Kongamato

Kongamato Digital visualisation of the kongamato, with stork-like features, by Tim Bertelink (CC BY-SA 4.0). Category Neopterosaur Proposed scientific names Other names Kangomato Country reported Zambia, Zimbabwe First reported 1919 Prominent investigators • Frank Melland • Bernard Heuvelmans • Ian Colvin • Reay Smithers • Karl Shuker

The kongamato (Kaondé: "broken boats") is a neopterosaurian cryptid reported from wetlands in northern Zambia and parts of Zimbabwe, particularly the Jiwundu Swamp and the Mutanda River, in Zambia's western lobe, near the border with the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was originally ethnoknown to the Kaondé people, who described it as a flying lizard, and regarded it as a dangerous animal. However, the Kaondé made no detailed kongamato observations, and no actual sightings were reported until the 1950s, when observations of pterosaur-like animals were reported from the Bangweulu Wetlands and the Zambezi Basin, in the eastern lobe of Zambia. It is argued that many of these later accounts could be explained as mistaken observations of various storks.

Since it was first described, some cryptozoologists have controversially speculated that the kongamato was a surviving pterosaur. However, alternative theories exist, besides mistaken identity, including suggestions that it was a giant bat or a giant flying lizard; Bernard Heuvelmans cautioned against trying to identify it based on the limited reports. As the best-known neopterosaur reported from Africa, the kongamato has frequently been lumped together with other flying African cryptids, such as the batamzinga, olitiau, and neopterosaurs in Namibia. As of 1997, inhabitants of the Jiwundu Swamp are no longer familiar with the kongamato, but supposed 21^st Century sightings from the wetlands of the eastern lobe have been reported in local news oulets.