Louis Lavauden made a single journey from Kenya to Cameroon in 1931 and then published his reports in 1932, reprinted in Brazzaville in 1933, and also in Terre et la Vie 1932, with a rhino distribution map. On these maps, Lavauden shows the presence of rhinoceros in the area formed by the borders of Cameroon and AEF [CAR] north of the equator, roughly between 1 and 3 degrees north, 15 to 17 degrees east. Lavauden never entered that area. In his text he does not discuss this area of distribution further. It seems therefore that he did not attach much importance to this abnormal geographic position, although he says elsewhere that the rhinoceros is never found in the forest.
On his distribution maps, Lavauden extends the region for the black rhino to the Congo-CAR border at the lower M'bomou. However, this has never been the case and the rhino lived at least 200 km further north.- Mbomou, South East CAR, ca. 6 N, 26 E
In Jan 1931, Mr. Geraud de Galassus, Administrateur des Colonies, who commanded the subdivision of Batouri in 1928-29, told me that the rhinoceros existed there in the forests, in the south of that region, that is about 4 degrees north.
Between October 1949 and October 1953, I have heard several reports, especially from the Administrators of colonial France, Mr. Millet, Rolland and Rozan, about the existence of a rhinoceros in the equatorial rainforest, in the districts of Kell? [0.4 S, 14.30 E], Ouesso [1.37 N, 16.2 E], Dongou [2.2 N, 18.3 E], always north of the equator. This is based on reports from local inhabitants. More information came from Mr. Moirand, Ingenieur des Eaux et Forets, who lived in Ep?na [1.22 N, 17.29 E] But on the contrary, MacLatchy and Malbrant, who have collected information from Gabon and Congo for 20 years, think that these reports are a vestige of a myth, of a unicorn in those forests. On the basis of the information received, I can make the following remarks. 1. The Africans of the northern Kell? district, especially the Pygmees, know that in the forest there lives an animal bigger than a buffalo, nearly as big as an elephant, not a hippopotamus, of which they see traces only sporadically, but they fear this animal more than any other. The sketch they made for Mr. Millet was that of a rhinoceros. However, they do not attribute a horn to the animal, while they do not say either that it doesn't have one. When Millet was in Kell? in 1950, one of the African chiefs came to tell that the animal had been seen again. That is all that is known, Millet left in 1951. The Pygmees have not been able to produce a proof of the occurrence of the animal. 2. Towards Ouesso, the locals speak about a large animal with a horn on the nose (one or more, I don't know). They also fear the animal, just like in Kell?. 3. In Ep?na, Impfondo, Dongou, the people also know a large animal, but it seems less common than in the other districts. One specimen would have been killed, 20 years ago in Dongou, but on the left bank of the Oubangui River.
On his maps, Lavauden indicated the presence of white rhino in the Haut M'bomou. Although this is no longer true, it was correct earlier, but in a more narrow zone bordering the Sudanese border.
Georges Trial in a paper of 1952 writes about his encounter with a rhinoceros in the savannah of the lower Ogoou? [Ogoou? River runs through Gabon]. I have been unable to find further information, but experts in Gabon are very sceptical. It must be true to say that the existence of a rhinoceros in those forests had never been noticed earlier.
