Nandi Bear

In this week's (delayed due to sickness) episode, we're heading over to East Africa for a terrifying cryptid, the Nandi Bear! How does this monster relate to colonisation? How can you tell one apart from a hyena, baboon or bear? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m so sorry this one is so late, unfortunately I caught a horrendous stomach bug at my nan’s funeral last week so I’ve been off trying to recover. Thank you for bearing with me, and I do have a surprise for you at the end of the episode as a thank you too.

DESCRIPTION:

But we’re heading over to Africa this week for a really cool cryptid and one that is a little bit popular, so I hope you’re ready for the Nandi Bear.

The Nandi Bear is actually tricky to describe because it is kind of an umbrella term for two different monsters. There are arguments within the cryptozoological world that they could be the same monster, others believe they are two different ones - but I’m going to cover the descriptions I have of both so that you’re covered. 

The original Nandi Bear is described as a hyena or baboon looking creature, with a stocky body with a high sloping back, thick brown fur, small ears and a pointed snout. You’re probably thinking - Erin, these two animals are vastly different and yes, I know that, but these key descriptors are similarities between them both. Separately, they have different descriptions, such as the hyena-looking Nandi Bear is described as being twice the size of a normal hyena, with red eyes and large sharp fangs. It has the spotted fur pattern and a very short and stumpy tail, as well as huge paws that leave bigger tracks than a mans, with three toes and huge inward-turned claws. 

The baboon-looking Nandi Bear stands at about 5 feet tall when on its back legs, with brown shaggy hair and a long head. Whilst their torso is very hairy, the abdomen and legs are relatively hair free, ending with paws with five toes that are equally as clawed as their brethren. Importantly, this monster might be the one that is not officially the Nandi Bear and might be a cryptid in its own right as the Koddoelo, which is a baboon-like creature, but it’s very often called a Nandi Bear - so we’ll leave it at that.

You may also be thinking - it’s called a Nandi Bear, so why is it not first and foremost bear-looking? They’re called this because they have bear mannerisms, as they will rest on their haunches and sideways canter run as well as being incredibly aggressive. They are carnivorous monsters and will happily go after anything, in fact, they’ve been known to tear through fences and thorns to get into human settlements as well as into farms with livestock and wild animals. 

For their powers, they are just built like immense killing machines, such as bears, hyenas and baboons - they’re really strong, fast and unpredictable. They are known to hunt their prey in trees and launch upon them when they walk past, however, their favourite delicacy is brain and they will rip off the prey’s scalp, be that human or not, to get to it. The one slightly supernatural thing about them is that they have a terrifying howl or moaning call, and as they are entirely nocturnal; this is pretty creepy.

The Nandi Bear are first and foremost from the east side of Africa, but are most commonly reported within Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda - with the believed settlement of them to be in the Uasin Gishu plateau and the Nandi Hills in west Kenya. In fact, there is even a county called Nandi County nearby, with towns like Kapsabet and Kapsowar being hot spots.

Can you kill one though? Yep, they’re just like normal hyenas or monkeys in this sense - whilst very intimidating and much larger than their normal counterparts, they can be shot, poisoned, speared, drowned or eaten by other predators. We do also believe that they reproduce and that Nandi Bears will mate like monkeys and hyenas, sticking to large groups with alphas leading the charge.

ORIGIN:

Now their etymology is a fun one, Nandi Bear is actually their English name, Nandi County being the place they were found and mistakenly referred to as bears back in the day, but the Kalenjin name, which is the language spoken by the local Kenyan tribes is chemosit which means demon. We did mention Koddoelo earlier but I’ve actually not got a translation for that sadly. There is another name for it in Swahili, another African language, which is nyangau, which means bloody beast which suits it quite well too.

Their history is also pretty interesting and as far as we can tell, not that old either. Although, a very important thing to note here is that this is from a country and a time during colonisation who had previously been living in tribes, so we don’t know if it goes back much further through word of mouth because folklore such as this tends to be wiped out during colonisation which is sad. 

ANYWAY, the first reported sighting was back in 1905 in Kenya by Richard Meinertzhagen who was told by the natives of the Nandi bear and had been around since the 17th century. According to them, they were almost wiped out by an epidemic and therefore they became a lot rarer. During the colonial era in Kenya by the Brits between 1895 and 1920, Nandi Bears were blamed for countless natives who had been found with their heads crushed and their brains eaten. 

However, it wasn’t until 1912 that a Nandi Bear was actually spotted by an outsider when one fell through a roof and ate an entire family - the rest of the village burnt the hut with the animal in it. The most famous sighting came one year later in 1913, during the construction of the Magadi Railway in the previous British East Africa, when railway engineer G W Hickes saw one on the road to the railhead. He thought it was a hyena, but realised eventually that this was not an ordinary creature - I have an extract from his account;

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…

He went to work after this and wanted to go back to get the footprints, but the rain had washed them away - sad times. There were actually a load of reports of the same monster within that time frame, so people thought that it was just one meaty hyena-bear. 

There were another few sightings throughout the 20th century, one in 1914 where one was killed after killing a load of villagers in Kapsowar. In the same year, a Nandi Bear killed a six year old girl in her house and William Hichens, the Colonial administrator went to hunt down the beast. He heard the most awful howl he’d ever heard, it tore down his tent and took his dog before giving up. 

In 1957, in a tea estate in the Nandi Hills, Douglas Hutton shot two large hyenas who were described as giant forest hyenas because they were at least 3ft 3in in height. Following a couple of other sightings during the 1900’s, the last one was in 1998 when a couple were driving around the Nandi Escarpment in the rain and saw a huge animal cross the road in front of them. They initially thought it was a bear, but on closer inspection saw it was a hyena with stripes that was much much bigger than a normal hyena. 

The Nandi Bear hasn’t actually been seen since, there have been no official reports of it since the 90’s - so it’s one of our very rare cryptids that doesn’t have more recent sightings and might even fall into folklore soon enough if it doesn’t come out of its hiding space.

Of course, this is the part where I debunk the myth and compare it to what it could be in reality. We don’t even really have to mention it, but it’s definitely the hyena. The spotted hyena, brown hyena or giant hyena are the biggest and most common hyena species around this area. They are scavengers though and they don’t really bother humans unless they are already dead, but they are very intimidating animals, especially with their little giggle growls. 

Another one they might be is the black honey badger, which is a much larger species of honey badger and gets significantly darker as they age, as well as having that cute pig-like nose. But they could also be an extinct animal such as the Dinopithecus, which was a prehistoric monkey-type creature who walked on all fours and had a hunched back, as well as massive teeth or it could be the Chalicothere, which was a type of prehistoric giraffe/horse that only ate grass and leaves, which I don’t think is as believable. Their closest relatives are still around, the Okapi, which are cute little herbivorous donkey-like animals.

For other monsters like this, you may remember me recently talking about the Crocotta, which was an Indian hyena myth monster that shared a load of similar traits to this one. A ravenous hyena who would feast on people, however, the big difference here is that the Crocotta had a voice mimicking ability which the Nandi Bear does not. 

There is also another man-eating hyena monster in Africa called the Malawi Terror Beast, that terrorised Malawi in 2003 and supposedly prompted military action to get rid of it after it killed three people and disfigured 16 more. We might actually cover this one in a later episode, so I won’t give too much away now.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, we don’t have anything specifically unfortunately for this one but I can recommend some TYPE media instead.

For art, there is a painting of one from 1961 just called Nandi Bear by A. McWilliamsthere, but otherwise there isn't much out there this week I’m afraid. But I’d really recommend looking over some of the independent art this week for some really scary adaptations of this huge hyena.

In movies, we have; The Lion King, Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, A Warrior’s Tale, The Lord of The Rings, Madagascar, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Nosferatu, Duck Soup, The Jungle Book, Mowgli & Jumanji: The New Level.

For TV, we have; Harley Quinn, Gargoyles, Aggretsuko, Octonauts, Doraemon, One Piece, Talespin, Chip and Potato, The Batman, Killing Bites, The Jungle Book, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jungle Cubs, The New Adventures of Batman, Sonic The Hedgehog, The Wild Thornberrys & The Lion Guard.

In video games, we have ones such as; League of Legends, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Kingdom Rush, Warframe, Pokemon, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Baldur’s Gate 3, EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist, BUCK: Saturday Morning Cartoon Apocalypse, The Lion King, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Injustice 2 & Songs of Conquest.

My book recommendation this week is Tales of East Africa by Jamilla Okubo for some great stories from this part of the African continent, including both the Crocotta and the Nandi Bear. Or there’s Adventures in Cryptozoology by Richard Freeman because this book is fantastic if you’re into cryptids of any kind.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I’m going to say a frank no to this one, but only on the concept that this realistically is just a big hyena. I totally agree that they may have existed as a thing, but I think they were just really big hyenas that lived a long time ago. What I don’t understand is why they’re still called bears - because whilst I understand the gait and the size and the running style of them being bear-like, I think a lot more things point to them being hyena-like. 

It’s really similar to the Crocotta in this way, it just seems to be an inflated story of a hyena who got very big or potentially there was a species of them that were that much larger back in the early 20th century, but we are yet to see one. We’ve also not seen one since the 1990’s, so the last sighting is almost as old as me - which does make me sad because as I get older, I too feel close to extinction if I go outside into the midst of the wider public.

But in all seriousness, I still love this monster and I love hyenas. I think they’re creepy, but I’d totally pet one if it let me get close enough and not bite my arm off. Maybe you could domesticate one enough to pet it, kind of like foxes can - but I’m thinking out loud now. 

But what do you think? Did the Nandi Bear roam the dark Kenyan nights looking for brains? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A fun cryptid this week and this has been one that I’ve been wanting to cover for some time. It’s actually on a poster in my study, so it’s nice to finally give it a home within the podcast too.

I said I had a surprise and it is that to counter the lack of episodes last week, I am releasing the next episode TOMORROW to catch up. Yep, double feature baby! We’re heading over to Japan for the first time in ages and looking at a cute but deadly yokai. I hope you’ve got a jingly ball and a couple of cat treats before the Nekomata eats you instead tomorrow!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.