Kongamato
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The '''Kongamato''' ("breaker of boats") is a [[cryptozoological]], [[pterosaur]]-like creature reportedly seen by members of the indigenous population and researchers in the [[Jiwundu Swamps]] in the [[Mwinilunga]] district of western [[Zambia]], [[Angola]], and [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]. |
The '''Kongamato''' ("breaker of boats") is a [[cryptozoological]], [[pterosaur]]-like creature reportedly seen by members of the indigenous population and researchers in the [[Jiwundu Swamps]] in the [[Mwinilunga]] district of western [[Zambia]], [[Angola]], and [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]. It has been suggested that it may be a modern-day ''[[Rhamphorhynchus]],'' an unidentified bird (such as the very large and peculiar [[saddle-billed stork]]), or a [[giant bat]]. No photographs have been taken of it. Most accounts are based on large wounds and eyewitness accounts. |
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== Description == |
== Description == |
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The kongamato is said to have a wingspan of approximately 1.20 to 2.10 meters. This pterosaur has no feathers, but rather smooth, red or black skin and a long, toothy beak. Locals gave it the name "Overwhelmer of Boats" because it supposedly capsized fishermen's canoes while hunting. Furthermore, the creature is said to bring death to anyone who looks at it. |
The kongamato is said to have a wingspan of approximately 1.20 to 2.10 meters. This pterosaur has no feathers, but rather smooth, red or black skin and a long, toothy beak. Locals gave it the name "Overwhelmer of Boats" because it supposedly capsized fishermen's canoes while hunting. Furthermore, the creature is said to bring death to anyone who looks at it.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}} |
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== History == |
== History == |
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[[Frank Melland]] describes the creature in his 1923 book "In Witchbound Africa." The kongamato is said to live around certain rivers and is considered very dangerous.{{cite book |author=Frank Hulme Melland |url=https://archive.org/details/inwitchboundaf00mell |title=In Witch-bound Africa: An Account of the Primitive Kaonde Tribe & Their Beliefs |date=1923 |publisher=Seeley, Service & Company, limited}}ref><ref>{{ |
[[Frank Melland]] describes the creature in his 1923 book "In Witchbound Africa." The kongamato is said to live around certain rivers and is considered very dangerous.{{cite book |author=Frank Hulme Melland |url=https://archive.org/details/inwitchboundaf00mell |title=In Witch-bound Africa: An Account of the Primitive Kaonde Tribe & Their Beliefs |date=1923 |publisher=Seeley, Service & Company, limited}}{{Primary source inline|date=April 2026}} It often attacks boats and anyone who bothers it. It is said to be red or black, with a wingspan of 1.20 m to 2.10 m. Members of the [[Kaonde]], after seeing an image in Melland's book, determined that the creature looked exactly like a pterosaur.{{Cite web |title= African Pterodactyls M. D. W. Jeffreys Journal of the Royal African Society|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/717809 |work=}} |
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Two years later, the press correspondent [[J. Ward Price]] reported from England on an eerie encounter. He was traveling with the future [[King Edward VIII]] in the then British colonies in Africa. During this trip, they met a local man who had ventured deep into the dreaded Jiundu Marshes. It seemed a miracle that this man had escaped with his life at all, as he had been attacked and severely injured there. According to him, the gaping wound on his back had been inflicted by a large bird that had attacked him in the marshes. It was striking that the injured man claimed the bird had had terrifying teeth in its beak. When the injured man was later shown pictures of prehistoric pterosaurs, he fled in panic.{{Cite web |title=Kongamato |url=http://www.kryptozoologie-online.de/enzyklopadie/enzyklopadie/kongamato.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117163839/http://www.kryptozoologie-online.de/enzyklopadie/enzyklopadie/kongamato.html |archive-date=2014-01-17 |website=www.kryptozoologie-online.de |language=de-de}} |
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In 1932, naturalist [[Gerald Russell]] and anomalist and cryptozoologist [[Ivan T. Sanderson]] claimed to have sighted a kongamato together in [[Cameroon]].{{cite book |last1=Coleman |first1=Loren |title=Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia Of Loch Monsters Sasquatch Chupacabras And Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature |last2=Clark |first2=Jerome |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2013 |page=127}} Further sightings were reported by engineer J.P.F. Brown from Zaire in 1956 and by a married couple named Gregor from [[Southern Rhodesia]].{{Cite web |title=Kongamato |url=http://www.unknownexplorers.com/kongamato.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128021206/http://www.unknownexplorers.com/kongamato.php |archive-date=2007-11-28 |website=www.unknownexplorers.com}} |
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In 1957, a man with severe chest injuries appeared in the hospital in the area where Brown also claimed to have seen his pterosaurs. He stated that he had been attacked by a large bird in the [[Bangweulu Swamps]]. When the doctors asked him to draw the attacker, he sketched the outline of a pterosaur. An alleged photograph of a kongamato also surfaced in the late 1950s, but this was later proven to be a fake. {{Citation needed|date=March 2026}} |
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== References == |
== References == |
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== Bibliography == |
== Bibliography == |
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* Frank Melland, ''In Witchbound Africa'' (1923) |
* Frank Melland, ''In Witchbound Africa'' (1923) |
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* [[Bernard Heuvelmans]], ''The Last Dragons of Africa'' (1978) |
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* ''Encyclopedia of the Paranormal'' - Kongamato |
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== External links == |
== External links == |
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*{{cite web |url=http://www. |
*{{cite web |url=http://www.volny.cz/rojar/cryptozoologie/3_dinosaury/03_kongomato.htm |title=Článek o Kongamatovi |language=cs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041112084806/http://www.volny.cz/rojar/cryptozoologie/3_dinosaury/03_kongomato.htm |archive-date=2004-11-12 |url-status=dead}} |
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* {{cite web |url=http://www.volny.cz/rojar/cryptozoologie/3_dinosaury/03_kongomato.htm |title=Článek o Kongamatovi|language=cs| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041112084806/http://www.volny.cz/rojar/cryptozoologie/3_dinosaury/03_kongomato.htm | archive-date=2004-11-12 | url-status=dead}} |
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* {{cite web | title=Kongamato - úvod | website=zajimavosti.ezin.cz | url=http://zajimavosti.ezin.cz/mystery/clanek.php?ID=17 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131103417/http://zajimavosti.ezin.cz/mystery/clanek.php?ID=17 | archive-date=2008-01-31 | url-status=dead |language=cs}} |
* {{cite web | title=Kongamato - úvod | website=zajimavosti.ezin.cz | url=http://zajimavosti.ezin.cz/mystery/clanek.php?ID=17 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131103417/http://zajimavosti.ezin.cz/mystery/clanek.php?ID=17 | archive-date=2008-01-31 | url-status=dead |language=cs}} |
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* {{cite web | last=O'Donnell | first=Phillip | title= Pterosaurs in Africa | website=livingdinos.com | url=http://www.livingdinos.com/kongamato.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713154133/http://www.livingdinos.com/kongamato.html | archive-date=2007-07-13 | url-status=dead }} |
* {{cite web | last=O'Donnell | first=Phillip | title= Pterosaurs in Africa | website=livingdinos.com | url=http://www.livingdinos.com/kongamato.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713154133/http://www.livingdinos.com/kongamato.html | archive-date=2007-07-13 | url-status=dead }} |
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