I really thought I had heard of and read about all of the major big cryptids that are theorized.
I don’t know how I missed it, but I didn’t know a lick about Orang Pendek until my TiVo did me the service of taping an episode of “National Geographic’s Is It Real?” all about the little fella.
In the remote jungles of Sumatra, there is a legend of a bipedal ape-like creature that has been roaming the area for centuries.
The farmers of the land seem to treat it as if there is no myth whatsoever, but science has yet to capture or otherwise prove its existence.
The locals call it Orang Pendek which reportedly means “short person” in Indonesian.
My first thought when starting the episode was “Oh great, another bigfoot. Woohoo.” It seems like every area has their own bigfoot and all of the stories always seem the same.
Orang Pendek is no bigfoot, though. Orang Pendek is tiny — reportedly never more than 3 or 4 foot tall. He’s covered in fur, and has been known to rummage through and steal the crops of the local farmers.
There have been a number of expeditions to try to recover the creature, but other than a few compelling eye-witness accounts there has been no body or even photographic evidence of the creature.
What has been found, however, is a few tracks and a few hairs. The hairs were sent in for DNA analysis but only returned human DNA.
My first thought was that it was because it was human hair, but the scientist conducting the tests warned that it could be from improper handling of the hairs.
The tracks are odd things, too. The big toe is off to the side of the foot, instead of pointing forward like in humans. This is interesting, since it would be bipedal motion that isn’t quite like our own.
National Geographic is funding a study for which they have placed numerous cameras around the Sumatran jungle that will take pictures of any animals that walk by. Only time will tell if they catch the elusive Orang Pendek on film.