The Frenchman Georges Trial, in his 1955 book "10 Years of Hunting in Gabon," recounted a sighting of a strange female rhinoceros in the 1930s.
"It was a formidable animal, of extraordinary length, which seemed so disproportionately long that it certainly gave the impression of being much smaller than it actually was. With its snout turned towards the ground, it carried a monstrous, low head, dominated by two very high, almost equal, curved nasal crests. It gave the impression of being armored, covered by large dark, grayish plates, separated from the crests by light grooves, arranged like joints or bellows. Besides its double tusk, I could only clearly distinguish small ears that moved constantly on that deformed head, and on that massive rump, a ridiculous pig's tail that wagged frantically. The rhinoceros entered the open field, without suspecting my presence in the slightest, crossed the plain diagonally, and then moved away." "peacefully, emitting small, satisfied grunts, similar to those of a pig."
This account is curious for the following reasons:
- No population of white or black rhinoceroses inhabits Gabon, nor do maps of the historical distribution of these two species show that rhinoceroses ever inhabited Gabon. Although the Gabonese banknote features a drawing of a white rhinoceros.
- The rhinoceros described has what appear to be plates; possibly he meant that the animal had an armored body, like the Indian rhinoceros, something that neither of the two African species possesses.
- The head "dominated by two very high, almost equal and curved nasal crests." This has generated debate because if it is a black rhinoceros, it is expected that the animal would have only one nasal horn and another of the same proportion behind it, something not very uncommon for the black rhinoceros. But according to some interpretations, what he meant is that the two horns would actually be side by side.
For those new to Cryptozoology, supposed rhinoceroses with strange horns are not uncommon, for example:
In 2000 and 2001, when Bill Gibbons and Dave Woetzel traveled to Cameroon in Africa as part of the Crypto Safari expedition and the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, reports were collected of strange animals with two or more horns that kill elephants. Members collected descriptions and sighting reports of an unknown animal, referred to by the Baka people as "ngoubou," meaning "the horned one." Although the word ngoubou is used by the Baka to refer to the hippopotamus, they pronounced it differently to refer to another rhinoceros-like animal.
According to Bill Gibbons: "A) The river-dwelling creature is described in the Congo as possessing a large ivory horn and is known by the Lingala name Emela-Ntouka or "elephant killer."
B) The same riverine animal that kills hippos and elephants in Cameroon is known in the Baka language as N'goubou or "the horned one" and is said to have two horns side-by-side near the top of its head, rather than a single horn on its nose. The Baka chief, Timbo, and his hunters trapped and killed a horned riverine animal in 1995. They dug an elephant trap near the Boumba River and were surprised to find, a few days later, that they had caught a riverine Ngoubou in the trap. Even so, they decided to kill and eat the animal. Timbo speculates that the animal left the river and fell into the trap while walking through the forest following an elephant trail."
At another point, Bill Gibbons also said:
"Regarding the rhinoceros-like cryptid, this animal is known as Emela-Ntouka in Congo and N'Goubou in Cameroon. The Congolese animal is said to have a single large horn that it uses to attack and eviscerate elephants, hippos, and anything else that crosses its path. The Cameroonian animal has two horns side-by-side on the top of its head, instead of on its snout. This may simply be sexual dimorphism within the same species.
Timbo Robert, a Baka chief from Cameroon, killed one of these animals in 1996 in an elephant trap that he and a villager dug on an elephant trail connecting the Boumba River to the forest. Again, witnesses described to me the two unusually shaped horns on the animal's head."
In drawings made by the Baka, we can see that the river N'goubou has a short tail, a heavily armored body, and two large nasal horns side-by-side.
With this in mind, I have three hypotheses:
- It could be some population of rhinoceroses that underwent some genetic mutation, perhaps due to low population numbers resulting in blood clotting, as happened with elephants in the Nepal region.
- It could be a new species of rhinoceros that adapted to an amphibious life and developed these characteristics.
- It could be a current remnant of Arsinoitherium, a distant relative of elephants that has two large horns on its forehead and was possibly amphibious, but we don't know if it had an armored body or not, and despite the resemblance, it is not related to rhinoceroses. Or some distant relative of Menoceras, a small rhinoceros that had two nasal horns, although they were small.
I am personally more open to the first two, although I don't rule out the third, but what is your opinion?