In Africa, in the Congo region there have been reports coming in for about 200 years from western explorers suggesting that there might just be a dinosaur or a huge unknown animal that lives here. And for the natives this is common knowledge, but even for them, who have lived here for thousands of years these sightings are extremely rare. One of the first of accounts coming from western explorers happened in 1776 when French missionaries were passing through the thick forest and they noticed huge footprints on the ground. They said that these tracks were about the size of an elephant. But whatever animal made these tracks had claws, and elephants don’ have claws. And while these French missionaries were staying within the Congo one of the priest claimed to have seen several of these very big, unknown animals in the river feeding on the plant life. Now in 1776 know one really knew about dinosaurs so this priest thought that he was looking at a whole new species that was never seen or documented before by a white man. Then in 1913 a German explorer was visiting the Congo and the natives told him stories about a creature that they called Mokele-Mbembe and their description of this animal is pretty much identical to a class of dinosaurs known as sauropods. And this explorer was hooked, but he could never find any real evidence of this elusive animal. Now because of all these stories and somewhat credible sightings of this monster a British scientist in 1932 went to the Congo to go see if he could find any real proof of this elusive animal.
And while he was traveling down the river in a canoe he started to hear some very strange and rather freighting sounds of what seemed to be coming from a very large animal and he did find some huge tracks. But he was never able to actually see this creature in person. And that very same year a world famous zoologist and biologist Ivan T. Sanderson was traveling down a river with a friend just north of the Congo. And while the 2 men were enjoying themselves paddling down the river they started to hear a terrifying sound, and they said that this sound was kind of like an earthquake. Then the water within the river started to boil and foam. Then they saw a huge head coming right out from the water and this animal was just staring at the two men. In Mr. Sanderon’s own words. “I don’t know what we saw, but the animal, the monster, burned itself into my retinas. It looked like something that ought to have been dead millions of years ago. As a scientist, I should have been happy, of course, but this encounter was so frightening, so nasty that I never want to see it again.” Making this one of the most famous earlier sightings of Mokele-Mbembe as Ivan T. Sanderson was a very famous man, especially within his field. Then in 1948 some British soldiers where swimming in a lake in northern Cameroon when all a sudden some very big animals broke the surface of the water and the soldiers, scared for their lives swam to shore as fast as they could.
And from the Shore line they observed two giant reptiles. And these reptiles had very long necks, one of them had a horn on its head but the other, smaller one did not have this horn. They also stated that their skin looked very smooth but scaly. Another rather strange account happened in 1992 when a Japanese expedition claimed that they saw Mokele-Mbembe swimming in a lake. And they filmed it but the camera man left the lens cap on so in they only got 15 seconds of footage, and this footage is very famous. But many believe that it’s just an elephant swimming or people in a canoe. And in 2003 another expedition did stumble upon something rather interesting. This expedition noticed that at the 18 foot range all the trees within a certain area had no branches, and it appeared that these branches had been eaten off. Then again in 1986 a man named Rory Nugent and his expedition were investigating the worlds largest unexplored swamp on this earth in Africa. When they saw a very long neck coming out from the water, and Rory wanted to get closer as he believed that he was actually seeing the legendary Mokele-Mbembe. But the native guides ordered him to stop at gun point as they didn’t want him to disturb the creature. Now Rory claimed that he had taken some very clear photos of Mokele-Mbembe but while back at camp the natives demanded that he destroy them. As they believed that if Rory kept these pictures Mokele-Mbemb would kill them all. Now it is true that the natives within this region or any region really are very superstitious. But a lot of people are very skeptical about this story. And according to my research there are some variations to this case such as Rory did keep these photo’s, but they were just to blurry to make anything out.
There is also a very fascinating case involving a tribe of pygmies. A missionary Reverend Eugene Thomas who had served in the Congo since 1955 told the world a very interesting story in 1979. Mr. Thomas said that while he was living in the Congo he heard a pretty remarkable tale about a tribe of pygmies that constructed a very large spiked fence within the Congo’s Lake Tele because huge creatures with very long necks kept interfering with their fishing. But one of these creatures managed to break through the fence and it was seriously wounded and the tribe ended up killing it. And everyone who ate the meat ended up dying. Making the surviving pygmies believe that these creatures possess supernatural abilities. Now I am not sure when this happened but in the 1980’s some eye witnesses told Mr. Thomas that they were actually able to see the remains of this spiked fence. Now we do have some credible sightings, some possible tracks, and a heck of a lot of stories. And one thing that really stands out to me is the name. Mokele-Mbembe actually means the one who stops the flow of rivers. So even if all these accounts are fake or miss identification. I do believe that Human’s within this region, maybe thousands of years ago did come face to face with a sauropod like dinosaur or an unknown species that resembles a sauropod. As these legends and stories have to come from some sort of truth. But the natives do believe without a shadow of a doubt that these creatures exist at this very moment, and expeditions are still going on to this very day because Mokele-Mbembe might just be this earths last or greatest zoological discovery.
Until next time this is paranormal junkie. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and stay tuned!
Source: http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2016/03/does-mokele-mbembe-exist.html