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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]




Reports and Expeditions

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]

Creationists Who Searched for Mokèlé-mbèmbé

1776: Bonaventure

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]

1909: Gratz


1909: Hagenbeck

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.

1913: von Stein

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:


1919-1920: Smithsonian Institution

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]

1927: Smith


1932: Sanderson


1938: von Boxberger


1939: von Nolde


1966: Ridel

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]

1976: Powell

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]

1979: Mackal-Powell

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:


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]

1981: Mackal-Bryan



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.

1981: Regusters

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]

1983: Agnagna

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]

1985: Nugent

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]

1985-1986: Gibbons

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]

1986: Botterweg




1988 Japanese expedition

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]

1989 O'Hanlon


1992 Gibbons

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:


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]

1998: Extreme Expeditions

The Extreme Expeditions team was set to travel to the Likouala Region, however the 1997-1999 civil war made this impossible.[15]

1999: Fay

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]

2000: Extreme Expeditions


2000: Gibbons

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]

2001: CryptoSafari/BCSCC

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]

2002: Gibbons

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]

2006: Marcy


2006: National Geographic


2008: Destination Truth

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]

2009: MonsterQuest

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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  2. Mokele-Mbembe by
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 In Search Of the Congo Dinosaur by William Gibbons. Acts & Facts, July 2002.
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 Clark, Jerome (1993) "Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena", Visible Ink Press, ISBN 0-8103-9436-7
  5. Ley, Willie, Exotic Zoology; New York: Capricorn Books, 1966 (trade paperback edition), p 69
  6. quoted in Ley, 70
  7. Field Guide to Lake Monsters, page 216
  8. Homer Leroy Shantz papers, 1903-1958
  9. Ley, 71-72
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Mackal, R. P. (1987) A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe, E.J. Brill, ISBN 90-04-08543-2
  11. Mokèlé-mbèmbé's Rev. Eugene Thomas, 78, dies
  12. 12.0 12.1 Was a Mokèlé-mbèmbé killed at Lake Tele? by William Gibbons. retrieved 25 May 2007
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 13.9 Mokele Mbembe by Wikipedia
  14. 明日できるコトは今日やらない
  15. Expedition Profile by Extreme Expeditions. Accessed August 10, 2010.
  16. Extreme Expeditions
  17. - The Ngoubou
  18. Mokele Mbembe The British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club
  19. Mokèlé-mbèmbé Expedition Update, Accessed Aug 10, 2010.
  20. Mokele-Mbembe Expedition II Departs 2009


Further Reading