Monstrum

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(mysterious music) Once upon a time, there were tales of an elusive, possibly dangerous, forest-dwelling horned beast roaming the Congo, with the striped legs of a zebra, the tongue of a giraffe, and the body of a horse.

Sounds like a monster ripped from a fairytale or an ancient time chimera.

Except this one is real.

The so-called African unicorn isn't just myth.

It's the very real and very cute, okapi.

Helps you get big and strong, huh?

(upbeat music) (Emily Zarka giggles) I can see how people would be confused when you first encountered one if you've never seen one before.

But she's beautiful, but so weird.

Endemic to the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and called the o'api by the native people of the region, they're notoriously shy, solitary, and very elusive.

While okapi were present in indigenous cultures for centuries, they were miscategorized as a myth by the western world, relegated to the world of made-up monsters.

The story of the okapi reveals the line between monster and mammal isn't always clear, and that what we call monsters today might be tomorrow's discoveries.

(mysterious music) Few stories capture the transformation from a fantastical monster to a real animal like the okapi.

You do have a little smile.

Thanks for helping us.

Let's take a closer look at how this creature went from the African unicorn to a scientific fact.

(dramatic music) In the 18th century, European calmness and explorers in Central Africa heard locals tell tales of an unusual, horse-like creature, partially striped, hard to find, one-horned.

With Europeans already steeped in their own unicorn lore, it's easy to see how this animal was dubbed the African unicorn.

And that's pretty much how it was treated for hundreds of years.

Other cultures depict the okapi as far back as the 5th Century BCE.

The audience hall of Persian King Xerxes depicted the short-statured M'buti people leading in okapi, for instance.

But ignorant Europeans, determined to hold onto their beliefs, thought the okapi was not just an elusive animal, but a myth.

Don't get me wrong, as I talked about in this episode, rare, one-horned, preternatural creatures are reported across the globe and throughout history.

But when explorers reached Africa and heard tales of a just similar enough creature in existing regional lore, those colonizers were quick to slap the name unicorn all over it.

This turns out not to be a fluke, but a bit of a bad habit.

European explorers to other continents still told tales of other supposedly fantastical creatures without clear evidence that they existed or not.

For most people, there was little distinction between real animals and imaginary beings.

From the 14th up to the 18th century, naturalists would conflate real animals with fantastical creatures in their medieval beast series.

Mermaids, wyverns, and basilisks appeared alongside whales, lizards, and rabbits.

The mythical monoceros would appear on the same page as the common bear.

Despite the emergence of zoology and more evidence-based approaches to studying the animal kingdom, like Linnaean taxonomy in the 18th Century, the blurred lines between fact and fiction were slow to disappear.

An emphasis on physical specimens made zoology a more scientifically rigorous discipline, distinguishing the real from the rumor.

But getting those specimens wasn't always easy.

Real animals treated as mythical creatures wasn't uncommon.

Take the gorilla.

For centuries, gorillas were described in monstrous terms.

European explorers returned from Africa with stories of man-like monsters possessing supernatural strength and walking on two legs.

These tales were dismissed as myth, until the 19th century when gorillas were formally recognized as part of the animal kingdom.

Early European travelers described Australia's fauna as anomalies that appeared to defy the laws of nature.

Like encounters with a certain small, four-legged, primarily aquatic creature with the coloring of a mole, the tale of a beaver, webbed feet, and the bill of a duck.

Aboriginal knowledge of the creature and its egg laying was ignored by European naturalists.

The animal puzzle naturalists for decades, and even some zoologists, who had access to a real specimen, suspected that it was nothing but taxidermy hoax.

It would take the better part of the 19th Century to determine how the very real platypus should be classified.

Shall we call this one hubris?

Sometimes, misidentification goes both ways.

The kraken blurs mythology and reality.

At least as far back as the 12th century, medieval sailors told stories of enormous tentacled sea monsters big enough to pull entire ships under the water.

While those stories were exaggerated into legend, they also seemed more plausible when scientists confirmed the existence of the very real and very terrifying colossal and giant squids, which can stretch over 40 feet long and weigh more than 1,000 pounds.

There's a clear pattern here.

The real life creature is shy, usually solitary, and resides in places that are remote or difficult to access, contributing to the mystery.

It's easy for sporadically spotted animal to be treated as more myth than reality.

This isn't something we've suddenly stopped doing either.

Creatures like the dingiso tree-kangaroo, the giant woolly flying squirrel, and the legless skink were once dismissed as rumors until science finally caught up and confirmed them, like very recently.

But for the communities living alongside these animals for generations, their existence was never in doubt.

Modern researchers count on the expertise of locals to guide them to the evidence they need for tangible proof.

In the late 19th century, scientific interest in the African unicorn peaked when Welsh-American explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley wrote in his account of the Congo that the M'buti people told him of a large, striped, horse-like creature completely unfamiliar to him.

Inspired by Stanley's account, explorer Sir Harry Johnston set off to find this unicorn.

In an odd series of events before the expedition even commenced, Johnston reportedly freed a group of M'buti people who had been captured by a German showman.

Post-rescue, that M'buti confirmed to Johnston that they had indeed seen the elusive animal he saw.

Further determined, Johnston headed off into the Congolese rainforest with some local guides and hunters to capture the mysterious beast.

The heat and dense atmosphere of the forest were too much for Johnston, well, that and the malaria, and the search was abandoned.

But Johnston soon received bandoliers from locals made from the hide of the mystery animal he saw.

A year or so later, a Swedish officer sent Johnston an okapi skin and two skulls, one with horns or ossicones.

Sir Harry used them to paint a picture of the animal before sending it off for examination to the Zoological Society of London.

They were confirmed as a new species and named their own genus, Okapia johnstoni, for obvious reasons.

A short 18 years later, the Antwerp Zoo exhibited a real live okapi.

And just like that, the okapi was finally fully recognized.

So, what other legendary beasts might actually be misidentified or undiscovered animals hiding in plain sight?

Well, not too far from the okapi in the Republic of Congo lies a legend of the Nguma-monene.

Eyewitnesses describe the seemingly fantastical creature as a massive elongated reptile living in deep water or swampy channels.

Accounts say it's larger than a crocodile.

It overturns boats and is widely feared.

The Nguma-monene might sound like folklore, but this legend could very well be rooted in a real animal.

Some suggest these sightings could be misidentified Nile monitors or African rock pythons.

On the other side of the world, a legendary ape-like creature is said to roam the remote rainforest of Sumatra.

One myth of the Orang Pendek describes a small, hairy, human-like forest dweller that walks upright.

Oral traditions of indigenous groups describe the beast as being very elusive, moving silently through the jungle.

Local sightings of the mammal have been documented by western naturalists working in the region.

Casts of footprints and hair samples have also been collected.

Given Sumatra's dense, unexplored forests, many researchers argue that the Orang Pendek could be an as yet undiscovered primate.

Hi.

You are beautiful.

I can see why people didn't think you were real.

She's like, "I could get used to this."

That is an attention.

(group chattering) - You're being very good.

Thank you, Lou.

Today, the okapi is a symbol of the unique natural environment of the DRC and a point of national pride.

Whoop.

The animal is the national emblem and adorn its currency.

What was once thought of as a mythical beast has actually always been a living, breathing wonder.

Although, I do have to admit it does make you wonder about some of those other cryptids out there, waiting to be validated.

I see you Bigfoot.

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(camera shuttering) (Emily Zarka giggling) Now, this is perfect.

I'm so sweaty.

Hi, Lou.

Good job, Lou.

My arms are so short.

Oh, hi.

You're him.

I know, you know exactly what's happening.

I think I got some.

(laughs) - [Speaker] Yeah.

- [Emily Zarka] Lou, I think you're a star.