September 15, 2008
MonsterQuest’s Yeren (China’s Wildman) episode with Adam Davies, Zhou Gouxing and Jeff Meldrum has now been rescheduled to the 21st of September 2008, at 9 pm Eastern. (There has been no explanation why it was not shown yesterday, on Sunday, as previously scheduled.)
If you recall, the ISU press release about the trip noted:
Jeff Meldrum, Ph.D., traveled to China April 28-May 9 [2008] to help produce a documentary for the History Channel about China’s Wildman, the Yeren. He collaborated with anthropologist Zhou Gouxing, Bejing Museum of Natural History, and provincial scientists in Hubei, where they spent a week filming in the Shennogjia Nature Reserve.
Chinese researcher Yuan Zhenxin, above, with the cast of an alleged Yeren from Shennogjia Nature Reserve.
Adam Davies is shown, above, with a 2004 cast of an Orang Pendek track.
The primary organizer and concept promoter for the excursion with Meldrum to China was cryptozoologist Adam Davies, who actually was behind firming up the “Monster Quest” funding for the trip. Davies is the author of a new book (below) on his past trips in search of cryptids. Besides the tome being filled with his funny and interesting insights on daring creature encounters, drinking, and dating, Davies details his remarkable fiscal penny-pinching and travel packages to extend his global adventures. Extreme Expeditions is highly recommended reading for world travelers of the cryptozoological kind or anyone interested in sharing such treks from the comfort of your home.
Extreme Expeditions: Travel Adventures Stalking the World’s Mystery Animals by Adam Davies (NY: Anomalist Books, 2008).
Davies feels that he and Meldrum brought back good news from their efforts in search of the Yeren.
The evidence from the sightings of the Yeren generally speaks of two types of unknown hominoids being reported – one might be a relict population of orangutan and the other a form of Sasquatch found in Asia – as shown in the diversity of drawings of the Yeren.
Davies returned from China with some new thoughts on what he found going on there. He told me that he had used my and Patrick Huyghe’s field guide and its Harry Trumbore drawings (see at bottom) with eyewitnesses, to determine what was being seen.
He wrote: “Yours and Patrick’s book was very useful indeed.”
Other physical evidence was gathered, as well, including the casts Meldrum mentioned, and hair samples.
Extreme Expeditions’ Adam Davies is shown during his documentary film trip seeking Almas in Mongolia.
Davies emailed me, expressing caution because of the documentary television contract he has to honor, but did share this:
The trip was “highly successful” but I am unable to say anymore until the evidence we found is properly analysed. We still are awaiting the results of hair samples.
My view before I went was that Yeren was most likely to be an archaic species of Orang-utan. However, I tend to be much more general now and say it is bipedal, it is an unknown very large primate, but beyond that I cannot say.
Dr. Meldrum was very specific on camera; there was no doubt at all. He much linked it to Sasquatch, and talked about similarities between the two.
I’m looking forward to the other tests, but they will take at least a month to come out.
Adam Davies
Harry Trumbore’s drawing (directly above) of the Chinese Yeren in The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (page 131, 2006) shows the creature as much more anthropoid than in most contemporary renderings, illustrating one version of the recent sightings.
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.
Filed under Breaking News, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Expedition Reports, Television, Yeren