Bigfoot
Bigfoot
- Details
Hunting for Malaysia's 'Bigfoot'
Jonathan Kent
BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur 
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
The village of Mawai Lama in the Indonesian state of Johor is a sleepy row of wooden fronted shop-houses set back from the Sedili River.
Yet Mawai is one of the most intriguing places in Malaysia.
According to local historians, Mawai's original name was Mawas, and Mawas is the name locals give to a legendary creature known the world over as Bigfoot.
The people of Mawas certainly seem to believe in the creature from which their village takes its name.
Some, like Aji the boatman, say they have seen it.
"It was about 10 or 11 at night. I saw something, but I didn't know what sort of creature it was. But I can definitely see the eyes were red. And it made a noise, Woooooo!" Aji said.
"Maybe it was scared off by my headlight and I was scared by him so we both rushed off in different directions and later I came back and found the footprints," he said.
Hunt for food
Mawai lies at one end of the Panti mountains, a densely forested and steep-sloped ridge at the southern end of the Malay peninsular.
On the other side of the range is Kampung Batu Empat. A few weeks ago some unusual muddy footprints were found on the road nearby.
Vincent Chow, of the Malaysian Nature Society, had some photos.
"Based on what we've learned, this is the southern end of their migratory route and because the forests have become fragmented they're rather confined now," Mr Chow said.
Traces of the muddy prints were still on the road.
"They move around looking for fruits, sometimes they go looking for them in villages. They're also looking for a mate and for salt."
Prompted by the footprints and a recent spate of sightings, the Johor state government is planning a team to start looking for Bigfoot.
The reports of sightings are nothing new. Five years ago, while driving up Malaysia's main North-South highway, public relations consultant Eva Hawa says she saw a creature fitting Bigfoot's description crossing the road in broad daylight
"It was hairy, it was big, it was about six to seven feet tall. He moved right across in front of my car. He has a hunch and walked like a very old man," she said.
Factors which can be argued in favour of Bigfoot's existence include the legends from different parts of the world which seem to bear a degree of similarity to one another, despite having emerged separately. There are the sightings. And there is the fact that a giant ape, Gigantopithecus blacki, is known to have lived in Asia until around 300,000 years ago.
And there is the discovery, on the Indonesian island of Flores in late 2004, of skeletons interpreted by some anthropologists as belonging to a hominid population dubbed hobbits. There are still natural wonders to be discovered, even in this day and age, not least in the forests of South East Asia.
The primatologist Jane Goodall is one of those who expect Bigfoot to be found.
"People from very different backgrounds and different parts of the world have described very similar creatures behaving in similar ways and uttering some strikingly similar sounds," she said in a newspaper interview three years ago. "As far as I am concerned, the existence of hominids of this sort is a very real probability."
Doubters
However, the doubters - and they are legion - ask why no giant ape remains more recent than a quarter of a million years old have been found. And as the forests and wilderness shrink, why has Bigfoot not broken cover and been definitively recorded?
One man who has no doubts is Abdul Rahman Ahmad, a former factory manager. His late brother was Johor's Chief Game Warden and had seen Bigfoot footprints 30 years ago.
When we arrived to visit him, Abdul Rahman was very excited.
"Four days ago my [workers] heard Bigfoot calling in the jungle. They've found footprints."
Early the next morning, accompanied by four of Abdul Rahman's Indonesian workers, we set off to find the site where the prints were spotted. As we trekked through the forest there was a crashing in the trees. We had disturbed a herd of wild water buffalo.
But when we got to the riverside where the workers said they had seen Bigfoot tracks, all we found was buffalo hoof marks. There was nothing. We pressed on. I was shown a branch "broken by Bigfoot", another stripped of leaves "by the ape man".
For almost three hours the Indonesians led us through the trees, through rivers and for all I know around in circles.
Finally we reached the first river at a point higher up than we had originally explored.
And there, beside the river, in the soft sand, were footprints.
They were distinctive, perhaps 20cm across and 40, perhaps 45cm long.
There was a bulge where a human corn might be, as though the foot had an opposable thumb rather than a big toe. There were three of them, some better defined, some more complete, than others.
All I can tell you is they were big, they were foot shaped and they were there.
- Details
KARALMANNA (Palakkad): Peter Jackson's King Kong is set on a mysterious, uncharted island. He might as well have shot it in Kerala.
Or so it would seem, if - and that's literally a big if - claims by a team of amateur anthropologists are proved true.
The team claims to have discovered footprints of a "giant-man" who had a shoe size of 29 inches, lived in a shelter 50 metres high and weighed well over 400 kg.
Going by the footprint size, the creature may have been as tall as 17 feet, which would make it easily the "largest human form to roam the earth". Announcing the 'discovery' on Monday, the team said the signs of the mammoth creature - found in a remote village some 60 km from Palakkad town in Kerala - "confirmed" the existence of 'Bigfoot'.
Ever since reports began in the mid-19th century of 'sightings' of the Yeti or Abominable Snowman in the Himalayas, there has been enormous fascination and speculation around the world about the fabled man-like being.
But most sightings reported in various countries, notably in the US, turned out to be either hoaxes or cases of overactive imaginations.
However, on December 30 last year, farmers in the forests of Malaysia claimed to have spotted a family of three.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1555063/posts
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Notes:
1) This is an archaeological find, not a recent one. You can see a picture of one print at: http://blogs.cyberciti.biz/hm/
I don't know where the pic originated, however. (Perhaps the subscriber part of the online paper.) The image of the print itself is not particularly impressive.
2) Information on the leader of the amateur anthropologists is scarce, but an article on another item of interest to him is at
http://www.the-week.com/25feb27/currentevents_article2.htm
3) Kerala is also where the alleged pygmy elephants were seen (see list archives).
4) Another oddball India news item on giant footprints does crop up as follows:
`Giant footprints' draw curious onlookers
Our Staff Correspondent
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004
BIJAPUR, SEPT. 28. Giant footprints reportedly found in the compound of a district judge's house in Navabag locality led to a law and order problem here today.
Police had to repeatedly resort to mild lathi-charge to control the curious onlookers thronging the place. The footprints were found outside the house of the Principal Civil Judge (Senior Division), A.C. Singoti.
Around 5 p.m. on Monday, Mr. Singoti's son, Syed Majid, said that he went through a "strange experience" and saw a giant human-like figure.
People from the surrounding areas started gathering in front of the house to get a glimpse of the "gigantic footprints."
However, the police said that someone had played a prank. The Navabag area, where many officers' quarters are located, has a number of sandalwood trees. The police are not ruling out the hand of land grabbers and sandalwood smugglers in the episode.
http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/29/stories/2004092904640300.htm
This article is c/o StrangeArk.com
- Details
Information on Bigfoot comes at a price
11 Apr 2006
Chuah Bee Kim
JOHOR BARU, Tues:
You want to know about Bigfoot? No problem. How much are you willing to pay?
Information about Bigfoot, according to biodiversity researcher and Bigfoot enthusiast Vincent Chow, is coming at a price as more people clamour to learn about the creature said to be lurking in the jungles of Johor.
Chow claimed that villagers were not as forthcoming with information as before but the minute they were paid, they became very helpful and vocal.
Read more about it in tomorrow's NST
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Tuesday/NewsBreak/20060411164429/Article/index_html
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Is Bigfoot Smarter Than We Are?
There may be a very good reason why Bigfoot has not been captured
EVERY YEAR brings hundreds of new sightings of Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, in North America. Most come in the spring and summer months when more people are apt to be venturing into the wilderness to camp, fish and hike.
The sightings have occurred for hundreds of years ? by the European settlers who explored Sasquatch territory, and before that by the Native Americans who seemed to be familiar with this giant of the forest.
The sightings have been reported by casual campers and experienced outdoorspeople alike. Many have gotten a good look at this amazing creature. Their descriptions are remarkably consistent, from the details of its height and hair color to its nauseating stench. The eyewitness accounts are so numerous and compelling that any fair-thinking person must entertain the idea that there really is a large, hairy biped out there.
Amazingly evasive
So why haven't we captured one? Why isn't there better photographic evidence? Why have we not found any dead bodies?
The best physical evidence we have to date are large footprints that clearly show dermal ridges (fingerprint-like markings on the feet) and a few hair samples that at best have proved interesting but inconclusive. What little photographic and cinematic pictures we have are mired in controversy and accusations of hoaxes. While fascinating and worthy of our analysis, they are not conclusive. Sound recordings of what some say are its distant howling are haunting, but do not constitute proof.
With more and more people each year enjoying the wilderness and actively searching for Sasquatch, how is it that it remains so evasive? Is Bigfoot smarter than we are?
Surely, with all of the technology we have at our disposal ? products of our intellectual superiority over the rest of the animal kingdom ? we should be able to capture or at least photograph clearly one of these creatures. Why hasn't it happened?
We have night-vision equipment and motion-triggered cameras. Bigfoot traps have even been constructed, going back as far as 1974. Many other types of wild animals have been spotted with night vision and photographed with motion-triggered gadgets. Such animals ? even the wiliest in the forest ? have been trapped and captured alive. And, of course, man routinely hunts and kills them.
But not Sasquatch.
How intelligent is it?
Sasquatch evades our best attempts with our most clever technology.
How? There are two reasons I can think of:
- Bigfoot is not really out there after all.
- It's too smart.
If, for the sake of argument, we agree that Bigfoot does exist (all those good eyewitness accounts are hard to dismiss), must we conclude that the creature is outsmarting us? How can this be? Is the Bigfoot smarter than every other wild animal of the forest ? from deer to bear to fox and even more exotic creatures, all of which have been outwitted by our technology?
Could a human being even evade such technology?
Put a person of above-average intelligence in the middle of a forest for 24 hours where there has been set up man-size traps and camouflaged motion-triggered cameras. How well do you think he?d do? Assuming he's moving around looking for something to eat or drink, he would probably do well at avoiding the traps if he was very cautious. But he would almost certainly be photographed by hidden motion-triggered cameras, especially when it began to get dark. (This might actually be an interesting experiment!)
Again, Bigfoot has managed to escape the shutter of such hidden cameras. Can we therefore conclude that it is smarter than a human being?
By some indications, the Sasquatch is an intelligent primate, although how intelligent is not known. Obviously, it does not approach human intelligence, as we measure it. There are no Bigfoot-made towns, mills, writings or shoes. There may be use of primitive tools and possibly even language, but there's no conclusive evidence for those either. It doesn?t sound like he?s smarter than humans.
More than smart
Perhaps "smarter" isn?t the right word. Perhaps he's more aware ? and I mean that in the largest possible sense. I mean it in terms of psychic awareness. I'm sure this idea turns some people right off, but, hey, it's just an idea, and I'm certainly not the first one to offer it.
It has been theorized that psychic abilities ? or sixth sense ? in humans may a vestigial remnant of the instincts our ancient ancestors once possessed. Virtually all animals are driven by instincts that, to a large extent, determine their behavior, and certainly our primate ancestors possessed them as well to be able to survive. As man became more intelligent, his instincts became less and less necessary. Man could figure things out for himself and didn?t need instincts as much to drive his behavior. But did we lose something in the process? Is instinct merely programming in the genetic code? Or might it be something more ? a connectedness to other living things and all living systems? Many animals seem to have this heightened awareness. They can sense when earthquakes are coming, for example. A lost pet retriever can find her way to her family over hundreds, even thousands of miles. The examples are endless and well-documented. Psychic abilities in humans ? from clairvoyance to remote viewing ? might demonstrate that we can still tap into that connectedness and perform some remarkable feats. Different evolution Back to Bigfoot. Is it possible that this creature, which may be a divergent hominid species with which he share a common ancestor, has not only retained its primal instincts, but has evolved them into psychic abilities that surpass anything we can currently muster? As we evolved intellectually, perhaps this creature evolved psychically. We evolved our intellect to survive and dominate. It may be that Sasquatch evolved its psychic senses to likewise survive in a world increasingly dominated by its clothed cousin who, year by year, encroaches more and more on its home forests. If it does have this heightened sixth sense, Sasquatch might "know" when and how we are trying to capture and photograph him. Even a hidden camera might retain enough of a human imprint that the creature can detect and avoid. I have a feeling, however, that this psychic sense will not forever protect the Sasquatch. Sooner or later we're going to catch up with it and prove its existence definitively. When we do, I only hope we?re smart enough to respect it. http://paranormal.about.com/od/bigfootsasquatch/a/aa050106.htm
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Is there something lurking in our canyons?
The stories go back 20 years. There's never been any proof that a mountain lion/panther/cougar is roaming the canyons and trails around Palos Verdes Peninsula and San Pedro. But now there's been a new one this summer.
Donna Littlejohn
Daily Breeze
Monday, August 28, 2006
"Heeere, kitty-kitty-kitty."
The stories go back 20 years. At least.
A mountain lion/panther/cougar -- the color and description of the animal(s) varies -- is roaming the canyons and trails around Palos Verdes Peninsula and San Pedro.
There's never been any proof. But the sightings seem to surface with some regularity every few years. And now there's a new one this summer.
So what's up with all the cougar sightings?
Urban myth? Someone's exotic pet (or pets) on the loose?
Authorities wish they knew.
They've never been able to confirm a big wildcat in the area. Officials have not found definitive tracks or other physical evidence. No one seems to have any photographs. There certainly have been no reports of attacks.
"If there's a predator of that size, it becomes very obvious by its habits," said Rolling Hills City Manager Craig Nealis. "We don't have any evidence at all to support (the claim) that there's wildlife of that kind in the city."
Wild cougars prowling the Palos Verdes Peninsula?
Not possible, said schoolteacher Martin Byhower, who leads nature hikes in the Harbor Area.
"In historic times, there were bobcats on the Peninsula, and we do have coyotes," he said. "Mountain lions need a huge territory and large prey. We have neither."
But talk to witnesses who have seen the animals, and they are emphatic about what they saw.
Small head dipped low, short ears, long muscular body, and a long, thick, ropelike tail. Slinky. Catlike. But bigger. Much bigger.
"You couldn't miss it," said Brent Howell of Rolling Hills, who along with other family members spotted a "long and low" wildcat lurking around their 3-acre property and in a nearby canyon in the mid- to late-1980s. "Everyone kept pooh-poohing it, saying it was some neighbor's cat. People thought we were crazy."
Lisa Baginski of Torrance got the same reaction two years ago.
"I was so surprised that people weren't that interested," she said after reporting that a very large, black, pantherlike animal with a long "bristly" tail jumped out of the brush about 30 feet away as she walked her two cocker spaniels on a secluded trail in Palos Verdes Estates.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," she said. "I was shocked."
The animal had a classic "refined" face and head of a wildcat, and its body was "huge," she said.
Her claims were met with skepticism, especially when no tracks or other signs could be found.
"I own a business, and I am extremely responsible," Baginski said. "It's not like I go around seeing things like this."
And now the latest: About a month ago, a resident reported seeing a big gray-colored wildcat -- a cougar, she said it was -- near the George F Canyon Nature Center trail in Rolling Hills Estates.
"The city did receive one unconfirmed report of a large cat sighting," said Greg Grammer, an assistant to the city manager of Rolling Hills Estates. "There has been no evidence, and no one has been able to find such an animal."
Lt. Jason Lum of the Lomita sheriff's station said extra patrols are being sent out in search of the animal or its tracks. But they've found nothing yet.
"With all the people who use the George F Canyon trail, you'd think more people would report sightings" if such an animal were out there, he said. "We've sent out deputies and are continuing to do so on a regular basis. But we've been unable to find anything to verify the report."
The state Department of Fish and Game, which also has looked into the incident, has come up empty-handed as well.
"We're not getting any concrete evidence that there's a cat out there," said Lt. Kent Smirl of Fish and Game.
No one is quite sure what to make of the sporadic, unconfirmed sightings through the years.
"These could be myths," Smirl said. Or, he added, people may be seeing animals that were kept as exotic pets and managed to escape.
"It's just all been a dead end," Smirl said. "No one's given me any concrete information."
Even as far back as 1956, former Sheriff Sherman Block, then a deputy stationed in Lennox, apparently tracked a cougar on the Peninsula. He never found it, but he did come up with a paw print that he had cast in plaster, a deputy told the Daily Breeze in 1986.
Barbara Dye, executive director of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Conservancy that manages the George F Canyon Nature Center, said a construction worker told her about a year ago he had seen what looked like a panther.
"He was working on one of the (nearby) properties and he swore he'd seen a gray panther across the canyon," she said. "He seemed sober."
The most recent report this summer is under investigation by city and wildlife authorities, Dye said.
"We're very concerned about it and have called Fish and Game," she said. "We sent out staff right after the (most recent) report, but the only tracks we could find were dog tracks. ... People have paid a lot of attention to the reports, but there has been absolutely no evidence."
Witnesses are confident they have seen a wildcat despite the lack of hard evidence. Among the reported sightings:
• December 1986: A "handful" of residents on the Palos Verdes Peninsula reported seeing a mountain lion roaming the canyons, according to a Dec. 5, 1986, article in the Daily Breeze.
"It was big, bigger than a cat, bigger than a dog," Rosemarie Krawczyk said at the time. "We're scared. We don't know where they are."
Brent and Beth Howell made a tape recording at the time of what they believed was a mountain lion visiting their 3-acre property, where they keep horses and other animals. Several of the family's caged rabbits and chickens were killed, though they had no proof it was the big cat.
Brent Howell, an elder at First Presbyterian Church in San Pedro, said the big cat -- which he described as lean, "dirt" colored and probably weighing 60 to 80 pounds -- continued to be seen or heard for several years after that, roaming the deep canyons. Martine Colette of the Wildlife Way Station in the Angeles National Forest came out and managed to get tracks of what may -- or may not -- have been a puma.
Howell's wife said she spotted a cougar and two cubs one night as she was driving on Portuguese Bend Road near Poppy Trail.
"I saw these big round eyes and two sets of smaller ones below," she recalled this week. As she got closer, her headlights gave her a better look.
The adult was about the size of a Labrador retriever, she said. Asked whether she was sure it was a wildcat, she replied, "Oh yeah."
A Humane Society representative said in 1986 that the Howells' tape recording of the animal sounded like a cougar.
"The hair on your arm would raise up when you heard (that cry) at night," Brent Howell said of the sound that he still can't forget.
But a cougar was never found by authorities, and "we haven't heard or seen hide nor tail of it in the last decade," Brent Howell said.
• November 1999 through May 2000: A vocational school principal, teachers and several day-care workers all reported seeing what appeared to be a blond-colored mountain lion at various times in the distance in San Pedro's 112-acre Angels Gate Park overlooking the ocean.
"I thought, 'Wow, look at that,' " said Mike Wada, principal of the San Pedro Skills Center in the park. He was the third school official to spot the animal.
One of the park's trees was found one morning shredded and gouged by what looked like deep claw marks. Warning signs were posted in the park, but no other evidence was ever found and the sightings abruptly stopped.
"People thought we were crazy," teacher Elena Schrank said years later. "My husband still laughs at me. But I haven't changed my mind."
• Dec. 5, 1999: Diana Huss, a Dodson Middle School biology teacher and George F Canyon docent, said she and a student watched a young mountain lion for about an hour from a distance as it walked along the northern rim of the canyon.
"We were resting on a bench when we heard a loud, high-pitched screech, which I thought was a hawk," she told the Daily Breeze in March 2000. "When we looked up we saw the cat. We watched it for about an hour. It was so amazing."
A golden tawny color, it almost blended in with the scenery, she said. The animal had a long tail, muscular body and slinky movements, all characteristic of a mountain lion.
"It's the only thing it could be," said Huss, who was described as a "very experienced naturalist" by her former supervisor at the nature center.
The animal appeared to be young, perhaps not yet full grown, Huss said.
• Summer 2004: Lisa Baginski of Torrance reported encountering what looked like a black panther behind Fire Station 2 in Palos Verdes Estates.
She was hiking along the secluded fire trail with her two dogs near dusk when a big cat sprang out of some brush about 30 feet ahead of them.
"It wasn't even afraid of me. It looked me in the eye, but then just started stretching in the sun," she said. "It barely gave me the time of day."
She described the animal as "huge," weighing perhaps 150 to 200 pounds.
"It's just burned into my mind," she said. "It just bounded out from up above us into the sun. The tail was absolutely huge and it was very long. If it had stood up (on its hind legs), it would have been over 6 feet tall." It had a shiny coat and looked "healthy," she said.
While its behavior wasn't overtly threatening, she said, "my instincts told me to turn and walk away."
She reported the incident to authorities, but no tracks or other evidence were ever found. A Fish and Game officer told her that it may have been some kind of hybrid animal.
"Nothing was ever found and nobody was ever hurt, so it just kind of went away," said Palos Verdes Estates Police Chief Dan Dreiling. "Nobody's ever verified it."
Others have reported secondhand stories of sightings, including one claim that mountain lion cubs of mixed colors were seen about two years ago on the Peninsula.
Rumors also have made the rounds about someone in the area who owns two now-elderly, declawed big cats -- a black one and a tan one, both wearing some kind of electronic collars -- that are let out to freely roam the canyons.
Gwenna Blackmore of Rolling Hills Estates, who does wildlife rescue in the area, said a woman told her 15 to 20 years ago about a black "leopard" that strayed into her barn near the reservoir on the border of Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills Estates.
But many wildlife experts remain skeptical.
"With the amount of food they'd need to eat, there would be an awful lot of pet-kill problems," said Byhower, a teacher at the Chadwick School on the Peninsula.
Coyotes, foxes and bobcats have been known to live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, but witnesses insist that is not what they saw.
"None of us are crazy. It was for real," Brent Howell said.
"There are so many animals" in the canyons, said Beth Howell, who added that a worker putting up a fence for them about 20 years ago claimed to have seen a deer in one of the canyons. "This business of thinking there are only dogs and cats isn't true. Nobody goes down into these deep canyons."
But until there is hard evidence, Fish and Game authorities are at a loss to explain the mysterious wildcat reports.
"At this point, the department is waiting to get more information," Smirl said.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/3747811.html