Poser over baby Bigfoot poachers

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Friday/National/20060421080535/Article/index_html
Poser over baby Bigfoot poachers
21 Apr 2006
R. Sittamparam

KOTA TINGGI: Could the people in four-wheel-drive vehicles and a truck purportedly carrying a baby Bigfoot, who dropped in for dinner at a restaurant at a rest area at Felda Tenggaroh 2 here last month, be poachers?

This is the question on the minds of people at the rest area who saw the group of about 20 men and their vehicles bearing the Wildlife Department licence plates.

The Wildlife Department has denied that such an operation was carried out by its officers.

They are now asking if the group, which had also been seen at two other rest stops along Jalan Mersing and the town area around the same time, could be Bigfoot poachers.

According to people at Felda Tenggaroh 2, it was raining at the time and the casually-dressed men who arrived in their mud-splattered vehicles were sitting near the shop after having their dinner.

Some of the men were seen chatting with a couple of salesgirls at a shop, and when asked where they came from, they said had come from the jungle further up Jalan Mersing.

The men also told the girls that they had come from Kuala Lumpur and had camped in the jungle for the past two or three days, adding that they had shot a baby Bigfoot using a tranquiliser gun.

When the girls asked if it was a mawas (orang utan) they had shot, the men confirmed that it was indeed a Bigfoot creature and volunteered to show it to them.

However, when the girls went outside the shop with the men, the truck where the baby Bigfoot was believed to have been kept, was just being driven away.

Met yesterday, the girls said following a newspaper report on their story about the Bigfoot hunters on Wednesday, officers from the district Wildlife Department had quizzed them on the validity of their story.

The girls, who did not wish to be named, said they told the officers what they had seen and heard from members of the expedition group last month.

A businessman at the Kota Tinggi town area, who had also met the expedition members, claimed that he had taken a peek into the truck purportedly containing the Bigfoot and saw something big lying inside.

However, as the window screen of the truck was tinted, he could not see the creature clearly.

He added that the group members had turned down his request to photograph the creature with his camera phone.

Meanwhile, bio-diversity researcher Vincent Chow said there was absolutely no protection for the Johor Bigfoot and, therefore, it was easy for poachers to capture them.

"The Bigfoot, which has been frequently sighted at the fringes of the jungle here recently, has not been placed on the State’s list of endangered species and no law has been drawn up to protect them.

"This is a dangerous situation and if nothing is done, the Bigfoot population in our jungles could be wiped out," he said.

Tech Tags: Bigfoot Sasquatch poachers Johor Johor+Bigfoot

Minnesota Sasquatch Video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=78fVKgqkQyA

The skeptics are not being kind to the video, but as usual, I'll let you be the judge.

Tech Tags: Minnesota Sasquatch Bigfoot video Sasquatch+video bigfoot+video

Grieving son accuses police of 'legalised bodysnatching'

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=324512006
Grieving son accuses police of 'legalised bodysnatching'
GARETH ROSE
Fri 3 Mar 2006

THE son who helped keep his elderly mother's body in a freezer for 11 days has accused the police who discovered her of "legalised bodysnatching".

Philip Irvine, helped his father Desmond take 74-year-old Veronica from their Edinburgh flat to a holiday home in Berwick where she was kept in the deep freeze.

He said they were respecting her last wishes and police, who investigated after relatives became concerned that no funeral had been arranged, were insensitive.

Philip, 36, was today reported as saying: "The police have not respected my mother's wishes.

"They have been very insensitive - it's legalised body-snatching.

"My father has been very anxious over this.

"He was arrested and taken away and they kept him in an unheated cell, and he had to beg for them to put the heating on.

"We have just been devastated. It's so unfair.

"It's hard to find the strength to cope with what the police have done, and what with my mother passing it's almost too much at times."

He and his father are understood to now be attempting to get Mrs Irvine's body back.

"She would have been shocked

if she had known this was going to happen to her. My mother always understood we would arrange things for her. She placed her trust in us."

Police insisted today that Philip and Desmond, 74, of Valleyfield Street, Tollcross, were potentially committing a criminal offence by attempting to store her in a freezer.

Lothian and Borders Police spokeswoman said: "A number of concerns were raised by other family members that Mrs Irvine had died and no funeral had been arranged.

"Because the death had occurred in our force area we were directed to look into it by the procurator fiscal.

"A number of concerns quickly became apparent. One - the death had not been registered.

"Two - that the woman had died in Scotland but her body had been taken to England, another country.

"And three - she had not been committed for burial or cremation. These are potentially criminal matters. By the direction of the fiscal we had to recover the body. That was something that had to be done from an official point of view, but also because family members had been concerned.

"That was explained to Mr Irvine and people would not expect us to do anything different. Once we had found where she was we had to resolve the situation."

Mrs Irvine, 74, died of natural causes at her home in Edinburgh on Valentine's Day.

It was reported today that Philip and his father staged a last supper for his mother on February 15 where they placed her at a table before putting her in the freezer.

His father informed a doctor that his wife had passed away before, helped by Philip, he dressed her in her favourite frock, put her body in a wheelchair, and took her down to a taxi which drove them 60 miles south to Berwick.

His father kept her in a chest freezer, similar to the kind used to store frozen food in a supermarket, in the family's run-down holiday home in the town and stayed there for 11 days grieving.

Philip said: "We did it because we had not said goodbye to her."

Desmond Irvine was reported as saying: "I wanted to grieve properly and you can't just leave someone lying about.

"My wife was a beautiful person. She was a dedicated nurse and everybody loved her."

Desmond added that he did not expect to be arrested by police.

"I opened the door believing everything was in order, but they arrested me. I was taken 50 miles away in the car and detained for about nine hours," he was reported as saying.

"I told the police how the chiller cabinet worked to keep my wife safe. I did not want to leave her at an undertaker's."

"I had to notify my relatives abroad - they couldn't just come at the drop of a hat."

[via Boing Boing]

Tech Tags: bodysnatching corpse corpse+snatching police frozen death

Hunting for Malaysia's 'Bigfoot'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4759018.stm
Hunting for Malaysia's 'Bigfoot'
By Jonathan Kent
BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur
Last Updated: Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 14:13 GMT

The village of Mawai Lama in the Malaysian state of Johor is a sleepy row of wooden fronted shop-houses set back from the Sedili River.

Yet Mawai is one of the most intriguing places in Malaysia.

According to local historians, Mawai's original name was Mawas, and Mawas is the name locals give to a legendary creature known the world over as Bigfoot.

The people of Mawas certainly seem to believe in the creature from which their village takes its name.

Some, like Aji the boatman, say they have seen it.

"It was about 10 or 11 at night. I saw something, but I didn't know what sort of creature it was. But I can definitely see the eyes were red. And it made a noise, Woooooo!" Aji said.

"Maybe it was scared off by my headlight and I was scared by him so we both rushed off in different directions and later I came back and found the footprints," he said.

Hunt for food

Mawai lies at one end of the Panti mountains, a densely forested and steep-sloped ridge at the southern end of the Malay peninsular.

On the other side of the range is Kampung Batu Empat. A few weeks ago some unusual muddy footprints were found on the road nearby.

Vincent Chow, of the Malaysian Nature Society, had some photos.

"Based on what we've learned, this is the southern end of their migratory route and because the forests have become fragmented they're rather confined now," Mr Chow said.

Traces of the muddy prints were still on the road.

"They move around looking for fruits, sometimes they go looking for them in villages. They're also looking for a mate and for salt."

Prompted by the footprints and a recent spate of sightings, the Johor state government is planning a team to start looking for Bigfoot.

The reports of sightings are nothing new. Five years ago, while driving up Malaysia's main North-South highway, public relations consultant Eva Hawa says she saw a creature fitting Bigfoot's description crossing the road in broad daylight

"It was hairy, it was big, it was about six to seven feet tall. He moved right across in front of my car. He has a hunch and walked like a very old man," she said.

Factors which can be argued in favour of Bigfoot's existence include the legends from different parts of the world which seem to bear a degree of similarity to one another, despite having emerged separately. There are the sightings. And there is the fact that a giant ape, Gigantopithecus blacki, is known to have lived in Asia until around 300,000 years ago.

And there is the discovery, on the Indonesian island of Flores in late 2004, of skeletons interpreted by some anthropologists as belonging to a hominid population dubbed hobbits. There are still natural wonders to be discovered, even in this day and age, not least in the forests of South East Asia.

The primatologist Jane Goodall is one of those who expect Bigfoot to be found.

"People from very different backgrounds and different parts of the world have described very similar creatures behaving in similar ways and uttering some strikingly similar sounds," she said in a newspaper interview three years ago. "As far as I am concerned, the existence of hominids of this sort is a very real probability."

Doubters

However, the doubters - and they are legion - ask why no giant ape remains more recent than a quarter of a million years old have been found. And as the forests and wilderness shrink, why has Bigfoot not broken cover and been definitively recorded?


One man who has no doubts is Abdul Rahman Ahmad, a former factory manager. His late brother was Johor's Chief Game Warden and had seen Bigfoot footprints 30 years ago.

When we arrived to visit him, Abdul Rahman was very excited.

"Four days ago my [workers] heard Bigfoot calling in the jungle. They've found footprints."

Early the next morning, accompanied by four of Abdul Rahman's Indonesian workers, we set off to find the site where the prints were spotted. As we trekked through the forest there was a crashing in the trees. We had disturbed a herd of wild water buffalo.

But when we got to the riverside where the workers said they had seen Bigfoot tracks, all we found was buffalo hoof marks. There was nothing. We pressed on. I was shown a branch "broken by Bigfoot", another stripped of leaves "by the ape man".

For almost three hours the Indonesians led us through the trees, through rivers and for all I know around in circles.

Finally we reached the first river at a point higher up than we had originally explored.

And there, beside the river, in the soft sand, were footprints.

They were distinctive, perhaps 20cm across and 40, perhaps 45cm long.

There was a bulge where a human corn might be, as though the foot had an opposable thumb rather than a big toe. There were three of them, some better defined, some more complete, than others.

All I can tell you is they were big, they were foot shaped and they were there.

Tech Tags: Malaysia Bigfoot Malaysia+Bigfoot Johor Johor+Bigfoot Mawai Mawas BBC

On Bigfoot's Trail

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/02/26/on_bigfoots_trail/
On Bigfoot's Trail
By Stacey Chase
February 26, 2006

Loren Coleman chases legendary beasts, from the Loch Ness Monster to the Abominable Snowman to Bigfoot, that science has never been able to verify but that make even skeptics wonder: What if?


Most reports that Loren coleman gets turn out to be fakes or mundane animals. "But it's that 20 percent," he says, "that keep me going." (Globe Photo / Tanit Sakakini)

To believers, doubters, even skeptics, Bigfoot makes a big impression. The replica 8 1/2 - foot hairy hominoid -- crafted from the fur of musk oxen and buffalo, a hulking presence on the porch of a brown-and-yellow home in Portland, Maine -- scares the bejesus out of the UPS man. Still, it's right at home here on the doorstep of a man who has spent a lifetime investigating mysterious animal sightings. "I don't particularly feel like a strange person," Loren Coleman says. "It's the subject I study that's strange."

He is a leading figure in the world of cryptozoology, a field whose legitimacy is disputed. Coleman has trekked to 49 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, and Scotland, gathering physical evidence and eyewitness accounts of Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman, the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman, thunderbirds, and other legendary beasts not verified by conventional science but storied enough to make us wonder: What if?

"Eighty percent of all the accounts that come to me are misidentifications, are mundane animals - a few fakes, a few hoaxes," Coleman acknowledges. "But it's that 20 percent of the core unknowns that keep me going." And he's not chasing after unicorns. Coleman cites a pantheon of animals once deemed hypothetical but since authenticated: mountain gorillas, giant pandas, okapis, coelacanths, ivory-billed woodpeckers.

The rumored animals -- so-called cryptids -- may be totally unknown or rediscovered species thought to have been extinct. Initial accounts of such animals "are always fantastic," he says. "The early reports of mountain gorillas said that they all stood upright, that they squeezed to death native women and attacked hunters."

Coleman made the news late last year when he, along with a subsidiary of the toy giant Hasbro, announced plans for a $1 million bounty for evidence that would lead to the live, safe capture of Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman, or the Loch Ness Monster. (The bounty was quickly rescinded amid concerns it would spark a frenzy and cause injury to the hunters and the hunted.)

A twice-divorced single dad, Coleman shares his four-bedroom home that doubles as the International Cryptozoology Museum (visits by appointment) with two sons, 16 and 20, and two chirpy parakeets. His day job is dissecting human behavior -- specifically, youth suicide. Coleman, who has a master's degree in social work, is a consultant to the Maine Youth Suicide Program. "Suicide is the ultimate mystery," he says. "And I'm very interested in mysteries."

The oldest of four children of a firefighter and a homemaker, Coleman grew up in Decatur, Illinois. He recalls being mesmerized at age 12 by the Japanese flick Half Human, about a huge, hairy, manlike mammal reputed to live in the Himalayas. If the allure of the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti, captured Coleman as a boy, it has yet to let him go. "So I'm 58," he says. "I feel, sometimes, like I'm 8 or 18."

"It's really about passion and patience," Coleman says of cryptozoology. Says Sue O'Halloran, a colleague at the youth suicide program: "We kind of joke when we're driving north that he should keep his eyes peeled in case something should run across the road."

Along the way from 8 to 58, Coleman became a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, a vegetarian, and a baseball nut. Today, one can almost see a little of the Yeti in his pale-blue eyes, framed by white hair and beard. But he is dead serious about his pursuit of phantom creatures and holds that cryptozoology is another branch of natural history, akin to anthropology or biology, even though there are those who consider it fringe science. "Among monster hunters, Loren's one of the more reputable," says Benjamin Radford, managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. "But I'm not convinced that what cryptozoologists seek is actually out there."

Coleman, however, estimates he has taken 8,300 credible eyewitness reports of encounters with hypothetical animals. He keeps a smattering of evidence at his house-cum-museum -- for example, fur and fecal material found in the vicinity of Bigfoot and Yeti sightings. "I'm really interested in measurable, tangible, scientific evidence," Coleman says. "We need DNA."

His edge-of-reality museum sits on an ordinary street and displays his quirky humor as much as his life's work. Taxidermy lines the walls, and bookshelves and bins are crammed with oddities, including 150 or so Bigfoot or Sasquatch plaster footprint casts, a variety of real and reproduction skulls like "Gigantopithecus," monster action figures, and souvenir kitsch.

Although none of his work is making him rich, Coleman has written or co-written 26 books, including the popular Mysterious America and Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America. He also publishes a blog at cryptomundo.com. He has consulted on TV shows, among them NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, and the Hollywood movie The Mothman Prophecies.

Though he has yet to find Bigfoot, delusional fans have had no problem hunting Coleman down. "They thought I was a crackpot and as potentially unbalanced as they were," he says, only half-jokingly.

Has Coleman himself ever seen something in the wild he couldn't explain? "Not that I'm comfortable saying was definitely a cryptid," he replies, then reluctantly admits he saw a black pantherlike creature while driving in Anna, Illinois, one night in 1969.

As for Bigfoot and Yeti, Coleman believes they are likely to be confirmed as real, while the evidence for Nessie is more elusive. Once an animal is demystified, it becomes the province of traditional science, but until then, Coleman will continue his hunt. "By pursuing something like Yeti," he says, "we begin to understand the Abominable Snowman in all of us."

Stacey Chase is a freelance writer in Maine. E-mail her at storychaser@earthlink.net
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Tech Tags: Loren+Coleman Abominable+Snowman Bigfoot Loch+Ness+Monster cryptozoology Mothman Gigantopithecus Yeti

Bigfoot's 4am howls?

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Saturday/National/20060218075850/Article/index_html
Bigfoot’s 4am howls?
R. Sittamparam

KOTA TINGGI, Feb 17:
Did residents of Kampung Lukut at the foothills of Gunung Panti wake up over the past four mornings to the call of the "Johor Bigfoot"?

Some believe the spine-chilling howls they heard about 4am could be coming from the creature.

Dicky Darwis Abdul Rahman, whose family owns a 40- hectare oil palm plantation at the foothills of the mountain, said plantation workers had reported the phenomenon to him.

He said they had described it as a cross between the cry of a monkey and a wild pig.

"The workers who regularly go hunting in the nearby jungle know how to differentiate the calls of the various animals in the jungle and they are convinced that the roars were unlike that of any known animal."

Dicky Darwis said some of the workers had gone into the jungle to investigate and found many large footprints, especially at a nearby riverbank and hilltop.

They also found branches and leaves of trees in the area stripped clean up to a height of about 3m.

He added that before his father set up the plantation, the area was virgin jungle, where tigers and elephants used to roam.

"All the recent sightings of the Bigfoot and cases of elephants in this area, which is connected to the Mawai area, could be due to logging activities in the jungles."

He said his father, a former Johor Baru city councillor and retired factory manager, was excited about the new Bigfoot evidence and felt the whole area should be protected.

Dicky Darwis’ family had a visit today from a television crew from the British Broadcasting Corporation, which wanted to interview him for a preview of a television documentary.

The crew was led by BBC's Kuala Lumpur-based correspondent, Jonathan Kent.

The crew had earlier visited the adjoining Kampung Temening Lama area where villagers found 50cm-long footprints last month, believed to be that of the Johor Bigfoot .

There were also many footprints found in the jungle, where the creature was believed to have climbed a hill and disappeared into the interior.

The NST had earlier reported Dicky darwis’s account of how a search for Bigfoot conducted in the 1990s at Air Hitam by his late game warden brother had produced faeces samples and cement casts of the creature’s footprints.

He said the analysis of the faeces indicated that Bigfoot survived on leaves.

He added that the search party led by his brother, Abdul Jalil, had found an area in the jungle which was unusually clean with most trees bare of leaves up to a certain height.

Despite the announcement by the State Government that foreign media would only be invited to cover the Bigfoot story after local scientists had established a proper databank on the creature, two foreign media groups besides the BBC arrived here today.

They included a seven-man crew from a United States-based firm producing documentaries for television networks, and a cameraman from KBS 2TV, South Korea.

Society Claims To Have Scientific Evidence Of Bigfoot Colony

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=181090
February 18, 2006 19:43 PM
Society Claims To Have Scientific Evidence Of Bigfoot Colony
By Mohd Haikal Isa

Orang Asli youth, Herman Deraman, 21, showing the actual location where his hut was shaken by “Orang Lenggor” or Bigfoot near Sungai Madek Forest Reserved, Miles 25, Mersing-Kluang Road in December last year. Pix: Zid Omar

JOHOR BAHARU, Feb 18 (Bernama) -- The Johor Wildlife Protection Society said it has "scientific evidence" to prove the existence of Bigfoot whose reported sightings recently in the Johor jungles have excited the world's media.

Not just one Bigfoot but a whole colony of the giant, hairy creatures which the society named "Orang Lenggor" (Lenggor People) as one was spotted in an area by that name, said the society's secretary Tay Teng Hwa.

"We will make public the evidence soon," he said today.

He said a member of the society had studied the creatures for six years and interacted directly with the colony.

"The adult creatures are between 10 and 12 feet tall while their children are 6 to 7 footers. Seventy per cent of the Orang Lenggor have a human appearance but the rest resemble apes," he said.

Tay declined to reveal the location of the Bigfoot colony or the type of "scientific evidence" in the possession of the society.

The claim by the society followed a statement by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman that he was convinced about the existence of Bigfoot based on information provided by Orang Asli.

Tay said the society decided to reveal its discovery because foreigners armed with sophisticated equipment were entering the Johor jungles to track down Bigfoot without the knowledge of the state government.

"We are worried these foreigners might find Bigfoot and then announce to the world as their discovery," he said.

Relating the background to the society's study of the creatures, he said a member of the society, who was a logger, came across Bigfoot when the creature encroached into the logging company's base camp to look for food.

Since that incident, the member began to study the creatures and went close to their colony.

Tay said the creatures, despite their size and rough appearance, were timid and showed no aggression to humans who approached them.

The "Orang Lenggor" had a covering of black hair on their bodies when they were young but the hair gradually turned brown as they grew older, he said.

"They like to eat fish and fruits they gather in the jungles, including durian. They also have a liking for river water that contains dissolved salt and would walk for miles to get it," he added.

Tay said the society would organise an expedition to the "Orang Lenggor" colony in either March or April.

-- BERNAMA

Malaysia scientists to hunt "bigfoot" in rainforest

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KLR234885.htm
Malaysia scientists to hunt "bigfoot" in rainforest
27 Jan 2006 10:43:56 GMT
Source: Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Malaysia plans to send two teams of scientists to scour its southern rainforests and track down a huge ape said to have been spotted there, a government official said on Friday.

"Bigfoot" fever has dominated Malaysian newspaper headlines for several weeks now, with several dramatic sightings of a hairy, gorilla-like creature reported in the thick forest in the southern state of Johor.

One local man said he saw a 10-foot (three metre) tall ape standing on two legs beside a river, according to one report.

"Yes, the state government has decided to send teams of scientists to try and track it," said a state official who declined to be named. But he gave no further details.

The country is home to the orang-utan, a large red-haired ape that can grow the size of a small man, but they are not found in peninsular Malaysia -- although monkeys and gibbons are common.

National news agency Bernama has said the Johor state government intends to set up two expedition teams, one to explore the forests and a second to try and study the animal itself. "We hope the expedition will be able to prove its existence," the agency quoted Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman as saying.

Bigfoot sightings across the world have featured mysterious and reclusive animals such as the north American sasquatch or the Himalayan yeti, whose existence has never been proved, but the Malaysian sightings are worth investigating, an environmentalist said.

"The national park is as big as Singapore island," said Vicent Chow, who works in the area and has often lobbied the state government to investigate past sightings. "It's quite possible there is something there."

The Endau-Rompin national park, where the sightings were reported, sprawls over an area of about 49,000 hectares (490 square km).

"Natives who live in the jungle have seen it for generations and their legends call it the 'snaggle-toothed ghost'," said Chow. "Now we need forays by scientists to find it."

Bigfoot where are you?

Bigfoot where are you?
S'poreans going to Johor jungles. Their mission: To find mythical creature
By Teh Jen Lee
January 10, 2006
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,100137,00.html

THIS is Bigfoot sighting season.

The latest was reported just across the Causeway last month.

And in November last year, three fish farm workers apparently saw two hairy beasts about 3m tall and a smaller, younger one, near Kota Tinggi.

These unconfirmed sightings have excited a group of Singaporeans.

In two weeks, 20 of them, members of the Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI), will head to the jungles of Johor.

Their two-day recce trip will determine how best to plan future expeditions.

SPI is a non-profit club that researches paranormal phenomena.

It has 50 paying members and over 10,000 members registered on its online forum.

The team members will be hand-
picked for their physical fitness as they will be staying overnight in the forests.

Mr Hashim Yusof, director of Johor National Parks Corp, said that SPI sent an e-mail request on 21 Dec to interview those who have reportedly seen Bigfoot.

He said: 'We thanked them for their interest and are in the midst of getting official clearance from the authorities.

'People can come unofficially as tourists, but any findings must be verified through the proper channels.'

Mr Hashim said the first Bigfoot sighting in Johor was reported 26 years ago, but the latest sightings have generated the most interest.

IS SOMETHING REALLY AFOOT?

Mr Toh Seong Fai aims to find that out.

The 32-year-old, who works in logistics, is one of SPI's Elite Members. He will be heading the recce trip.

For the past few years, he has been going on his own to Kota Tinggi once every few months on the Bigfoot trail.

He has spoken to locals about the most likely spots where Bigfoot may appear.

He has not gathered any evidence yet, but he is not giving up.

He said: 'I believe people are born curious about things they don't know. But many take the easy way out, they just accept information from sources without verifying it for themselves.

'I prefer to be active. I want to know if this mythical creature is real or whether it's a case of mistaken identity.'

Indeed, his interest is more enduring than what may be described as the recent King Kong craze.

Mr Toh said he specialises in cryptozoology - the study of animals 'whose existence has been made aware of, but whose actual identities are not verified'.

He said: 'I've been into cryptozoology since I was in primary school. I read about the Loch Ness monster and got interested.'

FUR, TEETH MARKS

With more people joining the search, he hopes they will be able to gather tangible evidence like fur or even teeth marks on half-eaten food.

Yet he is aware the trip could be just another wild goose chase.

'We will be scientific and logical. If we don't have sufficient info, we will not make any conclusions,' he said.

Similarly, SPI president Kenny Fong, 36, who is based in Macau, told The New Paper: 'As professional investigators, our aim is to verify and search for clues just as they are.'

Added the assistant professor: 'This means we do not come with any biased wishful thinking. We want to be as neutral as possible when examining any traces of artifacts collected.'

Another SPI Elite Member, Mr Douglas Lim, 29, an IT administrator, described some of the special equipment that may be used for the trip:

# Sound enhancer which can pick up ultrasound that is undetectable to human ears

# Infra-red or night-vision binoculars

# Metal detector to measure magnetic fields for abnormal readings

These gadgets cost over $800 in total.

But when it comes to footprints, Mr Lim wants to see it with his own eyes.

SPI secretary Lee Qing Yu, 24, a lab technician, said they will make moulds of any footprints so that these can be examined by experts.

Dr Fong said it's possible to find out the behavioural pattern of a creature based on its footprints.

'For example, are they multiple, social or solitary? With luck, we may observe a trail of footprints.

'It doesn't make sense if there is only a pair of them out of nowhere and going nowhere. We may be able to trace a trail all the way to their cave. That would be like hitting the jackpot!' he said, barely able to contain his enthusiasm.

He used to have an unusual hobby of observing footprints on sandy beaches.

'It was like a guessing game. You can see if the footprints are by a loving couple or a family, someone wandering around or in a hurry.

'When it comes to Bigfoot, the footprint can give clues to the weight, bone shape and size of the animal.'

After piecing together any evidence-based clues they find, SPI hopes to draw a conclusion or remark whether Bigfoot exists or not.

Said Mr Toh: 'If there were only one or two sightings, then maybe there's nothing. But there have been sightings again and again over the years, not just in Johor but elsewhere.

'What's more, the sightings are by native people who are very capable of differentiating between ordinary jungle animals and something extraordinary.'

What do their families and friends say about all this?

Said Dr Fong: 'Those who do not know me very well, their jaws will drop. It's the same reaction when I tell them how I rode a donkey for six hours in rocky mountains 2,300m above sea-level.'

This happened last Christmas when he was looking for a Biblical location in Jordan.

'I could have been dead many times during the climb if I had fallen over the cliff in the gorges. But this is me. Shopping in London or sightseeing at the Eiffel Tower makes me yawn.'

Parks boss invites media to seek out truth

THE reports of Bigfoot sightings in Johor mostly came from the forests of Tanjung Piai, Mersing, Kahang, Endau Rompin National Park and Kota Tinggi.

In the November sighting by three fish farm workers, footprints of various sizes were found in the area.

The biggest one, which looked like a triangular depression, was 45cm long. Its pictures were published in the Malaysian press.

About a week ago, Johor National Parks director Hashim Yusof took a group of 50 park rangers and journalists to the Sungai Madek forest reserve. They went around asking locals about the reported sightings.

Mr Hashim told Reuters that he was keeping an open mind and wanted to enlist scientists to prove whether the beast was fact or fantasy.

'We are collecting a database on the sightings. We want to uncover the truth about this creature and also quash any rumour that may scare away visitors to the national park.'

Bigfoot sightings have been reported in the wilderness all over the world. In the US, every state except Delaware and Hawaii has had a sighting.

It has many names including Sasquatch, Bokbokwolli, Yeti and the Abominable Snowman.

Many pranksters in the past have admitted to faking Bigfoot evidence.

Tracks are the most popular form of evidence collected, but the problem is that there is no consistency in the tracks.

Hair samples have turned out to be from other animals.

Ex-Funeral Director Charged With Corpse Abuse For Garage Fetuses

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/5127157/detail.html

Ex-Funeral Director Charged With Corpse Abuse For Garage Fetuses

POSTED: 3:47 pm EDT October 19, 2005
UPDATED: 5:21 pm EDT October 19, 2005

PITTSBURGH -- A former McKeesport funeral director is now charged with abuse of a corpse in connection with the remains of 19 fetuses found in the garage of his former home in August.

Jim Ecker, the attorney for 61-year-old Robert Winston, says his client is innocent of those charges and of an additional charge of theft by deception. Allegheny County police say Winston had a contract with Magee-Womens Hospital to arrange to have more than 300 fetuses found in his former garage cremated.

The fetuses ranged from 14 weeks to full-term, and resulted from abortions, miscarriages and stillbirths.

Instead, police say Winston told them he was having financial trouble. Police believe he took the hospital's money but kept the fetuses.
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Winston's ex-wife called police in August to report the possibility that the fetuses were stored in the garage.

Winston is free on bond pending a preliminary hearing on Nov. 7.