"Four species of crocodilian are known to exist in Liberia.
These are the Nile crocodile Crocodylus niloticus, the West
African dwarf crocodile Osteolaemus tetraspis, the West African
slender-snouted crocodile Mecistops cataphractus, and
the West African or sacred crocodile C. suchus (only quite
recently delineated from the Nile crocodile as a valid distinct
species in its own right). The first two are restricted
to this country’s coastal swamps, and are considered rare,
as is the third (a little-studied, human-avoiding species),
whereas the fourth one, which occurs further inland, is
quite common.
"However, native Liberians also speak of a fifth crocodile-like creature, currently unknown to science, which
they refer to as the gbahali (pronounced ‘bar-hye’), and
consider to be larger and more dangerous than even the
Nile crocodile—itself a highly aggressive, notorious
man-eater that can grow up to 21 ft long.
"The gbahali first attracted widespread Western attention
on 20 December 2007, when veteran American cryptozoologist
Loren Coleman published on the mystery beast
website Cryptomundo a communication that he had received
the previous day. It was from a correspondent named
John-Mark Sheppard (some accounts spell his surname as
Shephard)—an American missionary working at that time
with an international relief and development organisation
in northernmost Liberia’s Lofa County, near this country’s
border with Guinea.
"In his communication, Sheppard revealed that he had
learnt from the indigenous people there about several
strange, unidentified creatures that may be of potential
cryptozoological interest, including the gbahali. He had
spoken to a number of alleged eyewitnesses who claimed
to have seen the latter mystery beast in recent years, and
according to their testimony, as documented by Sheppard:
"'It is described as being like a crocodile or
monitor lizard, but much larger (up to 25 or
30 ft long). It has an armored back with three
rows of serrations running down it, a powerful
tail, and a short snout with many large
teeth. It is known to be an ambush predator,
carrying its prey underwater to drown before
coming on shore to eat it.'
"Sheppard even travelled to a village deep in the Liberian
rainforest where the fishermen claimed to have actually
caught gbahali specimens, using nets to capture them and
shotguns to kill them, before butchering their carcases for
meat, which they then sold at local markets. They had
even preserved the skull of one such specimen, which had
been retained in the village until rebels invaded it during
this country’s civil war (which ended in 2003) and set it
ablaze, destroying everything there, including that scientifically-
precious gbahali skull."
