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The nguma-monene (Lingala: "large boa") is a cryptid reported from Eastern Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo's Motaba River, described as a huge, serpentine animal with legs.[1][2][3] It has been equated with other Central African cryptids including the badigui, the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu, and sometimes the lau.[1]
Description[]
The nguma-monene is said to be a large, serpentine animal, 30' to 40' in length and 2' to 3' in diametre. It has short legs, greyish-brown skin, a snake-like head and neck, a forked tongue which is flicks in and out, and a serrated ridge running along its spine. The Joseph Ellis sighting suggests that it has a low-slung body like a crocodile or a lizard.[1]
The yoli of Cameroon, which is usually synonymised with the nguma-monene,[2] is described as resembling a snake, but with a pair of limbs, large enough to rise above the tallest trees in the forest. It moves rapidly through water, swamps, and on the ground, and feeds on birds and monkeys. Uniquely, its body is described as producing an electric current, similar to electric catfish, some species of which (Paradoxoglanis sp.) are endemic to the Congo Basin. The Baka people are afraid of the yoli, but claim to have killed specimens with spears and dogs.[4]
Sightings[]
1961[]
One morning in 1961, the eldest sister of First Secretary of the General Assembly Michel Zabatou was bathing in the river when she felt a disturbance in the water. "To her astonishment and dismay," a "great head and neck very like a snake's, but much larger" emerged from the water about 15 metres away from her. She cried out in fear, attracting the attention of villagers, who all watched the animal moving in the water, flicking its forked tongue.[1]
1971[]
In November 1971, whilst paddling down the Motaba River in a dugout canoe, missionary Joseph Ellis observed a 30' serpentine animal with a serrated back swim across the river, starting about 20 metres from the first bank. It soon disappeared into the tall grass and underbrush on the opposite riverbank, never raising its body far off the ground.[1]
Theories[]
Reconstruction of Dolichosaurus by artist Olorotitan.
Roy P. Mackal, noting that the eyewitnesses were familiar with crocodiles in the area, states that is "no possibility whatsoever that the creature could have been an oversized crocodile". The nguma-monene's most important features, as far as its identification goes, are its forked tongue and serrated back: the forked tongue, Mackal writes, implies that the animal must be either a snake or a lizard, and since none of the two-and-a-half-thousand known species of snake have anything like a ridged back or crest, it is fair to asume that it must be a lizard.[1]
The biggest known lizards in Africa are the monitors, but no known species of monitors have dorsal ridges either. The habits of the Nile monitor agree with those of the nguma-monene, but it is discounted as a good identity by Mackal for this reason, and because of its much smaller size: in fact, no known monitor approaches the reported size of the nguma-monene.[1]
Mackal suggested that the ngume-monene could be a modern-day descendant of the dolichosaurs, a primitive semi-aquatic group of lizards which had short limbs and elongated bodies. Mackal also described dolichosaurs as ancestral monitor lizards, although this theory no longer seems to be a popular one amongst palaeontologists. On the other hand, Mackal also suggested that the nguma-monene could simply be an undescribed species of very large, elongated, ridge-backed monitor lizard.[1]
Similar cryptids[]
Mackal believed that the nguma-monene could have been the same animal as the badigui, the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu, and possibly the lau.[1] Bernard Heuvelmans also connected it to the crowing crested cobra.[5]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Mackal, Roy P. (1987) A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe, Brill, ISBN 978-9004085435
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ Gibbons, William J. (2010) Mokele-Mbembe: Mystery Beast of the Congo Basin, Coachwhip Publications, ISBN 978-1616460105
- ↑ Norman, Scott T. "Aye, and Behind the Cameroons There's Things Living," Elementum Bestia: Being an Examination of Unknown Animals of the Air, Earth, Fire and Water (2007), Lulu Press, ASIN B001DSIB2W
- ↑ Heuvelmans, Bernard "Annotated Checklist of Apparently Unknown Animals With Which Cryptozoology Is Concerned", Cryptozoology, No. 5 (1986)