September 20, 2007
Adam Davies is shown with a 2004 cast of an Orang Pendek track. Courtesy BBC News. Davies has good news from his latest expedition efforts in search of this hidden primate.
Adam Davies has returned from his pursuit of the Sumatran Orang Pendek, having been gone from September 2 through his return today. In conjunction with a History Channel documentary, Davies was there with British photographer Jeremy Holden, who has worked with Debbie Martyr in the past.
Davies just back from the rainforest, forwards his quick update to me:
The expedition was a huge success. I picked up an Orang-Pendek trail and we made some excellent prints, all of which the History Channel filmed. I and my chief guide Sahar, also picked up bear and golden cat tracks, and some tiger kills – a deer and a boar skull.
The prints are special in that they will show how the creature moves (e.g. how the hallux [big toe] twists in response to movement and how its weight is distributed whilst walking). The prints collected may also contain dermal ridges! I didn’t clean them in the jungle, as I wished to maintain the evidence. The casts have been left with the History Channel to be analysed scientifically (maybe they’ll ask your friend Jeff Meldrum to be involved?).
I’ve requested for the casts to be returned to me when they are done. I don’t need to tell you that this will be something of a world first, as it is clearly unique evidence. Jeremy reinforces this point to the camera and it is all filmed by the channel on location. The prints are also very similar to the one you’ve got a copy of [from the previous Orang Pendek expedition].
BTW, the earthquakes were a sight to behold. I was on top of Gunung Tujuh when the first one hit – the ground seemed to turn to liquid. All the birds went mad, the lake pitched, and being volcanic, bubbled rather worryingly!
Down in Padang, I saw a few of the collapsed buildings, and learnt that a lot of people had been sleeping in tents outside, afraid of their houses falling on them.
This History Channel documentary will be special. It felt very dramatic at the time [in the field], and I’m sure it will look great when the programme airs.Adam Davies, September 20, 2007.
The following are other photographs from the past explorations to Sumatra by Adam Davies and Andrew Sanderson.
The rather specific Orang Pendek track they have found, photographed, and cast, shows toes at the end of the foot and something out to the side, which may be from another toe, the hallux (which would be typical for a pongid).
The Extreme Expeditions pages show the obtaining of the 2004 cast in Sumatra, on their pages 13 through 15. They also show where and how they obtained the 2001 cast (below) here, the original that was on display at Bates College (of which I now have a first-generation copy).
Please click on the image for a larger version.
Please click on the image for a larger version.
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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