Ennedi tiger

The Ennedi tiger, Ennedi mountain tiger, or tigre de montange (French: "mountain tiger") is a cryptid, purportedly a living sabre-toothed cat, reported from the Ennedi Plateau, Tibesti Mountains, and Guéra Massif in Chad; the Bongo Massif in the Central African Republic; and possibly the Imatong Mountains in South Sudan and Uganda. Native names for the animal include biscoro, coq-djingé, gassingrâm, hadjel, nisi or noso, and vassoko.
Description
According to various tribes of Chad and the Central African Republic, the animals are usually described as cats larger than a lion, with reddish fur and often vertical white stripes. All are said to have very long teeth protruding beyond their lips, and either very short tails or no tails at all. The Yulu people describe a melanistic variety.
Examination
When Christian Le Noël showed colour drawings of tigers, ocelots, cheetahs, snow leopards, cougars, and Smilodon to his Yulu trackers, they immediately selected the image of Smilodon as "their" mountain tiger. Smilodon was not found in Africa, but a number of other sabre-toothed cats such as Megantereon and Machairodus were. In his study of the case, Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans theorised that one of these sabre-toothed cat species might have taken up a life in the mountains and caves in order to avoid scavengers, particularly as, so he believed, its long fangs would make it a slow eater. Heuvelmans thought that such an animal would fill the niche of something like a bear. The last known lions in the Sahara also survived in these areas until they apparently became extinct before the mid-1900s (the last lion was reported in 1940).

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