The Bernama news service is reporting that the startling new discoveries in the Foja Mountains of Papua, Indonesia, are good news for the possible discovery of Bigfoot in Malaysia. But also, there is the hint of a new cryptid in this news. The Endau-Rompin National Park, bordering Johor and Pahang, now has an increased possibility for "new species" discoveries, the Indonesia government declares, since all the Malaysian search activity noted here at Cryptomundo in recent months: sightings, footprint finds, and expeditions. Of all variables, the most encouraging has been the official government’s open-minded and even-handed approach, with national and regional [...]
Harold Stephens: 1970s Malaysian Bigfoot Tracker
Cryptomundo Exclusive Interview Anyone doing research on the so-called Bigfoot in Malaysia will soon run across the name "Harold Stephens." Today Cryptomundo gets an exclusive first interview with the man who thirty-five years ago conducted the first modern expedition in search of Malaysia’s Orang Dalam. And he reveals intriguing new details of other discoveries. Photo: Close up of the track of the Orang Dalam on a Malaysian sandbar found during Harold Stephens’ expedition. The track measured nineteen inches in length and was half as wide. His findings are being revisited again, in light of all the news of the Malaysian [...]
Reality Check: Behind The Lost World Hype
Do you know where the Foja Mountains are? Most people don’t. And are there really "hundreds of new species" discovered? Bruce Beehler of the U.S. organization Conservation International and Indonesian Institute of Sciences reportedly told the BBC: "It’s a beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest. We found dozens, if not hundreds, of new species." The attention to the new "Lost World" in Indonesia is all over the media, as mentioned earlier here on Cryptomundo. But what’s the reality behind the headlines? Photographs of two rare but not "new" species – the long-beaked echidna and the golden-mantled tree kangeroo; Conservation International. Not to [...]
Lost Worlds in New Guinea and Madagascar
The discovery of a "Lost World" in New Guinea is the breaking story of the day. I guess you just never can tell what you’re find if you look on the upper slopes of the Foja Mountains, in the easternmost and least explored province of western New Guinea, humm? Due to a technical breakdown here last night when Cryptomundo went offline, I wasn’t able to post on this exciting development. In the meantime, I see this morning, the internet is screaming about the "hundreds of species" found. One of the best items on the findings is at Boing Boing; they [...]
Ridicule and Racism in Naming Malaysia’s “Bigfoot”
Now in its fourth month, Asia’s latest "Bigfoot" flap keeps on rolling. What can be learned from how the media is handling the story via the evolving names being used? Are there the hints of ridicule and racism, in the routine being revealed? The Malaysian "Bigfoot," as a labeled cryptid, is slowly merging with various attributed "local" designations that are slipping into the stories. The name that is being picked most often reveals a developing story that moves the examination of the sightings from a more tangible cryptozoological landscape into a media-friendly "legendary status," with a hint of xenophobia. At [...]
Minnesota Mystery Cat Captured
Sometimes cryptids are captured. Credit for video capture (no pun intended) from KSTP-TV. The recent sightings of a mystery cat in a Willmar, Minnesota neighborhood have resulted in the capture of a mountain lion, yesterday, on the first of February 2006. Surprise, surprise. It is a real animal. It was not a phantom or a figment of people’s imagination. The female mountain lion, puma, cougar, or whatever American moniker you want to use, officials say, weighs about 80 pounds and is believed to be 12 to 18 months old. But more importantly, the government line is reflected in the day [...]
Breaking News: Mokele-mbembe Sighted
Exclusive to Cryptomundo There’s some exciting news from the Milt Marcy Expedition, now in Africa, in pursuit of the Mokele-mbembe. Word via Bill Gibbons is that Milt Marcy just emailed from Cameroon. The expedition travelled far up the Dja River and spoke to witnesses that had observed a Mokele-mbembe only two days before. Paul Ohlin, who replaced Pastor Gene Thomas in 1992 in the northern Congo, saw a Mokele-mbembe only three weeks ago! Mokele-mbembe art courtesy of Bill Rebsamen. Click on image for a larger view. The brief dispatch ended with a promise, by the end of this week, of [...]
More Good “Bigfoot” News Out of Malaysia
One of the great things about the explosion of media interest in the "Bigfoot" stories out of Malaysia is that the papers have to come up with more and more details to keep the interest level of their articles sharp. And these news items gives us the opportunity to learn more new news, and some old too. This weekend, of course, we’ve seen recycled stories of the last two weeks – expeditions planned, expedition delayed, teams to investigate – so much so that the media is losing track of the chronology. What seems certain is that officials in Malaysia are [...]
Hoan Kiem’s Giant Turtle
In the midst of a very long article reviewing the eating establishments and the The Ho Chi Minh Museum of Hanoi, Vietnam, there’s a surprising update on the Old City’s most famous cryptid. Photograph of the Hoan Kiem Lake’s Giant Turtle. Credit Vietnam.net Here’s what we learn from Simon Busch, in the January 28th edition of London’s Financial Times: The turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake sounds terribly lonely. Such experts as there are on this most elusivecreature, Vietnam’s only slightly less fabulous version of the Loch Ness Monster, contend furiously over its likely age and its species – even its [...]
Teams to Search for Orang Dalam
Malaysian media reports today that two teams of researchers will search the wilderness areas for their local “Bigfoot,” which, as I have mentioned before here (1, 2, 3), should more properly be called “Orang Dalam.” These cryptid hairy hominoids have been seen in the Malaysian rainforests of Tanjung Piai, Mersing, Kahang, Endau-Rompin National Park and Kota Tinggi. The recent wave of media interest developed after workers at a fish pond in Kampung Mawai, Kota Tinggi claimed to have seen in November 2005, a three-member family of these creatures, composed of two apparent adults and a child. As to the proposed [...]
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