been in the company of fellow naturalist Gerald Russell in the Assumbo Mountains of Cameroon, in western Africa, collecting zoological specimens during the Percy Sladen Expedition of 1932. As Sanderson recorded in his book
Animal Treasure
(1937), he and Russell had been wading down a river one evening in search of tortoises to add to their collection when, without any warning, a jet-black creature with gigantic wings and a flattened, monkey-like face flew directly toward him, its lower jaw hanging down and revealing itself to be unnervingly well-stocked with very large white teeth. Sanderson hastily ducked down into the water as this terrifying apparition skimmed overhead, then he and Russell fired several shots at it as it soared back into view, but the creature apparently escaped unscathed, wheeling swiftly out of range as its huge wings cut through the still air with a loud hissing sound. Within a few moments, their menacing visitor had been engulfed by the all-encompassing shadows of the night, and did not return.
After comparing notes, Sanderson and Russell discovered that they had both estimated the creature’s wingspan to be at least 12 feet (matching that of the
ahool)
. When they informed the local hunters back at their camp of their experience, the hunters were petrified with fear—staying only as long as it took them to shriek
“olitiaul”
before dashing away en masse in the direction furthest from the scene of the two naturalists’ encounter! As Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans commented in his own coverage of this incident, within his book
Les Derniers Dragons d’Afrique
(1978),
“olitiau”
may refer to devils and demons in general rather than specifically to the beast spied by Sanderson and Russell, but as these etymological issues have yet to be fully resolved it currently serves as this unidentified creature’s vernacular name.
Several authorities have boldly attempted to equate the
olitiau
with a pterodactyl, in preference to a giant bat. Interestingly, in parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia a creature supposedly exists whose description vividly recalls those long-extinct flying reptilians. It is known to the natives as the
kongamato
, and has been likened by them to a small crocodile with featherless, bat-like wings—a novel but apt description of a pterodactyl!
In the case of the
olitiau
, however, Sanderson remained adamant that it was most definitely a bat of some kind, albeit one of immense dimensions—which is why he was so interested by Bartels’s account of the
ahool
, which indicated that undiscovered giant bats were by no means limited to Africa. In fact, it is now known that similar animals have also been reported from such disparate areas of the world as Vietnam, Samoa, and Madagascar. Madagascar’s version is known as
thefangalabolo
(“hair-snatcher”), named after its alleged tendency to dive upon unsuspecting humans and tear their hair (a belief reminiscent of the Western superstition that bats can become entangled in a person’s hair).
If giant bats do exist, how much bigger are they than known species, and to which type(s) of bat could they be related? The answer to the first of these questions is simple, if startling. The largest living species of bat whose existence is formally recognized by science is the Bismark flying fox
Pteropus neohibernicus
, a fruit bat native to New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago; it has a total wingspan of five and a half feet to six feet. Assuming that eyewitness estimates for the wingspan of the
ahool
and the
olitiau
are accurate, then both of these latter creatures (if one day discovered) would double this record. The question of their taxonomie identity is a rather more involved issue.
Known scientifically as chiropterans (“hand-wings” because the greater portion of their wings are membranes of skin extending over their enormously elongated fingers), the bats are traditionally split into two fundamental but quite dissimilar suborders.
The
Animal Treasure
(1937), he and Russell had been wading down a river one evening in search of tortoises to add to their collection when, without any warning, a jet-black creature with gigantic wings and a flattened, monkey-like face flew directly toward him, its lower jaw hanging down and revealing itself to be unnervingly well-stocked with very large white teeth. Sanderson hastily ducked down into the water as this terrifying apparition skimmed overhead, then he and Russell fired several shots at it as it soared back into view, but the creature apparently escaped unscathed, wheeling swiftly out of range as its huge wings cut through the still air with a loud hissing sound. Within a few moments, their menacing visitor had been engulfed by the all-encompassing shadows of the night, and did not return.
After comparing notes, Sanderson and Russell discovered that they had both estimated the creature’s wingspan to be at least 12 feet (matching that of the
ahool)
. When they informed the local hunters back at their camp of their experience, the hunters were petrified with fear—staying only as long as it took them to shriek
“olitiaul”
before dashing away en masse in the direction furthest from the scene of the two naturalists’ encounter! As Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans commented in his own coverage of this incident, within his book
Les Derniers Dragons d’Afrique
(1978),
“olitiau”
may refer to devils and demons in general rather than specifically to the beast spied by Sanderson and Russell, but as these etymological issues have yet to be fully resolved it currently serves as this unidentified creature’s vernacular name.
Several authorities have boldly attempted to equate the
olitiau
with a pterodactyl, in preference to a giant bat. Interestingly, in parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia a creature supposedly exists whose description vividly recalls those long-extinct flying reptilians. It is known to the natives as the
kongamato
, and has been likened by them to a small crocodile with featherless, bat-like wings—a novel but apt description of a pterodactyl!
In the case of the
olitiau
, however, Sanderson remained adamant that it was most definitely a bat of some kind, albeit one of immense dimensions—which is why he was so interested by Bartels’s account of the
ahool
, which indicated that undiscovered giant bats were by no means limited to Africa. In fact, it is now known that similar animals have also been reported from such disparate areas of the world as Vietnam, Samoa, and Madagascar. Madagascar’s version is known as
thefangalabolo
(“hair-snatcher”), named after its alleged tendency to dive upon unsuspecting humans and tear their hair (a belief reminiscent of the Western superstition that bats can become entangled in a person’s hair).
If giant bats do exist, how much bigger are they than known species, and to which type(s) of bat could they be related? The answer to the first of these questions is simple, if startling. The largest living species of bat whose existence is formally recognized by science is the Bismark flying fox
Pteropus neohibernicus
, a fruit bat native to New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago; it has a total wingspan of five and a half feet to six feet. Assuming that eyewitness estimates for the wingspan of the
ahool
and the
olitiau
are accurate, then both of these latter creatures (if one day discovered) would double this record. The question of their taxonomie identity is a rather more involved issue.
Known scientifically as chiropterans (“hand-wings” because the greater portion of their wings are membranes of skin extending over their enormously elongated fingers), the bats are traditionally split into two fundamental but quite dissimilar suborders.
The
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