What kind of animal do you think Monckton’s Gazeka might have been or is? Any ideas?

The Gazeka, a drawing by Marc Dupont, via Forge 1983.

From Jamaica’s Kingston Gleaner, here’s the interesting report published on June 27, 1910:

STRANGE RACE

DWELLERS OF A MOUNTAIN

[excerpt]

Not the least of the wonders discovered is a mysterious animal of gigantic size and fearsome aspect whose tracks have recently been reported in New Guinea [in the area that is now Papua New Guinea]. This animal at present goes by the name of Monckton’s "Gazeka," its presence in the mountains having been first indicated by Mr. C. A. W. Monckton, a former explorer in New Guinea. According to a native report of the appearance of the animal, it has a nose like a tapir and "a face like the devil."

Mr. Monckton, during his ascent of Mount Albert Edward in the west of British New Guinea, discovered the huge footprints and other indications of the very recent presence of some cloven-footed monster that had evidently been browsing on the grassy plains surrounding the lakes on the summit, at an elevation of about 12,500 feet.

Up to the departure of the present expedition no one has attempted to return to Mount Albert Edward and procure a specimen of the monster.

During Dr. Lorentz’s second attempt to reach the Snow Mountains, however, by way of the North River in Dutch New Guinea, one of his men reported having come across an enormous animal at an elevation of about 7,000 feet.

Whether this great beast is the same as that reported by Mr. Monckton from British territory remains to be proved.

It is currently held that neither tapirs nor rhinoceroses exist to the east of Wallace’s line. Will this monster when discovered prove to be some gigantic marsupial tapir?

Thanks to Jerry Clark of The Unidentified & Creatures of the Outer Edge: The Early Works of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman for sending this one along.