African wildlife is really diversified. We can find animals of the majority of the categories, except the marsupials and... the ursidaes, or bears. He have the chance to have many names, such as chemosit, kerit, shivuverre, koddoelo, ikimizi, sabrookoo, kikambangwe or duba, but is well known under the name of Nandi Bear.
Many things let us believe that there are really bear species in Africa. The greek Herodotus, when reporting once the fauna of Libya, says there were pythons, lions, elephants, asps, horned asses (probably antelopes), and bears, as well as Pliny said the same thing, even if he disputed this claims. In 1668, Dr. O. Dapper said that the Congo was inhabited by "squirrels with tails much larger than those in Europe, bears, wild cats, and very venomous vipers...".
Geoffrey Williams, member of the Nandi expedition, talk about theencounter he had on the Uasin Gishu plateau.
"...I was travelling with a cousin on the Uasingishu just after the Nandi expedition, and, of course, long before there was any settlement up there. We had been camped ... near the Mataye and were marching towards the Sirgoit Rock when we saw the beast ... I saw a large animal sitting up on its haunches no more than 30 yards away. Its attitude was just that of a bear at the 'Zoo' asking for buns, and I should say it must have been nearly 5 feet high ... it dropped forward and shambled away towards the Sirgoit with what my cousin always describes as a sort of sideways canter ...
I snatched my rifle and took a snapshot at it as it was disappearing among the rocks, and, though I missed it, it stopped and turned its head round to look at us ... 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 colour was dark ..."
Williams also reported many native sightings of Nandi bear, including one where a bear was killed when he entered inside a hut to kill the people in it.
It is depicted as a yellowish, reddish, or brown creature, with a 6 feet height, long haired with a thick mane, short and very broad tail, long nose, big teeth and thick fore-legs.
What are the explanations? They goes from the third specie of Aardvark (Orycteropus; two, O. capensis and O. aethiopicus, are already known) to the hyena and the baboons.
SOURCES: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/7270/chemosit.html
Cryptozoologix 2001
