Page 106 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

86 Mysterious Creatures

until 1900. The largest of the apes, the moun- African swamps that are “Mokey’s” hangouts
tain gorilla, was considered a native supersti- and stated later that the descriptions of the
tion until 1901. The dragons of Komodo beast would fit that of a sauropod, the giant
Island, Indonesia, were considered the cre- plant-eating reptile that supposedly became
ations of a strange myth conjured up by the extinct about 60 million years ago.
islanders until 1912. And the British zoologist J. Richard Greenwell, an expedition mem-
who described the bizarre “royal hepard”—a ber from Tucson, Arizona, told of having dis-
half-leopard and half-hyena beast long claimed covered huge tracks that led into the Likouala
by the natives of Rhodesia to be an actual River. In his opinion, no animal smaller than
beast of prey—wondered how such a large ani- an elephant could have left such a path
mal, and one so distinct from other species, through the thickets near the river, and,
could have remained “unknown” for so long.
Greenwell noted, elephants always leave an
In June 1994, the first living specimen of the exit trail when they leave a river. Whatever
Vu Quang ox was caught in a rugged area on the left these massive prints made no such sign of
Vietnamese-Laotian border, and its verified an exit, which may indicate that Mokey is a
existence was hailed as the zoological find of the marine, as well as land, creature.
half-century. This horned mammal, weighing Tracking even dinosaur-sized creatures is
more than 200 pounds with cinnamon, black, not that simple in the Likouala swampland,
and white coloration, is a hemibovid, a species which is twice the size of Scotland, and thick
ancestral to both oxen and antelope that was with venomous snakes and disease-bearing
thought to have become extinct four million insects. On November 28, 1981, Herman
years ago. Zoologists estimated their present Regusters, an aerospace engineer from South
population to be in the hundreds.
Pasadena, California, and his wife, Kia,
In July 1999, zoologists saw the first photo- claimed to have seen and to have pho-
graphic evidence that the Javan rhinoceros, tographed a dinosaurlike animal in a remote
thought completely wiped out on the Asian African lake. Kia Regusters said that the
mainland in the 1960s, still thrived 130 kilo- gigantic reptile was dark red with a long, thick
meters north of Ho Chi Minh City in the Lam neck, and longer than two hippopotamuses.
Dong province of Vietnam. These huge ani- Unfortunately, the photograph taken by the
mals, which can weigh more than 3,000 Regusters was rather fuzzy, and their tape
pounds, have somehow been misplaced or recording of the “roaring trumpeting noise”
missed for nearly 40 years. heard frequently around Lake Tele was impos-
sible to identify.
In December 2000, scientists set out to
search the northern jungles of Thailand for Dr. Bill Gibbons, a zoologist who special-
conclusive proof of the sightings of large, hairy izes in attempting to track down new species,
elephants that witnesses claim strongly resem- told the (London) Sunday Times (June 3,
ble the long-extinct woolly mammoth. What 1999) that he is certain that mokele-mbembe
these scientists and forestry officials may dis- exists. According to Gibbons, cryptozoologists
cover is either a new species of elephant or had heard reports that hunters from the
long-lost descendants of the great-tusked Kabonga tribe had killed a mokele-mbembe
mammoth of the Ice Age. and had tried to eat it. Its flesh proved inedi-
ble and the carcass was left to rot and be
For at least 200 years now, stories have
emerged from the swamps, rivers, and lakes of gnawed and pecked at by scavengers.
African jungles that there exists a brownish- If there are monsters from the Age of Rep-
gray, elephant-sized creature with a reptilian tiles surviving in the remote jungles of the
tail and a long, flexible neck. The native peo- world, what giant creatures might be thriving
ple call it “mokele-mbembe” (“the one who in the vast depths of the seas and a number of
stops the flow of rivers”) or “emela-ntuka” the larger lakes throughout the world? What
(“the one who eats the tops of trees”). In prehistoric monsters might be surviving
1980, Dr. Roy Mackal led an expedition into unchanged, unscathed by the Earth changes

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