Case file · Cryptid
Gambo, the Bungalow Beach carcass
On 12 June 1983, 15-year-old Owen Burnham found two fishermen cutting up a strange 4.6 m carcass on Bungalow Beach, Kotu, in The Gambia: beaked, toothed, with four paddle-like flippers.
1983 CE · 13.45, -16.70 · status: claim
The account
He counted about 80 conical teeth and saw no blowhole. The fishermen planned to sell the head to a tourist. Karl Shuker ruled out beaked whales, seals and manatees and left the case open.
The sceptical view
Burnham's family, the fishermen and local people all called it a dolphin. Decomposition removes fins and flukes, and dolphins with extra flippers are known (one was caught off Japan in 2006). A 2006 expedition thought it was a dolphin or young beaked whale.