Teams to Search for Orang Dalam
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 25th, 2006
Malaysian media reports today that two teams of researchers will search the wilderness areas for their local “Bigfoot,” which, as I have mentioned before here (1, 2, 3), should more properly be called “Orang Dalam.” These cryptid hairy hominoids have been seen in the Malaysian rainforests of Tanjung Piai, Mersing, Kahang, Endau-Rompin National Park and Kota Tinggi.
The recent wave of media interest developed after workers at a fish pond in Kampung Mawai, Kota Tinggi claimed to have seen in November 2005, a three-member family of these creatures, composed of two apparent adults and a child.
As to the proposed expedition teams, the Bernama news service quotes the Chief Minister of Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman as telling reporters after this week’s state executive meeting today: “One team will explore the forest areas while the other [will be] to study the existence of the creature.”
Abdul Ghani remarked that the expedition to track the creature would be carried out in stages with the cooperation of the Johor National Park Corporation.
“We have obtained [a] description of the creature from those who claimed to have seen it … we hope the expedition will be able to prove its existence,” he added.
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.