(Other hominoid) Orang-pendek

Orang-pendek

The orang-pendek is an alleged bipedal ape said to roam the forests of Sumatra, and is also known as the 'Short Man of the Forest'.

The animal has allegedly been seen and documented for at least one hundred years by forest tribes, local villagers, Dutch colonists, and Western scientists and travelers. Consensus among witnesses is that the animal is a ground-dwelling, bipedal primate that is covered in short fur and stands between 80cm and 150cm tall

Contents

1. Location
2. The animal
3. Physical description
4. Frequently reported
5. Other reports
6. From Debbie Martyr
7. Reported dietary habits
8. Names
9. Sources
10. Suku Anak Dalam
11. Local villagers
12. Dutch colonists
13. Western researchers
14. Possible explanations
15. Mistaken identity
16. Undocumented Primate
17. Missing link/hominid theory
18. References
19. External links

Location

While orang-pendek or similar animals have historically been reported throughout Sumatra and southeast Asia, recent sightings have occurred largely within the Kerinci regency of central Sumatra and especially within the borders of Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat (Kerinci Seblat National Park) (TNKS). The park, 2° south of the equator, is located within the Bukit Barisan mountain range and features some of the most remote primary rainforest in the world. Habitat types within TNKS include lowland dipterocarp rainforest, montane forests, and volcanic alpine formations on Mt. Kerinci, the second highest peak in Indonesia. Because of its inaccessibility (evidenced by its continued existence despite the rampant logging occurring throughout Sumatra), the park provides one of the last homes for the endangered Sumatran Tiger.

The animal

Orang-pendek has yet to be fully documented and no authoritative accounts of its behavior or physical characteristics exist. However, witnesses report a few characteristics so consistently that a likely picture of the animal can be conjectured.

Physical description

Frequently reported

• ground-dwelling
• bipedal
• covered in short, grey-to-brown fur
• 80cm to 150cm tall
• divergent big-toe (i.e. separated from other toes as a thumb is from the other fingers)
• largely herbivorous

Other reports

• blackish-brown, red-brown, golden-brown, yellow, or orange fur
• short-legged with long, powerful arms
• seen in trees
• inverted feet, to hide direction of travel

From Debbie Martyr

Debbie Martyr is a prominent orang-pendek researcher who has worked in the area for over 15 years, has interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and claims to have seen the animal personally on several occasions.

...usually no more than 85 or 90cm in height — although occasionally as large as 1m 20cm. The body is covered in a coat of dark grey or black flecked with grey hair. But it is the sheer physical power of the orang pendek that most impresses the Kerinci villagers. They speak in awe, of its broad shoulders, huge chest and upper abdomen and powerful aims [sic]. The animal is so strong, the villagers would whisper that it can uproot small trees and even break rattan vines. The legs, in comparison, are short and slim, the feet neat and small, usually turned out at an angle of up to 45 degrees. The head slopes back to a distinct crest — similar to the gorilla — and there appears to be a bony ridge above the eyes. But the mouth is small and neat, the eyes are set wide apart and the nose is distinctly humanoid. When frightened, the animal exposes its teeth — revealing oddly broad incisors and prominent, long canine teeth.

Reported dietary habits

Sightings by locals often take place in farmland on the edge of the forest, where orang-pendek is allegedly seen walking through fields and raiding crops (especially corn, potatoes, and fruit). Locals with experience in the forests claim that Orang Pendek seeks out ginger roots, a plant known locally as "pahur" or "lolo", young shoots, insects in rotting logs, and river crabs.

Names

Orang-pendek and similar cryptids from this area of the world are also referred to as:

• uhang-pandak (local Kerinci dialect)
• sedapa
• batutut
• ebu gogo
• umang
• orang gugu
• orang letjo
• atoe pandak
• atoe rimbo
• ijaoe
• sedabo
• goegoeh

Sources

Witnesses from many different backgrounds have reported seeing Orang Pendek over the last hundred years.

Suku Anak Dalam

The Suku Anak Dalam (roughly, "Children of the Inner-forest"), also known as Orang kubu or Orang rimba, are a group of people who have traditionally lived in the forests of Kerinci and surrounding areas. Orang-pendek have been a part of their world for centuries. As long as outsiders have documented their culture, this tribe has described the animal as a co-inhabitant of the forest. They know the bounds of orang-pendek territory and will often leave offerings of tobacco to keep them happy.

Local villagers

Local Indonesian villagers provide the largest source of lore and information on orang-pendek. Hundreds of locals claim to have either seen the animal personally or can relate stories of others who have. While the conjectured physical description listed above is consistently reported by this group, other, less credible characteristics such as inverted feet or magical- or ghost-like behavior are also reported.

Dutch colonists

Dutch settlers in the early 20th century provided Westerners with their modern introduction to orang-pendek-like animals in Sumatra. Two accounts in particular are widely reported:

• Mr. Van Heerwarden, who described an encounter he had while surveying land in 1923:

"I discovered a dark and hairy creature on a branch... The sedapa was also hairy on the front of its body; the colour there was a little lighter than on the back. The very dark hair on its head fell to just below the shoulder-blades or even almost to the waist... Had it been standing, its arms would have reached to a little above its knees; they were therefore long, but its legs seemed to me rather short. I did not see its feet, but I did see some toes which were shaped in a very normal manner... There was nothing repulsive or ugly about its face, nor was it at all apelike."

• Mr. Oostingh, who saw a strange creature while walking in the forest:

"I saw that he had short hair, cut short, I thought; and I suddenly realised that his neck was oddly leathery and extremely filthy. "That chap's got a very dirty and wrinkled neck!" I said to myself. His body was as large as a medium-sized native's and he had thick square shoulders, not sloping at all... he seemed to be quite as tall as I. Then I saw that it was not a man. It was not an orang-utan. I had seen one of these large apes a short time before. It was more like a monstrously large siamang, but a siamang has long hair, and there was no doubt that it had short hair."

Western researchers

The most widely-known Western researcher to have attempted to document Orang Pendek is a British woman named Debbie Martyr. Along with British photographer Jeremy Holden, she engaged in a 15-year project beginning in the early 1990s and funded by Fauna and Flora International. The scope of the project was to systematically document eye-witness accounts of the animal and to obtain photographic proof of its existence via camera-trapping methods. Debbie and Jeremy did not succeed in proving its existence (Debbie has since moved on to head TNKS's Tiger Protection and Conservation Unit), but they collected several foot print casts that appear to be from orang-pendek and claim to have personally seen the animal on several occasions while working in the forest.

Hairs and casts of a foot print found by two British men, Adam Davies and Andrew Sanderson, while traveling in Kerinci were analyzed by scientists from 2001 to 2003. Dr. David Chivers, a primate biologist from the University of Cambridge, compared the cast with those from other known primates and local animals and concluded:

"the cast of the footprint taken was definitely an ape with a unique blend of features from gibbon, orang-utan, chimpanzee, and human. From further examination the print did not match any known primate species and I can conclude that this points towards there being a large unknown primate in the forests of Sumatra."

Dr. Hans Brunner, a hair analysis expert from Australia famous for his involvement in the case of Lindy Chamberlain in 1980, compared the hairs to those of other primates and local animals and concluded that they originated from a previously undocumented species of primate. Dr. Todd Disotell, a biological anthropologist from New York University, recently performed DNA analysis on the hairs and found nothing but human DNA in the sample. He stressed, however, that contamination by people who handled the hairs could have introduced this DNA and that the original DNA could have decomposed.

Currently, National Geographic is funding a multi-year camera-trapping project led by Dr. Peter Tse of Dartmouth College and aimed at providing photographic documentation of orang-pendek. The project began trapping in TNKS in September 2005.

Possible explanations

Three possible explanations of orang-pendek's identity are prominent:

1. that all sightings can be explained as the mistaken identification of local animals.
2. that witnesses of orang-pendek are describing a previously undocumented species of primate.
3. that a species of early hominid still lives in the Sumatran jungle.

Mistaken identity

Many locals say orang-pendek's feet look like those of a seven-year-old child, evidenced by foot prints they have found while walking through the forest. However, another local animal, the sun bear, is a likely source of these sightings. Bears in general are known for having feet that look quite human-like, and the sun bear's would match those of a child fairly well. In addition, gibbons populate the forests in this area and are known to occasionally descend to the ground and walk for a few seconds at a time on two legs. Witnesses could possibly be seeing orangutans; however: 1) this species has long been thought to have died out in all but the northern regions of Sumatra and 2) witnesses almost never describe the animal as having orange fur.

Undocumented Primate

Orang-pendek's reported physical characteristics differentiate it from any other species of animal known to inhabit the area. All witnesses describe it as an ape- or human-like animal. Its bipedality, fur coloring, and southerly location on the island make orangutans an unlikely explanation, and its bipedality, size, and other physical characteristics make gibbons, the only apes known to inhabit the area, unlikely as well. Many therefore propose that orang-pendek could represent a new genus of primate or a new species or subspecies of orangutan or gibbon.

Missing link/hominid theory

As far back as Mr. Van Heerwarden's account of orang-pendek, people have speculated that the animal may in fact be a "missing link" (a hominid representing an earlier stage in human evolution). In October 2004, scientists published claims of the discovery of skeletal remains of a new species of human (Homo floresiensis) in caves on Flores Island (another island in the Indonesian archipelago) dating from 12,000 years before the present. The species was described as being roughly one meter tall. The recenctness of Homo floresiensis continued existence and the similarities between its physical description and the accounts of orang-pendek have led to renewed speculation in this respect.

Recently, Henry Gee, editor of the scientific journal Nature, wrote:

The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as yetis are founded on grains of truth.... Now, Cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold.

References

• Smith, Charles A.. "Reported Find of Missing Link Will Be Probed", Nevada State Journal, 1924-11-09.
• Cremo, Michael A. and Richard L. Thompson. (1996). Forbidden Archaeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race. Bhaktivedanta Book Publishing.
• Martyr, Debbie (2003-10-01). The Other Orang[1]. BBC Wildlife.
• Explorers find 'perfect' yeti tracks[2]. BBC News (2001-10-30).
• Green, David (2004-10-12). Explorers find 'perfect' yeti tracks. BBC News.
• Allen, Benedict (2002). Hunting the Gugu. Faber and Faber.
• Freeman, Richard (2004-04-01). In Search of Orang Pendek[3]. Fortean Times.
• Kerinci Seblat National Park. Kerinci Seblat National Park (2004).
• Hellen, Nicholas and Jonathan Leake (1997-10-12). The orange ape that walks like a man[4]. The Sunday Times.
• Gable, Andrew (2001). Orang Pendek[5]. The CryptoWeb.
• Sanderson, Andrew and Adam Davies (2003). extreme expeditions[6]. Extreme Expeditions.
• Is it Real: Ape Man [TV-Series]. U.S.A.: The National Geographic Channel.
• Coleman, Loren (2004). The Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2004[7].