is due to the lack of eyes and mouth. The monster was moving in an unusual way: rolled around its axis or wriggled from side to side, while moving forward.

It’s amazing how the legends and myths of the peoples of Mongolia coincided with the descriptions of Czech researchers!

Disappearance of American Research Team

A. Nisbet, an American scientist, like his colleague R. Andrews, set himself a goal: to find the killer worm at all costs. In 1954, he finally received permission from the Mongolian government to conduct an expedition. Two jeeps carrying team members who went into the desert disappeared.

Illustration for Ivan Efremov’s story “Olgoy-Khorkhoi”

Later they were discovered in one of the remote and little-explored areas of the country. All employees, including Nisbet, were dead. But the mystery of their death still worries the team’s compatriots. The fact is that 6 people were lying next to the cars. And no, the cars were not broken, they were absolutely in good condition. All the belongings of the group members were safe, there were no wounds or any damage to the body. But because the bodies long time were in the sun, install the real reason death, unfortunately, did not succeed.

So what happened to the scientists? Versions with poisoning, illness or lack of water were excluded, and no notes were found. Some experts believe that the entire team died almost instantly. Was Nisbet's expedition able to find the Olgoi-Khorkhoi who killed them? This question will remain unanswered.

Versions of scientists

Of course, the scientific community around the world has been studying this phenomenon. But scientists have not been able to come to a consensus on what kind of creature this is.

There are several versions of who Olgoy-Khorkhoy is.

Mythical animal
John L. Cloudsey-Thompson, a zoologist, believes that the killer worm is a type of snake that is capable of infecting its victims with venom.
Michel Raynal, a French cryptozoologist, and Jaroslav Mares, a Czech scientist, believe that a surviving two-walker reptile, which during evolution has lost its legs, is hiding in the desert.

Olgoy-Khorkhoi remains an unsolved mystery

Today you rarely hear about the Mongolian giant worm; Only local researchers are involved in solving this cryptozoological puzzle. One of them is Dondogizhin Tsevegmid- suggests that there are two varieties of the worm. He was again prompted to a similar conclusion by folk legends, which also speak of the so-called shar-khorkhoi - already a yellow worm.

In his book, the scientist gives a story about a camel driver who met such shar-khorkhoi in the mountains. The driver saw many yellow worms crawling out of the ground and crawling towards him. The unfortunate man rushed away in horror and managed to escape...

So, today researchers of this phenomenon are of the opinion that the legendary Olgoi-Khorkhoi is a real living creature, completely unknown to science. The version that we're talking about about the ringed worm, which harsh conditions has adapted well to the Mongolian desert, having acquired a special, simply unique protective skin. By the way, some of these worms can spray poison for self-defense...

However, Olgoi-Khorkhoi is an absolute zoological mystery that has not yet received a single acceptable explanation. Therefore, all these theories will remain theories until researchers manage to get a photo or the sand worm from the Gobi Desert.

Deadly worm Olgoi-Khorkhoi

Many people claim to have seen them. We are talking about giant worms that can kill from a distance by releasing deadly poison or electrocuting their prey upon contact. For a long time this animal was considered part of Mongolian folklore, but recent expeditions to the desert regions of the southern Gobi seem to have found confirmation that this mysterious creature does exist.

It comes out of large cracks in the ground completely unexpectedly. to his unusual appearance resembles the insides of an animal. On the body of this creature it is impossible to distinguish either a head, mouth or eyes. But still – a living and deadly creature! We are talking about the olgoy-horchoi, the death worm, an animal that has not yet been studied by science, but which left its numerous traces along the path of several expeditions of scientists from the Czech Republic.

This is how he was depicted by the Belgian artist Peter Dirks

Ivan Makarle, a Czech writer and journalist, author of many works about the mysteries of the Earth, was one of those who followed the trail of this mysterious creature, so little known that most cryptozoologists and nature researchers still don't consider it to be something real.

In the 1990s. Makarle, together with Dr. Jaroslav Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman Jiri Skupen, led two expeditions in the wake of the Olga-Horkhoi. They were not able to catch a single specimen of the worm alive, but they received numerous evidence of its real existence, which even made it possible to broadcast an entire program on Czech television called “The Mysterious Monster of the Sands.”

This was not the only attempt to unravel the mystery of the existence of this creature; in the summer of 1996, another group - also Czechs - led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava, followed in the footsteps of Olga-Khorkhoy a good part of the Gobi Desert.

In 2003, the British Adam Davis and Andrew Sanderson, who head the company Extreme Expeditions, searched for the deadly worm. Although none of them managed to catch the mysterious monster, numerous evidence of its existence has been collected.

Olgoy-khorkhoi means “intestinal worm” in Mongolian, and this name refers to its appearance, very similar to intestines, dark red in color, a little more than half a meter long. Local residents claim that he is capable of killing at a distance, throwing out caustic poison, as well as in direct contact with the unfortunate victim - using an electric shock.

Mongolian researcher Dondogizhin Tsevegmid even suggests that there is not one variety of this worm, but at least two, since local residents often talk about the shar-khorkhoi, a yellow worm.

In one of his books, this scientist mentions the story of a camel driver who came face to face with such Shar-Khorkhoi in the Tost Mountains. Surprised driver. suddenly he noticed with horror that yellow worms were crawling out of holes in the ground and crawling towards him. Mad with fear, he rushed to run and then discovered that almost fifty of these worm-like creatures were trying to surround him. Fortunately, the poor fellow still managed to escape from them.

The isolated position of Mongolia and the policies of its authorities have made the fauna of this country practically inaccessible to foreign zoologists, except for Soviet ones, and therefore we know very little about this creature. But nevertheless, in 1926, the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews spoke in the book “In the Footsteps of Ancient Man” about his conversation with the Prime Minister of Mongolia, who asked him to catch one Olgoi-Khorkhoi (which he called allergokhai-khokhai), because they killed one of the family members of this Eastern dignitary.

Many years later, in 1958, the Soviet science fiction writer, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Efremov returned to the theme of the Olgoy-Khorkhoy in the book “The Road of the Winds.” He recounted in it all the information that he collected on this matter when he took part in geological exploration expeditions to the Gobi from 1946 to 1949. In his book, among other evidence, Ivan Efremov cites the story of an old Mongolian man from the village of Daland-zadgad named Tseven, who claimed that these creatures live 130 km southeast of the agricultural region of Aimak. But you can see them in the dunes only in the hottest months of the year, since the rest of the time they are hibernating. “Nobody knows what they are, but olgoy-khorkhoi is terrible,” said the old Mongol.

However, another participant in those expeditions, close friend and colleague I.A. Efremova Maria Fedorovna Lukyanova was skeptical about these stories: “Yes, the Mongols told them, but I never saw him. Probably, these worms used to be electric... electrified, and then they died out. I saw other worms there - little ones like that. They do not crawl on the sand, but jump over. They’ll spin and jump, they’ll spin and jump!”

How can one not recall a line from a fantastic story by I.A. Efremov’s “Olgoy-Khorkhoi”, written on the basis of the story about the monster of the sands: “It moved with some kind of convulsive jolts, now bending almost in half, now quickly straightening up.” It tells about the death of two Russian explorers from the poison of these creatures. The plot of the story was fictional, but was based on numerous testimonies local Mongolians about these mysterious creatures inhabiting the sandy areas of the desert.

Many researchers who have studied this evidence and data collected by various expeditions believe that we are talking about an animal completely unknown to science. Zoologist John L. Cloudsey-Thompson, one of the experts on desert fauna, some features of the Olgoy-Khorkhoy led him to assume that we are talking about an unknown species of snake, which is clearly related to vibora mortale australiana, a species of Oceanian viper. Its appearance is similar to that of the creature from the Gobi Desert, and, in addition, it can also destroy its victims by spraying poison from a distance.

Another version, defended by the French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal and the Czech Jaroslav Mares, says that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi may refer to two-walker reptiles that lost their legs during evolution. These reptiles can be red or brown in color, and it is very difficult to distinguish their head and neck. True, no one has heard that these reptiles were poisonous or had an organ capable of producing electric current.

Another version suggests that we are talking about an annelid worm, which acquired a special protective function in desert conditions. Some of these earthworms are known to spray venom in self-defense.

Be that as it may, Olgoi-Khorkhoi remains a mystery for zoologists, which has not yet received a satisfactory explanation.

From the book Guns, Germs and Steel [The Fates of Human Societies] by Diamond Jared

Chapter 11 The Deadly Gift of Domestic Animals We have thus far followed the emergence of food production in a few centers and its uneven spread throughout the remaining regions. The identified geographical differences allow us to answer The worm sharpens the leaf Let us turn to another manifestation of “traditional friendship” - territorial issue. In this area, during perestroika and “radical reforms,” in particular, the following “advances” occurred. During the period of Gorbachevism, the Central Committee of the CPSU in order to “normalize

From the book The Fourth Ingredient author Brooke Michael

CREATIONAL WORM. The quirks of the greats. Mysterious disappearance marl. Torture by cold, heat and... music. Architects of the soil. Quartz sand and other tricks. Night at a Roman villa. It would seem, why would specialists studying the life of elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers and

And no matter how many expeditions were undertaken into the desert, not one of the scientists had ever seen a giant worm. For many years Horkhoi was considered a fictional character in ancient Mongolian legends.

However, the attention of researchers was attracted by the fact that all the legends about the giant worm are replete with the same details and facts. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the legends are based on quite probable events. It is quite possible that in the desert sands Gobi lives an ancient animal that miraculously did not become extinct.

Word " olgoy" translated from Mongolian means "large intestine", and " Horkhoi"translated as "worm". If you believe the legends of the Mongols, the half-meter worm lives in the waterless sandy areas of the Gobi Desert. For most of the year, the worm sleeps in a hole it makes in sandy soil. The animal crawls to the surface only when summer months, when the sun is furiously baking, heating the earth. The Mongols, on pain of death, will not go into the desert in the summer: it is believed that Olgoy-Khorkhoy capable of killing prey from a distance. Throwing out deadly poison, the monster paralyzes a person or animal.

Today the giant worm is unheard of. There is an opinion that in the desert Gobi There are several varieties of worms. At least, Mongolian legends tell of one more specimen - the yellow worm.
One of the legends of the Mongolian people tells about a poor camel driver who happened to meet Horkhoi in the desert Gobi. “He was surrounded by fifty yellow worms, but the driver managed to avoid death, he spurred the animal and galloped away.”

Some scientists believe that the giant worm is nothing more than a snake - Oceanic viper. She is also huge and unattractive. In addition, the viper can destroy its prey from a distance using venom, the vapors of which are deadly poisonous.

According to another version Olgoy-Khorkhoy- This is an ancient reptile-two-walker, deprived of legs during evolution. The color of this reptile, like the color of the giant worm, is red-brown. It is also difficult to distinguish their head. However, these animals cannot kill prey from a distance.

There is another version. According to her, giant monster Gobi Desert is an annelid worm. In the harsh desert conditions, he acquired a strong shell and mutated to enormous sizes. Known cases, when desert varieties of worms sprayed venom, killing the victim.