My Introduction To Cryptozoology

As I was writing my blog posts for my papers about cryptozoology, I got to reminiscing about how I first got interested in cryptozoology. My brother reminded me awhile back of a conference we went to as kids, and as I thought about it I realized, my fascination with cryptozoology began at that conference. It could have been a homeschooler’s event, or it could have been a creation science event. It may have been both, but I couldn’t remember. I really couldn’t remember much of anything about that day except the speaker talked about dinosaurs.
The main speaker talked about an expedition to find a dinosaur, from the details I remembered about the dinosaur it was probably the Mokele Mbembe. I couldn’t remember many of the fine details of the story he told, but I did remember he claimed they found a live dinosaur in an African swamp. A long necked dinosaur, like an Apatosaurus. Something had happened earlier that day and they did not have their video equipment, or it had been ruined, again, I couldn’t remember, but I thought the guy said that the only thing they had working was an audio recorder, which they used to capture the sounds the creature made. He played it for us and said they had run it through every database of animal sounds they could and no computer could identify it. He seemed sincere, and I would love it if it was true, but I’d never heard this story since then. I’ve tried to keep up to date with dinosaur-related Creation science, and cryptozoology, and in neither field had I found a similar story, so I really couldn’t say one way or the other.
After I typed out that memory, I stopped writing to do an internet search. I really wanted to find something, ANYTHING about that guy that matched my memory and that would help me remember the story better. My search turned up almost nothing. Except for ONE single post on an internet forum with details that matched my memory.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread343548/pg1
I’ll copy the forum post here in case the link goes dead sometime in the future. I’m not going to bother editing out all the spelling errors since I didn’t write this, and there aren’t that many of them. Most likely they won’t bother you as much as they bother me. :)

“Gather 'round While I tell you of an account I once heard from the man himself, who had investigated the jungles of Africa and FOUND a living breathing dinosaur. This professor took his story and his piece of evidence around the country giving seminars, and I was priveleged enough to go to one when I was a kid. I have not been able to find him, his name, or his story since, but I KNOW that Behemoth is a well known crypto to this day, and that a supposed Japanese photographer has a photograph. The Behemoth resides in a lake in the Congo (I believe) and the locals refer to this Dinosaur as Li'kele-bembe. I will dig up more info on this cryptid if I can.
First to begin the story: a familiar question opted by another thread:
Could man live with dinosaur? YES. And probably HAS and probably IS CURRENTLY living with dinosaurs on this planet. They are rare specimens but the accounts are there.
We see these creatures and we call them sea monsters, or we hear about them from native lore, (the thunderbird, the behemoth). Certain species did survive extinction of the Dinosaurs, Alligators, Turtles... we know this.
But according to the man I heard, there are probably rare specimens that have been alive, and may still be alive.
I once went to a conference of a man who went to see the African Pygmies about their local monster. It was 'Behemoth' - it was a giant dinosaur. When showed a picture of a Brontosaurus (now a Bracchiosaurus (sp?) they said that was Behemoth. In fact, they were so certain that the Bracchiosaurus was their Behemoth that they demanded to know how the western people knew of it...
So they claimed a massive Dinosaur was living in their jungle. They would hear it at night time and it lived in a particular lake that was forbidden to them for a whole generation.
Well, this guy and a small crew of locals and one of his friends went in to the jungle. They approached the lake where the monster was. The locals would go no further. So he and his friend set up camp. They boated out onto the lake and let the water still.
After fifteen minutes, a massive head rose out of the water and looked at them. It was a Dinosaur. They fumbled for their cameras while shouting in excitement and the thing slowly submerged. They paddled back to shore as fast as they can - about to have a heartattack. The camera had no footage except the shaky water after the Behemoth submerged. They were devastated, but hoped to see it again.
They didn't see the thing for another full day. The conditions were miserable (mosquitos, humidity and heat). Basically, they were risking sickness and predators in an area far from help. They knew they couldn't stay long.
They were spending their last night in the area, when they awoke in the middle of the night. The Behemoth was crashing through the forest nearby and bellowing. The man grabbed his audio recorder and pressed record.
He played for us that recording. Whatever the creature was, it was enormous. After every bellow, you could hear a 'clack'. You could hear trees creaking under stress, then cracking and slamming on the ground. You could hear the steps of the Behemoth, it sounded like massive boulders being dropped onto the ground from an inch up. The sounds of this thing bellowing totally washed out all the background noise of the jungle, (which at night, is VERY noisy). The Behemoth walked about like this for a full 3 minutes before 'disappearing' (possibly entering the lake.)
The man took the audio tape back to America and it was examined by several different colleges and professionals: IT WAS AUTHENTIC. No editing was done to the tape, no tampering could be found, and no animal or possible hoax could explain the frequencies present within the Behemoths recording... This was no man made tape, this was not an animal familiar to modern science. And the 'clacking' which followed every bellowing roar was determined to be the sound of the Behemoths massive jaws closing.
This was and is the only modern account I know of where a person saw a dinosaur and had evidence. I have not seen this man or heard of him sense... but the lecture was amazing and apparently he went all around the country sharing this story. : PEOPLE SIMPLY DID NOT BELIEVE HIM. Even AFTER having heard the tape.
The idea that a gigantic Dinosaur was actually alive in the Jungles of Africa seems almost too fanciful and too perfect a setup for a Hollywood movie. But my friends on ATS, I do believe it was reality.
This man had everything to lose and nothing to gain from sharing this groundbreaking experience, and I am afraid he both gained nothing and lost everything for sharing it. In any event, I wanted to share it with you. I wish with all my heart that recording had made its way to the internet, but if it did, it gained no notoriety and is impossible to find. I have also failed to ever recall the mans exact name or find mention of him. But his story is still amazing to me. And I will never forget hearing that tape.

As I read this post my memories of the man’s presentation came flooding back. This is the exact story I heard as a kid. Maybe whoever wrote this was at the same place I was? He never mentions it as being a creation thing, so maybe I was remembering details that weren’t true. I think I went to more than one creation and/or educational things as a kid, so maybe I am mixing memories and this had nothing to do with that. Either way, I know the whole thing was about dinosaurs, and this event was what got me interested in the fact that dinosaurs could possibly still be alive, and eventually in cryptozoology as a whole.
Maybe this is my inner paranoia kicking in, but the fact that I have never again heard of this guy, and the fact that the person who wrote on that forum was not able to discover anything about him, or the recording, just strikes me as odd. Maybe in a conspiracy theory way… I’m not saying the government shut him up or had him killed or anything, but doesn’t anyone find it weird that no one knows who he is? Maybe I’m way off, and he is famous, and I just don’t know it. If anyone does know, please tell me! I’d love to know more about him and what he’s been doing since I saw his presentation as a kid.