Media Appearances

Monster Quest ~ The Real Hobbit + DSD ~ Loch Ness

Monster Quest: The Real Hobbit Travel to the interior of Sumatra, in Indonesia, in a search for what locals call the Orang Pendak [sic], translated as: Man of the Woods. In 2004 skeletal remains were found on the neighboring island of Flores and named “the Real Hobbit.” Could Orang Pendak [sic], with its human face, be a surviving ancestor to the Flores Man? An expedition is launched deep within the rainforest. The natives claim to see the creature often, and they even find footprints of an unknown upright walking beast. Will camera traps reveal its identity? One-part history, one-part science [...]

Hobbits, Ebu Gogo, and Orang Pendek

History Channel’s “MonsterQuest” is going to be investigating the socalled “real Hobbits” in their episode premiering on January 16th, 2008, at 10PM ET. The official summary of the program notes: “A MonsterQuest expedition will deploy researchers and the latest technology into the jungle, searching for evidence of a creature natives describe as half man, half ape.” This will be cryptozoologist Adam Davies (author of a forthcoming Anomalist Books title), who will be leading the “MonsterQuest” crew on an investigation of Orang Pendek activities, for one part of the program. Various cryptids and related hominoids discussed will be the “Hobbits” (i.e. [...]

Staying On Track: 2008’s Forthcoming Cryptozoology Books

A new year is always exciting, for no telling what it holds. New species to be discovered? Of course. New cryptid sightings? Certainly. New cryptozoology books being published? Needless to say. The Top Cryptozoology Books of 2007 have been picked and discussed, so it is time to look to the future. There, indeed, are hints of many new cryptozoology books on the horizon. Let me split them between the nonfiction and cryptofiction. Cryptozoology Nonfiction Titles Ivan T. Sanderson’s classic book, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life has been republished by Cosimo in 2008, with a new preface. I have already [...]

Classic Yeti Images

With the death of Sir Edmund Hillary and Yeti images of the photographs from that era (1950s and 1960s), insights into the evolution of how the Abominable Snowmen were viewed can be considered through the lenses of time and distance. The first image shared here (click on Perkins Yeti) is the 1960 lifesize drawing shown by then-Lincoln Park Zoo director Marlin Perkins before the World Book expedition to the Himalayas with Sir Edmund Hillary. (This may be different than the large cutout Perkins showed on “Wild Kingdom” in 1963, or it may be the same one.) Below is the slightly [...]

Yeti Hunter Sir Edmund Hillary Dies

Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88, on January 11, 2008, local New Zealand time. He climbed the 29,035 ft (8,850m) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, reaching the top on May 29, 1953. Hillary’s health had reportedly been in decline since April 2007, after a fall while visiting Nepal. He suffered a heart attack in hospital on Friday morning. Sir Edmund’s fellow climber, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (right), died in May 1986. Born July 20, 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary began [...]

Yeti At McGill

The Year of the Yeti continues. Amazingly, my last Friday introduction of the classic film The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas and the new hardbound release of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, is being mirrored (skeptically) with something quite similar occurring tomorrow in Quebec. At McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, there will be a screening of the same film, preceded by an intriguing lecture. Here’s the announcement from McGill: The Redpath’s ever-popular Freaky Fridays series hits the New Year running, or at least ambling with a [...]