The Olgoi-Khorkhoi, better known as the Mongolian Death Worm, is a deadly and mysterious creature reported to live in the Gobi Desert of Southern Mongolia. The Olgoi-Khorkhoi is often described as a worm like creature between 2 to 4 feet in length, headless, thick and dark red in color. Said to spend the majority of its life buried beneath the desert sands the Olgoi-Khorkhoi which means, intestine worm, is feared among the people of Mongolia as it supposedly has the ability to kill people and animals instantly from a range of several feet. Because of the mysterious nature it is unclear how the Olgoi-Khorkhoi performs this act of ranged killing; it is believed that the worm sprays an immensely lethal poison or that it somehow transmits high voltage electrical charges.
Czech author Ivan Mackerle, the foremost investigator of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, learned of the creature from a former student of his who came from Mongolia. After listening to stories of Mackerle’s diving expedition in search of the Lock Ness Monster, the student approached him with tales of a horrible creature in Mongolia called the Olgoi-Khorkhoi which lives buried in the Gobi Desert sand dunes and can kill a man, a horse and even a camel. The student’s stories intrigued Mackerle who set out to learn more about the creature, he found information on the Mongolian Death Worm hard to come by as most Mongolians were afraid to discuss the creature.
To make his search even more difficult the government of Mongolia outlawed the search for the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, dismissing the creature as a fairy tale. In 1990, after communism collapsed, a new government provided Mackerle the freedom to mount an expedition to the Gobi Desert to hunt for the Mongolian Death Worm. After collecting many eyewitness accounts of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi Mackerle determined that the creature could be real.
The Mongolian Death Worm was first brought to public attention in Loren Coleman’s 1999 resource book, Cryptozoology A to Z, and was mentioned again in Doctor Karl Shuker’s 2003 book The Beasts that Hide from Man, where he speaks briefly on its reported ability to kill its victims by electric shock. The ability to perform an electric shock is a well known ability of the electric eel but is not known to be found outside of marine life. Most likely the electrical death from a distance component of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi legend is an exaggeration based on fear of the creature.
In recent years cryptozoologist Michel Raynal has suggested that the Mongolian Death Worm might be a specialized borrowing reptile belonging to the suborder of amphisbaeniane that generally have no limbs and are reddish brown in color. Another possibility is that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi is a member of the cobra family known as the death adder. Though only found in Australia and New Guinea the death adder has an appearance similar to the descriptions of the Mongolian Death Worm and is able to spit venom several feet. Researchers speculate that this species could conceivably survive in the Gobi Desert environment.
A joint expedition by the Center for Fortean Zoology, Cryptoworld and E-Mongol in 2005 investigated new reports and sightings of the creature. The group found no evidence of the Mongolian Death Worm but believed that such a creature could exist in the deep Gobi Desert sands along the strictly prohibited areas of the Mongolian/Chinese border. The most recent expedition was in 2006 to 2007 and was conducted by the reality television show Destination Truth. This expedition also did not find any evidence of the creature.
Despite several resent expeditions in search of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi there remains no physical evidence of the creature’s existence.
No documented sightings of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, Mongolian Death Worm, could be located at this time.
The Stats – (Where applicable)
• Classification: Cryptid / Other
• Size: 2 to 4 feet in length
• Weight: Unknown
• Diet: Carnivorous
• Location: Gobi Desert, Mongolia
• Movement: Unknown
• Environment: Desert