Emela-ntouka
Emela-ntouka is Lingala for “Killer of Elephants” or “Water-Elephant.” The alleged animal is also referred to as aseka-moke, ngamba-namae, and emia-ntouka. The Emela-Ntouka is reported to live in the rivers and lakes of the Likouala swamp region of the Republic of the Congo (formerly the People’s Republic of the Congo, and before that the French Congo Republic). The senior game inspector in the Likouala area, Lucien Blancou (who first called Bernard Heuvelmans the Father of Cryptozoology), was the earliest descriptor of Emela-Ntouka. Writing in a December 1954 article in Mammalia, Blancou said the creature was known to disembowel elephants, and a Emela-Ntouka had been killed there (but not scientifically described) around 1934.
These animals are the size of an elephant or larger. Hairless, brown to gray in color, they possess a heavy tail like a crocodile’s. The most distinctive feature, a single horn located on the front of the head, resembles the ivory tusk of an elephant.
The Emela-Ntouka’s legs are heavy and support the body from beneath. It leaves elephant-sized footprints, with three toes or claw marks. It emits a sound compared to a growl, rumble, howl, or roar. It apparently eats malombo, leafy plants, and leaves. But the animals are known to be violent. Native accounts have them killing elephants, water buffaloes, and other animals with their horn.
The Emela-Ntouka, according to Roy Mackal, Karl Shuker, Scott Norman, and others, may be a ceratopsian dinosaur such as the Monoclonius or Centrosaurus. Loren Coleman and more conservative cryptozoologists propose that this cryptid is an unknown form of semiaquatic rhino.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters,Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Written by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark – Copyright 1999 Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark
