Monckton’s Gazeka

What kind of animal do you think Monckton’s Gazeka might have been or is? Any ideas?

From Jamaica’s Kingston Gleaner, here’s the interesting report published on June 27, 1910:

Not the least of the wonders discovered is a mysterious animal of gigantic size and fearsome aspect whose tracks have recently been reported in New Guinea [in the area that is now Papua New Guinea]. This animal at present goes by the name of Monckton’s "Gazeka," its presence in the mountains having been first indicated by Mr. C. A. W. Monckton, a former explorer in New Guinea. According to a native report of the appearance of the animal, it has a nose like a tapir and "a face like the devil."

Mr. Monckton, during his ascent of Mount Albert Edward in the west of British New Guinea, discovered the huge footprints and other indications of the very recent presence of some cloven-footed monster that had evidently been browsing on the grassy plains surrounding the lakes on the summit, at an elevation of about 12,500 feet.

Up to the departure of the present expedition no one has attempted to return to Mount Albert Edward and procure a specimen of the monster.

During Dr. Lorentz’s second attempt to reach the Snow Mountains, however, by way of the North River in Dutch New Guinea, one of his men reported having come across an enormous animal at an elevation of about 7,000 feet.

Whether this great beast is the same as that reported by Mr. Monckton from British territory remains to be proved.

It is currently held that neither tapirs nor rhinoceroses exist to the east of Wallace’s line. Will this monster when discovered prove to be some gigantic marsupial tapir?

Loren Coleman 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.

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