while the ox-like beasts and the 'single-foot' may represent a lingering memory of the extinct pygmy hippopotamus that once lived on Madagascar. Finally, many of the so-called eyewitness sightings ...

During the Pleistocene, the genus Hippopotamus spread to many islands, including Cyprus, Madagascar, Malta, Sicily, and Crete. Hippopotamus creutzburgi was one such species that inhabited Crete.