By Natalie Pearce
The Emela Ntouka is a cryptid reportedly living in the Congo and Cameroon. It is purportedly huge – around the size of a fully grown elephant and is one of the lesser known cryptids.
Its appearance is very dinosaur like, with witnesses recording it as being around 6 tonnes with a brownish body, heavy tail, bulky structure and a singular horn to its head not unlike a Rhino. Unusually, it is thought to be that the creature is semi-aquatic.
The chief game warden in French Equatorial Africa wrote of the Emela Ntouka in the 50’s:
“…the presence of a beast which sometimes disembowels elephants is also known, but it does not seem to be prevalent there now as in the preceding districts. A specimen was supposed to have been killed twenty years ago at Dongou, but on the left of the Ubangi and in the Belgian Congo.”
In 1981 an expedition in the same area was told of the beasts presence and about how it killed local elephants and would disembowel them with its single horn. The conclusion from this visit was that perhaps there was a dinosaur that remained alive and they thought that it could be the Centrosaurus. There have even been sightings of this single horned beast in the same national park that hosted the 1981 expedition in the last ten years.
The only definitive way to say for sure is if one was captured. Scientists could then test the horn. If it is made of ivory, making it a tusk then it would possibly be a new species of rhino. If it was found to be made of bone, this could point to it being a dinosaur.
In the Democratic republic of Congo, a similar creature has been seen and is known locally as Chipekwe. Reports have been made of the creature inhabiting land as far west as Liberia. This creature is also semi aquatic and enjoys hunting hippos with its singular horn. In both the Congo and Cameroon, the creature seems to make an aggressive kill but does not eat the prey.
Cryptozoologist Michael Ballot purchased an interesting sculpture whilst exploring the Cameroon to research the Emela Ntouka. In 2004 he found the above carving for sale which depicts a similar creature. The carving bears similar characteristics to the cryptid he was researching. What is truly fascinating is that Michael later found a second carving, in a separate location, which shows an almost identical creature.
The first reference to the Emela Ntouka was in 1913 when Hans Schombuck first heard stories of a fierce creature from the Klao tribe living in the mountains of Liberia. The creature was then referenced again in a book by JE Hughes published in 1933. Whist the creature still did not have a name, the book details a beast of similar characteristics that was allegedly killed by tribesmen on the shore of the Lupaula River. This is followed by an article in the journal ‘Mammalia’ in 1954 where it was given the name it is known by today.
In 1950, a French official named Millet, stationed at Kelle in the Republic of the Congo, began to hear rumours of a rhino that lived in the forest. Sketches made at the time did bare some resemblance to the footprints seen by tribesmen.
In 1966, photographs were reportedly taken that showed a three toed beast that had a ten inch foot print alongside a river in the northeast of Congo. However, records of these can’t be located.
Clearly no one knows for sure what exactly the Emela Ntouka is but what is clear is that during this century there have been multiple sightings and evidence of something that is strange and unique. Could it be a new type of rhino? Yes, but until a sample of horn can be tested or more evidences/photos are captured, we will never know for sure.
