Mokele-Mbembe

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Africa? Lions? Hippos? Gorillas? Lots of various animal species cover the large continent, over lots of different habitats. From deserts, to coastal regions, to savannas, to the jungle, Africa seems to have it all. That said, they even still have dinosaurs...

Supposedly, in the Congo River Basin, around the waterways and lakes, there lives an animal called by the locals as Mokele-Mbembe, translated as "One who stops the flow of rivers." That's a pretty impressive name. This animal resembles a rhino or elepant sized sauropod, more commonly known as a Brachiosauros or Diplodocus. This animal has a hatred of hippopotamuses, killing them on sight, and also very leery of humans. Strictly an herbivore, it will not eat what it kills. To me, it seems that it just does not like to be bothered.

The first known sighting of sorts comes from a French missionary in the year 1776AD. The animal itself was not sighted, but the missionary did see tracks that he described that the creature "must have been monstrous: the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, and these formed a print about three feet in circumference."

Countless sightings and tales have happened since then, even various expeditions searching for the animal. One of the more famous sightings of sorts was during an expedition of the Smithsonian Institute starting in the year 1919AD. According to the authors of the "Field Guide to Lake Monsters," the trip found some interesting data. It states: "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 to any known animal."

Today, it's hard to believe that an animal of such stature could go on unnoticed. But think of this, the Western Lowland Gorilla was thought to have a population of around 50,000. Then in 2006-2007, a team discovered more than 100,000 unreported gorillas living in a swamp area around one of the major Mokele-Mbembe reported areas. That is pretty interesting to think about. 100,000 gorillas living unnoticed by humans for quite some time. Possibly like a small population of sauropods, living in the dense, highly untraveled areas of the Congo River Basin. Something to think about...