Marcos Wild Boy
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 17th, 2006
Source: Sedilia, Missouri’s Daily Democrat August 21, 1875
Credit: Fabio Picasso
Could such reports as this “Wild Boy” from the Philippines be a record of contact with an adult hairy little person related to the Flores people, Homo floresiensis?
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’ve said this before but I used to work with an Asian girl who had some friends in the Phillipines. She told me about how they used to talk about ‘little people’ that they not only knew about but were afraid of because apparently they are known for their taste for human infants. Then again it could just be a ‘bogey man’ story… but it sounded like tales of a real creature rather than something imaginary.
I don’t think so. It could just be a child who lived in the wild or something. Since there is no description of him, this could be:
a) false
b) true, but exaggerated
c) a child who was born in the wild and raised in it
I rule out the impossible until more facts are given for anything.
DO writes: “there is no description of him.”
Excuse me but what is with all of the negative misinformation?
The article clearly is describing a human-like individual having the “appearance” of a twelve year old whose “body” is “covered with hair four inches long.” Isn’t that a description? LOL.
Furthermore, behavior is described…in terms of wading in water, running away, striking, kicking, lunging, and following people.
Frankly the details in this one little item are more that we get in some cases where all someome might say is “I saw a Bigfoot.”
Sounds like Homo floresiensis to me. I’m not sure on this, weren’t they supposed to have evolved and lived at Flores only?
Could be really nice if they were still around, think there’s a chance?
Dear Loren,
Lastensugle says, “Sounds like Homo floresiensis to me,” but then adds, “weren’t they supposed to have evolved and lived at Flores only?” Some “mainstream” anthropologists in the last couple of years have suggested that Homo floresiensis may have spread to other Indonesian islands as well, and gives a certain possible credibility not only to the “ebu gogo” of Flores folklore, but also to Sumatra’s “orang pendek” as well. If Homo floresiensis spread in prehistoric times to Sumatra, why not also to the Philppines as well? Indeed, in _The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates_, you yourself and Patrick Huyghe mentioned the “batutut” in Malaysia’s Sabah state on the island of Borneo, which lies immediately South of the Philippines.
Also, for whatever it’s worth, Irish folklore describes the “grogoch,” a naked (unclothed) hairy reddish dwarf about 3 feet tall. That sounds suggestively like a Homo floresiensis, “ebu gogo,” or “orang pendek” to me! Maybe the “Hobbits” made it in ancient times all the way from Indonesia to Ireland?
Cheers,
T. Peter, author of “Little Men, Hobbits, and Ultra-Pygmies,” FATE, August 2006.
I’m confused about the location. At the end of the article I see the “Austin (Texas) Stateman” reference, but then the text below the article states the “wild boy” was from the Phillipines. Can this be clarified, or did I miss something. Thanks! 🙂
Also, I wanted to mention a possibility. I heard about Danny, the “Wolf Man” who suffers from hypertrichosis which causes extreme hair growth all over the body. He worked in a circus in Mexico. I wonder if any babies born with this condition in many years past, unlike Danny who lives a civilized life as a normal human being, may have been left in the wild to survive on their own, and grew up as a “wild child”? Just a random thought I had. However, I did note that there are roughly only 2-3 families in the world that have this condition. Thanks for your time.
Planettom: It was the practice in newspapers of the 19th century to reprint the story and then note the newspaper that was the exact source of the article. Therefore, even though the citation is correct and this was found in a Missouri paper of 1875, they reprinted the original article from the Texas newspaper.
So was this Marcos in the Philippines or near San Marcos Springs, Texas or San Marcos, Texas?
You just never know.
This case just sounds like another feral child. There is no evidence supporting the possibuility that it could be of the Homo floresiensis family other than local legends, but still, the possibility is intriguing.
I would agree with greenteaaddict, except for the 4 inch long hair on its body. No matter how feral one is, you can just grow 4 inches of body hair.
I’ve seen shows on feral children, and although they act like an animal, they still look very much human.
In fact, you can grow long body hair all over.
Here is a news story about a 3 year old child in the United States which interesting implies that both mental and physical development are slow in people with werewolf syndrome (hypertrichosis).
Could our Philippino cryptid simply be a human child with werewolf syndrome? There are stranger humans in the world than that!
If some genetic variation like hypertrichosis were to occur in some relatively isolated population it might overtake the whole group, as with pygmies resulting in an actual race of all-over hairy people.
Pygmies are held in superstitious dread by their normal neighbors, imagine how the neighbors would regard hypertrichosoids.
How do you connect this to the Phillipine Islands? I see no reference there, and would be more inclined to assume Texas.
LOL 😀
Yes, “quarterhorse” and “lassoed” sound more Texan than Philippino!
Chris.
I definately agree-the language sounds more like Texan.
++
Also, in regards to Loren’s response of my previous post
-The notion of ‘cryptid’ is a last resort by me. In this case, this thing could easily be a pygmy or something. Not all unknowns are bizarre, unique animals! This is, as said, quite old. Whether or not it is a ‘homo floresiensis’ remains both unknown and superfluous to know. It’s impossible to actually know, as it is long dead.
They could have taken a picture of it, since cameras had been around for some time.
And the sentence ‘it follows its captor around like a dog’ is inhumane. Even if it were a ‘homo floresiensis’ capturing it like that seems crude and abhorrent.
Just my opinions.
-Dark~Obsessor
I responded to the fact there was a description, which there was within the news item. I was not debating any intrepretation of that description, only that one did, indeed, exist.
I’m still intrigued by the – was it Hawaiian? – census which recorded some number of little people. Does anyone have any further info on that?
This reads like it is out of Texas. San Marcos is only about 30 miles south of Austin. There are other stories out of that area, also from the 19th century.
The stories about the Werewolf of Converse also supposedly happened sometime in the late 1800s, and Converse is 40 miles southwest of San Marcos, basically a suburb of San Antonio now.
And going back even further there are stories about the Wild Woman of Navidad from the 1830s. Navidad is about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Not any “modern” incidents I know of in the area though.
This sounds like a feral child. There is an excellent website on feral children if anyone is interested.
I don’t remember when, but I saw once a TV show about feral children, and a scientist said that sometimes malnutrition triggers abnormal hair growth in the whole body. If I recall it correctly, the show even mentioned the case of a kid in Africa. When he was discovered, the child was completely covered with short hair and scared the witness who first spotted him. The latter thought the creature he was looking at wasn’t human at all.
H. Flor. had normal human feet. Orang Pendek tracks have the big toe separated towards the heel, rather like a thumb, or the Gnome Linux interface’s symbol. IIRC.
So, they wouldn’t be the same thing.