Momo: Missouri's Legendary Monster

Frightening growls and snapping twigs were all it took to put a normal St. Charles County couple hot on the trail of the legendary Bigfoot.

Robert and Cynthia Stayte said they had never given Bigfoot much thought until their personal encounter with the unknown on July 27, 1997.

“It affected me more than it did my husband. I can’t let it go,” said Cynthia Stayte, 46.

It was a hot, late afternoon when the couple drove to a lonely alcove of the William R. Logan Conservation Area in Lincoln County, 10 miles north of Troy, on Highway 40-61.

The couple parked their car at the top of a hill and walked down toward a lake, said Robert Stayte, 49.

“We were told there was some good fishing in the lakes up there,” he said.

At the bottom of the hill, the couple stumbled upon an unusual footprint.

“It looked like a human footprint, but quite large. I’ll never forget the big toe. I told my husband it could be a Bigfoot, but I was just joking,” Cynthia Stayte said.

The couple dismissed the print and continued toward the lake. They were observing the surroundings when they heard heavy branches snap.

“If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you hear animals moving in the brush. It’s not that rare. I didn’t think much of it until we heard heavy breathing – heavier than a horse. It caught my attention,” Robert Stayte said.

“It was like a human, only 1,000 times magnified,” Cynthia Stayte said.

The breathing seemed to be coming from something right next to them.

Then the growling began.

“It was a snorting sort of growl, like gorillas in the zoo,” Robert Stayte said.

“They were snarling grunts, very deep and guttural,” his wife said. “I turned to my husband and asked him if he heard it.”

“I said, ‘Yes, and we’re out of here,’” he said.

The Staytes began running up the hill to their car. Robert Stayte took the lead, his wife said.

“I said, ‘Wait for me!’ I didn’t want whatever it was to come up and get me,” she said.

“I never had anything scare me like that before,” her husband said.

The Staytes do not match the image of a couple “on the fringe.”

Robert Stayte is a TWA avionics technician. Cynthia Stayte is a dental assistant. But after their frightening encounter, they became Bigfoot researchers.

“When we got home, I got on the Internet and found a Bigfoot database,” Cynthia Stayte said. “I clicked on Pike County, which is near Lincoln County. Sure enough, there were sightings listed.”

Further research uncovered a history of Bigfoot sightings in Louisiana and Cyrene County, she said.

Hoping to network and acquire more information, the Staytes attended a meeting of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

Bruce Widaman, MUFON state director, said he was impressed with the Staytes’ story.

“Everything she told me sounded true and legitimate,” Widaman said. “I don’t think there was anyone at the meeting who didn’t believe her. She has credibility.”

Widaman said he has documented many Bigfoot sightings in Missouri, especially near the Cuivre River.

“I think there really is such a thing as Bigfoot,” he said. “Perhaps we’ve had one or two come through Missouri, traveling along the waterways.”

Bigfoot was dubbed “Momo,” short for “Missouri Monster,” after a rash of Missouri Bigfoot sightings during the early 1970s.

As for the Staytes, their search continues.

In September, the couple took a trip to Oregon and Washington, visiting the sites of several reported Bigfoot encounters.

They spoke to a young Oregon kite salesman who claimed he and his father found a dead Bigfoot lying in a mountain stream, Cynthia Stayte said.

“They heard a sound and turned around,” she said. “There was a live Bigfoot in the trees just a few feet away, watching over the dead one. They turned and ran out of there.”

While eating breakfast in Seaside, Ore., the couple mentioned to their waitress they had just visited Saddle Mountain.

Cynthia Stayte said the waitress gave her a funny look.

“She said locals don’t go to Saddle Mountain. I asked her why. She hesitated, looked around, then quietly said…Bigfoot.

“They were scared of Bigfoot. She and her husband had seen a Bigfoot standing by the side of a road at 2 a.m. about three years ago. She said it was big and it was real.” - ozarksentinel

A sketch of the creature reported by Doris and Terry Harrison on July 11, 1972, in Louisiana, Mo. Courtesy of MUFON

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Momo Returns in May 2001?

Almost 30 years after their moment in the national spotlight, the people of this small Mississippi River town are still split on what to believe. And now outsiders are stirring things up again. In 1972, many put stock in stories about the Missouri Monster, or "Momo," a large, hairy creature with a nasty stench that some believe roamed nearby Star Hill, about 80 miles north of St. Louis. And many didn't. They figured some of the believers were tippin' the bottle.

The buzz began when a 15-year-old girl reported seeing Momo outside her home. The sighting sent a slew of armed locals into the hills, looking for the beast. Some even planted bait, hoping to be the hero who captured Momo.

Reporters flocked in from around the country to give Louisiana, population 4,000, its 15 minutes of fame. After a few weeks, the buzz — not to mention the reported stench — died down. Old differences of opinion faded. People went back to their lives. But they're talking about it again, since an organization based in Tucson, Ariz., spent a week on Star Hill, just north of downtown Louisiana, looking for any traces of the almost-forgotten monster. Mostly, the effort brought laughter. When someone brings up Momo, a light enters people's eyes and a smile crosses their faces. The children of the '70s, who believed, are now grown up and raising their own children.

Momo seems like a fable to them. But for the International Society of Cryptozoology, the visit is serious. Its members examined the area April 14-20, collecting witness statements and checking whether that locale could provide enough food to sustain a Bigfoot-like creature.

Richard Greenwell, secretary of the organization and a zoologist, said this was just one of many trips the group makes each year. The society was formed in 1982 to document and evaluate evidence about animals that have been reported to exist but never verified.

Its Internet Web site boasts that cryptozoologists in the past 200 years have discovered many now-familiar animals, including the gorilla (in 1847), the giant panda (in 1869) and the giant gecko (in 1984). Greenwell said most of his trips have been to the Pacific Northwest. Greenwell said there does appear to be enough food to support such a creature. But he said it will take more than testimonials of the locals to convince him.

"We don't accept things on faith," he said. "We evaluate information. Sometimes it takes years to reach a conclusion. This is just one piece." On this particular trip, he was joined by Bill Riley, a Hannibal native who also claimed to have seen the creature in July 1972.

Riley said Momo chased him onto the porch of a farmhouse along Highway 79. He described the beast as around 8 feet tall, and putting off an odor he described as a mixture of sulfur and feces, only worse. He said he didn't tell anyone about the encounter for six years, fearing no one would believe him. He finally confided in his future wife.

When Riley made this trip to Louisiana, one of several in recent years, he said many other locals came forward with stories of their encounters, some as recently as 1996.

A lot of people don't want to admit publicly what they saw, out of fear of being the butt of humor, he said. It is true that mere mention of Momo can send Louisiana residents into gales of laughter. "I believed in it then," said Candy Barnett, who at 44 has changed her mind about the sightings in 1972. "I think I would actually have to see it to believe it."

Mary Shrum, 52, owns a farm outside of town and said she's never seen anything out of the ordinary — only raccoons, coyotes, deer and the like. No giant, hairy creature and no nauseating smell. "I just don't believe it," she said. Some do believe it though, people such as Beverly Siders, 54, of Elsberry, who grew up in Louisiana. Siders said she doesn't have a reason to doubt those who say Momo exists. "I believe there's something out there," Siders said. But exactly what might be out there remains to be documented. Maybe it was a bear or some other already discovered creature. Or a prank.

The cryptozoologists' visit was not completely without incident. Some of their gear disappeared during the week. Police Chief James Graham said that after his officers asked questions about it around town, the researchers heard a knock on their motel room door and found the missing equipment sitting outside. They saw no sign of anyone — or anything. - Everyday Magazine and St. Louis Post-Dispatch

An illustration depicting the Troy creature wading across the Cuivre River. Courtesy of MUFON

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Momo: Menace or Hoax?

Momo sightings have been reported throughout Missouri, even in St. Charles County. But the most famous sightings occurred in Louisiana, Mo., a town of fewer than 4,000 people. Located in Pike County, Louisiana lies 75 miles northwest of St. Charles County.

Bigfoot-like creatures have been reported in the Louisiana area since the 1940s, but it was not until the early 1970s that Momo attracted serious interest.

Bigfoot researcher Loren Coleman describes the now-legendary Momo scare in his book, "Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America."

According to Coleman, the Momo saga began in July, 1971. Joan Mills and Mary Ryan were driving along Highway 79, north of Louisiana, when they allegedly saw a hairy creature that made disturbing gurgling noises. The women described the thing as "half ape and half man."

The most notorious sighting took place one year later. On the afternoon of July 11, 1972, 8-year-old Terry Harrison and his 5-year-old brother, Wally, were playing in their backyard at the foot of Marzolf Hill on the outskirts of Louisiana. Their older sister, Doris, was inside the house. Doris heard her brothers scream. She looked out the bathroom window and saw a black, hairy manlike creature, standing by a tree.

The thing appeared to be six or seven feet tall. Its head sat directly atop its shoulders, with no visible neck. The face was likewise invisible, completely covered by a mass of hair.

The youths reported a chilling detail – the creature, streaked with blood, carried a dead dog under its arm.

A local farmer reported his dog had disappeared. A neighbor reported hearing terrible growling sounds that afternoon.

Edgar Harrison, the children's father, also heard loud growls the evening of July 14. He and several other people smelled a strong, unpleasant odor as they investigated the area around Marzolf Hill. Investigators later reported smelling a similar stench, like rotting flesh.

On July 21 Momo revealed itself to Ellis Minor outside his home on River Road. It was around 10 p.m. when Minor heard his dogs barking. He grabbed a flashlight and stepped outside, expecting to see an intruding dog.
Instead, he saw a 6-foot-tall monster standing in his yard. The black, hairy creature turned and ran.

According to a July 23, 1972 story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, police sealed off a 200-acre wooded area while a team of 25 hunters searched for the creature, which many believed to be a black bear. Police received reports of a creature crossing the highway with a dog or sheep in its mouth. Another witness told police that the creature lifted the back of his automobile.

Not all hunters used guns. Many used pencil and paper.

Bigfoot investigators swarmed Louisiana, interviewing witnesses and taking plaster casts of the creature's unusual three-toed footprints. One of the preeminent researchers was Hayden Hewes, director of the Oklahoma City-based Sasquatch Investigations of Mid America.

"What impressed me was the willingness of people to talk to us. Normally people are reluctant to talk about these things," said Hewes, 61. "This was not just one person spitting in a can, saying `yes sir, I saw it right over there.' These were good quality people who were enthusiastic about what was going on."

Hewes said he was impressed with the witnesses' sincerity.

"These people didn't want to sell something. They didn't want publicity. They just wanted to share their stories. I never got any inkling that there was a hoax."

The Momo scare lasted only two weeks, but it triggered a media frenzy. Television and newspaper journalists from across the nation descended on the small town.

"I did close to 75 television and newspaper interviews," Hewes said. "They flew me to Chicago to do some television there. There were people around us shooting documentaries. We haven't had a case that well-documented since."

Sasquatch Investigations of Mid America is an offshoot of the International UFO Bureau, an organization Hewes founded in 1957.

"We researched Bigfoot sightings in eight states, mainly to see if there was any connection with UFO sightings," he said. "With Momo, we found there was no correlation whatsoever with UFOs."

Hewes said his investigations suggest there are families of nocturnal Bigfoot creatures that continuously migrate across the nation from the Pacific Northwest to the southeast.

"The path begins around Oregon and Washington state," he said. "It crosses Oklahoma around the first week of September, then finishes in Florida."

When he is not conducting paranormal investigations, Hewes runs a talent agency and works in warehouse distribution in Oklahoma City. Hewes has a degree in aeronautical and space engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

While Hewes and other researchers concentrated on Louisiana, one team of investigators focused on sightings in the St. Charles County vicinity.

John Schuessler was living in O'Fallon during the Momo scare. Schuessler worked for McDonnell Douglas as a group engineer for life support systems on the Sky Lab space station, then later as director of flight operations for the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In 1969, Schuessler helped establish the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), an international collective of UFO researchers. The 71-year-old Schuessler still directs the organization from its headquarters in Colorado.

The Momo scare coincided with a rash of UFO sightings, including reports near his home in O'Fallon. The possible UFO connection intrigued Schuessler, so he joined the Momo investigation. Schuessler found no connection between Momo and UFO activity, but he did investigate two incidents that corroborated the presence of Bigfoot creatures in the region.

On June 30, 1972, a month before the Harrison sighting in Louisiana, two young men from Troy were fishing on a secluded bank of the Cuivre River near Cuivre River State Park in Lincoln County. The fishermen, named Vaughn and Tim, stood atop a high bank overlooking an unusually low bank on the river's opposite side.

According to Schuessler, Vaughn noticed a splash and looked up.

"They said they saw something wading across the river – a big, hairy thing. They didn't know what it was," Schuessler said. "Vaughn said, `Hey Tim, look at that silly hippie wading across the river.' Then they realized it was not a hippie."

The men described the creature as standing taller than a normal man and hairy all over, Schuessler said. Like the Louisiana creature, the Troy monster's hair completely covered its face. Its head looked like a dome resting on its shoulders.

Tim scrambled up a hillside while Vaughn held his ground. The creature continued its deliberate march toward him. Vaughn finally panicked and ran. The men found a conservation officer and returned to the scene.

"All they found were fresh, three-toed footprints where the creature came out of the water," Schuessler said.

Schuessler inspected the area the next day and found the prints.

"They were large prints, but I couldn't tell what made them," he said. "We looked for hair, but found nothing but tracks."

Schuessler said Vaughn and Tim seemed honest and genuinely frightened. Schuessler also interviewed the conservation officer.

"He said he'd gotten a lot of weird reports out of the park, but he didn't pay attention to them. I think he wanted to stay at arm's length from it all," he said.

Another Momo sighting took place July 24 near O'Fallon, just after the final Louisiana sighting. Two teenage girls reported seeing a hairy creature at sunset walking along the edge of a wooded area. The O'Fallon incident is mentioned in "The Bigfoot Casebook" by Janet and Colin Bord, but Schuessler does not remember the details.

"It was not as vivid as the Troy sighting," he said.

Momo must have enjoyed his sojourn in St. Charles County, because the creature apparently passed through town again four years later.

The "Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization" Web site lists Momo sightings in 29 Missouri counties, including a 1976 report from St. Charles County. According to the report, two people were in a boat on the Missouri River near Highway 40-61 when they saw what appeared to be a 6-to-7-foot tall creature covered in dark brown hair. The creature was drinking from the river when it saw the boat, stood up and ran into the trees.

Another local story is posted on the "Bigfoot Encounters" Web site. Mark Richardson, of Modesto, Calif., claims to have seen the creature in 1979 when he was living in St. Peters.

According to Richardson, he and a friend were on a railroad bridge over Dardenne Creek one night. Richardson saw shadows moving and assumed it was his friend.

To his shock, he discovered it was an 8-to-9-foot-tall creature with long, matted brown hair covering its body and face. Its shoulders were five feet wide. Its three-fingered hands hung below its knees.

The creature smelled like rotting hair and screamed like a panther. Richardson claims it lifted the railroad timbers and tried to grab his friend.

The two escaped and ran home.

Richardson claims he knows other people who saw the St. Peters creature. He could not be reached for comment.

So is Momo real? Investigators like Schuessler say the sincere testimony of eyewitnesses cannot be dismissed.

"There is definitely something going on," Schuessler said. "I just don't know what it is." - St. Charles County Suburban Journal

Sources:
ozarkssentinel.com
St. Charles County Suburban Journal - 10/31/2004
Everyday Magazine - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 5/2/2001
missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu
stateofhorror.com

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Possible Alp Sightings in Austria

On August 20th, I posted a request (posted below) from a Finnish reader, Tapio Mäkinen, for volunteers in an expedition to the Waldviertel region of Austria in search of the Alp. Since that time there have been several sightings of large bat-like creatures in the area. Here are a few of the images:

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One of my Finnish readers, Tapio Mäkinen, alerted me to an expedition to the Waldviertel region of Austria in search of the Alp. He is looking for interested parties to join him once he arrives on location. His website is The Finnish Hunter. He states: "We're leaving Saturday August, 27th and staying two weeks. First we're going to spend two-three days in Vienna to assemble local resourses, but then we're (as soon as possible) going to Zwettl and on out into the woods." Tapio can be contacted through his website.

His description of this cryptid (edited for comprehension): "For you who not are familiar with the Alp it's an ancient creature. It's described in old books and art like "Nachtmahr" (“Night-mare”) by Johann Heinrich Füssli (1802). It was first mentioned in the 16th century and most of the myths about this creature were made up during the 19th century.

The Alp is a sort of huge bat with humanoid features with longer legs and arms. Since there are no clear pictures of this creature one has to rely on eyewitnesses when it comes to it's appearance.

It's covered in fur and is believed to be closely related to flying foxes. The humanoid features are hard to explain but it might be a misunderstanding (it has arms). Most likely it's a thicker part of the humerus and radius bone that might look like arms.

The size of the Alp is disputed and there is a misconception that they are the same size as a full grown man. There is no evidence that this would be the case, quite the opposite. The proportion between the body and the wings are 1:5 or 1:6. An Alp the same size as a full grown man would need a wingspan of about 10 meters to fly. This has never been recorded. The wingspan is more likely 4-5 meters and this would give it a length of about one meter.

There are many differences between a flying fox and an Alp but this is the closest relative. The wingspan of a flying fox is just under 2 meters, so the Alp is bigger.

Pteropus or Flying Fox

The myth about the Alp being a vampyre originates from the myths about vampyre bats. There are bloodsucking bats but they are very rare. It was during the 19th century the myths about the Alp as a vampire began. There were no records of the Alp being a bloodsucker before 1817. The myths about vampyres from the 18th century through the beginning of the 19th century incorporate other creatures and present them as vampires. The stories that the Alp is a blood sucking vampyre has never been proved. There are also myths about the Alp being a shapeshifter and haunt it's victims by entering their mind and giving them nightmares (the appearance of the Alp is enough to give you nightmares, I'll admit that).

My extensive research shows that the Alp is a distant relative to the flying fox. It's extremely shy and has a very long lifespan. There are creatures that can reach almost 200 years. The explanation that the remains of a dead Alp have never been found is that it's a very small population, they live long and in isolated areas. There are probably only 6-8 individuals left and they are spread out over central and eastern Europe. Where they breed, how they nest and other question remains unknown."

The remainder of this post can be found at In Search of the Alp...Lon

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What Was It? Strange Winged Creature in Arizona

I received the following email from J.B.C. in Mesa, Arizona. They describe an unknown winged creature that was perched at their home. Tell us what you think this cryptid may be:

Hello, Lon and all;

I enjoy reading your blog, though I am not the type who sees a UFO or spiritual entity every time there is a shadow or flash, I am open-minded and respectful of others. I have had my share of strange experiences, and hardships, but now I am a happily "normal" wife and mother just about to turn 30.

The experience I'd like to share with you happened in the summer of 2002. I was 20, still living at home in a rental in east Mesa, Arizona with my 18 year-old brother and my mother. As you may know, Arizona has a typically 6 month long scorching, dry summer climate, and being a transplant from beautiful Northern Cali it was hard for us to adapt.

Anyhow, it was a hot summer night in late May or early June. My brother had just graduated high school and I was working full time during the day. We spent our evening talking and laughing and playing music, it really was a memorably enjoyable night. At about 10:30 I noticed that the front porch light had again burned out, as it had been doing for about 18 months prior to that. In fact, both of the lights over the driveway and 3 lights in our backyard were continually ceasing to function and it seamed I was always buying bulbs and expensive strobe light bulbs. I don't know if this is some how connected to what happened next.

First I must add that our front door was set back into the house with the garage protruding. Our front yard was much deeper than the backyard and was over shadowed by 3 velvet mesquite and a china berry tree, and various species of cholla cacti. So the street light did little to penetrate the den of darkness.

I turned the lamp light to my bedroom which was really an office nook right next to the front door, which had a large latticed picture window with run-of-the-mill blinds. I opened the blinds and the light flooded the wall of the garage. What I saw made my skin crawl. There on the stucco wall was some "thing". It was only about 10 to 12 feet from where I was standing. The only way to describe it was that it looked like a giant headless moth. I called my brother over excitedly. I clearly remember our conversation.

"What do you suppose that is?"

"I have no idea! It must be a bat of some sort."

"But we only have micro bats here in Arizona. And I have always heard that bats hang upside down."

"I guess it could be a giant moth. We do live in the desert."

"I thought moths were attracted to light. The lights are all burnt out again".

We talked for a moment and stood next to the glass panes adjacent the front door, the bedroom light illuminating all the while, and the "thing" did not stir or move. We decided it was about 18 inches to 2 feet long from blunt top to winged bottom. It was very clear yet very dark, almost black, no antennae visible. It hung on the wall like a moth but was about the size of a medium-sized fruit bat, which I believe only exist in Asia? It was about five or six feet off the ground. My mother came and had a look and shuddered and refused to stand near the door. We were both young and curious and my brother said "Let's go have a look at it then." We swung the door and security screen open and he took a step over the door jam. I was suddenly struck with an unreal, unearthly fear and grabbed his shoulder. He looked back at me and later said I had the most wholly terrified look on my face that he had ever seen. I am afraid and tingly even writing this. Without a word he stepped back inside and we locked both doors and closed the blinds and camped out in the living room, only going to sleep after several thoughtful conversations.

The very next morning at sun up I went out to the wall with a tape measure and my brother and mom stood at the door and directed me as to where and how high and how long this thing had been planted. There was no trace of anything, the dust on the stucco looked the same all around, no residue or anything. When they were both satisfied with the positioning I read the tape measure: 28 inches. My mother walked back into the house and has absolutely refused to speak of it since.

My brother and I are both keenly interested in animal/insect/plant life via books, and media, and I have taken an MCC course in Southwest biology, and neither of us have ever seen or heard of anything matching its description. My husband was raised here and said the only thing he could think of that size was an owl, but this was no owl. What was it? Perhaps it is a real animal we could not identify. Has someone had a similar experience or know what it could be? We are not exaggerating people, we are level-headed and analytical. Thank you for your time.

Best wishes,
J.B.C., Mesa, Arizona

NOTE: OK folks...any idea what this was? Possibly a young thunderbird or other cryptid? Described as headless...possibly a juvenile Mothman? Tell me what you think...Lon

Orang Pendek: New Search for the Mystery Ape

On the Trail of the Orang Pendek, Sumatra's Mystery Ape - Part I

The Indonesian island of Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world. Sadly it has lost half its rainforest in the past 35 years, erased by the chainsaw to make way for palm oil and coffee plantations. Despite this, in the west of the island there are still vast tracts of forest standing, among them Kerinci Seblat National Park which covers 13,791 square kilometres – about the size of Montenegro.

It is from these forests that reports of a species of ape that walks upright and is unknown to science have been emerging for almost 100 years.

The orang pendek, "short man" in Malay, is said to be 4-5 feet tall but powerfully built with broad shoulders and long muscular arms. Sightings suggest it walks upright like a human, its body is covered with black or honey-coloured hair, and it may have a long mane of hair from its head down its back. It appears to live on the forest floor, unlike the arboreal Sumatran orang-utan which is confined to the north of the island.

The orang pendek's diet is said to be mostly fruits, vegetables and tubers, but some witnesses say they have seen it ripping open logs to get at insect larvae. Rare reports describe it eating fish and freshwater molluscs, and some early reports even have it consuming the flesh of dead rhinoceros that had fallen into pit traps.

Native people in Sumatra, including the modern Sumatrans of Malayan descent and the Orang Rimba or Kubu – the aboriginal people of Sumatra – ascribe no supernatural powers to the creature, unlike tigers, pythons and other naneks: spirit or tribal totem animals. Nevertheless, many jungle people fear the orang pendek because of its strength, even though it is not considered aggressive and will usually move away from any human it sees. It is said occasionally to use rocks and sticks as crude weapons, hurling them when it feels threatened.

Native knowledge of the creature goes back into the mists of history and there are a number of local names for it. In the south-eastern lowlands it is called sedapa or sedapak. Gugu is the name in southern Sumatra while in the Rawas district it is atu rimbu. In Bengkulu it is known as sebaba. These days the creature is reported only in the west of the island, specifically in and around Kerinci Seblat National Park.

News of the creature first reached the west in the early 20th century via Dutch colonists. In 1918, the Sumatran governor, LC Westenenk, recorded an event that took place in 1910:

A boy from Padang employed as an overseer by Mr van H– had to stake the boundaries of a piece of land for which a long lease had been applied. One day he took several coolies into the virgin forest on the Barissan Mountains near Loeboek Salasik. Suddenly he saw, some 15 metres away, a large creature, low on its feet, which ran like a man … it was very hairy and was not an orang-utan; but its face was not like an ordinary man's … "

Westenenk recorded another encounter. In 1917 a Mr Oostingh, owner of a coffee plantation at Dataran, was in the forests at the base of Boekit Kaba when he saw a figure sitting on the ground about 30 feet away. According to Oostingh:

His body was as large as a medium-sized native's and he had thick square shoulders, not sloping at all. The colour was not brown, but looked like black earth, a sort of dusty black, more grey than black.

"He clearly noticed my presence. He did not so much as turn his head, but stood up on his feet: he seemed quite as tall as I (about 1.75m). Then I saw that it was not a man, and I started back, for I was not armed. The creature took several paces, without the least haste, and then, with his ludicrously long arm, grasped a sapling, which threatened to break under his weight, and quietly sprang into a tree, swinging in great leaps alternately to right and to left."

The sightings continued into the 1920s, some of them at very close range. In May 1927, a Dutch plantation worker called AHW Cramer who lived in Kerinci reported seeing an orang pendek from a distance of only 10 metres. It had long hair and black skin. The beast ran away leaving small, human-like footprints.

Also in 1927 an orang pendek was said to have been caught in a tiger trap but broke free. The traces of blood it left were examined by zoologist KW Damerman who concluded that it was not from a bear, gibbon or human.

In the 1930s interest in the creature waned, perhaps due in part to the outbreak of the second world war and the Indonesian struggle for independence that followed. It was not thrust into the public gaze again until an Englishwoman, Debbie Martyr, began her research in the late 1980s.

Martyr first visited Sumatra in July of 1989 as a travel writer, and while camped on the slopes of Mount Kerinci her guide Jamruddin pointed out areas were Sumatran rhinoceros and tiger could be seen. Then, casually, he commented that in the forested mountains east of Gunung Tujuh orang pendeks were sometimes seen. When Debbie made a sceptical comment Jamruddin told her that he had seen the orang pendek twice. He told her it was still common, but getting rarer due to the incursions of farmers.

Martyr stayed on in Sumatra and began to collect eyewitness accounts that would eventually fill several volumes. She had her own sighting in 1990.

I saw it in the middle of September; I had been out here four months. At that time I was 90% certain that there was something here, that it was not just traditional stories ... When I saw it I saw an animal that didn't look like anything in any of the books I had read, films I had seen, or zoos I had seen. It did indeed walk rather like a person and that was a shock.

"It was a relatively small, immensely strong, non-human primate. But it was very gracile, that was the odd thing. So if you looked at the animal you might say that it resembled a siamang or an agile gibbon on steroids! It doesn't look like an orang-utan. Their proportions are very different. It is built like a boxer, with immense upper body strength … It was a gorgeous colour, moving bipedally and trying to avoid being seen."

Martyr, together with photographer Jeremy Holden, began a 15-year search funded by Fauna and Flora International. Jeremy used camera traps set up in remote jungles but failed to capture orang pendek on film. However, he did catch a glimpse of it as he climbed over a ridge in the jungle, but the creature swiftly moved away. He only saw it from the back but noted it walked upright like a man.
Cast of an alleged orang-pendek footprint Cast of an alleged orang pendek footprint taken by Adam Davies in 1999. Photograph: CFZ

My good friend Adam Davies, together with Andrew Sanderson and Keith Townley, have found and cast orang pendek footprints, and collected hair in the Kerinci area. Primate biologist Dr David Chivers of the University of Cambridge compared the cast with those from other known primates and local animals and concluded that it was definitely an ape with a unique blend of features from gibbon, orang-utan, chimpanzee and human. "From further examination the print did not match any known primate species and I can conclude that this points towards there being a large unknown primate in the forests of Sumatra," he reported.

Anthropologist Dr Jeffrey Meldrum at Idaho State University said the cast was probably a primate print, but suggested it might be a handprint.

Having seen orang pendek tracks in the field, however, I believe Davies's track is a footprint rather than a handprint, and from my experience of the great apes I can say that the tracks of the orang pendek are quite distinct from any known species of ape.

Dr Hans Brunner, an expert on mammal hair, compared the hairs with those of other primates and local animals and concluded that they originated from a previously undocumented species of primate.

On Friday I will describe my own three expeditions to Sumatra, during which we interviewed witnesses, set camera traps and examined footprints. On the latest of these expeditions, in 2009, one of the group saw the creature.

I believe the orang pendek is a great ape closely related to the orang-utan – in other words an undiscovered species of ponginae. In all the interviews I have conducted with eyewitnesses, they describe what sounds like an ape rather than a hominin: long arms, massive shoulders, little neck, much body hair, short legs.

But why, in a jungle full of trees, does the orang pendek walk upright and live on the ground? Martyr suggested that the creature became bipedal in the wake of the eruption of the Toba supervolcano around 75,000 years ago that would have stripped the island of its trees. However, this does not explain how the Sumatran orang-utan survived. I believe the orang pendek's distinct evolutionary origins are older than this.

When they come to the forest floor, male Sumatran orang-utan walk on two legs, but up in the trees they will also walk erect along branches. Bipedalism was once thought to have developed on the plains of East Africa when hominids first left the jungles to exploit new food sources around 5 million years ago. Standing erect, according to the theory, gave them a better view of potential predators. The vervet monkey demonstrates this kind of behaviour, rearing up to look about it for danger. But now it seems that bipedalism may have begun to evolve in the jungles.

During a year-long study of the Sumatran orang-utans of Gunung Leuser National Park, palaeoanthropologist Susannah Thorpe of the University of Birmingham spotted apes in the trees on almost 3,000 occasions, including numerous instances were they walked erect. In 75% of these cases they maintained balance with their hands, and for over 90% of the time their legs were stiff, unlike the bent-knee, bent-hip shuffle of chimps and gorillas, which also sometimes stand upright in trees.

The apes stood erect mainly to reach for fruit while on fairly narrow branches. Thorpe postulated that the straight-legged posture helped them balance in the same way as a gymnast on a trampoline. Palaeoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University in Washington DC commented on the findings: "Most of us had assumed that the only place where it's sensible to be bipedal is on the ground. A handful of fossil species dating from 5 million to 28 million years old, mostly before chimpanzees split from hominins, showed signs of upright posture and bipedalism, but the evidence has been pretty flakey."

Wood thinks Thorpe's findings put these fossil apes in a new light and that they may have been true bipeds that evolved bipedalism to reach for fruit. As the jungles shrank they took up bipedal walking on the ground while the gorillas and chimpanzees took up knuckle walking.

The fossils in question were of course African, but could something similar have occurred in the jungles of Asia, ultimately giving rise to a number of bipedal ape species? Sunda was a large land mass that once incorporated Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the surrounding islands and the Malayan peninsula and connected them all to mainland Asia. As melting glaciers flooded the oceans 19,000 years ago, sea levels rose and the huge land mass became the islands we know today.

As I have mentioned, the two known orang-utan species had already speciated some 400,000 years ago. We do not know why this occurred but the more gracile Sumatran form, and the robust Bornean, separated. The robust form populated the eastern island of Borneo and the gracile the western island of Sumatra.

A larger form, Pongo hooijeri, the size of a modern gorilla and presumably a ground dweller, existed further north in what is now mainland Asia. Closely related and known only from its teeth and jaws was the huge Gigantopithecus blacki. This latter species has left fossils in India, Vietnam and China – some dating as recently as 300,000 years ago. Due to the wide shape of the jawbone it has been postulated that Gigantopithecus was a biped, with the neck placed directly under the skull. If this is correct, and if the rest of the animal was built on the same scale, then Gigantopithecus would have stood 10 feet tall. Some believe that the creature is not extinct but survives in parts of India, Tibet, China, the Himalayas and elsewhere, known as the larger type of yeti.

All of the above, including modern orang-utans, seem to have descended from a genus of ancient apes known as Sivapithecus. They flourished 12.5 to 8.5 million years ago and had bodies shaped like chimpanzees, but heads more like those of modern orang-utans. Another genus Lufengpithecus arose around 10 million years ago. These may have descended from an earlier form of Sivapithecus. Morphologically they seem to fall between Sivapithecus and modern orang-utans. It is from Lufengpithecus that modern orangs may have evolved.

I think that when the speciation of the modern orangs began, they split not into two but three species. The robust P. pygmaeus, the more gracile and more upright P. abelii and a third, smaller terrestrial species that we today know as the orang pendek. If we can prove this creature exists, not only will it be an astounding zoological discovery but it may give us more clues to how bipedalism evolved in our own species. - guardian

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Orang Pendek Quest Begins in Sumatra - Part II

A possible orang pendek footprint found by Adam Davies in Gunung Tujuh in 2009. Photograph: Adam Davies

My first expedition to Sumatra took place in 2003. As the zoological director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology I have been all over the world in search of creatures such as the giant anaconda, the almasty and the Mongolian death worm. But it is Sumatra and the orang pendek that keep pulling me back.

In 2003 I accompanied Dr Chris Clark and Jon Hare to Gunung Tujuh, the Lake of Seven Peaks, in Kerinci Seblat National Park. The jungle around the lake is a hotspot for orang pendek sightings. Our guide Sahar Dimus found tracks of a bipedal creature, but they were too rain-damaged to cast.

In the 1980s Sahar's father and a friend had been cutting logs to build a house close to where the village of Polompek now stands. The area has long since been deforested. Both men saw a bipedal ape lifting up cut logs and throwing them about. It was covered in blackish-brown hair and was about 1.5 metres (five feet) tall. The hair on the creature's spine was darker. Its legs were short and its powerful arms were long. The face was broad and black in colour with some pink markings. Both men fled.

We also visited the village of Sungi-Khuning in another part of the park. Here, the year before, a poacher who had set a snare for deer claimed to have caught an orang pendek. The powerfully built ape was struggling with the snare. The poacher tried to jab the creature with his spear but the beast smashed it to matchwood and screamed at him. The poacher fainted and when he awoke the creature had pulled itself free and was walking off into the jungle. It had long, powerful arms and walked erect.

We could not find the man to interview him, but explored the jungles beyond the village.

The following May we returned to explore a remote gorge in the park where, apparently, no westerner had been. We interviewed eyewitnesses who had seen the creature on the semi-cultivated land at the edge of the park known as the Garden. The creatures are said to steal sugar cane and other crops.

One witness was a farmer called Seman who told us he had seen the creature in an area of land adjacent to a river at noon one day in February 2004. Back then the area was overgrown. The creature was only visible from the waist upward and probably over a metre tall. It had short black hair, a broad chest with visible pink skin and a pointed head, possibly indicating a sagittal crest. The ears were long. The creature vanished and Seman said that he had the feeling it had fled to the river and swam across it, though he did not see this. The river was a torrent when we were there but in February it was much lower.

On visiting the area we worked out that the creature had been 22 metres away from the witness. Seman produced a sketch showing a powerfully built, ape-like creature with broad shoulders, long arms and a conical head. At no time did it raise up its arms, as gibbons do on the rare occasions they move about on the ground.

We returned to the same area the next day to interview another witness, called Ata, who claimed to have seen the creature about three weeks after Seman. He heard a strange ooooha! ooooha! cry coming from the same part of the the Garden where Seman had his encounter. Upon investigation Ata found himself only five metres away from the beast, which was a metre tall and had short black hair. Its prominent chest made him think it was female. Its lower half was hidden by vegetation.

He noticed that it had large owl-like eyes, a flat nose, and a large mouth. It seemed aggressive and Ata said he felt the hairs on the back of his hands stand up.

Ata produced a drawing of a muscular, upright creature with large round eyes. It lacked the pointed head of Seman's description.

Our guide Sahar had found an old man called Pak En, the only person who knew the way to the gorge that we had dubbed The Lost Valley. Pak En told us that he had seen an orang pendek in the jungle just above the valley three years ago. He was walking along a jungle trail when he saw it approaching. It was one metre tall, upright, and powerfully built. It had black hair with red tips and a broad mouth. Its prominent breasts made Pak En think it was a female. He noticed that it grasped the vegetation as it moved. It let out an ooooha! ooooha! sound. He watched it move down the trail for two minutes before it saw him. On seeing Pak En it quickly turned about and walked back the way it had come.

After several days' hard trek we descended into the Lost Valley. After a fruitless search we moved down to the Bangko area, a place of lowland jungle inhabited by the Kubu. We met the local chief of the Kubu, a man named Nylam who said he had seen an orang pendek in the area only three months previously. He had been up a tree at the time. The animal was 1.25 metres tall and covered with red-tinted black hair. It had a broad mouth, walked upright and held its arms like a man. It made a weeeehp! weeeehp! noise and looked about itself as if it could smell its observer. Nylam watched it for half an hour.

It would be another five years before I returned to the jungles of Sumatra. Joining Clark and me was Adam Davies (who already had a number of expeditions under his belt) and Dave Archer.

We returned to Bangko to meet a small number of Kubu at a pre-arranged place in the jungle. This group seemed shyer than those we had met in 2004 and the women and children ran away leaving one man. The other men were apparently away hunting in the jungle. The man, who would not give his name, told his story through a translator.

Three years previously he had seen an orang pendek close to the wonderfully named village of Anoolie Pie some 23km away. It was around 1.2 metres tall and covered with black hair. The creature's face reminded the man of a macaque, with a flat nose and broad mouth. It stood and walked on two legs, never once dropping down on all fours. He said it was not a monkey, gibbon or sun bear. The creature seemed afraid of him and walked quickly away while looking from side to side.

He told us that the Kubu thought the creature was half-man half-animal.

That evening we had a visit from an unassuming man called Tarib who was the supreme chief of the Kubu. Most of the Kubu were away hunting but he had made a special effort to visit us and had an amazing tale to tell. Five years ago he had seen an orang pendek as he was walking in the forest. He took the creature by surprise and it became aggressive, raising its arms above its head and charging. He fled and hid behind a tangle of rattan vines. He watched as it looked for him, turning its head from side to side. Finally it moved away.

The next day we rose early for the trek up to Gunung Tuju. After making camp we set up camera traps, splitting into two groups. Dave had brought four camera traps and Chris had a number of sticky boards (cardboard strips coated with a powerful adhesive usually for trapping rats and mice). We would place them on jungle paths, baited with fruit, in the hope an orang pendek would leave some of its hairs stuck in the solution.

The trail Chris and I followed for several miles ran abreast of the lake. We came across some orang pendek tracks – I instantly recognised the narrow, human-like heel and the wider front part of the foot. They were impressed in loam on the forest floor and not good enough to cast. We set up two camera traps in the area and two sticky boards that we baited with fruit.

Upon returning to camp we heard amazing news. Earlier in the day Adam had heard a large animal moving through the forest, while in the distance siamang gibbons were kicking up a fuss. Sahar and Dave crept forward and were greeted with an amazing sight.

Squatted in a tree around 100 feet from them was an orang pendek. They could not see the face clearly as it was pressed against the tree trunk. Dave felt that it was peering at them sideways. He saw the creature's eye rolling in alarm and could see large teeth in the bottom jaw. It had broad shoulders and long powerful arms, and dark brown, almost black fur. The hands and feet were not in view. The hair and shape of the head were reminiscent of a gorilla, but the high forehead was like that of an orang-utan. Dave said he was sure it was not a sun bear or a siamang gibbon.

From his vantage point Dave could not get a good photograph because leaves and branches were in the way. As he moved to get a better view Sahar saw the creature climb down from the tree and walk away on two legs. Adam said that Sahar had wept for 10 minutes because he did not have a camera to get a picture – he has been on the trail of the beast since 1997. Wildlife photographer Jeremy Holden saw the orang pendek briefly in Kerinci National Park and spent the next 15 years fruitlessly trying to get a photograph of it.

Next to the tree was some rattan vine the animal had been chewing. Adam carefully placed this in a specimen tube full of ethanol in the hope that some of the cells from the creature's mouth would have adhered to the plant much like a DNA swab.

In the morning we re-traced our steps to the camera traps. En route we found more orang pendek tracks. They were recognisable as the creature – nothing else in the area makes tracks like them. Despite sceptics' insistence that people mistake sun bear tracks for orang pendek tracks, the two spoors are completely different, the sun bear showing long claws. However, they were not of a good enough quality to cast. Once again the sticky boards and camera traps turned up nothing of interest.

Later we hiked to the area where Dave and Sahar had seen the orang pendek. We heard a "uhhg-uhhg-uhhhhg" sound in the distance briefly. We called out in response but there was no reply. We found nothing on the camera traps or sticky boards so we reset them and returned to camp.

The tracks Adam had found were still visible. The heels looked human but the front part was more ape-like, wide with a well-separated big toe. Unfortunately our supply of plaster of paris had degraded so we could not cast them. We had to make do with taking a number of photographs using our hands as frames of reference.

I am a former zoo keeper and have worked with all the known great apes. I have seen their tracks in just about every medium and I can tell you that the orang pendek's tracks are quite different, with a human-like heel but a well separated big toe that seems less prehensile than that of any other ape.

Checking the traps in the morning we once more came up empty-handed. We decided to split up. Adam and Sahar followed the bed of a stream, Doni and Chris took a path to the right and Dally and I one to the left, while Dave and John took higher ground.

We checked the traps again next morning. The stills cameras had caught nothing except a bird. However, the camera Dave set to film mode had no less than 70 five-second sequences. Unfortunately we would have to wait till we got back to England to watch them.

In the afternoon we decided to cross the lake and search on the far side. Adam had been there only once and the rest of us had never seen the area.

Only a few yards into the jungle we stumbled across a trackway made by a tiger about a week before. A little further on Adam spotted something that even the guides had missed. Coming up a slope towards the path was a set of orang pendek tracks that were clearer than any we had seen before. The toes were all individually visible. We photographed them extensively and cursed our lack of plaster (ruined by the damp) to cast them.

We sent half of the samples off to Lars Thomas at Copenhagen University, and Adam sent off his half to Professor Todd Disotell of New York University.

Lars studied the structure of the hair and found that it was similar to, but distinct from, orang-utan. He said he was forced to conclude that there was a large, unknown primate in Sumatra. His colleague Dr Tom Gilbert found some DNA that seemed to be human. We think the sample may have been contaminated during collection. Todd was unable to extract any DNA from his sample.

Shortly after my return to England, Dally – the man who had been our "fixer" on this expedition – emailed to tell me of further sightings in Kerinci. On 8 October some birdwatchers from Siulak Mukai village saw an orang pendek near Gunung Tapanggang. They watched it for 10 minutes from a distance of only 10 metres. It had black skin and long arms, and walked like a man.

On 18 October a man called Pak Udin saw an orang pendek in Tandai Forest. The creature was looking for food in a dead tree, possibly insect larvae. It had black and silver hair, long arms and short legs. He watched it for three minutes before it ran away.

On Friday, we embark on the latest Centre for Fortean Zoology expedition to Sumatra. This time we are taking more personnel and more cameras than ever before. The two-week expedition consists of members from both the UK and Australia. In addition to myself, the UK contingent consists of Adam Davies, Dr Chris Clark, Dave Archer, Lisa Malam and Andrew Sanderson. The Australian contingent consists of Rebecca Lang and Mike Williams.

The group will split into two teams. The first will trek into the deep jungle around Gunung Tujuh and the second will concentrate on the "garden" area at the edges of the jungle.

The second team will be using fruit as bait and waiting in hides in the hope of photographing the orang pendek, as it seems attracted to crop fields. With the thinner tree cover and open spaces they stand a good chance of capturing the creature on film if it emerges.

The first team will be setting up a dozen or so camera traps in the deep jungle in the hope that the creature will pass by. They will also be exploring the region on foot armed with both still and video cameras. All team members will be equipped with kits for taking samples of hair and other biological material without contaminating it with human DNA.

We have Professor Bryan Sykes of Oxford University, one of the world's leading geneticists, on board. Together with Lars Tomas, Dr Tom Gilbert and Prof Todd Disotell they will be carrying out independent analysis on any samples we bring back.

This will be my fourth expedition to Sumatra since 2003. Each time I visit I see the rainforest shrinking. Areas that were once verdant jungle are now agricultural monocultures.

Kerinci Seblat National Park is huge, but it cannot hold out against human pressure forever. If we can prove the existence of a new species of ape in these jungles then the eyes of the world will be on Sumatra and pressure will be exerted on the Indonesian government to fight poaching, logging and to stem the tide of agriculture that is eating into the park.

No one knows how many orang pendek are left. It would be an unthinkable crime and a massive loss to science if this animal were allowed to slip into extinction before it is even officially recognised.

Richard Freeman is zoological director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. On Thursday he introduced the orang pendek and suggested its likely evolutionary origins

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State Department Documents Confirm Feds Believed in the Yeti

Newly unearthed State Department documents confirm for the first time Uncle Sam's belief that the Abominable Snowman roamed the mountains of Nepal in the 1950s, a finding that has shocked federal officials including the archivist who discovered the papers.

Long written off as a myth—it was never caught or photographed—the documents provided by the National Archives show that officials in the State Department, Foreign Service, and U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, not only believed in "Yeti," but endorsed rules for American expeditions to follow when hunting the toothy monster down.

"There are, at present, three regulations applicable only to expeditions searching for the Yeti in Nepal. These regulations are to be observed," said a memo from the embassy written on State Department letterhead.

The first rule required that expeditions buy a permit. The second demanded that the beast be photographed or taken alive. "It must not be killed or shot at except in an emergency arising out of self defense," wrote Embassy Counselor Ernest Fisk on November 30, 1959. And third, any news proving the existence of the Abominable Snowman must be cleared through the Nepalese government which probably wanted to take credit for the discovery.

Click image for larger version - "Regulations Governing Mountain Climbing Expeditions in Nepal - Relating to Yeti"; UD-WW, 1454, , Box 252, Accession #64-9-0814, folder 5.1 Political Situation - General, File ended Dec 31, 1959; Records of the Agency for International Development; Record Group 286; National Archives.

Archivist Mark Murphy said he couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered the long-ignored papers written at the end of the Eisenhower administration. "I thought I was seeing things," he said. "These documents show that finding the Yeti was a big deal in the 1950s. It goes to show the government was taking this seriously."

How seriously?

One foreign service dispatch from the Embassy of New Delhi dated April 16, 1959 describes the many American expeditions involved in mountaineering and monster hunting in Nepal. [Read about other uncovered political archives.]

"American resources in the last two years have been concentrated on efforts to capture the abominable snowman," the record reads.

Tom Slick, a millionaire with a specialized interest in cryptozoology paid for three separate expeditions in Nepal to find the snow beast, immortalized in the 1964 Christmas classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Slick never found it and he went onto pursue bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest. - By Paul Bedard, Lauren Fox - usnews

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