CryPtoReports.com

Adam Davies is a first-class investigator of all-things cryptozoological and monster-themed, and the author of the book Extreme Expeditions, which I most definitely recommend to anyone and everyone interested in knowing what goes on during a quest to seek out strange beasts in remote and exotic locations.

And, Adam has some excellent news to relate: later this year, he will be leading a team from Britain’s Center for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) to the depths of Sumatra – in search of a breed of mysterious, diminutive ape-men known locally, and collectively, as the Orang-Pendek.

So, it’s over to Adam for all the details: “Sumatra, and the Orang-Pendek, in particular, holds a special affection for me. Since I first visited this beautiful country, with its dense virgin rainforest and proud tribal people, I have always been fascinated by the Orang-Pendek, the ‘short man’ of the forests.

“I have no doubt the Orang-Pendek exists. Over the years I have interviewed many witnesses who have seen this creature. In 2009 the CFZ expedition was fortunate to have an eyewitness ourselves in Dave Archer. And Sahar Didmus saw one pinned against a tree, before it scurried away from us into the jungle. The experience so moved Sahar that he burst into tears.”

Adam continues: “Importantly, there has been a considerable body of scientific evidence that has been gathered to support the existence of the Orang-Pendek. For example, previous expeditions I have led, in 2001 and 2004, brought back both prints and hair samples. These were analyzed by various international experts, including Drs. Chivers, Meldrum and Brunner, who all came to the conclusion that they were from an ‘unknown primate.’”

Adam notes that success was all achieved in 2009, when “the hair samples we brought back were analyzed by Lars Thomas, who again came to the conclusion that they were from an ‘unknown primate.’”

As he also notes: “Thus, because of the body of evidence gathered, the discussion has moved away from whether the Orang-Pendek exists, to what it actually is. This is what the Sumatra expedition this year seeks to achieve: a further refining of that process, hopefully with greater determinative evidence so that we can pin down the creature once and for all.”

With regard to the expedition members, says Adam: “The team, as it stands, will comprise the following members: Dr Chris Clark, Richard Freeman, Dave Archer, Jon McGowan, Lisa Dowley, Andrew Sanderson, and Rebecca and Mike from CFZ Australia. I will again be leading the overall expedition team.

“However, with a bigger group we will have the luxury of covering a wider area so the plan is, at present, to cover two locations. I will take one team to the Lake at Gunung Tujuh, while the other team, which will concentrate on the edges of the farmlands and villages, will be led by Dr Chris Clark. Chris’s team in particular will focus on the areas where there has been a concentration of Orang-Pendek activity in recent years. That way we get to maximize our chances, of both gathering evidence, and actually seeing it. We are aware it is always a long shot with these expeditions. More often than not, nothing is found, but our previous success must offer some encouragement.”

Adam concludes: “Please wish us luck in our endeavors. This will be the sixth time that I have been to Sumatra, looking for evidence of the Orang-Pendek. In that time, I have been struck by the continuing pace of logging and the general deforestation, despite the efforts of the guides and rangers who accompany us. Leaving it alone just isn’t an option. Time is running out for the Orang-Pendek and the area it inhabits.”

I’ll be sure to keep you informed of any and all developments from Adam and the team on this latest development in the saga of Sumatra’s enigmatic Orang-Pendek.

Source: mania.com

“Latest Bownessie photo“

The Internet has been buzzing about a recent photograph allegedly depicting a monster surfacing in a British lake. As Eric Niller of Discovery News noted, “The latest entry in the lake monster sweepstakes is making a bid for glory [is the] ‘Bownessie‘ of Lake Windermere, England….Tom Pickles and Sara Harrington, work colleagues who were kayaking at the lake as part of a team-building exercise, snapped this photo of the possible sea creature with a mobile phone. It appears to show a multi-humped black object moving through the water from left to right.”

When the news broke, many people were surprised. Not just that a dark, multi-humped monster had supposedly been photographed on a lake, but that it wasn’t at Loch Ness.

Most people know about Nessie, the denizen in Ness, one of Scotland’s many lakes (or “lochs”). Reports of something odd in Loch Ness only date back to the 1930s, and a famous 1934 photo of a silhouetted, serpentine head and neck helped propel Nessie into international stardom (unfortunately the photo was later revealed to be a hoax).

The lake has been searched for nearly 80 years using everything including cameras, divers, sonar, submarines, and dolphins, yet no real evidence has been found.

“If you’re interested in lake monsters, you needn’t go all the way to Europe,” Daniel Loxton told Discovery News.

Loxton, editor of Junior Skeptic magazine and co-author of an upcoming book on lake monsters, says that “every human culture has stories of water monsters, and besides, Europeans brought their own monsters with them to North America. European-style monsters manifested early in tributaries of the St. Lawrence river, and then along the coast of Maine. They were reported in lakes Eerie and Ontario. Today, monsters are said to haunt dozens of other lakes across Canada and the United States.”

Here’s a sample:

Crescent Lake is a picturesque body of water in northeastern Newfoundland near the small town of Robert’s Arm. Robert’s Arm is gorgeous, with walking trails snaking over lush green hills and around the placid lake. The lake, deep and cold, is allegedly home to a lake monster known as Cressie. As you enter the town, a life-size(?) model of Cressie greets visitors.

Quebec’s Lake Memphremagog, which extends down into north-central Vermont, is said to be home to a lake monster, Memphre, with reports supposedly dating as far back as 1816.

In British Columbia’s Lake Okanagan, there supposedly exists the Ogopogo monster. It is said to be dark, up to 70 feet long, and have a series of humps. It is the world’s second most famous creature after Nessie, and like many lake monsters, native Indians are said to have described the beast in their legends and myths.

America has its share of reputed aquatic beasts as well, including Lake Tahoe’s Tessie. But the best known lives in Lake Champlain, which forms the border between Vermont and New York. “Champ,” as the creature is called, has allegedly been seen by hundreds of witnesses and is anywhere between 10 and 187 feet long, has one or more humps, and is gray, black, dark green, or other colors.

The small town of Port Henry, New York, is the self-proclaimed “Home of Champ” and has a large wooden board that records monster sightings. The best evidence for Champ — in fact, for any lake monster — was a 1977 photo taken by Sandra Mansi showing what appeared to be a dark head and hump in the lake. Later investigation showed that the object was almost certainly a floating log that looked serpentine from a certain angle.

All these monsters have at least one thing in common: a lack of good scientific evidence.

The Lake Windermere Bownessie photo seems likely to be a hoax; in fact Loren Coleman, Director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, has his suspicions: “The evidence brought forth is only as trustworthy as the people bringing it to us. What do we know about Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington, who saw the creature during their company’s team building exercise? How is this all tied to a fundraising effort they were in the midst of conducting and desired to obtain publicity for? I’m not saying they are not to be taken seriously, but UK investigators should do some background checks.”

Coleman notes that previous lake monster photos have many explanations. “Some are unexplained. Some are fakes and hoaxes. Some are garbage bags. Some are otters. Some are humans. Some are other known animals.”

With the caveat that “unexplained” does not mean “unexplainable,” whatever the images of “monsters” in Windermere and other lakes truly are, they are probably accounted for on this list.

Source: news.discovery

Michael Greene of Salisbury has attracted a lot of attention in his hunt for Bigfoot.

More than 300 people joined Greene and about 10 staff members of the Animal Planet cable-TV channel at the Eldorado Outpost on N.C. 109 near Troy and began a search for signs of the mysterious, perhaps mythical, creature on Saturday.

Green was glad to see the crowd.

“Five years ago, I joined the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO). I was just tired of doing this myself, a little discouraged, and had no one to talk to and share my hobby,” Greene said.

Greene’s interest in Bigfoot began when was working toward a master’s in behavioral psychology. He wrote a thesis on group hysteria, and one of the subjects he studied was Bigfoot.

He came to believe that Bigfoot was possibly a real entity, so the reading and investigation began.

Greene, a lifelong public servant who worked in several government agencies, convinced the Animal Planet crew to stop in the Troy area on their way to filming a series on Bigfoot sightings. The film crew will continue on to Florida, Georgia, Oregon and Washington state.

A six-show series is planned to air on Animal Planet this fall.

Greene, now 69 and retired, moved with his wife to Salisbury two years ago. They wanted to be near family and to investigate Bigfoot sightings in the area. North Carolina is a hotbed for sightings, according to BFRO investigators who attended Saturday.

John Pate, Tommy Poland and Olaf Seamen all told of the excitement of the hunt. Seamen drove six hours to join the search in the Uwharries, and he usually spends 10 weekends a year on the hunt.

“The more you look at something, the more the book opens up,” Pate said.

While some see the hunt as pure entertainment, the BFRO researchers say the subject is no longer the stuff of fantasy. BFRO now boasts scientists and university researchers.

David Pardue says he has pictures of his own sighting of a family of four Bigfoots. He claims to also possess evidence of territory marking by the creature. Pardue says that Bigfoot often twists a small tree, first one way and then another, laying it down to signify its territory. He says that Bigfoot can change his eyes to red, and makes an audible sound known to the investigators.

Since Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, is nocturnal, most of the serious hunting is done at night.

“I have had very little sleep for a week. The Animal Planet crew stayed out all week till nearly 5 a.m.,” Greene said.

Greene usually doesn’t allow anyone to accompany him on the hunt, and he said that after recuperating for a week or so he’ll return to solitary searches.

On Saturday, Bigfoot enthusiasts began to arrive about midday. Most came by car or truck, but there were horses and four-wheelers, too. Even a helicopter, arranged by the Animal Planet crew, flew over the activities.

Matt Moneymaker, head of the BFRO, organized a grid search that started in a large hay field and moved into the woods. Television cameras and microphones surrounded the searchers as they looked for elusive clues.

Moneymaker instructed searchers to spread out and stay at arm’s length from each other as they formed a long line headed into the woods. He used a bullhorn to instruct everyone to look for hair on trees or barbed wire, nests of stick structures, trails cleared of twigs and limbs, and “tall boy trails.” Tall boy trails have been cleared of tree limbs and branches up to 8 feet high.

Hair samples were found, and the Animal Planet crew saved them for analysis.

Greene said the crowd was about what he expected on Saturday. He only had time for a short interview while guiding the TV crew and searchers.

“Let’s hope somebody gets lucky today,” Greene said just before the search for evidence of Bigfoot began.

While the show is in production, Greene and his fellow Bigfoot believers will stay on the hunt.

Popular baits to attract giant bi-peds are apples, peanut butter and candy bars.

The most popular of the candy bars is the hard to find Zagnut. The Eldorado Outpost of course had them displayed at the register and the cashier said, “We keep Bigfoot bait year round.”

Source: salisburypost

Producers, actors and a crew from Animal Planet, yes you read right, Animal Planet, are coming to Montgomery County. Why you ask….they are coming in hopes of catching a glimpse of “Bigfoot” in the Uwharrie National Forest. Yes, you also read that right, “Bigfoot” in the Uwharrie National Forest.

It appears that the Uwharrie National Forest has become the hot spot for “Bigfoot” sightings, especially if you leave a Zagnut candy bar around. Michael Greene of Salisbury says he captured a thermal image of “Bigfoot” in the forest, using a Zagnut candy bar.

Greene says on his Web site, Bushloper.net that, he has “Been on the trail of Bigfoot for some 20 years. He has traveled from Bella Coola, BC to the Teslin River, Yukon Territory, to Bluff Creek, CA, to the Olympic Peninsula, WA, to the Adirondack Mountains of NY State, Florida’s Everglades and to the forests of North Carolina, where he now makes his home. Greene has an MS in Behavioral Psychology, is a court-qualified Questioned Documents Expert and for 20 years was Chief Investigator for a State Fraud Bureau. He is a pilot and a former EMT and member of the National Ski Patrol.” Greene also describes his encounter on the Web site detailing the filming and the use of the candy bar.

Greene says he first encountered “Bigfoot” two years ago and that just like any other species there are multiple creatures. “They multiply and there has to be thousands of them,” said Greene. But Greene realizes there are skeptics and says, “Until I saw it myself, I did not believe it. It was like a fairy tale.”

Greene is not alone in his search. West Montgomery football coach John Pate also is an avid believer and field researcher. Pate and Greene are both members of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, which will be a part of the search.

Pate is organizing a meeting at the Troy Fire Department for anyone interested in talking to the film crew about their own personal experiences with “Bigfoot” encounters. The meeting is set for Feb. 8 from 6-9 p.m.. Pate has been an investigator for the organization for four years, but says he has been looking for “Bigfoot” as a hobby for 15 years. “Some people hit golf balls, I go to the woods. It is my sanity.” Pate says he has not been so lucky as to see “Bigfoot” but he has heard him. Pate says he has talked to people that have seen “Bigfoot” in this county though and he hopes they will come out and share their story. “The one dominant thing about “Bigfoot” is his eyes. They are orange and have a dominant shine to them,” said Pate.

Pate says the field researchers are as diverse a group as you will ever meet. Doctors, businessmen and others are all gathering material for the organization. A drive in the forest to try and flush out “Bigfoot” will be held Saturday, Feb. 12.

Source: Montgomery Herald

Mill City lies in the heart of Oregon’s big timber country. I spent the early years of my youth there, exploring old trails that wound through the thick forest to lookouts high atop the mountains. Here Oregon’s climate nourishes a towering evergreen rainforest folded into a maze of canyons and ridgetops, where countless streams and waterfalls lay hidden.

Although logging roads bisect much of these wild areas, there is a sense of mystery that pervades much of Oregon’s backcountry with soft sounds of wildlife, and sudden silence that floats as thick as morning fog through the trees.

When walking on lost trails where logging camps once bustled with busy families, one can still hear the lonely call of creatures unseen, distant and yet powerful, with a strange quality that will stop you in your tracks with a chill as cold as ice.

My wife and I ventured back to my childhood haunts on one such occasion. The area was denoted by a small circle on an old atlas I picked up at a used bookstore. ‘Camp 26′ was nestled into Green Mountain near Rock Creek, south of Mill City. It was the site of an old logging camp, now grown over with replanted Douglas Fir, marked only by a white signpost without a sign.

Here and there small rusty pieces of metal logging hardware told a story growing fainter every year. Fragments of cable and pulleys, hooks and bolts.

My wife and I piled them next to a tree as a silent memorial to a proud way of life lingering in the forest like an old tree stump with a buckboard scar.

Despite the replanted trees, now 30-40 feet tall, the meadow retained intangible qualities of the old logging camp. A trail meandered through the site, heading toward a nearby creek that once served the needs of thirsty loggers and their families.

According to my map, a small railroad once penetrated the woods nearby, bringing the huge old growth logs to the waiting mill in the Santiam Canyon. Now, the path of the rails was barely discernable, the rough and random windfall was slowly reclaiming man’s laborious entry into this shadowy realm.

My wife and I hiked the path toward the creek. We noticed several trees that had been inexplicably snapped off about eight feet above the ground.

Suddenly an otherworldly cry filled the forest around us. It emanated from higher up the Rock Creek canyon, piercing with a strange timbre that was bestial and somehow human. Long and drawn out, with a middle section broken with unearthly trilling, it faded into a nothingness of echoes from afar.

We looked at each other and knew at once that the message was a territorial warning, that we had strayed into the domain of something beyond our knowledge. My wife and I have decades of wilderness experience, and never have we heard anything like it.

If only our video camera had been on at that time to capture the mournful cry. We explored the area for awhile, then wandered to our van and prepared to leave. Instead we sat and waited for another sign of whatever it was that we heard. But there was nothing. Just that single cry that will last a lifetime.

Later when on the Internet, I stumbled upon a website of Oregon Bigfoot sightings, and learned that others had found signs of Bigfoot in the exact same area, with actual sightings in nearby Detroit.

Locals have stories of mysterious occurrences, which point to the existence of a creature of enormous strength and human-like intelligence. On that day, we later wondered, had the eyes of Sasquatch watched us from the gloom of the forest?

Source: Salem-News

Neither local militiamen nor veterinarians can explain what kind of a creature is holding in awe dwellers of Anuiskoe Settlement in the Altai Territory.

Judging by descriptions of the eyewitnesses, the mysterious monster attacks their domestic animals at night and sucks their blood out making them die.

In the recent months there have been registered 13 cases of mass murder of rabbits and other small livestock in Anuiskoe Settlement.

Local dwellers are panicking. Some extremely strong and smart beast breaks doors of the rabbit cages, breaks out pieces of wood, and undermines the sheds. The character and traces of attacks are always the same: the rabbits are killed, each of them having only two small pinholes at the back of the neck, and sorted out into heaps. During night attacks on the rabbits the watchdogs yelp of fear and hide in doghouses.

Local Internet users just add up to the fears. In any search engine the most popular answer to the request “mysterious death of rabbits” refers to the vampire animal Chupacabra unknown to scientists.

Source: Russia-ic

Photo of possible “Wild Man” hair

The Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province has examined a strand of hair which it has not managed to identify, prompting local people to speculate that it may belong to the “Wild Man” – China’s own Bigfoot.

Piao Jinlan, a researcher at the reserve, said that scientists need to continue their tests before they can identify the species.

The hair is said to be thicker than human hair and thinner than horsetail hair.

More than 400 people have claimed to have seen the half-man, half-ape “Wild Man” in the area in the last 100 years.

Witnesses describe the creature as walking upright, more than 2 meters tall and with grey, red or black hair all over its body.

An investigative team was set up in 2009 and started a large-scale search for the mysterious creature in Shennongjia this year.

Source: globaltimes

“Yeti Sketch”

An expedition that was looking for the mysterious yeti in Mountain Shoria – a faraway region in the Siberian taiga – has recently returned home. The expedition’s members claim that the forest fires of this extremely hot summer made Altai yetis move to the Kuzbass region, where they have started a “war” with local bears.

Searches for this mysterious creature, also known as “bigfoot” or “snowman”, started several decades ago. People look for yetis – or, at least, their traces – elsewhere: in Canada, Europe, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Russia. Several times, yetis’ traces have been found – footsteps that resemble that of humans but are too big for a man, flocks of hair or gigantic branch shelters in forests. In 1967, a certain Roger Patterson even filmed a yeti in northern California, but experts still argue whether this shooting is real or fake.

This year’s expedition to Mountain Shoria is already the third. One of its participants, the director of the International Center for Hominology Igor Burtsev assures that yetis leave traces of their stay in the taiga and fight with local bears.

“They make strange pyramidal constructions of trunks and branches in the wood – sometimes 3 or 4 meters, sometimes only 30 cm high. Sometimes they bend huge trees and twist their trunks like wheels. A human being is just not strong enough for that, and there seems to be no need for bears to do this. At first, we thought that yetis do this to make shelters, but then we came to the conclusion that this is a sort of landmark for them. Or, maybe, this is a way for a yeti to say something to its congeners.”

Igor Burtsev has talked with local residents who claim that they have seen yetis with their own eyes. Sometimes, farmers take them for wood goblins.

“Folk beliefs say that the wood goblin is the master of the woods. All animals, even bears, submit to him. The wood goblin has a strong hypnotic power, thus he is not afraid of any animal.”

Scientists think that these ancient beliefs do have some grounding – it seems that today yetis in Siberia are competing with bears, and the yetis are winning – they are obviously stronger and have rudimentary intellect. If this “war” between yetis and bears continues, there is a risk that bears will not sleep this winter because of a shortage of food, instead going to villages in search of something to eat. To prevent this, the region’s authorities plan to organize bear feeding. However, it seems that local residents have already found a common language with the yetis – they leave candies for them and communicate with them mentally – yetis are believed to be telepathic. Igor Burtsev even claims that to a certain extent, yetis can imitate the human language. “I would, without doubt, call the yeti another species of man,” he says.

Source: ruvr.ru

The Hubei Wild Man Research Association (HWMRA) in China’s Hubei province announced they are recruiting researchers from around the world to join its team in relaunching the search for the Bigfoot creature in the Shennongjia forest region. Luo Baosheng, vice president of HWMRA, told Xinhua, China’s state run news agency, that team members must be in good physical health and it is preferred they are between the age of 25 and 45 years old. “Most importantly, we want the team members to be devoted, as there will be a lot of hard work in the process”, he said.

Researchers in China have been looking for the ‘Bigfoot” phantom, also known as “Yeren” or “Wild Man”, since the 1970’s, but the last time an organized search took place was in the early 1980’s. HMRWA member Wang Shancai said this new search will cost about $1.5 million U.S. dollars. Wang is also an archeologist with the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology.

Xinhua said there have been over 400 reported sightings of the half-man, half-ape “Yeren” in the Shennongjia area, but evidence found so far, which has included hair, footprints, and a sleeping nest, has been inconclusive. Groups in the United States have also been looking for years for “Bigfoot” also known as “Sasquatch”. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) in the United States claims to be the oldest and biggest organization dedicated to finding the creature.

Source: Seerpress

Possible Yeti Photo

A fourth science expedition has left for Mountain Shoria (a territory in Southern Siberia, east of the Altai Mountains) earlier on Wednesday in search of any traces of the abominable snowman. Taking part in the expedition will be the director of the International Center for Hominology, Igor Burtsev, deputy president of the public association Kosmopoisk, Vasily Dovgoshei, History Doctor Valery Kimeyev and other experts.

As Igor Burtsev, a participant in several previous expeditions, has told Itar-Tass, the search will last for about ten days. The experts are determined to find irrefutable evidence the Bigfoot (also known by the names of Sasquatch and Yeti) does exist.

“During the previous expedition a year ago I saw markers (half-broken branches) the creature uses to mark the controlled territory,” Burtsev said.

“Mountain Shoria is a perfect place for yetis. It is a sparsely populated, mountainous area, where there are many caves, it is relatively warm and there are sources of pure fresh water. In the mountain rivers fish is in abundance and hunting in the forests must be really good. I reckon the Bigfoot likes to go fowling. In the woods I have found several artifacts to confirm my theory of mine. This time I plan to find the Bigfoot’s shelter and even try to contact the creature.”

The head of the Tashtagol District, Vladimir Makuta, says that the first mention of Bigfoot’s presence in Mountain Shoria dates back to 1980. The creatures seem to have gone especially active over the past three years.

Source: itar-tass