Over 20 goats killed. Is a beast at work in Namibia?, page 1

Unknown creatures that reportedly devour and suck blood from livestock are haunting villagers at Onheleiwa, Oidiva and Oikango of Ongwediva constituency.

Over 20 goats have been killed at Onheleiwa and Oidiva villages and an unknown number at Oikango, where the situation is said to be worse.

Villagers are convinced that the creatures have something to do with witchcraft. They are now accusing an elderly man who has a house at Onheleiwa village and his sister who has a house at Oikango village of being the owners of these strange, blood-sucking beasts.

Oshana Police spokesperson, Christina Fonsech, said the police were called at Onheleiwa last week where they followed the creatures’ footprints.

According to her, the creatures’ footprints are bigger than a dog’s footprints, and police could not identify the creatures.

“We followed them but they walked until a spot where they just vanished. It’s difficult to explain what happened to those footprints because they looked as if they climbed onto something but it was in an open space, so we don’t know what happened,” she said.

Olivia Shikongo had her whole kraal wiped out by the creatures, leaving her with only two kid goats.

According to Shikongo, on July 3 five of her goats were eaten up. All that was left were traces of hooves and heads of some of the goats, while other goats had their stomachs cut open and had no intestines or liver.

“Last Wednesday they came to the kraal again. When I heard the goats making noise, I started to scream. It seems that they could no longer kill the goat that they had bitten so they left. When we went to the kraal in the morning, there were only three goats. One goat, which is the bigger one, was fighting for its life. There was no trace of five other goats that were also at the kraal the previous night,” she explain
According to her, when she and other villagers looked around all they could find were the footprints of the unknown creatures while her five goats seemed to have disappeared into thin air....

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As always with these cases, it would be good to know what species of predator, or large animals are native to the area to get a better understanding of what species exist there, to get a better understanding. Obviously the finger of blame among cypto lovers will instantly point to the Chupacabra, but I think until concrete evidence is found, it's always a huge leap to come out with those claims.

It seems to me anyway, that some sort of animal has noted the village goats as easy targets. The same as any predator out there, if they find a good hunting spot with an sustainable food source, they usually keep coming back to feed.

[edit on 27-7-2009 by Arawn]

"Cuisine in Namibia is interesting and varied. In the south part of Namibia the most frequent component is the corn. The corn is used in preparing the bread which is generally served with shellfish, in season or tomato-based sauces. The most common meat type used in the southern cuisine is fish and Chicken, schnitzel, plus good, fresh seafood, but we can also find goat, Beef and bush rat."
recipes.wikia.com...

Well, for one, Namibians do eat goat. Maybe someone was killing them for food or to sell the meat for profit?

But if it was bitten, and the footprints were odd, I'll keep looking around for ideas.

Check it out: The Wildlife of Namibia
It has a list of carnivores:

African Wild Cat
Black-backed jackal
Bat-eared fox
Caracal
Cheetah
Leopard
Lion
Spotted hyena
Wild dog

So, now, we look at the diets and hunting habits of these guys. Probably nocturnal. Bites. Leaves hooves and heads.

[edit on 7/27/2009 by ravenshadow13]

reply to post by Arawn

---

According to her, the creatures’ footprints are bigger than a dog’s footprints, and police could not identify the creatures.

“We followed them but they walked until a spot where they just vanished. It’s difficult to explain what happened to those footprints because they looked as if they climbed onto something but it was in an open space, so we don’t know what happened,” she said.

Kinda sounds like the wolf story from the Skinwalker book. The tracks just disappeared after following its tracks for a while leaving not trace of the beast.

reply to post by skyeyes

---

It didn't just suck the blood. I don't know where they got that part from. It looks like some of the goats went missing, and in some cases the heads and hooves were left.

Footprints disappeared... couldn't be like... a person getting into a vehicle?

Honestly I think many things could have killed these goats, and when I have a tad of time I'll go through the list of carnivores native to Namibia that I posted. They all, pretty much, have footprints larger than a dog.

But footprints makes me think human. Hoofprints or pawprints or something... animal prints... would be helpful. People have feet. People's footprints are bigger than dog footprints.

I find it helpful to narrow down the most likely options before thinking cryptozoological.

reply to post by ravenshadow13

---

Sure, but the police wouldn't care about crypto's. If they observed human foot prints then I'm sure that they would mention they followed human footprints which let to tire tracks in the dirt. Here we all we get is "vanished in an open space area" which leads me to believe they're talking about just vanishing from the ground all together, no tire, cart tracks and such.

reply to post by ravenshadow13

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I think that if a crypto didn't kill these goats, then the only other answer would be a human. I don't know of any predator that makes a kill and eat's everything but the head and hoovs. If you know of any could you post please? Thanks!

reply to post by skyeyes

---

Or it could mean the ground composition enabled some tracks to show and others not to.

A lot of things could be going on. Most of those predators do eat goats.

It doesn't have to be something completely mysterious and crazy. Yes, that what is exciting and what we look forward to. Put perpetuating things that might be really simple, without logically looking at the evidence and history, is why people look at this study as a fringe science and not as anything reputable.

Skyeyes, what would you suggest?
So it vanished in an open space. Do you think that it may have flown away (could it be a large predatory bird, perhaps?) or disappeared in general?

I think a good possibility is this:
en.wikipedia.org...

The Crowned Eagle or Crowned Hawk-eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus), is a very large, powerful, crested bird of prey (80–90 cm [2.6-3 ft] long, approximately) found in tropical Africa south of the Sahara; in Southern Africa it is a common resident in suitable habitat in the eastern areas. It is the only extant member of the genus Stephanoaetus. A second species, the Malagasy Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus mahery) became extinct after humans settled on Madagascar (Goodman, 1994).

The Crowned Eagle is Africa's most powerful and ferocious eagle in terms of the weight and nature of prey taken. It preys on mammals, especially duikers, weighing up to 34 kg (75 lbs). Due to their similarities, the Crowned Eagle is often considered Africa's analogue of the Harpy Eagle.

I've seen Harpy eagles take down crazy stuff, too. I bet goats would be like a feast.


So it can eat these, which are the size of Jack Russells. It could probably eat some small goats. Up to 75 lbs, wikipedia says. And it likes to eat these guys: en.wikipedia.org...

It could be crypto, of course it could. I thought human because generally humans don't use the hooves and heads of goats when they cook them, but not in all cultures. So I don't know exactly. Let's brainstorm!

[edit on 7/27/2009 by ravenshadow13]

Also found this, although it's not geared towards Namibia:
www.sheepscreek.com...

I found a dead sheep [calf, goat]; how do I identify the killer?

Predators have distinctive styles. It is worth examining the carcass, both to decide on future protective measures, and because you may in some instances be eligible for compensation. For ranchers suffering large-scale predation, there are systematic predation evaluation procedures.

Coyote

Coyote will often drag a carcass to a quiet area, and follow a distinctive eating pattern. They make an almost surgical opening in the thorax, consuming the heart, lungs, liver, and internal organs, except the stomach. They sometimes return later to pick at bones or haunches.

Wolves

Wolves are usually organized pack hunters, and may leave many dead.

Dogs

Dogs typically will attack many victims in a flock. The characteristic bite marks are on the flanks, rear legs, backs, or rear ends of the animals. Sometimes a pack of dogs will concentrate on the head of a victim like a pony or llama. The victims often carry multiple wounds, and frequently no portion of the animal is eaten.

Bear

A bear leaves distinctive tracks and scat, and will generally maul the entire carcass, peeling back the skin, and eating the meat.

Bobcat & Cougar

Bobcat kills have claw marks on the carcass and subcutaneous hemorrhaging.

Feral Cats

Feral cats take lambs as they are being born, sometimes damaging the ewe at the same time. They have been reported as a considerable problem in Australian flocks.

Raptors

Eagle talons leave distinctive puncture marks. Unlike a bear kill, the skeleton is intact; the head and neck remain attached.

So, the head and neck remain attached. The only thing is that with large eagles, they typically will drop their prey. The head could have snapped off...

I don't know, just tossing around ideas. I'm still looking.

www.pgc.state.pa.us...

Coyotes will sometimes decapitate a fawn, carry the head a considerable distance, and feed on it in isolation (O’Gara 1978). Coyotes often will discard long bones and hooves because they have little edible material on them (White 1973). In fact, we found one fawn in Quehanna had been killed and cached without its head and three of its four lower legs (below the knee). We initially attributed this predation event to bears because of the condition of the carcass. We reasoned that only bears would be capable of so cleanly severing the head. However, it seemed unlikely that a bear would kill a fawn and eat so little of it; the predator had eaten none of the viscera or meat. The published information on the decapitation and leg severing by coyotes helped us correctly identify the predator of this fawn as a coyote, not a bear.

Sounds like a coyote from that bit. Exactly like a coyote. Only there are no coyotes in Namibia. But maybe a wild dog or jackal would have similar eating habits. They're in the same genus, Canis.

I'm going to go with that. The Pennsylvania report on the coyotes convinced me that it's canine. In terms of the footprints... maybe that's from something else... or the ground composition is different. But it sounds like some sort of dog.

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