In 1959, Colonel Remy Van Lierde of the Belgian Royal Air Pressure was on helicopter patrol. He had flown in over 400 missions, his eyes skilled to identify pal and foe under. That skillset that will assist him with the following ordeal over the Katanga area of the Congo, for what he noticed subsequent shocked him and his copilot: A really gargantuan snake, estimated by his account to be over 50 ft in size.
This measurement would simply have made it the biggest snake alive on Earth, dwarfing immediately’s titans of the slithering world, just like the inexperienced anaconda and the reticulated python. Inexperienced anacondas common round 15 ft in size; reticulated pythons, in the meantime, have been recognized to commonly stretch past 20 ft, in accordance with the Pure Historical past Museum in London.
However specialists are much less satisfied. Is that this Congo cryptid actually on the frontiers of science, or merely a wartime phantasm?
In keeping with specialists, there is not any scientific proof {that a} 50-foot snake exists. Nonetheless, Van Lierde’s wild story — which continues to flow into on podcasts and web boards immediately — captures our collective fascination with the largest snakes who ever lived.
What’s the Story Behind the 50-Foot Congo Snake?
In keeping with Van Lierde’s declare, detailed throughout a 1980 interview with the British TV present Mysterious World, the creature reared its sinewy physique almost ten ft into the air because the helicopter swooped over for one more shut move. Within the interview, he was quoted as saying, “I felt if I acquired any nearer, it might have struck at me. It may have simply eaten a person.”
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Van Lierde estimated that the beast’s head was two ft extensive; sufficient to comfortably make lunch out of present snake heavyweights. The anaconda, probably the most voluminous of all serpents, can have a mid-body diameter of over a foot within the largest measured people.
Nonetheless, resident species of the Congo by no means strategy the magnitude of the creature described by Van Lierde. In Africa, the biggest recognized snake is the African rock python, rising to 20 ft lengthy in probably the most distinctive of circumstances, a far cry from the (allegedly) lofty lengths of the Congo titan.
Who Else Believed the 50-Foot Congo Snake Story?
To assist confirm his personal outlandish claims, Van Lierde and firm took a single grainy {photograph} of the creature in query.
Clearly, the picture appears to depict what’s ostensibly an enormous snake, trying huge compared to the close by bushes. Or are these bushes? Or grass? Are these darkish patches on the prime left simply shadows — and even looming termite mounds, a standard sight within the Congo?
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The ambiguous image excited some appraisers on the time. Ivan Sanderson, a biologist and cryptozoology fanatic, analyzed the doc and got here to a putting conclusion: the snake was not merely 50 ft lengthy, however 200. In his eyes, the darkish shapes had been definitely termite mounds, which may develop as much as 26 ft tall and over 50 ft extensive within the Katanga area.
Do Folks Nonetheless Imagine the Story Right now?
It appears Sanderson wasn’t the one one enthralled (or terrified) by the notion of an as-of-yet undiscovered leviathan. The {photograph} made the rounds on social media in 2023, inspiring a wave of lookalike shaky digicam movies with claims of monstrous snakes. Van Lierde’s sighting was even talked about in a latest episode of the Joe Rogan Expertise podcast.
However, per a Reuters report launched in 2023, no herpetologists are satisfied that such a collosal snake is alive immediately. However not all hope is misplaced for these infatuated with the notion of a terror of the river.
Actually, the proportions outlined by Van Lierde are consistent with some prehistoric specimens that actually did exist.
What Had been Among the Largest Actual-Life Snakes in Historical past?
Titanoboa, rising upwards of 45 ft in size in accordance with a landmark 2009 examine printed in Nature, is the longest and heaviest snake of all time. The traditional serpent lived within the steamy swamps of the Eocene over 40 million years in the past, in what’s now northeastern Colombia.
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The creature fed upon the considerable fauna of its wetland habitat, which included eight-foot-long turtles and crocodiles that will give their largest modern-day counterparts a run for his or her cash.
These days, the Congo basin doesn’t host the identical supersized reptiles, so it’s unlikely {that a} Titanoboa copycat would thrive immediately the identical approach it did eons in the past.
Are There Different Tales of Unproven Creatures in Africa?
Past actual prehistoric relics, Van Lierde’s sighting isn’t the one cryptid — a creature whose existence is unproven, like Bigfoot and or the Loch Ness Monster — which will await daring discoverers within the Congo. Some explorers have claimed sightings of an uncannily dinosaur-looking animal, recognized colloquially as mokele-mbembe.
By some accounts, the creature seems as a four-legged lizard with an extended neck and a single horn. This depiction bears a putting resemblance to the looming sauropod dinosaurs of the Mesozoic period. These had been the biggest land animals in the course of the heyday of reptiles and included towering titans like Argentinosaurus of their ranks, that are estimated to have stretched to over 120 ft in size.
Nevertheless, as with Van Lierde’s Titanoboa lookalike, there’s likewise no proof {that a} swamp-dwelling sauropod nonetheless lurks within the Congo immediately. Nonetheless, it’s almost sure that imaginative adventurers, fans and podcast hosts alike will proceed to be fascinated by tales of mysterious and fearsome beasts.
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