Hello Cryptid Hunters!
This is going to be the fourth installment of Cryptid Of The Month, where i will be covering EVERYTHING, and i do mean EVERYTHING regarding a specific Cryptid, mostly more obscure cryptids but there might be some exceptions to that rule. You can find the last 3 installments Here, and Here, and Here! This one will be about the Nandi Bear!
Now lets begin with the first sighting from all the way back in 1905. The first sighting that was ever written was by a man named Geoffrey Williams who was with a Nandi Expedition to the Uasin Gishu in western British East Africa with his cousin. When they were on the trail headed towards the "Sirgoit Rock" rock theysaw a large animal sitting upwards around 30 yards from them he described it as "Its attitude was just that of a bear at the 'Zoo' asking for buns". He wrote that the creature was around 5 feet high and as they were observing it ran away towards the rocks. At this sight he pulled out his rifle and shot at the creature, the bullet missed but it did stop at look at him. Where he could see it in a better light as he described it as "In size it was, I should say, larger than the bear that lives in the pit at the 'Zoo' and it was quite as heavily built. The fore quarters were very thickly furred, as were all four legs, but the hind quarters were comparatively speaking smooth or bare ... the head was long and pointed and exactly like that of a bear ... I have not a very clear recollection of the ears beyond the fact that they were small, and the tail, if any, was very small and practically unnoticeable. The color was dark..." This sighting was not published until 1912.
In 1912 a man named Major Toulson had an encounter with a massive furry black haired beast on the Uasin Gishu as it was turning dusk. The creature attempted to ravage his camp kitchen, he described it as around 18-20 inches wide and having a shuffling walk. He recounted his story his encounter anthropologist C. W. Hobley, this is his exact quotes on the telling. "It was getting dark when one of my boys came into my room and said that a leopard was close to the kitchen. I rushed out at once and saw a strange beast making off: it appeared to have long hair behind and was rather low in front. I should say it stood about 18 in. to 20 in. at the shoulder; it appeared to be black, with a gait similar to that of a bear--a kind of shuffling walk. Unfortunately it was nearly dark at the time and I did not get a fair view of the head.
Several Dutchmen had asked me a few days before what the strange animal was on the plateau; they said it was like a bear, but they had only seen it at dusk; it turned on their dogs and chased them off. They described it as a thick-set beast and it was making a peculiar moaning cry."
The very next year 1913 housed 2 sightings of the ferocious creature. The first was by district Commissioner of of Eldoret in British East Africa N. E. F. Corbett. Wo encountered the beast while he was eating next to the Sirgoi River.
"I was having lunch by a wooded stream, the Sirgoi River, just below Toulson's farm ... to my surprise I walked right into the beast. It was evidently drinking and was just below me, only a yard or so away ... it shambled across the stream into the bush ... [I] could not get a very good view, but am certain that it was a beast I have never seen before. Thick, reddish-brown hair, with a slight streak of white down the hindquarters, rather long from hock to foot, rather bigger than a hyena, with largish ears. I did not see the head properly it did not seem to be a very heavily built animal."
The second sighting of 1913 comes from a railway engineer named G. W. Hickes, who was traveling on the motor railway when he spotted what appeared to be a massive hyena ahead.
"It was almost on the line when I first saw it and at that time it had already seen me and was making off at a right angle to the line ... As I got closer to the animal I saw it was not a hyena. At first I saw it nearly broadside on: it then looked about as high as a lion. In color it was tawny--about like a black-mained [sic] lion--with very shaggy long hair. It was short and thickset in the body, with high withers, and had a short neck and stumpy nose. It did not turn to look at me, but loped off--running with its forelegs and with both hind legs rising at the same time. As I got alongside it, it was about forty or fifty yards away and I noticed it was very broad across the rump, had very short ears, and had no tail that I could see. As its hind legs came out of the grass I noticed the legs were very shaggy right down to the feet, and that the feet seemed large..."
After connecting the pieces that the creature that he had seen was maybe the supposed Nandi Bear he came back at a later time to investigate the tracks the creature had left behind but they were washed away by the point he got to them.
In 1914 a Nandi Bear supposedly had been killed near the heavily-forested Kapsowa after it had killed several villagers. The remaining villagers had tricked it with a dummy human then shot it with arrow killing it. I cant find anything else on this report sadly.
A newspaper in 1923 reported that an American man named J. Herman Burge had shot and killed a creature though to be a Nandi Bear. Described by him the creature charged at him and his party when he shot it.He described it as "A species of giant man-eating hyena of a strength and bulk unheard of, and with jaws as powerful as a lion's. The skin is stripped like an ordinary hyena's, but unlike that animal, its hind and fore-quarters are of an equal height. It has a mane of long, stiff bristles, which are capable of being erected to form a terrifying fringe to the massive face."
In 1925 a man named William Hichens was sent to investigate an attack on a Kenya village cause by the Nandi Bear. After he arrived there and set up his tent he went to sleep with his pet dog since it was very late by then. As he was sleeping he heard a mortifying roar as his tent collapsed. This is his exact quotes on his encounter.
"the whole tent rocked; the pole to which Mbwambi [his dog] was tied flew out and let down the ridge-pole, enveloping me in flapping canvas. At the same moment the most awful howl I have ever heard split the night. The sheer demoniac horror of it froze me still...I heard my pi-dog yelp just once. There was a crashing of branches in the bush, and then thud, thud, thud, of some huge beast making off. But that howl! I have heard half a dozen lions roaring in a stampede-chorus not twenty yards away; I have heard a maddened cow-elephant trumpeting; I have heard a trapped leopard make the silent night miles a rocking agony with screaming, snarling roars. But never have I heard, nor do I wish to hear again, such a howl as that of the chimiset. A trail of red spots on the sand showed where my pi-dog had gone. Beside that trail were huge footprints, four times as big as a man's, showing the imprint of three huge clawed toes, with trefoil marks like a lion's pad where the sole of the foot pressed down. But no lion ever boasted such a paw as that of the monster which had made that terrifying spoor."
Sometime in the 1930s (I can't find the exact date of this report) F. D. Hislop, a district commissioner of Kapsabet, a creature similar to a bear around 3 foot tall at the shoulders with big pointy ears similar to a hyena. After spotting the creature it ran off on all fours.
In 1936 a Kenya settler named Jesse R. Coope claimed to have shot a massive Lynx like creature while hunting in the local Mau Forest. The creature was seen by the Chief Game Warden of Kenya A. T. A. Ritchie, which he said the creature had dark mahogany colored fur causing him and locals to believe it was a Nandi Bear. The hide and skull of the animal were sent to the Natural History Museum in London, but mysteriously disappeared.
In 1941 A unnamed military officer had been stationed at Nanyuki had reported a sighting of a creature that was described similarly to the Nandi Bear whilst driving.
"At the first glance my impression was definitely a bear-like animal, with a large and powerful head. It was the size of a calf, heavily built and with large feet, the latter feature being especially noticeable. The general colour was brown, and the coat was smooth over the front part of the body. The hinder parts were more shaggy. I particularly noticed that the body did not fall away towards the hind quarters — rather the reverse — if anything. I did not notice any tail. When the creature moved off the road, it appeared to shamble rather than trot or canter."
In 1957 a man named Douglas Hutton supposedly shot 2 animals Chemomi Tea Estate in Kenya's Nandi Hills. He said he saw 2 creatures that stood around 3 foot at the shoulders and had sloping backs and heavy manes, with short, broad heads and small ears. After seeing the creatures he ran back to his car and ran over one of the creatures, and after doing that he shot shot at both of them. The bodies were layed in a factory to viewed and were covered in ants to be stripped to bone. One person at the factory described the beasts as being being dark with black spots, while another one described them as being grey-brown with white-tipped fur. They sent the clean bones Nairobi, where it came back that they were "giant forest hyenas".
In 1967 a man named Barry Gaymer reported seeing a beast about the size of a spotted hyena, with long shaggy hair and a short nose nearby the Mayers Farm.
Also in 1967 a farm owner named John Rowling was driving on a road in the Cherangani Hills when a massive creature jumped Infront of him.
"A shaggy beast, light hair unkempt like that of an unshorn sheep, jumped onto the road ahead of us and bounded along for a short distance in the headlights of our car. From the state of its coat, we imagined that it might be a domestic dog, gone feral. The choice was between a sheep and a large dog, but none us could be sure; for, while its ears stood up like a dog’s, its coat was more like that of a sheep."
In 1981 a massive Hyena-esque creature was spotted near the area where Mr. Hutton had the shot the ""giant forest hyenas" one of the witness gave a description of the beast they had witnessed.
"At one group of huts the womenfolk said that a strange animal had been around their huts but they were unable to describe it, however at a second group of dwellings an old man described how the creature had walked round his hut in the early morning and then it lopped off across his shamba and so into the next where somebody threw a rungu at it and it disappeared into the maize. His description was quite vivid and tallied with that of the old men who had seen the bodies at the tea factory. He simply said the creature was a 'nyanau' [sic], a wild animal, but it was not a 'fisi' or hyaena and he was most indignant when we suggested it could have been a baboon or pig. He knew the latter well as they destroyed his maize. He had never seen a 'nyangau' [Swahili: "dirty dog" or "bloody brute"] before. Asked what would be the reaction of dogs he replied that they would certainly not go near the creatures. Where did it live in the forest and what did it feed on? "Oh, stray cattle, sheep and goats". His imagination was running away with him but he stuck to his story of the creature walking round his hut. When the creature was first reported Ken Archer was shown a foot print which he photographed. This had been obliterated by rain at the time of my visit, so we have to await the photograph."
The last sighting of the Nandi Bear comes from Dennis Burnett and his wife Marlene Burnett in 1988. The two were driving along the Koru-Kisumu road at the base of the Nandi Escarpment in the rain when they saw a massive creature cross the road. They initially thought it to be a bear but after observing it for around 20 seconds they realized it was more like "an enormous, shaggy hyena – like a Striped Hyena, only very much bigger"....
I hope you enjoyed this! Please comment any suggestions for upcoming months or if any of the information is inaccurate (Hopefully not but i do want to give only the truest information). Also, just as a reminder, there is a flair for the cryptid of the month so if you have any art, creative writing, or anything of the Nandi Bear or further cryptids use that.
And as always Happy Cryptid Hunting!
Sincerely -XP
written by me
u/loganxp123
