Red Elephants of New Guinea
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 4th, 2007
I receive good questions emailed to me via my lorencoleman.com website’s contact form.
For example, a Japanese reader asked today about an interesting subject, which I will label as the Red Elephants of New Guinea:
Hello, I enjoyed reading your website. Thank you.
I have read a Japanese book about cryptozoology by Mr. Tatsuo Saneyoshi. In the book the author mentioned red elephants that were sighted in the Nassau Mountains, Indonesia by two American Navy pilots on June 15, 1952.
Mr. Tatsuo Saneyoshi is a well-known cryptozoologist in Japan. In his book he also states that those pilots who sighted the red elephants discovered a huge canyon, much like Grand Canyon in the U.S., at the same time they saw the elephants. It has been confirmed in 1955 that the canyon existed, but no one has seen the elephants since.
The author mentions that Dr. Lawrence at University of Massachusetts commented regarding the event stating the pilots probably saw other mammals that resembled elephants, and the red color is probably either dust or the reflection of the sun light. But Mr. Saneyoshi argues that there are no mammals that resemble elephants in New Guinea in Indonesia.
The author says that there are no known fossils of ancient elephants in New Guinea, but there are many found in nearby Java, including Stegodon. He theorizes the possibility of ancient elephants crossing the ocean long ago and surviving to this day, unseen by humans.
I was trying to find any information about [the U.S. Navy pilots sighting] in English but [have had] no luck yet. Do you know anything about it?Shunsuke Yokota
This one is a new mystery to me.
I realize there are reports of huge “prehistoric” elephants from the hidden valleys of Nepal, which may be related to these stories. However, the description of those elephants being “red” is not part of the Nepalese reports. The general consensus is that the Nepalese stories are being caused by old male Indian elephants being misidentified as “prehistoric” or Stegodon.
In east Africa, especially in the Tsavo of Kenya, “red elephants” are known and often photographed. The reddish color is due to the red earth stuck to the sides and backs of known African elephants who have rubbed it on themselves. However, there is nothing cryptozoological about those red elephants.
Therefore, I call on the readers of Cryptomundo: Have you heard of any sources in English or other languages discussing the Red Elephants of New Guinea, Indonesia?
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
My grandfather was in New Guinea during World War II — and spent several years slogging through the jungles there. Tough duty? I’d say — he was one of only two guys in his unit to make it home.
He’s told us many stories about headhunters, mosquitoes, his feet being so wet for so long that his boots rotted off, his bouts with malaria — lots and lots of horrors, but never a mention of an elephant.
More than likely the elephants that were seen were normal elephants. However, in order to keep cool, many elephants will splash themselves with water and mud. Depending on the type of soil in the region, when the mud hardens on their skin it will give them a reddish coat.
Well, the only problem, of course, is there are no elephants on New Guinea, so it is anything as simple as they were normal elephants.
I took it for granted folks would know this or look it up on the internet. Take for instance the following from, WWF’s Ask The Scientist:
But there are places on the island that we haven’t yet been. Remember the finds from last year, where even the natives hadn’t been there for quite some time simply because of a dispute. What other areas are there that haven’t been researched? The article (that I read) didn’t say anything about how big these elephants are suppose to be. Anything is possible.
Global contact like this is one of the reasons I love this site! 🙂
I don’t agree that anything is possible. New Guinea is way the wrong side of the Wallace line: it has never been part of the Asian land mass even during the Ice Ages which is why it has no Asian animals. It was certainly joined to Australia at times, so it has all those marsupials. Any large cryptid hiding in a valley there would be part of the Australian megafauna, not the Asian kind. I suppose it’s impossible that the diprotodon had a trunk? After all, it shared the diet and habitat of the elephant.
This is a good news item. One of the best posted to this site in months, in my opinion.
Perhaps there is a reader with more information.
Or Indian elephants could have been brought at some point in the past by Indo-Chinese colonizers. That wouldn’t be easy, but they are useful domestic animals.
Some of the estimates of the size of range required by a family group of elephants in Central Africa are upwards of 5800 square kilometers. A breeding population of elephants anywhere would need a WHOLE lotta space. Each of these individual creatures has to eat an enormous volume of vegetation, daily, in order to live. In a small (compared to thousands of square kilometers), restricted area it wouldn’t take very many of them to stress the available resources to a degree that would render the area uninhabitable by elephants, in a relatively short period of time. Fewer than it would take to constitute a breeding population, I would guess. To my mind, this makes it very unlilkely that an undocumented population of elephants exists in New Guinea. I’m cautiously intrigued by stories of the Ropen that come from there. But elephants- extremely doubtful, IMHO.
grearanarch makes an excellent point about the Wallace line as does sshaper about indian elephants.
But let’s not forget some pretty significant points, if we assume this is a legitimate sighting. These eyewitnesses were in planes. We have no idea how fast they were flying, how high, or the how long they observed these animals. All we really know is in 1952 pilots reported sighting animals that looked to them like “red” elephants. They could really have been red elephants, or survivingb diprodonts. Or they could have been just cows.
Another thought would be the SeeBees or similar Australian units. Might any construction unit in WWII have used Indian (or Burmese or Sumatran) elephants for moving heavy objects?
I guess I’m thinking along the lines of how camels were reintroduced to the American West.
I’m from Indonesia. Afaik there are no elephants in New Guinea (Papua). There are many canyon and steep hills and mountains with a very dense vegetation. I dont know how an elephant could move freely inside of the jungle. Unless there are some hidden unknown areas as Papua is a very large island with many unexplored areas.
Good critical thinking sschaper. And, IF the story is true and the pilots actually saw elephants it’s a pretty convincing arguement.
A very small group of Asian elephants are introduced to New Guinea during WWII by the US, Aussies or even more likely, the Japanese to aid in jungle constuction. All are the same sex for obvious reasons.
WWII is is over and the elephants are abandoned, left to fend for themselves. Elephants are herd animals so whatever number remains stay together. Elephants live a long time. Elephants roll in mud. New Guinea has plenty of red mud.
Bottomline, in 1952, some American pilots might have sighted a last small herd of non-breeding Asian elephants that had recently rolled in red New Guinea mud. Naturally, none are still alive today.
But the most important thing about the story is the credibility of the original sources, documentation. Otherwise, it’s just another internet myth.
Really interesting story. Where else could you find a little gem like this?
Don’t elephants swim? Isn’t New Guinea an Island? Could an elephant swim to New Guinea? Or would it be too far for them to swim even if they can swim? But if they aren’t native to the Island they must of got there by swimming. I think the mud theory is a pretty good explanation for the color.
This is interesting: http://www.omniology.com/Micro-EvolutionOfElephants.html
Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my question. I will contact the publisher of the Japanese book to see if I can reach the author.
I also found a Japanese wesite regarding “Red Elephants in New Guinea” (http://umafan.blog72.fc2.com/blog-entry-258.html) if you can read Japanese. In the website, the writer speculates that there is a possibility of undiscovered species of large marsupial that somewhat resembled elephants.
But it is interesting to hear about the theory of Asian elephants that were brought to New Guinea during WWII.
Thanks for great information.
Yeah, could have swum over and could have reddish tint from the reddish dust/mud but more likely not elephants or just Navy pilot humor. BTW, during the Vietnam festivities the Americans, Vietnamese and Thais used elephants to hault equipment and to construct communications sites in SE Asia. Elephants don’t do well in jungles and they won’t work above a few thousand feet due to less oxygen.
maybe the canyon is the answer.
Maybe they came from a circus train wreck?
I grew up in New Guinea and spent 12 years in the jungles. My father was a Missionary and travelled extensively (on foot)in the Highlands (Mountain) regions of Papua and New Guinea from 1950 to 1970’s.
I have never seen nor heard of elephants anywhere in Papua, New Guinea or the Indonesian western half of the Island. Also, it would seem extremely unlikely for a species as large as an elephant to remain hidden in a remote area of the Island for long periods of time.
The possibility of secret red elephants in New Guinea may be slim, but after reading the whole discussion, I find that they have very confidently taken up residence in my head. I just joined cryptomundo.com on the basis of this thread. 🙂