Whether this account is true has nothing to do with SEAL presence there and a claim of being a SEAL is, as you pointed out, quite verifiable. I’m only calling to your attention that USSOCOM operators can and do go almost everywhere on the planet. Sometimes, though, it’s best for them not to talk about it.”

I was being VERY specific about the location and time frame, as well as the branch of SOF, and I am well aware of the capabilities of the various SOF units. Don’t confuse the issue by throwing in SF missions in Rwanda for comparison. This story is complete and utter nonsense, just like the wanna-be who reported it.

F215, you’re mistaken about the SEALs ( and other SOF) operating in western Africa in general and the Congo in particular. They have operated there, intermittently, for more than 20 years. Why? There are strategic resources in the region and other nations and non-national entities want a share. Let it go at that. They also conduct frequent (almost perennial) training exercises with Rwandan forces, so it would not surprise me at all that they would have been “observers” or “advisors” for the Congalese operations. British SAS could just as easily have been along on that op, too. In fact, it’s likely that the Brits were at least in the area.

Whether this account is true has nothing to do with SEAL presence there and a claim of being a SEAL is, as you pointed out, quite verifiable. I’m only calling to your attention that USSOCOM operators can and do go almost everywhere on the planet. Sometimes, though, it’s best for them not to talk about it.

I want to believe

As a freelance science writer who has traveled in Madagascar, I know something about its fauna and its evolutionary history.

From the main article: “If the US Navy SEAL report is correct, there may be something quite similar to the Kalanoro living in the Congo area too.”

I assume you mean a closely related species, which isn’t likely. The people writing here, including the posters, don’t seem to realize the immense differences in flora and fauna between mainland Africa and Madagascar, and they seem to assume that monkeys and apes are found on mainland Africa AND Madagascar. But the two landmasses are like separate worlds. There aren’t and never were any monkeys or apes on Madagascar. The island became isolated in the Eocene Epoch, before monkeys and apes evolved. I’m a tad surprised that no one mentioned the LEMURS, the native primates of Madagascar. Lemurs, of which there are around 50 living species, are primates, but neither monkeys nor apes; they represent a side branch of primate evolution. In zoological terms, they’re “prosimians,” or “pre-monkeys” more closely related to the prosimian potto and bushbabies of mainland Africa.

Lemurs resemble (but are not true) monkeys, with fox-like faces and enormous eyes.

According to DNA comparison studies of living and extinct lemur species (the extinct lemur bones contain DNA), the lemurs most likely all evolved from a single ancestor species, related to the potto and bushbabies, that rafted on floating vegetation from Africa in the late Eocene Epoch, when prosimians had evolved.

Now that we’re on the subject of lemurs, there are 13 recently extinct lemur species, all of which were larger than the species still alive. These are the true stuff of cryptozoology, since they were bizarre, we know they existed, and there are rumors of their continued existence as living creatures.

The last of the extinct lemur species died out within the last few centuries, while some may even have made it into the 20th century. There are stories all over Madagascar about supposedly extinct lemurs that are still alive.

Some of the extinct species were honest-to-god giants. Of the living lemur species, the INDRI is the largest, at about 20 pounds adult weight. Adult individuals of the largest extinct species, Archaeoindris fontoynontii, weighed up to 400 pounds, the size of an adult gorilla. It was not a “true” gorilla or any other sort of ape, it was a giant, prosimian lemur that evolved to gigantism in isolation on Madagascar. The sifakas, living lemurs that look like a cross betwixt monkeys and siamese cats, are often mistaken for monkeys, but they are not monkeys, merely lemurs that evolved to resemble monkeys, in isolation on Madagascar.

The “Archaeolemuridae” (don’t confuse with Archaeoindris) were 3 species of extinct lemur that spent much or most of their time foraging on the ground. They vaguely resembled baboons, but once again, they weren’t baboons or any other kind of monkey, they evolved by themselves on Madagascar.

The “Paleopropithecidae” were large, mostly arboreal lemurs (excepting the one I mentioned above, Archaeoindris fontoynontii, who was too heavy). The other paleopropithecids looked and lived much like New World sloths, hanging from branches by specialized, hooklike hands and fingers, and, like sloths, slowly going about their business.
The “Megaladapidae” were about human-sized, with massive, horselike skulls, who spent their days in trees eating leaves by the bushelful.

I’ve read accounts of Kalamoro, and I have no idea what they represent. Like bigfoot and most other cryptids, there are endless stories but no hard evidence. Tha Kalanoro seem to represent, not primates of some sort, but an archetypal image, experienced worldwide, in the human imagination, of small, furry, apelike creatures.

Trumbore’s drawing of Kalanoro and the description by the navy seal of apelike creatures in the Congo, look and read more like Chupacabra, which is likely another archetypal image rather than a real creature.

Pottos do have spines of a sort, but they are not erectable or detachable. The spines are projections of the vertebrae, which have grown through the skin along the animal’s back. For defense, the potto rolls itself into a ball, head between its front legs, thereby putting the spines between himself and the attacker.

Glad to see this site! Hope to hear more! Thanks. Nate

Two different types of cams, two different types of animals (pongids vs hominiods), two different types of encounters, and two very different stories.