Rival Group Claims “Johor Bigfoot” Are Escaped Orangutans

Today, May 14, 2006, somewhat symbolically perhaps, a rival group to Dr. Vincent Chow’s research team is announcing they feel they have the ultimate theory that the Malaysian Bigfoot are nothing more than known orangutans.

Has the discussion of the photographs taken of the “Bigfoot” in Johor revealed anything about these “Mawas” sightings?

In February, I wondered aloud then if the Johor Wildlife Protection Society was merely talking about orangutans when discussing these “Johor Mawas” or “Bigfoot.”

scientific evidence to prove the existence of Bigfoot whose reported sightings recently in the Johor jungles have excited the world’s media. Not just one Bigfoot but a whole colony of the giant, hairy creatures which the society named “Orang Lenggor” (Lenggor People) as one was spotted in an area by that name.

The adult creatures are between 10 and 12 feet tall while their children are 6 to 7 footers. Seventy per cent of the Orang Lenggor have a human appearance but the rest resemble apes…They like to eat fish and fruits they gather in the jungles, including durian. They also have a liking for river water that contains dissolved salt and would walk for miles to get it.

I wrote that I thought a key here is the mention of durian, the favorite fruit of an ape we already know a lot about. Was the society talking about orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), a species that currently inhabits only the islands of Sumatra and Borneo?

Now a Cryptomundo commentor, Angelina Penang of the Asia Paranormal Investigations (API) passes along their theory, on behalf of their group, that they allegedly have solved the mystery. Speaking on behalf of API and its founder Charles Goh, Ms. Penang writes Cryptomundo on May 14th:

We have discovered some facts that seem to indicate that this colony of mawas (Orang Lenggor) may actually be the descendents of a colony of orangutans (mawas) released by the late Sultan of Johor into the Johor jungles some 30 years ago.

It is well known that in the late 1960s, the then Sultan Ismail kept 40 Orangutans of which some were given away, while the rest are believed to be released into Johor forest.

In 1968, 4 Orangutans were given to Perth Zoo from this collection of the colony of Sultan Ismail. They are Pop (male), Puan, Mawas and Binte (3 females). Puan was the founder of the zoo’s present colony; she has produced 11 offspring (the last at the age of 40), and is now one of the oldest known members of her species. She is now 53 years old – which made her 15 at the time she was given away by the late Sultan.

When the colony was first detected in the jungles of Johor in the 70s, there were only 15 members, the source said, adding that two members are believed to have died or got separated from the group and set up their own colonies or groups.

The source said the older members of the Bigfoot then were in their 20s, adding that it was believed that Bigfoot there were now in their 50s to 60s. (Puan was 20’s in the 70s, and now in her 50’s) Over the years, the source said, their number grew to about 40, made up of three families.

“The 40 comprised adults and young ones, as well as males and females,” the source said.

The curator of the Malaysia National Zoo with 40 years experience also thinks likely the possibility of these mawas released into the jungles are surviving and breeding as conditions are not too different between Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo / Sumatra. (Peninsular Malaysia is not known to have mawas, only Sumatra and Borneo has) He said that a big sized mawas weighing more than 100 kgs can account for the big footprints found recently also. (He said that the mawas in his zoo is 37 years old, almost 2m tall (?) and weigh 120 kgs.

I think you will be surprised by their “hominoid” likeness. I am not surprised if they turn out to be the true face of the Johor Mawas when the books’ photos are revealed.

Loren Coleman 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.

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