In east African folklore, the Nandi bear is a creature said to live in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

.Jacobs, Louis L. (2000). ''Quest for the African Dinosaurs: Ancient Roots of the Modern World''. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 250. It takes its name from the Nandi people who live in western Kenya, in the area the Nandi Bear is reported from. It is also known as Chemosit, Kerit, Koddoelo, Ngoloko, or Duba (which derives from the Arabic words ''dubb'' or ''d.abʕ'' / ''d.abuʕ'' for 'bear' and 'hyena' respectively). The Samburu "Nkampit" appears also to be a version of this creature.

Description

Descriptions of the Nandi bear are of a ferocious, powerfully built carnivore with high front shoulders (over four feet tall) and a sloping back. Stories of the Nandi bear state that it is fierce, nocturnal, stands on its hind legs and can kill animals.''Journals and Magazines''
'' The Lancet'', 1914.

Charles William Hobley Charles William Hobley, CMG (b. Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England in 1867; d. Oxted, Surrey on 31 March 1947) — known as C. W. Hobley — was a pioneering British Colonial administrator in Kenya. He served the Colonial Service in Kenya fr ...

authored a diagram of its supposed foot in 1913. The Nandi people call it "kerit". Local legend holds that the Nandi bear has reddish hair, long feet and is said to scalp people. In 1961, Gardner Soule noted that sightings were reported in Kenya throughout the 19th century and early 20th century but it "never has been caught or identified". Sightings of the Nandi bear decreased over time. In 1905, Richard Meinertzhagen speculated that it may have been an "anthropoid ape now extinct on account of decreased rainfall."

Scientific evaluation

There is no scientific evidence that the Nandi bear exists. Alleged sightings are suggested to be misidentification of known species.Pocock, Reginald I. (1930). ''The Story of the Nandi Bear''. '' Natural History Magazine'' 2: 162–169. In 1923, Charles William Andrews suggested that the Nandi bear may be a surviving representative of the extinct

Chalicothere Chalicotheres (from Greek '' chalix'', "gravel" and '' therion'', "beast") are an extinct clade of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the Middle Eocene until the Early Plei ...

. In the 1930s

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

suggested that Nandi Bear descriptions matched that of the Chalicothere, though chalicotheres were herbivores. The Chalicothere hypothesis was later abandoned. In 2000, paleontologist

Louis L. Jacobs Louis Leo Jacobs (born August 27, 1948) is an American vertebrate paleontologist who discovered ''Malawisaurus'' while on an expedition in Malawi. Much of his research concerns the interrelationships of Biotic component, biotic and abiotic events ...

commented that "if chalicotheres existed now, they would have been found out just like the giant forest hog was." He concluded that "if there is anything to the Nandi-bear story besides imagination, I suspect it may be the word-of-mouth description of gorillas passed across the continent from areas where they live to areas where they do not." Zoologist

Reginald Innes Pocock Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist. Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edward ...

claimed that reports of the Nandi bear were misidentified hyenas, specifically the

spotted hyena The spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus ''Crocuta'', native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUC ...

. In 1932, the British Natural History Museum stated that many reports of the Nandi Bear have "proved to have been nothing more than a spotted hyena." Vice versa, paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson commented that the Nandi bear "turned out to be in most if not all cases a ratel oney badger an animal which had been known to scientific zoologists since 1776."

In popular culture

*The Nandi bear (spelled "Nandibear") appears as a monster in the ''

Fighting Fantasy ''Fighting Fantasy'' is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published in paperback by Puffin in 1982. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choo ...

'' gamebook series. * '' The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes'', a collection of contemporary fantasy stories by Sterling E. Lanier, includes a short story called "His Only Safari," in which the title character briefly sights a "kerit" and speculates that such creatures formed the basis for the Egyptian legends of Anubis. * ''Tarzan #134'' ( Gold Key Comics), March 1963, features Tarzan meeting and later battling a Nandi bear which is pictured as a shaggy sloth bear-like creature with floppy ears. * '' Pathfinder Roleplaying Game'', a fantasy role playing game published in 2009 by Paizo Publishing, features the Chemosit, described as a "massive, shaggy beast, uses long and muscular forearms to raise itself onto its hind legs and beats its chest like a gorilla. Despite its ape-like stance, its frame is far heavier and its features more primitive". The magical beast’s special ability is the 'Brain Eater' - if the Chemosit kills an opponent with a coup de grace attack, it breaks open the creature's skull and devours what's inside. * The daily comic panel '' True-Life Adventures'' for May 22, 1956, featured the Nandi bear.

References

{{reflist East African legendary creatures Kalenjin folklore Mythological bears Nandi County Purported mammals