Was a Mokele-mbembe killed at Lake Tele?

Was a Mokele-mbembe killed at Lake Tele?
http://www.anomalist.com/reports/mokele.html

by William Gibbons*
I can confirm that at least two of the pygmies who were directly involved in the killing of a Mokele-mbembe at Lake Tele about three decades ago were acquainted on a personal level with missionary pastor Eugene P. Thomas. I have discussed this incident with Pastor Thomas, and he was able to confirm most of the details of the story which follows.

Around 1960, the forest dwelling pygmies of the Lake Tele region (the Bangombe tribe), fished daily in the lake near the Molibos, or water channels situated at the north end of the lake. These channels merge with the swamps, and were used by Mokele-mbembes to enter the lake where they would browse on the vegetation. This daily excursion into the lake by the animals disrupted the pygmies fishing activities. Eventually, the pygmies decided to erect a stake barrier across the molibo in order to prevent the animals from entering the lake.

When two of the animals were observed attempting to break through the barrier, the pygmies speared one of the animals to death and later cut it into pieces. This task apparently took several days due to the size of the animal, which was described as being bigger than a forest elephant with a long neck, a small snake-like or lizard-like head, which was decorated with a comb-like frill. The pygmy spearmen also described a long, flexible tail, a smooth, reddish-brown skin and four stubby, but powerful legs with clawed toes. Pastor Thomas also mentioned that the two pygmies mimicked the cry of the animal as it was being attacked and speared.
Later, a victory feast was held, during which parts of the animal were cooked and eaten. However, those who participated in the feast eventually died, either from food poisoning or from natural causes. It should be noted that pygmies rarely live beyond 35, and pygmy women give birth from aged 12. I also believe that the mythification (magical powers, etc) surrounding Mokele-mbembes began with this incident.

During my first expedition in 1985, we met with several eyewitnesses who have observed Mokele-mbembes in the Sangha and Likouala aux Herbes Rivers. Our pygmy informants also mentioned that there was at least two Mokele-mbembes still living in the Lake Tele vicinity, but they were simply too afraid to take us to a precise location where we could actually film and observe a specimen of Mokele-mbembe, due to their superstitious beliefs surrounding the animals and fear of reprisals from the Boha villagers who are regarded as the owners of the lake. The Boha villagers are also familiar with areas in the river and swamps where we can observe these animals for ourselves. However, the general belief that speaking of Mokele-membes to white outsiders will result in great misfortune or death is fairly prevalent throughout the Likouala region. This presents huge problems in obtaining accurate and up-to-date information on Mokele-mbembes and other cryptids.

I should add that I am not convinced that Marcellin Agnagna, Rory Nugent, or Herman Regusters have observed Mokele-mbembes. During our two visits to the Congo, my colleagues and I were unable to locate a single one of the "dozens" of witnesses that allegedly observed Mokele-mbembes with the aforementioned explorers. Marcellin Agagna changed his story several times, and is now thought (by Roy Mackal) to have observed the giant African freshwater turtle, Trionyx triunguis. Herman Regusters and his wife Kia are the only individuals on his expedition to have observed a "long-necked member" travelling across Lake Tele, in spite of the fact that 28 other people were with them from the village of Boha. Rory Nugent's alleged Mokele-mbembe photos could be anything, although he may have seen "something" in the distance.

Trionyx triunguis

But Jose Bourges, the Congolese wildlife official who accompanied the 1988 Japanese expedition to the lake, reported that the entire expedition observed a large humped back of an animal, slowly moving along, as if foraging on the bottom of the lake, which is three meters deep at most. So the animals are still there, and I still want to find one!


*Bill Gibbons has conducted two major expeditions to the Congo, in 1985-6, and 1992, in search of the Mokele-mbembe. He conducted two other field investigations on the island of Mauritius in the southern Indian Ocean in 1990 and 1997, after two European visitors claimed Dodo sightings. Operation Congo III, and Project Dodo III are currently under development. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with Warnborough College, Oxford. [He got that degree-but Warnsborough college is in no way connected to Oxford University: it has unkindly been referred to as a diploma mill]

After considering the evidence on this, the most straightforeward and absolutely cold-blooded solution would be that the Pygmies killed a Water Monster that has been identified as a giant turtle, and the most of the description fits a giant turtle.It has the long neck, snakelike or lizardlike head, big round body and four short stumpy legs with clawed freet.  It is the short stumpy legs with clawed feet that are the clincher in the identification: that fits a turtle and not a Sauropod or any of the other candidates.The long tail and comb-like deciration on the head are confusions of the description which arise from the descriptions of other traditional water-monsters not distinguished the Mokele-mbembe. Going by the statement made by True Authority:

Mokele-mbembe is Lingala, and can mean a variety of things. The word is commonly defined as "One that stops the flow of rivers," but can also mean "one who eats the tops of palm trees," "monstrous animal," or even "half-God, half-beast." Mokele-mbembe is also used as a generic term to refer to other animals like Emela-ntouka [a rhinoceros], Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu [a sort of crocodile], and Nguma-monene.[an elongated lizard, big snake or an unusual cobra]http://www.trueauthority.com/cryptozoology/mokele.htm

And so it seems there is a confusion to a very large degree inherant in the name used to cover these reports: it would not be very unusual for Pygmies' questions or answers confused in such a situation.
And although the flesh of these turtles is commonly eaten, some people have strong taboos against eating it (the Ancient Egyptians are included) and in some cases, turtles have been eating things that actually make their flesh poisonous to eat...a gourmet delight that can sometimes make you very sick if you eat it.
The shells of these turtles are supposed to be as much as 12 to 18 feet in diameter, and that would be a larger profile area than an elephant, and it is pretty certain these measurements are surely exaggerations.  But it is a belief that such turtles grow so large that gave rise to the story that these Pygmies actually killed and ate a gigantic softshelled turtle larger than an elephant, and the description reminded missionaries of a Sauropod dinosaur.

softshell-wikipedia-tinymen-to scale

--Best Wishes, Dale D.

Trionyx triunguis

Please see the older posting on this blog:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/04/titanic-turtles-of-tele.html

Titanic Turtles of Tele

Ndenki is spoken of as a truly tremendous freshwater turtle in parts of the Congo River drainage and especially around Lake Tele.This is another matter of some confusion in Cryptozoology. Some individual softshell turtles of the known, identified species can grow to quite enormous sizes. A pertinent example comes from Darren Naish's blog:

Anyway, Asia isn't the only continent with giant softshells. There are also giant African species (or one anyway: the African softshell Trionyx triunguis), and in an October 2009 post on the SA Reptiles discussion board, forum-user Herphabitat posted several photos of a huge, dead softshell he and colleagues discovered on a peninsula in the mouth of the Congo River. From a distance, they first assumed that the carcass was that of a dead sea turtle (perhaps a Leatherback Dermochelys coriacea). On discovering that it was a softshell, they assumed that it had died further up-river and had then been washed down to the edge of the Atlantic. However, this assumption isn't warranted, as T. triunguis inhabits brackish waters in places, and has even been captured 3 or 4 km out at sea (this was close to the mouth of the Gaboon River: Ernst & Barbour 1989). T. triunguis is a widespread softshell, occurring from coastal Turkey, Israel, Lebanon and Syria all the way west to the Atlantic coast of the Congo region.

As you can see from Herphabitat's photos, the animal was a pretty impressive beast (his photos of the animal's skull [one shown below] confirm, by the way, that it was indeed a T. triunguis). Its length along the curve of the carapace (known as the CCL, or curved carapace length) was 55 cm, and the total length was given as 106 cm. Its mass was estimated at over 60 kg. Very big indeed - and bigger than most measurements given in the turtle books. Ernst & Barbour (1989), for example, give a maximum length of 95 cm for this species. However, some sources give a maximum length of 112 cm. Again, I hope this brings home the point that softshells - which are relatively familiar turtles to many people - aren't all dinner-plate-sized or smaller; some are giants, among the largest of turtles.

While we're here... it's been suggested that there might be monster examples of T. triunguis whose lengths well exceed 1 m. In his 1987 book on the mokele-mbembe, Roy Mackal wrote about the 'Ndendeki', a giant turtle of Lake Tele (and perhaps the surrounds) in the Congo. Local people didn't know much about it - other than that it was a turtle and that it was very large - but an estimated diameter of a ridiculous 4 or 5 m was suggested (Mackal 1987, p. 267). Mackal and his colleague Marcellin Agnagna both assumed that exaggeration had occurred, and that a more reasonable size might be about 2 m (this is for length [of the softshell carapace] and not diameter). That's still pretty incredible - though certainly not impossible - and really needs verification [adjacent Ndendeki reconstruction from Mackal (1987, p. 271)].

Anyway, full credit to Herphabitat for his excellent photos. Please visit the SA Reptiles post to see more images and more information. Thanks to Markus Bühler for bringing this to my attention.

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/01/giant_african_softshells_-_wow.php

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=18283

The latter link goes to the original article and it includes the statement:
"The boney part of the the carapace measured a CCL of 55cm and CCW of 54cm. The total length of the soft shell was CCL: 106cm"

Some confusion of the length of the gigantic turtles as stated by the Natives is probably the result of mismeasure again. In turtles, the overall length is not important to measure but the length of the shell is. In a softshelled turtle, it is entirely possible for the head and neck to stretch out as far again as the length of the shell: hence a turtle "Only" a meter and a half over the curve might be reported as three meters long overall (Which is evidently the allegation for really big ones both in Africa and in South Asia)

Now for the part which I definitely wanted to get across: THIS IS NOT CRYPTOZOOLOGY. WE ARE IN ALL CASES STILL TALKING IN TERMS OF KNOWN SPECIES OF TURTLES ONLY!

Best Wishes, Dale D.