Malaysia Media Promotes Web Mania

According to the Malaysia Star of Thursday July 13, 2006’s article, “Big draw for Bigfoot site,” it’s all about the numbers first, and the hominids second.

In the piece by Nelson Benjamin of The Star, dateline Johor Baru, the reporter writes:

A website dedicated to the Malaysian version of Bigfoot has created a buzz among enthusiasts of the enigmatic creature worldwide. The site (www.johorhominid.org), which has sketches of a ape-like beast and a hairy paw, has attracted some 16,000 hits.

Vincent Chow, a Johor branch member of the Malaysian Nature Society, one of the two persons who developed the website, said the sketches were authentic reproductions made from a picture taken of the creature.

The article, which contains no images of the illustrations or the photographs mentioned, goes on:

“I have seen the image but the owner of the picture does not want it to be out yet. So I have only been able to draw a sketch of the creature,” he said, adding that his partner Sean Ang, a palaoanthropologist (one who studies extinct members Homo sapiens genus) was also convinced after seeing the pictures.

As comments and discussions at Cryptomundo about Ang’s and Chow’s website have noted for days, the sketches, not the photos, are the only images being shown. Benjamin mentions that the site has…

…a sketch that was purportedly made from an actual picture captioned JH001: Joman (Johor Man) depicted a hairy paw with short fingernails.

The article curiously quotes Vincent Chow as saying “that the picture would be shown when the time was right.” No details or clarification is given on that timing.

“We do not own it. The owner is worried that people may hunt this creature down or what could happen to it if captured,” he said, adding that it was the only website in Johor dedicated for discussions and to promote awareness on Bigfoot.

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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