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Among the Ba'Aka -- a forest-dwelling people indigenous to the Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon -- stories of the "one who stops rivers" have endured for centuries, says Abong'o.
阿邦奥说，在巴阿卡人（中非共和国、刚果共和国、加蓬和喀麦隆的森林原住民）中，“阻断河流者”的故事已有千百年的历史。
If the legendary creature does exist, it would likely reside in Lake Tele, a remote body of water cocooned by virgin jungle in the Likouala swamps.
假如这种神话生物真的存在，它很可能住在泰莱湖，那是利夸拉沼泽中的一处被原始森林环绕的偏远水体。
The lake lies within the Lac Télé Community Reserve, a pristine, 4,400-square-kilometer expanse where surveys in 2006 and 2007 uncovered an astonishing 125,000 gorillas -- more than the species' total estimated global population at the time.
水体位于泰莱湖保留地，这是一片占地4400平方公里的原始大地，2006年和2007年的调查发现当地大猩猩数量惊人，有12.5万头，比当时预估的全球大猩猩总数还要多。
Yet, despite its remoteness, habitat loss is escalating in the region.
尽管地处偏远，栖息地丧失仍在这片区域呈扩张之势。
Settlements in the region rely heavily on slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing patches of forest to grow cassava, peanuts, bananas, and maize.
这里的人类居住区严重依赖刀耕火种，人们清除大片森林，以便种植木薯、花生、香蕉和玉米。
Trees and shrubs are felled, and the remaining vegetation is burned to enrich the soil with ash, offering short-lived fertility.
树木与灌丛被纷纷砍到，剩下的植被则一把火烧成灰，给土壤增加肥力，创造短暂的丰沃。
Usually, within two to five years, the soil becomes depleted again, which forces farmers to clear new land -- perpetuating an ecological nightmare of a cycle.
通常，2到5年之内，土壤便再次枯竭，迫使农民清理出新的土地--一场生态噩梦由此循环往复。
In 2023, Congolese biologist Joseph Oyange observed this firsthand when visiting a family in northern Congo.
2023年，刚果生物学家约瑟夫·奥扬吉在探访刚果北部的一个家庭时，亲自观察到了这个现象。
He watched the smoke rise from two hectares of the jungle they had cleared, unwittingly disrupting the gorilla habitat.
他看着烟雾从人们清理掉的2公顷丛林里升起，不经意中毁掉了大猩猩的栖息地。
The displaced primates foraged in the fields by night, leaving crops trampled by morning.
那些流离失所的灵长类夜晚来到田间觅食，到了早晨，留下一地被踩烂的庄稼。
One teenager, hearing gorilla cries, later told Oyange, "It was mokele-mbembe roaring."
一名少年听到里大猩猩的嚎叫，他后来告诉奥扬吉：“那是魔克拉-姆边贝在咆哮。”
"There's often a certain degree of truth to these myths, so I don't completely disregard them," says Allard Blom, vice president of global programs of African forests for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
“这些神话里通常有一定的真实成分，所以我没有完全置之不理，”世界野生动物基金会“非洲森林”全球项目的副主任阿拉德·布洛姆说。
"But I am skeptical, and until someone shows me proof of a dinosaur-like animal, I don't believe it. There's usually a real animal it's being mistaken for."
“但我还是保持怀疑，除非有人向我展示类恐龙动物的证明，否则我不会认为它是真的。一般来说，故事的背后是一只被认错的现实中存在的动物。”
