- Ngoubou
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Ngoubou 
Creature Grouping Cryptid Sub grouping Living ceratopsian Data Country Cameroon Region Border area of the above The Ngoubou is a purportedly surviving ceratopsian-like cryptid in the savanna region of Cameroon.[1] It is said to have six horns, and fights elephants for land, despite its smaller size (about the size of an ox, according to locals).[2]
In November 2000, William Gibbons did some preliminary research in Cameroon for a future Mokele-mbembe expedition. He was accompanied by David Wetzel. While visiting with a group of pygmies they were informed about an animal called Ngoubou. Although ngoubou is also the local word for rhinoceros, the pygmies asserted this was not a regular rhinoceros, as it had more than one horn (six horns on the frill in one account), and further stated 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 had noted a firm decline in the population of these animals lately, making them harder to find.
Gibbons identified the animal with a Styracosaurus, but these are currently only known to have inhabited North America.[1] It might be related to the Emela-ntouka, but this animal is single-horned.[3] Ceratopsian fossils are not found in Africa. Most have been found in Eastern Asia and North America, with one find in Australia.
Possible sighting
Bernard Heuvelmans included a sighting of an animal resembling the Ngoubou in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals. The sighting, apparently from The Times, was taken on 17 November 1919. The sighting was made by a man named Lepage who was in charge of a railway construction in the Belgian Congo. He states that while hunting in the Congo rainforest "he came across an extraordinary monster, which charged at him. Lepage fired but was forced to flee, with the monster in chase. The animal before long gave up the chase and Lepage was able to examine it through his binoculars. The animal, he says, was about 24 feet in length with a long pointed snout adorned with tusks like horns and a short horn above the nostrils. The front feet were like those of a horse and the hind hoofs were cloven. There was a scaly hump on the monsters shoulder."[4]
See also
References
- ^ a b Cryptomundo.com » The Ngoubou
- ^ Ceratopsians
- ^ Mackal, Roy P. A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987: ISBN 90-04-08543-2
- ^ On the Track of Unknown Animals by Bernard Heuvelmans, Kegan Paul, 3rd revised edition, 1995 ISBN 0-7103-0498-6
Categories:- Reptile cryptids
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