Lucien Jacques Laurent Blancou (18 October 1903 – 28 December 1983) was a French naturalist specialising in the wildlife of Central Africa, where he worked as a colonial game warden and forestry officer. He is notable for being the first person to use the term "cryptozoology" in print, in his book Géographie Cynégétique du Monde (1959), in which he described Bernard Heuvelmans as the maitre de la Cryptozoologie.[1][2] During his work in Africa, Blancou investigated several unknown animals himself, most prominently water lions such as the mourou-ngou and dilali, as well as the badigui, emela-ntouka, forest rhinoceros, and gassingrâm. Much of Blancou's research was transmitted to Heuvelmans, who used it extensively in On the Track of Unknown Animals (1955).[3][4]
