Singapore team told to delay 'Bigfoot' trip to Malaysia
Jan 28, 2006, 1:56 GMT
Singapore - A team from Singapore has been told to postpone its expedition to search for a purported 'Bigfoot' creature in the Johor forests of Malaysia, news reports said Saturday.
The Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI) told The Straits Times that Malaysian authorities informed requested that they delay the January 21 trip to hunt for a large, ape-like beast.
The team of 20 planned to inspect footprints and bite marks on fruits to solved the mystery reported since November in the Malaysia media.
Three creatures, two of which were three metres tall, are claimed to have been spotted. A trail of 50-centimetre-long footprints was discovered recently in Panti.
Experts do not dismiss the possibility that such creatures exist, but most consider it improbable.
Toh Seong Fai, SPI vice-president, said that the most widely accepted theory is that Bigfoot is a descendant of the giant primate species, Gigantopithecus Blackai.
Remains of this animal found in Vietnam and China date back between 100,000 and 2 million years ago.
Similar sightings have been reported wilderness areas around the world, including the so-called bigfoot in North America, the Yeti in Tibet and the Yowie in Australia.
Toh told the newspaper the theory that Bigfoot could be the evolutionary 'missing link' between ape and man is not so far- fetched.
Many experts consider the possibility of Bigfoot's existence unlikely.
Research has shown that only large populations of animals can reproduce and sustain themselves as a species, said Associate Professor Rudolf Meier, a biological sciences expert at the National University of Singapore.
Others are hopeful.
'I would love it to be scientifically true,' Bernard Harrison, former chief of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, was quoted as saying.