Page 84 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

64 Mysterious Creatures

n April 2001, British zoologist Rob McCall pre-
sented a hair sample allegedly taken from a
Himalayan Yeti to Bryan Sykes, professor of
Ihuman genetics at the Oxford Institute of Mole-
cular Medicine, one of the world’s leading experts on
DNA analysis.
Sykes said that laboratory analysis of the mysteri- The Real Manimal?
ous hairs yielded some DNA, but the experts were not
able to identify it.
http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/the_north_east/archive/
The Orang Pendek of Sumatra is much less famil- 2002/09/04/abom.re.html.
iar. After Marco Polo visited the island in 1292, he “Scientists Are Hair’s Breadth from the Yeti.” The Herald,
mentioned an encounter with an apelike animal that September 5, 2002. [Online] http://www.theheard.co.uk/
news/archive/5-9-19102-23-54-40.html.
has come to be known as the Sumatran Yeti. Since
1818, various English and European explorers of the
thick jungle growth of Sumatra have told of sighting
an apeman that the native people call Orang Pendek,
“little man of the forest.”

Witnesses describe the Orang Pendek as stand-
ing about five feet tall and covered with short brown
or orange hair. It walks upright without the assistance
of its front fists, and its arms are of humanlike propor-
tions. Many have asserted that they heard the Orang
Pendeks conversing with one another in some unin-
telligible language. In 1918 L. C. Westenek, the Suma-
tran governor, wrote of several sightings, including
one in which he claimed to have seen an Orang Pen-
dek attempting to light a fire.
In September 2002 Hans Brunner, an associate of
Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, acknowl-
edged to be one of the world’s most renowned hair
experts, released his findings that alleged Orang Pen-
dek hair samples that had been provided by a three-
man team of British explorers were different from any
species against which he had tested them.

Sources:
“Do ‘Orang Pendek’ Really Exist…?” [Online] http://www.
jambiexplorer.com/content/orangpendek.htm, n.d.
Henderson, Mark. “Yeti Hair Sample Defies DNA Analysis,” The
Times, April 2, 2001. [Online] http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
article/0,,2-108351,00.html.
“North-East Adventurer Set to Prove Abominable Snowman
Exists.” This Is the North East, September 4, 2002. [Online]

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