Mokèlé-mbèmbé is the name given to the creature rumored to be a living dinosaur similar to an apatosaurus. Sightings within central Africa have been reported for more than two centuries by native fishermen, missionaries, and explorers. The animal is said to be a herbivore about the size of a hippopotamus or elephant, and mainly aquatic, coming onto shore to search for food. It has a short (squat) body, a long neck and clawed feet. Its name, rendered in the Lingala language, means "Name means::blocker of rivers".[1]
Numerous expeditions have been conducted to search for solid evidence, many within the Congo River basin of Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon. Within the basin exists the largest swamp in the world (the Likouala Swamp) which is roughly 55,000 square miles, larger than the entire US state of Florida. According to government reports, the area is more than 80% unexplored, and has therefore been the focus of several cryptozoologists.[2]
William Gibbons, a creationist who has been on four expeditions to search for Mokele-mbembe states:
| “ | Perhaps the most exciting prospect for the world of creation science is the possibility that dinosaurs may still be living in the remote jungles of the world. Evolution and its accompanying necessity of long ages of evolutionary development would be hard pressed to accommodate a living dinosaur.[3] | ” |
Numerous expeditions were undertaken to discover uncharted Africa. During these, there were some sightings that have been argued by cryptozoologists to involve some unidentified dinosaur-like creature. Additionally, there have been several specific Mokèlé-mbèmbé-hunting expeditions. Although several of the expeditions have reported close-encounters, none have been able to provide incontrovertible proof that the creature exists. The sole evidence that has been found is the presence of widespread folklore and anecdotal accounts covering a considerable period of time.[4]
Amongst the earliest reference that might be relevant to Mokèlé-mbèmbé stories (though the term is not used in the source) comes from the 1776 book of Abbé Lievain Bonaventure, a French missionary to the Congo River region. Among many other observations about flora, fauna, and native inhabitants related in his lengthy book, Bonaventure claimed to have seen enormous footprints in the region.[4] The creature that left the prints was not witnessed, but Bonaventure wrote that:
| “ | It must be monstrous, the prints of its claws are seen upon the earth, and formed an impression on it of about three feet in circumference. In observing the posture and disposition of the footprints, they concluded that it did not run this part of the way, and that it carried its claws at a distance of seven or eight feet one from the other.[3] | ” |
Prints of the size described by Bonaventure could only have come from an animal the size of an elephant, but elephants do not have claws.[3]
According to Lt. Paul Gratz' account from 1909, indigenous legends of the Congo River Basin in modern day Zambia spoke of a creature known by native people as the "Nsanga", which was said to inhabit the Lake Bangweulu region. Gratz described the creature as resembling a sauropod. This is one of the earliest references linking an area legend with dinosaurs, and has been argued to describe a Mokèlé-mbèmbé-like creature. In addition to hearing stories of the "Nsanga" Gratz was shown a hide which he was told belonged to the creature, while visiting Mbawala Island.[4]
Another mention of a Mokèlé-mbèmbé-like creature was made in Beasts and Men, the autobiography of famed big-game hunter Carl Hagenbeck. He claimed to have heard from multiple independent sources about a creature living in the Congo region which was described as "half elephant, half dragon." Naturalist Joseph Menges had also told Hagenbeck about an animal alleged to live in Africa, described as "some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the brontosaurs." Another of Hagenbeck's sources, Hans Schomburgk, asserted that while at Lake Bangweulu, he noted a lack of hippopotami; his native guides informed him of a large hippo-killing creature that lived in Lake Bangweulu; however, as noted below, Schomburgk thought that native testimony was sometimes unreliable.[4]
Reports of dinosaur-like creatures in Africa caused a minor sensation in the mass media, and newspapers in Europe and North America carried many articles on the subject in 1910-1911; some took the reports at face value, others were more skeptical.
Another report comes from the writings of German Captain Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz, who was ordered to conduct a survey of German colonies in what is now Cameroon in 1913. He heard stories of an enormous reptile alleged to live in the jungles that was "very much feared by the Negroes of certain parts of the territory of the Congo, the lower Ubangi, the Sangha, and the Ikelemba rivers".[3] He included a description of the beast in his official report. According to Willy Ley, "von Stein worded his report with utmost caution," knowing it might be seen as unbelievable.[5] Nonetheless, von Stein thought the tales were credible: trusted native guides had related the tales to him, and the stories were related to him by independent sources, yet featured many of the same details. Though von Stein's report was never formally published, portions were included in later works, including a 1959 book by Ley. Von Stein wrote:
| “ | The animal is said to be of a brownish-gray color with a smooth skin, its size is approximately that of an elephant; at least that of a hippopotamus. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth but a very long one; some say it is a horn. A few spoke about a long, muscular tail like that of an alligator. Canoes coming near it are said to be doomed; the animal is said to attack the vessels at once and to kill the crews but without eating the bodies. The creature is said to live in the caves that have been washed out by the river in the clay of its shores at sharp bends. It is said to climb the shores even at daytime in search of food; its diet is said to be entirely vegetable. This feature disagrees with a possible explanation as a myth. The preferred plant was shown to me, it is a kind of liana with large white blossoms, with a milky sap and applelike fruits. At the Ssombo River I was shown a path said to have been made by this animal in order to get at its food. The path was fresh and there were plants of the described type nearby. But since there were too many tracks of elephants, hippos, and other large mammals it was impossible to make out a particular spoor with any amount of certainty.[6] | ” |
A 32-man-strong expedition was sent out to Africa from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. between 1919 and 1920. The objective of this expedition was to secure additional specimens of plants and animals. Moving picture photographers from the Universal Film Manufacturing Company accompanied the expedition, in order to document the life of interior Africa. According to cryptozoologists Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe, authors of the Field Guide to Lake Monsters, "African guides found large, unexplained tracks along the bank of a river and later in a swamp the team heard mysterious roars, which had no resemblance with any known animal".[7] However, the expedition was to end in tragedy. During a train-ride through a flooded area where an entire tribe was said to have seen the dinosaur, the locomotive suddenly derailed and turned over. Four team members were crushed to death under the cars and another half dozen seriously injured. The expedition was documented in the H.L. Shantz papers.[8]
A similar creature was reported in the Trader Horn, the memoir of Alfred Aloysius Smith, who had worked for a British trading company in what is now Gabon in the late 1800s. In the book, Smith related tales told him by natives and explorers about a creature given two different names: "jago-nini" and "amali". The creature was said to be very large, according to Smith, and to leave large, round, three-clawed footprints.[4]
Zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson claimed that, while in Cameroon in 1932, he witnessed an enormous creature in the Mainyu River. The creature, seemingly badly wounded, was only briefly visible as it lurched into the water. Darkly colored, the animal's head alone was nearly the size of a hippo, according to Sanderson. His native guides termed the creature "m'koo m'bemboo", in Sanderson's phonetic spelling.[4]
In 1938, explorer Leo von Boxberger mounted an expedition in part to investigate Mokèlé-mbèmbé reports. He collected much information from natives, but his notes and sketches had to be abandoned during a conflagration with local tribesmen.[4]
In 1939, the German Colonial Gazette (of Angola) published a letter by Frau Ilse von Nolde, who asserted that she had heard of the animal called "coye ya menia" ("water lion") from many claimed eyewitnesses, both natives and settlers. She described the long necked creature as living in the rivers, and being about the size of a hippo, if not somewhat larger. It was known especially for attacking hippos - even coming on to land to do so - though it never ate them.[9]
In August or September 1966, Yvan Ridel took a picture of a large footprint with three toes, north-east of Loubomo, notable as hippopotami have four toes (see photo).[10]
The herpetologist James H. Powell, Jr., traveled to Gabon to study rainforest crocodiles. While on expedition he obtained accounts from the Fang people about an enormous river monster they called N'yamala. Upon questioning, a local witch doctor (Obang) who had seen the creature exit a pool in 1946 identified the diplodocus from a book on dinosaurs as being the N'yamala.[3] Powell decided that the N'yamala was the same creature as "amali" of Smith's 1920's book Trader Horn, and was probably identical to the Mokèlé-mbèmbé. .[4]
Natives also stated – without Powell's asking - that "n'yamala" ate the flowering liana, just as von Stein had been told half a century earlier. When Powell showed illustrations of various animals, both alive and extinct, to natives, they generally suggested that the Diplodocus was the closest match to "n'yamala".[4] Powell later conveyed this information to Dr. Roy P. Mackal, a biologist from the University of Chicago and vice president of the International Society of Cryptozoology.[3]
Powell returned to the same region in 1979 with Roy P. Mackal where they receive further stories about "n'yamala" from natives who said the animals were rare. All of the eyewitnesses agreed that "n'yamala" (Mokele-mbembe) lived in swampy lakes and although seemingly herbivorous, were dangerous[3] and known to attack canoes that were steered too close.
Powell and Mackal decided to focus their efforts on visiting the northern Congo regions, near the Likouala aux Herbes River and isolated Lake Tele. This region was little explored and largely unmapped, and the expedition was unable to reach Lake Tele. Powell and Mackal interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mokèlé-mbèmbé, and Clark writes that the descriptions of the creature were "strikingly similar ... again, informants invariable pointed to a picture of a sauropod when shown pictures of various animals to which mokele-mbembe might be compared."[4][10]
According to Mackal:
| “ | The witnesses described animals that were 15 to 30 feet long, mostly head, neck and tail. The head was distinctly snake-like, a long thin tail, and a body approximating the size of an elephant, or at least that of a hippopotamus. The legs are short, with the hind legs possessing three claws. The animals are a reddish brown in color, and have a rooster-like frill running from the top of the head down the back of the neck.[3] | ” |
They also made an especially valuable contact in American missionary Eugene Thomas who had served as a missionary in the Congo since 1955. They met with him in northern town of Impfondo, situated on the Ubangi river.[3] Thomas had gathered much of the earliest evidence and reports, and claimed to have had two close-encounters himself.[11] Thomas also introduce Powell and Mackal to several eyewitnesses.[3] One particular story relayed by Thomas involved the purported killing of a Mokèlé-mbèmbé near Lake Tele in 1959.[12]
As William Gibbons writes:
| “ | Pastor Thomas also mentioned that the two pygmies mimicked the cry of the animal as it was being attacked and speared... Later, a victory feast was held, during which parts of the animal were cooked and eaten. However, those who participated in the feast eventually died, either from food poisoning or from natural causes. I also believe that the mythification (magical powers, etc) surrounding Mokèlé-mbèmbés began with this incident.[12] | ” |
According to Mackal, the natives of the Bangombe tribe who lived near Lake Tele were said to have constructed a large spiked fence in a tributary of Tele to keep Mokèlé-mbèmbé from interfering with their fishing. A Mokele-mbembe managed to break through, though it was wounded on the spikes, and the natives then killed the creature. Furthermore, Mackal heard from witnesses that the stakes were in the same location in the tributary as of the early 1980s.[10]
Mackal and Jack Bryan mounted an expedition to the same area in late 1981. He was supposed to be joined by Herman Regusters, but they came in conflict in terms of finance, equipment and leadership and decided to split and make separate expeditions. Although, once again, Mackal was unable to reach Lake Tele, he gathered details on other cryptids and possible living dinosaurs, like the Emela-ntouka, Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, Nguma-monene, Ndendeki (giant turtle), Mahamba (a giant crocodile of 15 meters), and Ngoima (a giant monkey-eating Eagle). Among his company were J. Richard Greenwell, M. Justin Wilkinson, and Congolese zoologist Marcellin Agnagna.[4][10]
The 1981 expedition would feature the only "close encounters" of the Mackal expeditions. It occurred when, while on a river, they heard a loud splash and saw what Greenwell described as "[a] large wake (about 5") ... originating from the east bank". Greenwell asserted that the wake must have been caused by an "animate object" that was unlike a crocodile or hippo. Additionally, Greenwell noted that the encounter occurred at a sharp river bend where, according to natives, Mokèlé-mbèmbé frequently lived due to deep waters at those points.[4][10]
1987 saw the publication of Mackal's book, A Living Dinosaur?, in which Mackal detailed his expedition and his conclusions about the Mokèlé-mbèmbé.[4][10] Mackal tried, unsuccessfully, to raise funds for additional trips to Africa.
In 1981, American engineer Herman Regusters led his own expedition to search for Mokèlé-mbèmbé, during which Regusters and his wife Kia reached Lake Tele, staying there for about two weeks. While surveying Lake Tele in an inflatable raft, Regusters and his wife observed a snake-like head with a long graceful neck emerge from the water about 30 feet away. They stated that the creature stared at them for a few seconds before silently slipping in the water.[3]
The sighting has been criticized by skeptics because only Herman Regusters and his wife claim to have observed a "long-necked member", although 28 were men from the Boha village were also in the area of the lake. They also claim to have tried filming the being, but said their motion picture film was ruined by the heat and humidity.[13] Only one picture was released showing a large, but unidentifiable, object in the lake (see photo). The Regusters expedition returned with droppings and footprint casts, which Regusters believed were from the mokele-mbembe (see photo).
Regusters team were also witness to an unusually loud roar made by an animal near their camp, which he believed to be the Mokèlé-mbèmbé's call.[3] He returned with sound recordings described as "low windy roar [that] increased to a deep throated trumpeting growl". Regusters conclusions about this tape were later contradicted by Mackal, who asserted that the Mokèlé-mbèmbé did not have a vocal call. Mackal, however, stated that vocalizations are more correctly associated with the Emela-ntouka, a similarly described creature found in the Central African legends.[4]
Congolese zoologist Marcellin Agnagna led the 1983 expedition of Congolese to Lake Tele. According to Agnagna and his colleagues, after five days of exploring the swamps surrounding the lake, they spotted a large animal moving out into the water, which had a small head like a lizard, a long neck, and a large broad back.[3] According to their account, the group was able to observe a Mokèlé-mbèmbé at close distance for about 20 minutes.[4] Agnagna attempted to film the creature, but during the excitement he forgot to switch the lens setting from macro to a long distance setting.[3]
Skeptics have criticized the sighting stating that Agnagna gave contradictory testimony stating originally that the film was ruined because of the lens cap, rather than lens setting.[4]
In December 1985 Rory Nugent claimed to have spotted the animal but to have been ordered at gunpoint by the natives not to approach it. Nugent claimed that they view the creature as a god "that you can not approach, but if he chooses, this god can approach you." He also provided some pictures, which are too blurry to be identifiable.[13]
From November 1985 to May 1986 the a creationist cryptozoologist William Gibbons, led an expedition known as "Operation Congo". After a disheartening delay in Brazzaville for several weeks by the slow-motion bureaucracy, with the assistance of Eugene Thomas who made several contacts on Gibbon's behalf the expedition was finally able to get underway. They found that the fear of Mokele-mbembe was considerable among the rural Congolese, and proved to be an impediment in their attempt to gather information. Although their efforts produced no sighting of the elusive creature, they identified a monkey that was unknown at the time and later classified as a new subspecies of Cerocebus galeritus, or crestless mangabey monkey.[3]
In 1986 another expedition was mounted, consisting of four Dutchmen, organized and led by Dutch biologist Ronald Botterweg, who already had experience with tropical rainforest research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and who later visited, lived, and worked in several African countries. This expedition entered the Congo down the Ubangi River from Bangui in the Central African Republic, and managed, with considerable organizational challenges, to reach Lake Tele, with a group of guides from the village of Boha, some of which had also accompanied Regusters. Since they had only managed to obtain permission from the local authorities (not having passed by Brazzaville) for a very limited period in the area, they only spent about three days at the lake before returning to Boha. During their stay at the lake they spent as much time as possible observing the lake and its surroundings through from their provisional camp on the north-eastern shore, and navigating part of it by dug-out canoe. No signs of any large unknown animal were found.[13]
On the way back, arriving at the town of Impfondo, they were detained by Congolese biologist Agnagna and his team, who had just arrived there for an expedition with the British team of Operation Congo, allegedly for not possessing the proper documents. They were detained for a short while, and the largest part of their film and color slides were confiscated, before being released and leaving the country (again by the Ubangui river and Bangui).[13]
No signs, tracks or anything tangible or visible of the alleged animals was seen or shown whatsoever. Tracks, droppings, and other signs of forest elephants and gorillas were commonly seen, as well as crocodiles in the lake. Despite the fact that the African guides were extremely capable and experienced hunters, guides and experts of the African rainforest, they were not able to show any track or sign of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé and none of the several interviewed guides even claimed ever to have seen one personally, nor its tracks. Remarkable is the fact that the guides that were interviewed by the Dutch expedition and that also accompanied Regusters, stated that they never saw a Mokèlé-mbèmbé during that expedition, although Regusters himself claims to have seen one.[13]
In 1988 a Japanese expedition went to the area, led by the Congolese wildlife official Jose Bourges. Members of a Japanese film crew allegedly captured the first evidence of Mokele-mbembe (see photo). As they were filming aerial footage from a small plane over the area of Lake Tele, intending to obtain some shots for a documentary, the cameraman noticed a disturbance in the water. He struggled to maintain focus on the object, which was creating a noticeable wake. About 15 seconds of footage was captured, which skeptics have identified as either two men in a canoe or swimming elephants.[14]
British writer Redmond O'Hanlon traveled to the region in 1989 and not only failed to discover any evidence of Mokèlé-mbèmbé but found out that many local people believe the creature to be a spirit rather than a physical being, and that claims for its authentic existence have been fabricated. His experience is chronicled in Granta no. 39 (1992) and in his book No Mercy (1997).
William Gibbons launched a second expedition in 1992 which he dubbed "Operation Congo 2". The trip doubled as a humanitarian mission wherein the group delivered emergency medical supplies to the mission station in Impfondo. The explorers then headed north on the Bai River in search of Mokele-mbembe through dense swamps, and seached two unmapped small lakes:[3] Lake Fouloukuo and Lake Tibeke, both of which local folklore held to be sites of Mokèlé-mbèmbé activity.[13] However, the exploration of the swamps had to be cut short because of the local guides were afraid of remaining in the area. According to Gibbons:
| “ | Although many of the inhabitants of the Likouala Region know exactly where we can observe and film a specimen of Mokele-mbembe, they believe that to speak openly of the animals to white outsiders means death. It was nothing more than fear and superstition that was stopping us from making a major discovery.[3] | ” |
Rory Nugent who accompanied Gibbons on the expedition took two photographs of unidentified objects in the water, one of which he claimed was the creature's head (see photo).[13]
The Extreme Expeditions team was set to travel to the Likouala Region, however the 1997-1999 civil war made this impossible.[15]
The 1999[megatransect into the wilderness of the Congo basin by the biologist and Africa explorer J. Michael Fay did not reveal any trace of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé. However, it must be noted that the trek did not pass through the Likouala and Lake Tele regions.{[13]
In January 2000, the Congo Millennium Expedition (aka. DINO2000) took place, the second one by Extreme Expeditions, consisting of Andrew Sanderson, Adam Davies, Keith Townley, Swedish explorer Jan-Ove Sundberg, and five others.[16]
In November 2000, William Gibbons traveled to Cameroon with David Woetzel from Concord, New Hampshire. They then teamed up with Pierre Sima, a Cameroonian national who hunted regularly in the jungle with the Baka pygmies. The team obtained numerous firsthand, eyewitness accounts from the native of the area of an a Mokele-mbembe activity dating from 1986 to April 2000, although the Baka people referred to them as La`Kila-bembe. They confirmed that creatures still inhabited the rivers, swamps, and streams of southern Cameroon, but unlike the pygmies of the Congo, the Baka pygmies were not restrained by superstitious beliefs and were happy to provide detailed information about the creatures. They described La`Kila-bembe exactly as had the pygmies in the Congo although added that they had a series of dermal spikes running the length of its neck, back, and tail. This particular physical feature of sauropod dinosaurs was unknown to paleontologists until 1991.[3]
They were also informed by the natives about an animal called Ngoubou, a horned creature. Gibbons describes the experience:
| “ | Additional information was also gathered about other strange animals that reputedly inhabit the forest and swamps, including a large quadruped armed with a heavy neck frill and up to four horns on its head. Our witnesses immediately picked out a picture of the triceratops as being a dead ringer for this animal which is reputed to kill and disembowel elephants.[3] | ” |
The pygmies asserted it was not a regular rhinoceros, as it had more than one horn (six horns on the frill in one eyewitness account), and that the father of one of the senior members of the community had killed one with a spear a number of years ago. The locals have noted a firm dwindle in the population of these animals lately, and said they are now hard to find. Gibbons identifies the animals as a having features most similar to the ceratops genus Styracosaurus.[17]
In February 2001, in a joint venture between CryptoSafari and the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club (BCSCC), a research team traveled to Cameroon consisting of William Gibbons, Scott Norman, John Kirk and writer Robert A. Mullin. Their local guide was Pierre Sima Noutchegeni. They were also accompanied by a BBC film crew. No evidence of Mokèlé-mbèmbé was found.[18]
In February 2002, William Gibbons returned Cameroon with a four man Christian expedition, including Pierre Sima who had accompanied Gibbons in 2000. They interviewed many new eyewitnesses and gathered even more valuable information on Mokele-mbembe and other mystery animals of the region. However due to a very low water level of rivers and swamps little actual field research was possible. Gibbons plans to return in the wet season, which according to almost all eyewitnesses, is the best time to encounter Mokele-mbembes.[3]
In January 2006, the Milt Marcy Expedition traveled to the Dja river in Cameroon, near the Congolese border. It consisted of Milt Marcy, Peter Beach, Rob Mullin and Pierre Sima. They spoke to witnesses that claimed to have observed a Mokèlé-mbèmbé only two days before, but they did not discover the animal themselves. However, they did return with what they believe to be a plaster cast of a Mokèlé-mbèmbé footprint.[19]
A May 2006 episode called "Super Snake" of the National Geographic series Dangerous Encounters included an expedition headed by Brady Barr to Lake Tele. No unknown animals were found.[13]
In March 2008 an episode of the SyFy (formerly the SciFi Channel) series Destination Truth involved investigator Joshua Gates and crew searching for the elusive dinosaur. They did not visit the Likouala Region, which includes Lake Tele, but they visited Lake Bangweulu in Zambia instead, which had reports of a similar creature in the early 20th century, called the "'nsanga". The crew of Destination Truth kept calling the animal "Mokèlé-mbèmbé" to the locals, when that name is only used in the Republic of the Congo. The name used in that particular spot is "chipekwe". Their episode featured a videotaped close encounter, but filmed from a great distance. On applying digital video enhancement techniques, the encounter proved to be nothing more than two submerged hippopotamus.[13]
In March 2009 an episode of the History Channel series MonsterQuest involved Bill Gibbons, Rob Mullin, local guide Pierre Sima and a two-man film crew from White Wolf Productions. It took place in Cameroon, in the region of Dja, Boumba, and Nkogo Rivers, near the border with the Republic of the Congo. The episode aired in the summer of 2009, and also featured an interview with Roy P. Mackal and Peter Beach of the Milt Marcy Expedition, 2006. While no sightings were reported on the expedition, the team found evidence of a large underground cave with air vents. The team also received sonar readings of very long, serpentine shapes underwater.[20]
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