Mokele-Mbembe: MonsterQuest Wednesday
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 24th, 2009
Be certain to watch this one.
Bill Gibbons and Rob Mullins arrive.
The locals drew Mokele-mbembe in the sand.
Scheduled first for Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 (with repeats, check local listings), on History’s MonsterQuest.
THE LAST DINOSAUR: In the jungles of central Africa there may be a living relic of a dinosaur that stalks the rivers and frightens the local inhabitants. The feared creature, known as Mokèlé Mbèmbé, or “the one who stops the flow of rivers,” is said to closely resemble the enormous long necked and four legged saurpod – a dinosaur that science claims went extinct 65 million years ago. However, for more than two hundred years, explorers, missionaries and natives have reported sightings of a strikingly similar monster. Tracks found by a recent American expedition may yet be proof of this elusive monster. MonsterQuest analyzes the evidence and travels deep into the dangerous wilds of Cameroon, Africa, to mount a search for what may be the last dinosaur.
Cryptozoologist Bill Gibbons interviews eyewitnesses.
A Cameroon village.
Sometimes the expedition vehicles got stuck in the mud.
Images of Bill Gibbons during the quest.
Thank You.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I have a friend at work from Cameroon, I’ll have to ask him about this. He’s told me some fun story’s about exploring the jungle before…
I am really excited about this one. Can’t wait to see it. You can bet my DVR will be set. My 4 yr old also loves Monster Quest with a passion. I hope this one has some ground breaking evidence.
I also eagerly await this episode.
I do hope they find some solid evidence. cheers.
I am hoping for some good evidence, Mokele has always aroused my curiosity. Now to find a friend with cable.
As a side note—
I wonder if Marcellin Agnagna will be somehow connected to the episode, expedition, or both???
Probably not. It would be great to have him on, though. His alleged “encounter” with Mokele-mbembe remains probably the most “famous” and “written-about” episode in the history of sightings regarding the creature. Others aside.
I would also add it is also the most “controversial,” since doubt has been cast on Agnagna more than once. I guess that’s the way it is.
I still eagerly await the episode.
Even if no strong “evidence” is found, I would say it is still worth it-at least by keeping the name and description of the creature alive in the public imagination.
I don’t expect anything truly significant to be to be found by the expedition but this episode should be worth viewing and recorded. Mokele-Mbembe has always been fascinating to me ever since the past Mackal expeditions.
Grainy but intriguing footage of this cryptid has been shown either in “Rippley’s Believe It Or Not”, or “You Asked For It”. If you don’t hear of this often it is because the footage was probably aired once only so public memory of it is more grainy than the footage, and its whereabouts is uncertain but we all hope it still exists in some archive or it slowly collects dust in someone’s collection. It is good to see that this cryptid can mobilize an expedition even without apparent awareness of the video which was not bad. It would be great so see similar or better evidence produced!
I’ll be sure to tune in. Loren I liked you recent post with the thought about Mokele M’bembe possibly being one of the mammalian megafauna. I saw a news item recently where it seems that the statistical tables used to calculate the mass of large extinct animals for years was in error, and that critters such as apatosaurus and even balluchitherium would actually have been about half as massive as previously figured.
I hope MQ has part of the old footage on the episode tonight and analyzes it.
I am super pumped for this but sadly I won’t be around a TV tonight. 🙁 hopefully someone from work will watch it and update me tomorrow.
i also wonder if the locals that drew that pic of mokele-mbembe were eye witnesses, or if they are drawing a picture of something their granddad drew them a picture of.
Oh boy~ very disappointing same old plot- I just dont get it, they traveled almost half the world. Lets say very remote area and what equiptment did they bring? Are they serious about finding this Mokele thing? Their equiptments are next to garbage and they have the nerve to come back because of the promising hit on the fish finder..hahaha..very lame excuse and they act very amateur full of excuses. Very disappointing show. I really like watching Monsterquest but every episode is always the same plot—nothing.
So Monsterquest, i like your show but lack of aggresiveness on finding one is so lame. Again same old plot every episode.Sigh!
Anyone interested in this topic should be sure to read No Mercy by Redmond O’Hanlon. A great book about searching for Mokele-mbembe, the realities of travelling in the Congo, African history and culture, and lots more – all told with a sense of humor.
I was disappointed once again at MQ’s lack of results and frustrated again by their failure to investigate properly.
For instance, they found some “tubes” on the river banks near the water line. They claim its the best place they might find one of the creatures. Awesome. So what do they do? Poke a stick down the hole and call it a day. What? Geez, hire one of the local kids, tie a rope to his ankle and have him climb in with a small camera. Or if he can’t make a camera work give him a baggie and have him stuff some dirt from the bottom of the hole in it. You can check the dirt for stuff like hair, DNA, etc.
Then they get the sonar (fishfinder) and see lots of big lumps, etc. No effort at all to go look at them except for the little camera that sees maybe 3 feet into the water. For crying out loud, DO something! Toss a 1/4-stick of TNT into the water near the blobs. You’ll get results.
I get what you are saying, Ragnar-particularly the first half of the post. Not enough “investigation,” absolutely. However, the second half of that-about the “TNT,” I would not recommend. If only for the fact that people would complain about the animal being “hurt”. One cannot have PETA giving one “grief” over this.
Sadly, we must concur w/ the assessment of Ragnar (tossing a 1/4-stick of TNT excepted). The anecdotal interviews about M-M were noteworthy and it was nice to see Roy Mackal again – gads, how many years has it been since we met w/ him last?! – but how much $$$$ did HistoryChannel invest in this expedition to remote Cameroon to tote along two low-tech tree-mount “hunter cams” and a fish-finder that they (or the expedition’s planners) must have realized in advance would be plunged into murky muddy low/no-visibility river water?? And then to have the temerity often not to show the viewer what was so excitedly being viewed by those in the dug-out?! And as for sending out a high center-of-gravity vehicle w/ poor tires onto a mudbath of a road (w/ camera crew/truck in pursuit, we presume), well, get them Ice Road Truckers to plan the trek. (Ooops, sorry, mixing HistoryChannel series.) There was so much promise in this episode, and the series, but it’s been disappointment after disappointment for serious forteans. Best episode yet: “Birdzilla.”
Every episode of MQ get the same reviews. “The show sucked since they didn’t find anything.” While I agree that they need to bring better equipment with and sometimes they so. They used the 360 degree camera and also used a video camera with a cellular connection on solar on one episode also. These episodes are fun just to see the new gadgets they are that are being tested.
The question I have is do you really think that if they found Mokele-mbembe we would hear about it months after the episode was filmed and edited? It would have leeked to the news way earlier. I would still watch the episode to see how they tracked and discovered this elusive beastie but there is no way I can believe it would be kept secret that long with all of the people involved.
I watch MQ every week to see their research into the crypto-critters. What new gadgets they are trying and how this creature was know by the locals and such. I do not watch it actually expecting them to find anything earthshattering.
Monster Quest is going the way of Destination Truth. Great premise, interesting stories and finding nothing of value. I am finding it hard to comprehend how they can spend one or maybe two days in an area searching for something that if even there has only been seen by a few people over many years. The equipment is terrible — frankly the Ghost Hunter boys take more equipment with them.
Every week, I look forward to something, anything that says that maybe these “things” might be real but am left with more doubt than hope. If Monster Quest really wants to find something one way or the other, a) add more people to the expedition (wouldn’t it be nice to have multiple boats out on the water in different areas), b) have the expedition last for more than a day or two, stay a couple of weeks and edit down and c) please please bring better equipment. Be ready to scuba dive, anything, just be more prepared. Teach the locals how to use a camera, take pictures. Something enduring, not a snapshot in a day.
Twoly, I dont think it’s that we watch MQ with the expectation that will find M-M, Bigfoot, Birdzilla, Nessie, etc. I think what’s most frustrating about the show, is that it’s becoming a farce. Most of the time, these “scientists/explorers” search for these cryptids in the areas completely opposite of the most known areas of sightings. If most of the sightings are in the North, they search in the South. If the highest average of movement occurrs in the winter, they do their expeditions in the summer. It’s really become an amusing bit of television for me, rather than an intriguing look into cryptozoology. It’s no wonder REAL scientists and the scientific community laugh at this “science”.
I could tell before the show started it was going to be another “bust”. That guy who was on his 6th trip to find it could have at least told the MonsterQuest producers to put up some $$$ for better equipment. The best episodes of Monsterquest so far for me have been:
1) MQ: Sea Monsters in Florida (Forked Tail)
2) MQ: Giant Squid Part 1.
3) MQ: Birdzilla
4) MQ: Bigfoot in Canada Part one near Nell Lake (Sasaquatc Attack)
5) MQ: The recent Ropen episode a few weeks back.
What they need to do is go there and camp above the holes they found and wait the creature out for a few weeks. Also use the high school teacher as a guide, at least he found possible tracks. And update the equipment.