Encounter Atlas
The Emela-ntouka, a Lingala name often translated as 'killer of elephants', is a semi-aquatic animal said to live in the swamps of the Likouala region of the Republic of the Congo. Descriptions give it a heavy, rhino-like body the size of an elephant, short legs, a thick tail and a single long horn on its snout.
Former game inspector Lucien Blancou described it in 1954, saying it killed elephants, buffalo and hippos when disturbed, but did not eat them. Biologist Roy Mackal collected accounts on his 1980 and 1981 expeditions looking for the Mokele-mbembe and suggested it might be a surviving horned dinosaur. Most scientists suggest a misremembered rhinoceros.
What witnesses report
- A single horn on the snout
- A heavy, elephant-sized body
- A thick crocodile-like tail
- Dead elephants found with gore wounds
Famous cases
- 1954Blancou's report in Mammalia
Likouala, Republic of the Congo - 1980Mackal expeditions
Likouala, Republic of the Congo
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