A
Anonymous
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Does anyone know if there have been any sightings of the Nandi "bear" more recent than those documented by Bernard Heuvelmans in "On The Track of Unnown Animals"? And any more recent theories on what the animal is?
Heuvelmans described so many different theories for the creature's identity, and so many differenet looking eyewitness accounts, that, apart from it being vaguely bearlike, it is very hard to tell exactly what the Nandi bear even looked like. I think this is quite similar to the modern day Chupacabra (especially as both mutilated domestic animals, the Nandi "bear" eating the brains of cattle, Chupa draining the blood from goats) where a cryptid may exist, but the legend becomes so widespread that any unfamiliar or unrecognised sighting or phenomena becomes attrbuted to the Nandi bear or to the Chupa.
The most likely theories as I recall were either a giant baboon or a giant short-faced hyena (both quite recently extinct and in the right continent). This also makes the Nandi bear quite similar to the American "werewolf" type beasts and Shunka Wara'kin (see my other thread).
Another theory for the Nandi "bear" mutilations was that they were carried out by some sort of cultists or "terror" gang (perhaps connected to the Kenyan Mau Mau) mutilating cattle while disguising themselves as animals. Does anyone think this theory might also apply to the mutilations supposedly carried out by the chupacabra? A disguised human might explain some of the weirder Chupa sightings.
Heuvelmans described so many different theories for the creature's identity, and so many differenet looking eyewitness accounts, that, apart from it being vaguely bearlike, it is very hard to tell exactly what the Nandi bear even looked like. I think this is quite similar to the modern day Chupacabra (especially as both mutilated domestic animals, the Nandi "bear" eating the brains of cattle, Chupa draining the blood from goats) where a cryptid may exist, but the legend becomes so widespread that any unfamiliar or unrecognised sighting or phenomena becomes attrbuted to the Nandi bear or to the Chupa.
The most likely theories as I recall were either a giant baboon or a giant short-faced hyena (both quite recently extinct and in the right continent). This also makes the Nandi bear quite similar to the American "werewolf" type beasts and Shunka Wara'kin (see my other thread).
Another theory for the Nandi "bear" mutilations was that they were carried out by some sort of cultists or "terror" gang (perhaps connected to the Kenyan Mau Mau) mutilating cattle while disguising themselves as animals. Does anyone think this theory might also apply to the mutilations supposedly carried out by the chupacabra? A disguised human might explain some of the weirder Chupa sightings.