Comments on: Expedition: New Orang Pendek Discovery

By: sschaper

sschaper — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:48:11 +0000

Orang utans are only -known- to be in the north. The relationship between the known orang utans and orang pendek remains an unknown. Or do we have DNA sequencing and skeletons I don’t know about?

1. We don’t -know- what made the tracks.
2. We don’t -know- significant details about the orang pendek.
3. Orang utan might have made those tracks, or has that been disproven?

By: btgoss

btgoss — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:09:25 +0000

Could a mostly bi-pedal animal walk in the manner that is being described? I would think this would not be a very efficient method of moving, so wouldn’t survive the trials of evolution.

By: Alligator

Alligator — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:32:11 +0000

Good points mystery man. This is some pretty compelling evidence. Most tracks of wild animals usually are not as pristine as they show up in the guide books. If this had been an absolutely perfect print, I’d be more skeptical. But this one still has some detail and an authentic look to it. Malaysia has some thick rain forest, but it is being logged off rapidly. This makes eventual discovery of an Orang more likely, but is also a harbinger of its extinction as well.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:17:00 +0000

I’m actually pretty impressed with the print I see here. It is not so clear as to indicate a hoax, yet it is not seemingly a random hole in the ground. It is not spectacular looking, but it looks very much like an actual print that a real creature would leave. The toes are hinted at yet they are definitely there whereas if this was a hoaxed print, I would expect more toe differentiation to show up in a bid to put more use to the prosthetic. If the speculation about the flexible big toe is further corroborated, I’d say this is a very promising find.

By: Terry W. Colvin

Terry W. Colvin — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:16:13 +0000

Finally some concrete evidence of a creature perhaps unknown to science. Equally good was Adam Davies’ comments on earthquake effects.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:21:14 +0000

“Or see any orang utans in the trees?”

No orangutans would be expected in the trees there. Orangutans, specifically, the rare Sumatran orangutans are only found in the north of Sumatra. The Orang Pendek are found in the south.

“Why is it that the vegetation and leaf litter is missing from the print location as shown in the photo?”

Remember, we are talking about a past encountered footprint there. Not the recent one. The one shown was “prepared” for casting and being filmed for the television documentary. While none of us would do this in the field, for “good television,” such things do happen after the initial findings are often recorded.

In other words, footprints found on many occassions are covered in leaf litter or pressed through material on the jungle floor, but for documentary film reasons, the vegetation is cleared away for photographic reasons. This does not make the track faked, although it is disturbed. It might not be the way any of us might do it, but if one of the objectives of the mission is to make a documentary, various extraordinary events do occur to accomodate the filmmaking.

You must remember that in the early days of Bigfoot field studies, the Bigfooters would only keep the best looking footprints, ignoring the ones that showed movement in the foot. Also, Bob Titmus use to “clean” the casts after they were taken, so the surfaces would look attractive, smooth, and white. Can you imagine what an outcry that would cause today?

By: Alton Higgins

Alton Higgins — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:26:27 +0000

Why is it that the vegetation and leaf litter is missing from the print location as shown in the photo? It doesn’t look natural to me.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:03:51 +0000

Wow, that is a real print, or at least, it has features that others from North America do not have that incline me to think it genuine. The same can be said for the earlier cast.

I don’t know if I should say what because of hoaxing.

It would be very helpful to compare with Orang Utan prints.

I take it they didn’t track the critter down? Or see any orang utans in the trees?

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:54:52 +0000

Kool. Little Foot lives. (That’s what I call em) That cast is no bigger than a human hand. Puts this Little Foot about 4-5 ft tall I would guess.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:30:48 +0000

Thanks for passing this along, Loren. I find myself cautiously looking forward to the History Channel program and the results of the analysis. Perhaps for once we’ll actually learn something concrete?