Emela-ntouka

Emela-ntouka, a name from Congolese languages usually translated as "elephant killer," is described as a large, grayish-brown, semi-aquatic animal roughly the size of an elephant, with a thick body, powerful legs, and a single long horn projecting from its snout, said to be used to gore and kill elephants and hippopotamuses that cross its path. Reports place it in the dense swamp forests and rivers of the northern Congo Basin, an area straddling the Republic of the Congo and neighboring territories, where it is woven into local oral tradition as one of several fearsome water-dwelling beasts alongside creatures like Mokele-mbembe. The name entered print in 1954, when former colonial wildlife administrator Lucien Blancou described the animal in the journal Mammalia as "larger than a buffalo" and capable of killing elephants, buffalo or hippopotamuses when startled, drawing on earlier local reports from the 1930s. Western explorers and missionaries who recorded local descriptions speculated the animal might represent a surviving ceratopsian dinosaur or an unusually aggressive rhinoceros, given that the horn and bulk match no confirmed African species exactly. No verified tracks, remains, or clear photographs exist.