CryptoSafari: Mokele-mbembe 2001 Expedition Report

Mokele-mbembe 2001 Expedition Intital Report

(Please note, this is an intial report and more details and pictures will be included in the future.)

In February 2001, in a joint venture between CryptoSafari and the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club (BCSCC), a research team traveled to The Republic of Cameroon in central-western Africa to investiage reports of Mokele-mbembe sightings. The description of this legendary cryptid fits the general appearance of sauropod dinosaur. This research trip came about after Dr. William J. Gibbons and David Wetzel had done some preliminary research in Cameroon in November 2001.

After the intial trip by Gibbons and Wetzel, CryptoSafari was formed by Dr. William J. Gibbons and Scott T. Norman in order to facilite another trip to Cameroon to do follow up research on Mokele and other cryptids and scientific research in the future.

The North American expedition team consisted of Dr. William J. Gibbons, Scott T. Norman, BCSCC president John Kirk and writer Robert A. Mullin. Administrative support in the US was provided by Jackie Raffa. In Cameroon we were join by video crew from the BCC and by our local guide and new found friend Pierre Sima Noutchegeni.

After funding was established, in February 2001, the expedition team flew to Cameroon. After being delayed for several days in the Youndae, the capital of Cameroon, the team set out on an arduous journey over the most difficult corrugated dirt roads to the search area. The journey took four days to complete and most members of the team and TV crew were exhausted and weather-beaten by the combination of very hot and humid weather along with the painful vehicular travels.

The adventurers were joined by ten Baka pygmy guides and porters, who were themselves privy to sightings and information of the elusive Mokele. Upon arrival at the campsite, the team were greeted by a horrendous downpour which made the site uninhabitable. The team had to repack all the equipment and backtrack to the nearest village some distance from the site, where they had to spend the night in a ramshackle hovel (which was easily the worst accommodation anyone on the team had experienced). It was the best “hotel” in town and the explorers had to make do with toilets that barely functioned and primitive bathing facilities.

Finally, the next morning camp was finally struck and the team were able to do some filming in the dense forest surrounding the campsite area on the banks of a major river known for Mokele sightings.

From our discussions with the pygmies and local inhabitants we were able to ascertain that the Mokele in this region was completely aquatic and that it would be a waste of time for us to search any further in the forests for signs of the animal.

However, during a break in the trek through the forest, our pygmies told us of the existence of a fierce creature they had tracked through the forest for seven consecutive days in January. Along with Pierre, the pygmies discovered three toed humanlike footprints on the forest floor and realised that they were those of an animal known as the Dodu.

The creature was said to resemble the Kalenourou, a pygmy hairy biped said to inhabit Madagascar. In fact when depictions of the Kalenourou were shown to eyewitnesses they instantly identified the animal as the Dod, or Dodu.

The animal is vicious and in Kirk’s forthcoming book a more comprehensive description of its attributes, physiology and habits will be revealed.

The Baka pygmies were also involved in assisting Bill Gibbons when he conducted a pre-expedition reconnaissance to the target area. They told Bill of their own sightings of an animal which appears to be a sauropod dinosaur. One individual spoke to Bill of his encounter with a mokele in a river close to his village. The pygmy was drawing in his fishing net when he found it would not budge any further. The man was perplexed by his dilemma and was aggravated further when found out the source of the obstruction.

A mokele had been sitting on the net and was rather annoyed to find a human attempting to make it budge from the spot it had chosen to rest upon. Needless to say the pygmy fled in terror.

The Northern American team and the BBC crew then turned to a river system which consisted of three rivers (which join to form a tripartite confluence) to continue the search. The rivers are virtually uninhabited, and there is minimal river traffic as many in the region are wary of travelling in mokele territory.

Scott Norman and John Kirk were paired off as team to investigate the upper reaches of a river on whose banks the expedition had set up its campsite. Along with two Bantu boatmen, Scott and John ran sonar tests in the depths of the river. It was profoundly noticeable that the river levels had dropped significantly from their peak in the rainy season. At some points along the triad of rivers the water level had subsided by as much as four metres.

The sonar was working incredibly well and we were able to see large schools of fish in the area. There was, however, no sign of any mokele animals in the river. During the early morning session on the river, John had felt intuitively that it would not be a good idea to wrap the transducer cord around his wrist as would be expected when trailing the detecting device behind the pirogue - a hollowed out log which the locals use as a rudimentary canoe.

Scott also had a similar inkling and also decided not to wrap the cable around his wrist. Fortunately for both men, they followed their intuition; late in the morning Scott felt a terrific wrench as the transducer was pulled unceremoniously out of his hand. The pirogue was heading south and whatever it was that took the transducer from Scott’s hands was heading north. There are two possibilities as to what may have done the deed. Firstly, there are many crocodiles in this river and it is conceivable that it was one of these animals which snatched the sonar. Secondly, hippopotami have also been seen in the river and they might also have been responsible. Both men and the boatmen were a little shaken up by the experience, but were able to continue with their observation duties despite the close call. The rest of the day was spent very warily perusing the waters for potential mokeles.

Later that day the expedition was taken to a remote pygmy village at the end of a primitive jungle track composed of red dirt. We had hoped to find out if anyone in the area was familiar with any odd animals, but were stunned by some of the reactions to our inquiries.

In Dr. Roy Mackal’s book, A Living Dinosaur?, there was an illustration of a small sauropod dinosaur with a pygmy standing nearby for size comparison purposes. This illustration was included in our manual along with depictions of various extinct animals and ones which are part of the everyday fauna of the region we were investigating.

We were very surprised when the pygmies completely disregarded Dr. Mackal’s illustration other than the odd comment of “Oh, look its a pygmy”. There was no recognition in their eyes at all of the sauropod.

However, when we turned the page to an illustration of a much larger sauropod—the brachiosaur—the village erupted almost as one with the cry: “Mokele-mbembe!!!!!!”.

First, let it be said that in the region we we were searching there is a different term used to describe the animal we were seeking. This term cannot be mentioned here as it would give away the location of our search area.

For the villagers to use Mokele-mbembe as they did was quite out of context. There was no doubt that they knew precisely what they were talking about and one by one individuals stepped forward to tell us of their contact with the animals on the rivers.

Our informants were adamant that the mokeles were not forest-dwelling animals at all. They lived solely in rivers and swamp pools and only ventured ashore to eat the leaves of a tree called the ESEM. The witnesses told us that the animals were huge and could rise as high as the tops of coconut trees to forage for food. We gauged the length of these animals at 20 metres, far exceeding the 10 metre creatures previously described by others.

The witnesses stressed that the animal they had seen had spines along the back of the head, down the neck and along the back. They were herbivores by nature and were only dangerous if humans disturbed them while they were eating. The animal would use its tail to lash out at humans and often upset canoes.

They described the back rather differently from the back of the brachiosaur in our illustrative catalogue. They described it as being rounded so when the animal rose from the water its back would resemble a waterfall cascading down.

This feature is inconsistent with the back of a brachiosaur which is slanted downward because of the longer front legs. We looked for a similar dinosaur which could match the eyewitness description and it was soon apparent to us that they were really describing a diplodocus. In recent years diplodocus fossils with spiny ridges have been unearthed and it is plausible that the witnesses may have seen this animal if their stories are accurate.

Given this new evidence, Robert Mullin suggested a theory that perhaps the elephant-sized Mokele-mbembe more commonly seen is actually a juvenile version, and that the “cock’s comb” commonly described is the developing dorsal frill of an adolescent. Robert suggested that the larger versions known to the pygmies the group talked to might actually be adult versions of the same creature. This possibility might lead to more precision in tracking their movements, as it might help establish where the migration patterns are, and where there breeding ground might be found. The team is hoping to test this theory on their next expedition.

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