New Yeren Footprints Found
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 28th, 2007
Although I mentioned the footprints in my previously published “Top Ten…for 2007” list, this more detailed news item includes additional information:
The bigger footprint discovered was 30 centimeters long with a width of eight centimeters at the heel and 12 centimeters at the sole.
The investigation into the Shennongjia “wild men” made great progress when witnesses identified two footprints left along the Licha River where the two mysterious creatures had been spotted.
An investigative team consisting of journalists and officials from the local government and scientific investigators were sent out along the Licha River to conduct a thorough investigation on November 20. Two days later professionals from China Association for Scientific Expedition joined them.
The team discovered a series of irregular footprints, averaging one meter apart, along the riverbank. They also found three branches believed to have been broken by the “wild men” in the shrubbery beside the footprints. Two barefoot prints of different sizes were discovered behind a stone. Pointing in the same direction, these adjacent footprints were both identified belonging to left feet. The bigger one was 30 centimeters long with a width of eight centimeters at the heel and 12 centimeters at the sole. The smaller one was 18 centimeters long with an arch-like outside edge.
Veteran forest rangers rooted out the possibility that the footprints belonged to known animals such as bears, antelopes or deer.
The team then reached two of the witnesses, a local resident Wang and his friend Zhang from Xiangfan, Hubei Province. They recalled their encounter with the two mysterious creatures on the morning of November 18. Zhang, along with his guide Wang and other friends, was driving along the Licha River, heading for Laojun Mountain. They were approaching a sharp curve in the mountain road when they spotted two giant, dark figures standing behind a tangled mass of shrubbery some 50 meters away from their car.
According to the witnesses, the two “wild men” were skinny and covered with black hair. The taller one was about 1.7 meters high and the other one was approximately 1.3 to 1.4 meters. Both were quite agile because they quickly fled into the dense forest as soon as they saw the car.
The witnesses’ testimony was in accordance with the investigation results. The investigation team has made a preliminary conclusion that the thrilling event was indeed a real life sighting of a group of upright human-shaped creatures.
According to Luo Yongbin, an official from the foreign affairs office of Shennongjia Nature Reserve government, all the investigation results and evidence, including two plaster models of the footprints, will be submitted soon to the central government. The whole investigation process has been videotaped. All suspicious evidence has been photographed for further analysis.
Source: China.org.cn by Huang Shan November 27, 2007.
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.
I am having a hard time making out any discernible footprint in the photo at all. Is anyone else not seeing it, or do I need glasses? The string is in a pretty good configuration for a human type foot, but there is nothing to suggest to me anything out of the ordinary when looking at the photo on its own merit.
Whatever is in that picture, I’m inclined to lean more toward the perception of people who were there, particularly “veteran forest rangers.”
Fingers crossed that something actually happens with this one. And hopefully it won’t be an “expedition” of hundreds, or even dozens. I’d like to know how many recognized animals, much less unknown ones, those kinds of searches come across. Not to mention how much evidence they trample, misinterpret, or fail to even notice.
A Jane Goodall is what we’re looking for now, and the money to keep her (or him, or two or three or four of them) out there for the time and effort it takes.
very interesting new article about yeren footprints found. thanks bill green
I don’t see anything resembling a footprint either.
Heck, I’m not seeing anything that shows proof that something actually stepped there.
No damaged leaves or grass in the picture to show otherwise.
m_m/atticus: it’s just a picture. 😉
This is why I get so upset with the Footprint Follies. Nobody’s been convinced by a footprint, or a lack of one, yet.
When science finally gets cracking on finding marquee cryptids, trust me, it won’t be one of these photos they’re looking at.
Foot print? Ummm. Ok. If that’s what these people see in this photo. Who am I to say otherwize. I am DAR that’s who. Because like stated above, I don’t see anything about this photo that shows any print. Let alone a foot print. All I see is some string formed into the pattern of a foot. I am no tracker, but I would think some kind of indentation would be present. Maybe it’s there, and I just can’t see it. Hopefully something good comes from this investigation.
A 30 cm footprint wouldn’t impress me much. I’m 6’4″ and that’s the length of my own foot.
A separation of 1 meter between the tracks? now that’s something much more interesting. Even for a tall man, that kind of step would be very tiring, specially in rough terrain.
I tip my hat for the tracker who discerned that footprint though. He’s better than Aragorn!
I don’t see a footprint. I see a piece of string in the shape of a footprint.
I can’t see anything in the picture either, but as DWA says it’s only a picture. I can also agree with DWA about the “expediton” of hundreds. I don’t see how large groups of people expect to find anything. I guess it’s good that people wanna look, but a few people that know what they’re doing would be much better.
I think it’s great the government is taking this seriously. At least so far. Hopefully it’ll continue. Thanks for staying on this Loren.
red_pill_junkie- I was thinking those sizes didn’t sound very big, too. I forgot to put it in my other post.
Hopefully this will turn out to be for real. From the story itself, I guess it is. It’s my naive, “i want to believe” schtick.
“Footprint Follies.” LOL. Like that one, DWA.
1.7 meters translates to about 5 feet, 6 inches. Not as “giant” as I thought.
Now, now, I know it’s just a picture. That’s why I said that this photo didn’t show much on its own merit, but I am aware there are other factors behind what we see. I’m sure that whoever was involved with finding these has some good reason for thinking this is a track. Or maybe they don’t. I’m sure if I looked real hard for something, anything in the ground that resembled a footprint from a hominid, I could find one. Then I could outline it with string and make it seem legit, too. To me this is a rather unimpressive pic, and without that string as a visual aid, I wonder if anyone would see anything resembling a footprint at all.
I agree with DWA and have to give this a big stamp of – INCONCLUSIVE.
The size of these kinds of footprints don’t bother me so much. The creatures were described as being 1.7 meters tall and a smaller one of around 1.3 meters. If you are up to scratch on your metric system, that is not very tall. I am around 1.89 meters and that translates to a little over 6 feet 3 inches. My shoes are 29 centimeters. So really, the feet are a pretty good size for the creatures involved if we are to use a typical human as a reference point.
Also, who is to say that all hairy hominids have to have proportionately huge feet anyway? So personally, the size of these don’t bother me, it is the fact that I can’t see a footprint to begin with that does.
I agree DWA…
I just feel that in a case like this…something more solid or real needs to be had to make it even more authentic.
I’m not seeing it…