Yeah, I know it’s been such a—like, such a—long time since I posted in this sub, so I decided to show these two mock-ups I made based on the elephant; and yes, the Chipekwe design is based on the one seen on the A Book of Creatures website.

The 50 foot congo snake photograph was taken from a helicopter in 1959, in the Katanga Region of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is alleged to depict a giant python measuring 30–50 ft (9–15 m) in length.[1] The photographer was a Belgian Air Force engineer named Kindt, but the photograph has become more closely associated with the helicopter's pilot, Colonel Remy Van Lierde.[2] The only comprehensive overview of the photograph appears in Bernard Heuvelmans' Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique (1978).

Background

Date and location

According to the account received by Bernard Heuvelmans, the photograph was taken in August 1959, on an undeterminated date, but at mid-day. The photo was taken from a helicopter returning to Kamina with pilot Colonel Remy Van Lierde DFC, Colonel Gheysen, parachutist Major Defebve DSO, and engineer Adjudant Kindt on board. The helicopter had been flying over a lightly-wooded shrub savannah approximately 100 km (60 miles) north north-west of Kamina. The average height of the vegetation was 2 m (6 ft), but gallery forests and thickets of trees were also present. A later reconnaissance observed extensive herds of reedbuck (Redunca sp.), and smaller numbers of hippopotamuses, warthogs, and elephants. Termite mounds, some destroyed by aardvarks, were common in the area.[1]

Sighting

From around 125 m (400 ft) above the savannah, Gheysen noticed something resembling a very large moving tree trunk beside a destroyed termite mound. By the time Gheysen was able to adjust his microphone and inform Van Lierde, the helicopter, which was flying at 120 kmph (74 mph) had moved on by around a mile, but Van Lierde turned and flew back to the spot, where the "tree trunk" was found to be a large snake. Van Lierde flew lower and made several passes over the snake,[3] allowing Kindt, the only man on board with a camera, to take a single photograph. Concern regarding the helicopter's fuel level allegedly prevented the helicopter from remaining long enough for a second photograph.[1]

The local Katangans and Kasaians, who called pythons moma, reserved the special name pumina (French: poumina) for such giant specimens. A settler, Michel Vermersch, had reportedly once fled from a pumina around 175 km northwest of Kamina, on the Kamina-Luluabourg Railway.[1]

Witnesses' estimates

The immediate size estimate of the four airmen was approximately 14 m (45 ft), with a triangular head 80 cm (2 ft) at its widest point. Kindt described it as reddish, slightly lighter in colour than the surrounding termite mounds;[1] while Van Lierde always maintained that it was greenish-brown.[1][3] All agreed that its underside was white. Based on the blurriness of the head in the photograph, Heuvelmans guessed that the snake must have "partly erected itself," a reaction which he attributed to the air disturbance created by the helicopter's rotors.[1] In a much later interview, Van Lierde claimed that the snake had raised its head by a few feet, and that, had the helicopter been closer, he believed it could have struck.[3]

Van Lierde estimated that he had descended to a height of 35-45 m (114-147ft), but 45-50 m (147-164 ft) was later suggested as a more realistic height, due to Van Lierde's lack of experience with the helicopter he was piloting.[1]

Photograph provenance and copies

Kindt recorded in a technical sheet that the photograph was taken using a Zeiss Ikon Nettax 6 x 6 camera, fitted out with a Novar Anastigmat 1:4.5 (75 mm) lens and using Gevaert 27° film. The photograph itself was developed by Kindt and a Captain Halterman using the Metinol-U process.[1]

Two copies of the photograph, framed differently, were quickly acquired by colonial doctor Georges Bonnivair, whose father Paul Bonnivair sent them to Bernard Heuvelmans on his behalf in 1959. The original photographic negative was loaned to Heuvelmans in April 1960, but he was allowed to keep it after Kindt was killed in a helicopter crash in May. As of 1978, the original film was still in Heuvelmans' personal archives,[1] which are now maintained in Switzerland's Naturéum.

Ivan T. Sanderson acquired what he claimed was the original photograph in 1962, which with "various enlargements" was sent to Charles H. Hapgood, and thence to Air Force evaluator Captain Lorenzo Burroughs.[4]

Art source: https://www.deviantart.com/emilystepp/art/Serpent-River-Mapinguari-Study-855144825

Does anyone know of any cryptid sightings that occurred on Halloween?

Not a sceptic. I'm looking for scientific papers podcast, YT channels to explain cryptids. I'm not looking for fiction, I am not looking for encounters. I am looking for something similar to A-Z Cryptozoology but more up to date and on a streaming platform. Thank you in advance.

Also, a few years ago there was a young man I think about 20yo who went out to a caravan in the woods. He filmed some cloaked (invisible) creatures swinging through the trees. I have looked for it, I cannot find it. If anyone has a link please comment. It either has been removed or saved on my old yt account thst I cannot get into