Breaking news on Saturday, May 17, is that a strange set of three different tracks have been found on a highway 1km from the Endau Rompin forest reserve, at Johor Baru, Malaysia.  According to press reports in The Star, “one set looking like it belonged to a tiger, another like it was an elephant’s and the last resembling a human’s but much bigger in size” were discovered.

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Retirees Sia Chwee Khim, 64, and her husband Lim Teong Kheng, 66, believe the last set may be that of the legendary “Bigfoot”, known and previously reported in the area. The couple, their daughter Joanna, 30, and a group of friends from Singapore decided to follow the tracks for more than 1km on May 10, 2014.

 This is a single track (48cm long and 11cm wide), placed in contrast to show the hominoid-like nature and the four toes in the track, a typical feature of the Johor True Giants prints.

The eyewitness Sia Chwee Khim said:

It was just astounding – the creature or creatures had walked in the damp red soil and onto the tar road, leaving clear footprints for us to see.

We tried to mimic the steps but could not stretch our legs to match the distance of the stride.

We also ruled out the possibility of the tracks being left by an elephant because they were quite oblong, like human feet, and had four protruding sharp toes.

Sia explained that what baffled the group further was that the “Bigfoot” tracks were accompanied by those of an elephant and a tiger.

The Star noted:

State Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Hasnan Yusop said a team of officers conducted checks on the footprints and concluded that they probably belonged to an elephant.

“This could be a sluggish elephant which dragged its feet as it walked, resulting in an elongated print,” he said.

Referring to the prints of the elephant and tiger, Hasnan said the animals need not necessarily have been travelling together but could have used the same paths at different times.

 

In 2006, similar tracks often were called rhino tracks that may have been overlapping on the roads. Muddy jungle prints left on asphalt roadways, of course, smear.

The “elephant prints” may be elephants or rhinos, as could the “Bigfoot” prints, as well. But rhinos have three toes. Elephants’ four toes hardly show.

Only hippo tracks have four clear toes. But Hippopotamus amphibius and Hexaprotodon liberiensis are only found in Africa.

Nevertheless, it does open the discussion again to what is going on in Johor? Large hominoids are sighted there, and overlapping footprints of known species may be assigned to the Johor Hominids.

Reports of the “Johor Hominid” in 2005 and 2006 resulted in locals sighting and drawing them (as seen above). One investigator was Vincent Chow. He was called in to comment on the 2014 tracks.

Johor Malaysia Nature Society chairman Vincent Chow said he received news of the “Bigfoot” prints the day it occurred, adding that it was quite impossible to be a prank because the footprints went on for more than 1km.

“It could be an upright bipedal primate that has yet to be discovered,” he said, adding that there had been many sightings of these footprints, especially by the locals, but the authorities often did not take them seriously.

 

The cover of Mark A. Hall’s and my book, True Giants: Is Gigantopithecus Still Alive?, captures an encounter between a local official and a Malaysian True Giant. The book documents the accounts in that part of the world and looks at the evidence for four-toed tracks infrequently found.

 The tracks are often difficult to cast, deep in the rainforest. Wooden sticks and other vegetation cross the trackway, and jungle casting is not easy.

During the Destination Truth expedition in pursuit of the Johor creatures, they discovered prints.

The appearance of these hominoids is usually taller and thinner than the North American Sasquatch, typically seen with four toes showing in the tracks.