Kongamato

The word "kongamato" may not have originated from sightings of modern pterosaurs; but maybe it did. The fact remains that regardless of the origin of this word in Africa, some sighting reports include details that eliminate both a bat misidentification and a bird misidentification. What we now call "kongamato" seems to be a living pterosaur.

Kongamato in Africa

An engineer is said to have seen a kongamato at Fort Rosebery in Northern Rhodesia, in what is now Zambia. At about sunset, he saw two of them flying slowly overhead. The wingspan he thought was about three feet, perhaps a bit more. The length of the kongamato, including beak and tail, was about four feet or a bit more, and it had a long thin tail.

Kongamato and Ropen Compared

While walking from one mud-brick hut to another, one night, the boy noticed something on the roof of a nearby hut. Lit up by the patio light, perched on the edge of the roof, the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head; its long tail somehow reminded the boy of a tail of a lion (I suspect there was hair at the end of the tail).

The boy froze as the creature stretched its wings and hopped toward another roof, passing a few feet over the boy’s head. He dropped the metal tray of dishes that he had been carrying and the creature flew away. The eyewitness was sure about the head crest and the long tail.

Modern Pterosaurs in Africa

In 1942, a flying snake like animal swooped down from a cave in the vicinity of a farm near Kirris West sixty miles east of Keetmanshoop, in south-west Namibia.The flying snake, or whatever it was, frightened Michael Esterhuise, a farm hand . . .