10

10 log in or sign up to start earning Butterfly Credits today!
learn more »
earn credits for web search

community & fun

groups

get together & make a difference

Groups > Secret Species > Discussions > Topic: The Orang Pendek
Topic: The Orang Pendek

powered by Care2.com • Care2 Home • E-cards & Fun • Shopping • Healthy Living • News Network • Petitions • Click to Donate

This thread is displayed with the most recent posts first.


James D.	January 21, 2006 1:40 PM yeah it has been difficult to find other info. i havent even really been able to find the info that you have found so far. lol. i will keep looking though. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Charith P.	January 18, 2006 8:30 PM Another theory is that the orang pendek is probably an oversized gibbon that is bipedal - living in Sumatra and Borneo, although it has been reported in Malaysia. Adam Daves isn't the first to discover evidence. Right now he has a footprint cast but he isn't the first. There are 100 years worth of footprints and sightings, noted as far back at the 1800's. [ send green star]
Charith P.	January 17, 2006 7:59 PM Haven't found anything recently James - frustrating because the guys that had gone out there went for another expedition last year and came back with hair samples, whcih they had subsequently submitted for DNA analysis. Nothing so far... Will keep a look out for news [ send green star]
James D.	January 16, 2006 5:17 PM any more news on the orang pendek? [ send green star] [ accepted]
Gavin J.	No I didn't, Charith, August 24, 2004 10:00 AM And I am very upset that I have never seen that. I was disappointed with the rendering of the basilosaurus in the Walking with Prehistoric Animals series. It was way too stiff in the tail region, it looked like a big crane boom swinging up and down. I think the animal moved far more serpentine like, and may still be alive today, accounting for the majority of 'sea serpent' sightings. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Prasanna W.	Orang Pendek/Big Fish in China August 23, 2004 9:31 PM Charith,This sounds pretty fascinating, the Salmonid sp. found in this lake in Xinjiang.So where the earlier reports of 30 ft/2-3 ton fish false, with the real size + wt.in the later reports?In any case, its a major discovery.I just hope they are not going to be hooked and for sale in Shanghai delis as rare suchi!! I dont have much faith in CHinese conservation methods.Nice work ferreting that out. And yes, that fleeting moment in Walking with Cavemen is something to remember-I gotta wacth it again. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Charith P.	August 23, 2004 10:05 AM Did you ever watch that epic but fleeting encounter between Homo erectus and Gigantopithecus in the bamboo forests of prehistoric China? (In 'Walking with Cavemen'). To think that such an encounter may still be on the cards for Homo sapiens in the 21st Century... [ send green star]
Gavin J.	Karuna August 23, 2004 9:52 AM I'd be hesitant to write off the Yeti as a myth. While it is true that the animal features prominently in traditional folklore, and has supernatureal powers attached to it, this can also be said of the sasquatch. There are two different possible species of animal in that region and Northern China that may be undiscovered apes. It is noteworthy that the paleontological remains of gigantolopithecus blacki are found predominantly in one region, and that is the same region as the yeti. This was a large bipedal ape that went extinct about 3000 years ago, and is the dominant theory behind the sasquatch origin. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Charith P.	Not discovered yet! August 22, 2004 7:58 PM Hi Karuna, The orang pendek is still remains undiscovered and has NEVER been photographed or seen by people, other than the tribes that live in their habitat. I would imagine that the people you saw on TV were shaking hands with orphaned baby orangutans. But interesting to think that they may look similar to adult Orang pendeks, but of course the pendeks would have much shorter arms (in relation to their body length) and have a straighter backbone. [ send green star]
Karuna S.	August 22, 2004 11:36 AM oops...sorry Yeti was supposed to be another thread. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Karuna S.	YETI???? August 22, 2004 11:31 AM Yeti is a myth. There are a lot of fables about yeti sightings, which I will post later. It is rumored that when a monk or sadhu is sighted in the mountains after a few decades of isolation and meditation, he looks and behaves unlike a human. Thus, he is mistaken for a yeti. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Karuna S.	Difference August 22, 2004 11:20 AM Thanks for the info on the differences. It is so exciting to discover new connections. I was watching a travel documentary on where the anchor went to the safari park in malaysia and shook hands with'orang utan'...I was surprised becoz i had thought that they were these huge creatues which were really fierce. Here, they were quite tame and human like and tiny. Now that I am reading about orang pendek, I wonder if that is what they were. If you know of any links where I can find more info on either, then please post. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Charith P.	August 22, 2004 8:27 AM I'm really not so sure about this report - this is not from any published paper or research (or none that I can find); just found it on the net. For an anthropologist to have an eyewitness account of this nature - you would expect a little more publicity (or maybe not, says charith's suspicious mind) [ send green star]
Charith P.	August 21, 2004 8:13 AM A dubious Nittaewo sighting from 1984... "I Have Seen The Yeti" (Nittaewo) 1984 Dr. Salvador Martinez, Spanish anthropologist, is one of the very few humans who have had the opportunity to spot the creature. The encounter took place in Sri Lanka, in 1984, though only now is his adventure being made known. The nittaewo, the name by which the natives call this creature on the island, had a human appearance, its body appeared covered with a coat of long hair, and, in some areas, it showed signs of scabs. Despite the time that had elapsed, the anthropologist remembers that the nittaewo began to emit unintelligible sounds before fleeing toward the denseness of the forest. Translation by Richard W. Heiden, logged by Bobbie Short in 1997. [ send green star]
Charith P.	RE: Orang Utan August 21, 2004 5:22 AM "Orang utan" means 'man of the forest', whereas, "Orang Pendek" means 'short man'. Researchers are still uncertain if there's any connection with the actual orangutan species. One theory is that the area they're from is isolated geographically from the rest of the mainland, and also free of ground-dwelling predators. Therefore the apes have stopped being predominantly arboreal and forage on the ground more often - therefore it makes sense to become bipedal, instead of having your eyes so close to the ground -and that's why they're finding footprints. You'd never find a footprint of an orangutan, because they hardly ever come down to the ground. Orang Pendek may well be an ancestral relation of the orangutan. With safety in isolation it can stay on the ground, but with limited resources, it has grown smaller? Just another theory... [ send green star]
Charith P.	Welcome Prasanna! August 21, 2004 5:15 AM Yep, the Nittaewos (or 'clawed ones') from Sri Lanka were one of the little guys I was going to talk about - If I'm not mistaken, its unique in cryptozoological accounts, in that the story recounts the mass extinction (or genocide?) of the entire race/species, at the hands of humans. So people aren't even searching for them anymore, just evidence that they existed. It is still possible to pinpoint the actual cave where they were wiped out, right Prasanna? [ send green star]
Karuna S.	orang utan? August 20, 2004 4:42 PM Is this orang pendek the same as the orang utan. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Prasanna W.	Orange pendek August 20, 2004 9:41 AM Thought I would add my 2 centimes worth:way back in the '60s, a Belgian, Bernard Huelvemans, wrote a book titled 'On the Track of UNknown Animals", where he got together accounts of cryptids world wide.In there, he mentioned a Sri Lankan bipedal possible early hominid, known locally as Nittaewo.They were bipedal, about 4 'tall, covered in reddish hair, and legends had it that there habitat was the jungles of eatern Sri Lanka.The legends also went on to say that the Nittaewo were wiped out by the proto-australoid Veddahs, a Sri Lankan aboriginal group.This event may have happened way back in the Holocene, around 11-10,000 years ago. The Orange Pendek to me sound slightly similar.There may be more accounts of the Nittaewo which I havent come across.I know that there was a skin attributed to one of these species in the Louvre a long time ago-or so apocryphal stories have it.Pretty amazing that the Orange Pendek might still be around.I hope so. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Haoken H.	Charith August 20, 2004 3:03 AM interesting orang pendak, want to hear more about this topic and related stories. (cantik) [ send green star] [ accepted]
Charith P.	Little furry guys August 20, 2004 12:43 AM Not sure about Europe, but you've got a point. Anyway as far as Asia is concerned, there are a LOT of stories about pygmy upright walking red/brown furry people; sometimes mischievious, but often very shy. A lot of indigenous peoples look upon them as neighbours, and so they are left alone. Will post some of the more interesting profiles here soon [ send green star]
Gavin J.	he's really cute! August 19, 2004 8:15 AM Are there any myths that could be based on him? I'm thinking along the lines of 'the little forest people' type myths, knomes, dwarves. But those are European myths I think. [ send green star] [ accepted]
Charith P.	artist's rendition... August 19, 2004 6:50 AM [ send green star]
Charith P.	The Orang Pendek August 19, 2004 6:48 AM This mysterious ape is a personal favourite of mine - basically because its habitat (Sumatra) is tantalizingly close to where I am, in Singapore! Also I've been following several old stories of alleged 'pygmy ape-men' from all over Asia - there has to be some link... Anyway, here's the lowdown, for those of you who haven't heard of it: The Orang Pendek or Orang Pendak is a cryptid that is supposedly an unclassified species of primate similar to the orangutan that inhabits remote regions of the island of Sumatra. The Orang Pendak has been estimated to be only two and a half to five feet in height; its name means "little man" or "short person." According to accounts, this species differs from the orangutan only in that it is fully bipedal and diminutive. The only evidence to be found so far have been foot prints, unidentified primate hairs, and dubious tissue samples. The foot prints are different from all other bigfoot-like tracks in that they are more primate-like, with splayed and elongated digits, as with typical orangutans. However, the footprints are distinctly different than those of orangutans. Unlike the case of other cryptid hominids, some credible scientists are convinced of the possible existence of this alleged species. As is the case with the Yeti, expeditions to find the Orang Pendek turned up no conclusive evidence, save hairs which do not belong to an orang-utan, chimpanzee, gorilla, sun bear, monkey, macaque, tapir, gibbon, langur, or human. Alleged photos of the creature were either proven to be conclusively fake or of too low a quality to be useful. Alleged eye-witness renderings look remarkably like Paranthropus, a bipedal primate that was a precursor to the homo genus. Flora and Fauna International are carrying out research at Mount Kerinci, where it is said to live - and many experts have said that its the most likely cryptid to be proved authentic, in the near future. [ send green star]