THE MONSTER OF CAMEROON & GABON In Gabon, a group of African natives known as the Fang people tell of an animal called N’yamala, identifying it with a picture of Diploducus. In 1913, Capt. Von Stein was sent by the German government to explore the Cameroon. Von Stein wrote of an animal sized between a hippopotamus and an elephant with a long and very flexible neck and a long muscular tail like that of an alligator. Von Stein was even shown a path said to have been made by this animal in order to get at its food. On p. 257 of his 1927 book Trader Horn, Horn writes, "Aye, and behind the Cameroons there's things living we know nothing about. I could 'a' made books about many things. The Jago-Nini they say is still in the swamps and rivers. Giant diver it means. Comes out of the water and devours people. Old men'll tell you what their grandfathers saw, but they still believe it's there. Same as the Amali I've always taken it to be. I've seen the Amali's footprint. About the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead o' five." The drawing, shown in Claws, Jaws, and Dinosaurs, illustrates the monstrous creature as a Scottish explorer reported seeing it in 1932, while canoeing on the Cross River in the Cameroons. In the fall of 2000 an expedition led by Genesis Park staff pioneered research in southeastern Cameroon by slogging through nasty swamps, floating jungle rivers, trekking virgin rain forests and interviewing pygmy forest peoples who had never before talked to an outside explorer. From village to village informants recognized this creature (top right) from a lineup of various animals. The name was always the same: "Li’kela-bembe." Eyewitnesses led them to places where it had been seen, in some cases quite recently. Its actions were described in fascinating detail and harmony with Dr. Mackal’s information from the Congo. For more information about the trip, see the Cameroon Expedition page. A follow up expedition was initiated by the BBC in 2001. The most recent trip, led by Canadian Brian Sass, discovered an island in the Dja River which contained nesting caves like those identified by Mackal. They took casts of footprints and photographs of the caves (bottom right) and actually had a brief encounter with the elusive monster of Cameroon as it swam past their dugout canoe toward its lair.