New Name Nominee: Johor Hominid

Environmentalist Vincent Chow and palaeoanthropologist Sean Ang, who are both involved in researching the question of unknown hairy hominoids in Malaysia, have created a website to focus their pursuit.

The researchers have also, through the mere need to purchase a domain name, coined a phrase for their local Malaysian Bigfoot, capturing the notion they are elusive giant bipeds from a certain area, by terming them, specifically, "Johor Hominid."

According to the New Straits Times, the website promotes the fact that the Johor Hominid phenomenon is "probably the most significant and mind-shattering discovery in anthropology."

Vincent Chow, above, from an earlier news item about the photographs of the Malaysian Mawas (now the Johor Hominid) he says he was shown.

Furthermore, "Chow said the first mission of the website was to protect the Johor Hominid so that its conservation was guaranteed by the Government as a part of world heritage."

According to some who have been able to access the website, there is not much new there to read yet. For others, it has been frustrating as it seems to be non-responsive and offline.

Since December 2005, several names have been associated with the reports of humanlike hairy creatures from the province of Johor on mainland Malaysia, including Wild People, Mawas, Orang Dalam, Hantu Jarang Gigi, and Bigfoot.

"Johor Hominid" probably will catch on because of its naturally simplistic combination of a regional name and a scientific-based anthropological noun, mixed with a little alliteration, as a focused cryptid label.

Appreciation to artist Peter Loh for sharing his imagery and cartoons concerning the many interesting Johor Hominid events.

Unfortunately, the text on the new website does, indeed, does list the binturong (Arctictis binturong), shown below, contextually, as a species of primate. Hopefully, this is a mistake that will be corrected quickly, and some more thought placed in translations and content for the new johorhominid.org website. Until the so-called earlier Mawas photographs that Vincent Chow was shown are brought forth, the begging question will be…where are they, why can’t they be published, and what do they show. Mistakes like this binturong incident only go further to distract from the serious research into the Johor Hominid question.

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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