Case file · Cryptid
The kilopilopitsofy: a hippo in living memory?
In 1998 researchers David Burney and Ramilisonina published interviews from near Belo-sur-Mer in which villagers described the kilopilopitsofy, a cow-sized animal with floppy ears that fled into water, matching an extinct Malagasy hippopotamus.
1998 CE · -20.73, 44.00 · status: account
The account
The same paper recorded the kidoky, a baboon-like animal that might echo a giant lemur. Malagasy pygmy hippos are known from bones radiocarbon dated to about 1,000 years ago, and the authors asked whether a few might have survived much later.
The sceptical view
Folk descriptions can preserve old knowledge or borrow from images of mainland animals; no recent remains have been found.