"What a stupid question," said Doubla, looking genuinely surprised. . . . "Mokele-mbembe is not an animal like a gorilla or python. And Mokele-mbembe is not a sacred animal. It doesn't appear to people. It is an animal of mystery. It exists because we imagine it. But to see it--never. You don't see it."Other reports, though some treat Mokele-mbembe as real, are also folkloric; they make good stories, but there is no tangible evidence. It is nigh impossible that a population of very large, very distinctive land animals could have eluded human exploration so completely.