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Orang Pendek
Alternatively
Orang-Pendek (Little Man), Gugu, Sedapa, Sedabo, Atu, and Orang Letjo (Gibbering Man).
Allegedly,
another mysterious primate, this time from
the island of Sumatra's jungles.
They are said to be ground-dwelling bipedal creatures, standing between three
and five feet tall (a few reports describe slightly taller specimens), covered with short dark hair
and a
thick, bushy mane going halfway or farther down the back, and to have a smooth,
hairless brown face. Track history seems to point to a divergent big toe, and
they are believed to be mostly herbivorous.
Witnesses frequently
mention the Orang-Pendek's startlingly humanlike appearance, thus its name.
Sightings have been reported for centuries on Sumatra, but what is
considered to be the first modern sighting happened in
1916, described in an article by Dr. Edward Jacobson. He stated that,
while camped near the base of Boekit Kaba mountain, some of his scouts
sighted the creature. He also claimed to have found some footprints at Mount Kerintji.
In October 1923 a Dutch settler named Van Herwaarden reported encountering one,
and said that regardless being armed, he could not pull the trigger, suddenly
feeling that he was going to commit murder, so close to human was the creature's
appearance and manner.
Local
folklore tells that these creatures walk with backward-pointing feet, to
confuse anyone daring enough to track them. The local Kubu tribespeople also
claim that unless tobacco was left for them at night, the Sedapas would go
on the rampage, screaming and yelling as they destroyed the natives' camp.
In more recent times, Debbie Martyr — a prominent wildlife and Orang Pendek
researcher funded by Fauna and Flora International who has worked in Sumatra
for over 15 years — has taken over the search for the elusive animal. She has
interviewed hundreds of witnesses, collected several foot print casts that
appear to be from Orang Pendek, and, along with her collaborator British
photographer Jeremy Holden, alleges to have personally seen the animal on
several occasions while working in the forest.
Of cryptid primates, Orang Pendek
is probably the one closer to be found and added to our known species'
zoological records.
See
Orang Gadang, Agogwe,
Abominable
Snowman, Almas, Sasquatch,
Yowie, Chemosit,
Chuchunaa,
Curupira, Higabon,
Kaki Besar, Maricoxi,
Bigfoot,
Mapinguary, Yeti,
Meh-teh, Nguoi Rung, 'X', Windigo and Wildman of China.
Sources: (1)
Anderson, Ivan T.,
Abominable Snowmen: Legend
Come to Life,
Adventures Unlimited Press;
(2)
Wilson, Colin and Damon,
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved,
Carroll & Graf;
(3) Heuvelmans, Bernard,
On the Track of Unknown Animals,
Columbia
University Press;
(4) Wilson, Damon,
The Unexplained,
Scarlet Books; (5) Clark, Jerome,
Unexplained!,
Visible Ink Press; (6) Clark,
Jerome and Coleman, Loren,
Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of
Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature,
Fireside; (7)
Into the Unknown,
Reader's Digest Association, Inc;
(8)
Mysteries of the Unexplained,
Reader's Digest Association, Inc;
(9)
Quest for the Unknown,
Reader's Digest Association, Inc;
(10)
Strange Stories, Amazing Facts,
Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
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