Now Subvertia had good points to and that could account for very little bone structure remaining if they butchered on site and left the carcass in the wilds.

The points about the back spines is another good observation, because pangolins definitely do not have those types of protrusions and leads me to believe that it is indeed something else and not pangolin related, especially if the thing is really some kind of ambush predator.

I guess the bottom line, is this is intriguing but not much to go on other than organizing more expeditions to try to track the thing down or find more people with info and possible trophies.

Good luck John-Mark Shephard! Hope you find something because this thing sounds really cool, I for one hope that it is more than a myth or exaggerated pangolin.

Hauling an animal as large as an elephant lends to the presumptions that:

1) the animal has been butchered on site and

2) the villagers are smart enough to use tools involving leverage, pulleys, or dragging regardless of how primitive.

These people have no gain in our culture by making such a story up.

Then Matia points out the credibility of the story. I definitely agree with the thought that the head would be left behind, until I remember that certain tribes (primitive and not so primitive) all over the world find brains to be a delicacy. Could this have been the case involving the trophy head? Or better yet, the fact that a head is also a ‘trophy’ may be enough reason to keep the skull.

But I also realize that large things get larger in memory when nearly twenty years have gone by. Research has shown that in pre-literate societies very old people tend to age 17 years in the villagers memories for each real decade which passes. Something 15-20 feet long in memory may actually have been only 8-10 feet in actuality. Not a bad size (and one closer to what four men might be able to carry), and still a cryptid, but maybe less of a monster.

Look at it this way: I have a cousin who is obsessed with catching a world record blue catfish in the Tennessee River. On a couple of occasions he has landed fish that came close to the world’s record, but didn’t quite make it. On another couple of occasions he tells me that he ALMOST landed fish which would have been easy world records, but the line broke, or something else went wrong and the fish got away. I believe him, because he is a truthful man and this is too important to him to lie about. But he still doesn’t have his world record, because he has no physical proof. I can’t see that its harsh or unreasonable to want as much physical proof about African, or any other sort of cryptid, as the fishing world demands to declare a new world’s record.

Something what is really strange is that four men were able to bring it to the village. Even at 15 feet, it would weigh around 500kg when it was a crocodile, and as a pangolin even around 900kg. It is very hard to believe that they could manage to carry it. So it was either much smaller, or this was just invented.

But my informant was adamant that the animal he saw was NOT a pangolin. He was also involved in the search for the gbahali. Samuel describes what he saw as being like a smaller terrestrial version of the gbahali.

The reported presence of hairs on the underbelly are confusing, as hair is generally considered a mammelian trait. However some ancient reptiles such as pterosaurs were known to possess hair.