The mamlambo is a carnivorous cryptid from the Mzintlava River near Mount Ayliff that claimed up to 9 human victims in 1997 alone.
The grisly feeding habits of the mamlambo have earned it a certain amount of fear and hatred amongst the people of Mount Ayliff, and there have been several campaigns to eradicate the creatures. They are always solitary, dragging animals into the water and drowning them before eating their facial tissues and sucking out their blood and brain. One mamlambo took up residence beneath a bridge over the Mzintlava River and killed at least 7, possibly 9 people in this way. According to the regional mythology, mamlambos can be tamed and used as attack animals by those who are skilled enough to capture them.
In the tribal mythology of South Africa's Xhosa people, the mamlambo is a giant river snake which brings good fortune to he who owns it, and is used by witch doctors to get revenge on their enemies. The tribal stories describe mamlambo as a big snake with a large bulky head, while modern sightings describe it as being "half horse and half fish", having the head and neck of a horse and the body of a fish, with four short stumpy legs. They are said to be able to come out of the water, using that ability to capture prey that isn't close to the water's edge.
There are two major theories as to what this creature could be. The first is that it is an elasmosaur-like animal, the supporting evidence being it's long neck, it's aquatic habitat, and the fact that it is described as a "big snake" in the tribal lore. The second theory is that mamlambo is some kind of very primitive archaeocete, occupying a place in cetacean evolution before the legs turned into flippers and the neck disappeared, but after the typical cetacean tail had evolved -- which would explain the horse-like head, the short legs and the "fish-like" body.
