African Cryptids: Emela-Ntouka · 10:42pm Jul 4th, 2019
Cryptozoology, the study of animals whose existence has been suggested, but not proven, is a fascinating subject. Despite the fact that many of the animals are implausible, it's still an interesting subject nonetheless. When it does come to cryptozoology, one continent you cannot ignore is Africa. The dark continent is not only home to iconic animals, but is also a cryptid paradise. Many odd and deadly crytpids can be found here, from Nandi Bears to huge spiders to sabertooth cats with the ferocity to attack lions. The most well known african cryptids can be found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, deep in the African Rainforests. The one I'll talk to you about today as you can obviously tell from the title is the Emela-Ntouka.
The natives describe the animal as being as big as a hippo or elephant, brownish to gray in color, four heavy legs supporting the body from underneath, a thick tail, no spikes or frills on the neck or back, and one large horn on the end of the nose, hairless, with elephant like skin. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.genesispark.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F11%2FMackal-Emela-ntouka-clean.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.genesispark.com%2Fexhibits%2Fevidence%2Fcryptozoological%2Fceratopsian%2Femela-ntouka%2F&docid=7GOrAFVfDeEe3M&tbnid=n34UowiH8QFzWM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwiWjbHJnpzjAhWVG80KHQsZBN8QMwhUKAIwAg..i&w=1441&h=710&bih=641&biw=1366&q=emela%20ntouka&ved=0ahUKEwiWjbHJnpzjAhWVG80KHQsZBN8QMwhUKAIwAg&iact=mrc&uact=8
Despite the fearsome looks, the Emela-Ntouka is said to be a herbivore, eating foliage like the Malombo plant. However, despite being a plant eater, the natives say that this animal kills elephants by stabbing them with it's horn. In fact, Herman and Kia regusters went on their on expedition to the congo, and on the rivers edge, found two dead elephants. Both had large puncture marks in their abdomens, but the tusks were still in tact, meaning poachers did not kill the elephants, and the people with them blamed the Emela-Ntouka for the deaths, and left the area, and of course got no photographs (typical). The congo is not the only place in Africa where horned killer animals are reported, there is also the Irizima and the Chipekwe, which kills hippos with its horn. From the descriptions, it's likely that all these animals are one in the same, just with different names.
Two questions must be answered.
1. Why would these herbivores kill elephants?
2. What are they?
For the first question, many animals kill others out of territorial instinct. However, most are predators, tigers kill leopards and dholes, lions kill cheetahs and hyenas, you get the idea. But it should be mentioned that hippos are very territorial, so the Emela-Ntouka likely kills elephants out of defense of territory.
For the second question, some may say an undiscovered semiaquatic rhinoceros, and indeed, Indian Rhinos are very much at home in the water, and it and the Javan Rhino have only one horn. But there are two things that make it unlikely to be a rhino, one is the thick tail. Rhinos obviously don't have thick tails, but there is apparently a bit of confusion between it and the Mokele-Mbembe at times, but at the same time, maybe not, the other thing that makes me convinced it isn't a rhino is that the horn is described as being made of ivory, or at least resembling ivory, while rhino horn is made of keratin. The most popular theory is that it's a late surviving ceratopsian dinosaur. I'm not convinced on this, as I have a very hard time believing that a group of non-avian dinosaurs managed to survive the KT mass extinction, and for the fact that ceratopsians were terrestrial, not semiaquatic. so what could the Emela-Ntouka be? If they do exist, then it's likely that they're an entirely new undiscovered large mammal, I'm open to the possibility of large mammals yet to be found in the Congo, as the Forest Elephant wasn't discovered until 2001, and if elephants of all things can be undetected by science for that long in those jungles, who knows? Maybe there is a large animal in the African jungles, making even the mighty elephants nervous.
Awesome
. I didn't even know creatures like that used to exist
.
5084308
Your Welcome, I plan having this be a series on Africa's cryptids. Wish these were in MLP or EQ. Maybe we all should ask the MLP staff to make an EQ special on the Emela-Ntouka and Mokele-mbembe.
From what I've seen, it looks a lot like a dinosaur, most notably a Triceratops.
Thanks for sharing! I'm always down for a good cryptid once in a while.
By the way, here's a fun little fact. The recently released Godzilla: King of the Monsters briefly mentions a monster codenamed Mokele-Mbembe, after the famous African cryptid. The novelization expands the creature's role, describing him as a sauropod-like animal with two tusks and an elephant-like trunk.
5084334
Your Welcome! And how ironic, Mokele-mbembe happens to be what the next blog will be on.