New Straits Times
Book Has Bigfoot Pictures
Sunday, 07 May 2006
By R. Sittamparam
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JOHOR BARU: A book on the Johor Bigfoot, said to include exclusive photographs of the elusive creature, has caused a stir among cryptozoologists around the world.
The book authored by local writers and researchers, including the man in the thick of Bigfoot research in Johor, Vincent Chow, is set to be released in the next few months.
Chow said yesterday he had seen the Bigfoot photographs, which belonged to an individual. He added the individual wished to remain anonymous for the time being. "The owner of the photographs has only agreed to allow them to be used in our book. All I can say is that the photographs are convincing and all visible signs point towards the possibility that the Johor Bigfoot could be a variant of the Homo erectus species of hominids (creature resembling humans), thought to have gone extinct some 50,000 years ago or that it is an unknown hominid."
Loren Coleman, a leading cryptozoologist, in his website Cryptomundo.com, opened a discussion on Thursday on the new book and received a flood of comments from the international community of cryptozoologists and Bigfoot enthusiasts.
Coleman, who has authored several books on the Bigfoot subject, said Chow’s revelation that the photographs showed the creature’s genitalia, could be proof of the creature’s sexual dimorphism.
"When Vincent Chow’s book shows the Bigfoot photographs, I will shout a hearty ‘congratulations’ to him. Yes, as he says, many will have the last laugh on this one. I will be especially happy for all the (Bigfoot) eyewitnesses who have had to tolerate ridicule merely for reporting what they saw."
Coleman said the reality of a living fossil existing, such as Homo erectus, would be earth-shattering.
"If Chow’s findings pan out, look for some revolutionary new thoughts within anthropology, palaeoanthropology, hominology and cryptozoology. As Chow has told me, what he is talking about are ‘photographs of the real McCoys’.
"I am happy to announce I will be one of the contributors to his book."
Photograph taken by Joseph Citro, used by permission.
Different folks assume and presume to know what my preface will say. There is a new skeptics book out, debunking Lake Monsters. I wrote the preface. Will my reputation be destroyed because I call for an open-minded and a balanced inquiry in cryptozoology in that book? I have written a contribution to the new cryptozoology and art book for the Bates Museum of Art’s exhibition on cryptozoology, in which I look at the history of cryptozoology in a Fortean and zoological context. Will my reputation be ruined by that? Oh dear friends, rush not to judgement about mere words on a page not written. I will be reasonable and reasoned, no matter the spurious speculations here, my mutual mates in this madness.
See today’s “Pondering the Mawas Situation” for more about this.
