ORANG PENDEK ENCOUNTERS : The Grey-Haired Beast

Eyewitness: Mr. Jur

Date: 1987

Location: Danau Gunung Tujuh

At almost 2000m above sea level ,Danau Gunung Tujuh (the Lake of Seven Peaks) is the highest lake in southeast Asia and is reputed to have a depth of 250m. This crater lake has long been considered  by the inhabitants of the Kerinci region to be the home of a short but powerfully built primate whom they call Tirraw, and nobody knows the remote valleys that surround the lake better than Mr. Jur. A semi-permanent resident since 1974 he has assisted on every major Orang Pendek expedition to the lake since the early 1990s but has never been interviewed,until now.

Prior to becoming declared a national park some twenty years ago,Mr Jur extensively hunted and trapped large game such as samba deer,wild boar and interestingly feral goats which roamed the marshes and closed canopy forests that enclose the lake,often spending weeks alone in search of his quarry.The area was also home to a large number of Sumatran tigers whose presence has significantly diminished over the past several decades, however pug marks can be still be found on occasion.

One late morning in 1987 as he was returning to his camp by the lake shore,he spotted a greyish figure standing about twenty meters away.He saw the creature from the back as it proceeded to run away at breakneck speed, grabbing at branches and leaves as it raced from a clearing near the shore and into the forest.

From his vantage point the creature appeared to have a thick waist and very wide shoulders, and its entire body was covered in dark grey hair.He estimated its height to be no more than 1.2 meters and the entire encounter lasted only 10-15 seconds. When he went to look for tracks, he was quite baffled to find human-like foot prints that led in the opposite direction to its movement.

In 1993 he encountered what he believed was the same individual in virtually the same spot.It's also worth noting that two encounters in a span of forty years by a professional woodsman indicates that it's an incredibly elusive and shy animal and chances of having a third sighting are nil.

ORANG PENDEK EXPEDITION 2015: YouTube Videos

Over the past couple of weeks I've been able to put together two short videos which I have now uploaded on YouTube.

The first video (Part 1) is a compilation of photos from the Danau Gunung Tujuh phase of my investigation. I have also included some jungle trekking footage and a series of trail cam pics of a large Malaysian tapir (Tapirus indicus) which was roaming the perimeter of the lake not far from our main camp.   
              

Part 2 is a collection of photos and video clips from the mysterious marshlands known as the Rawa Bento Swamp Forest.This area has a rich history of Orang Pendek tracks and sightings which by all accounts continue up to this very day.The first farming communities appeared here in the mid-1960s and while large portions of the marsh forest have been converted into paddy fields the region remains sparsely inhabited and the surrounding hills still form a large tract of primary rainforest which is very rarely explored even by the locals.In the not so distant future I plan a more extensive investigation of this fascinating region.

My next series of posts will be devoted to eyewitness encounters.None of these individuals have ever been interviewed before and therefore their stories offer additional insight into the physiology and nature of the pygmy apeman known as Tirraw.

ORANG PENDEK EXPEDITION 2015:The Hantu Photo

Orang Pendek is the generic Bahasa Indonesia name for the pigmy apeman said to inhabit the forested mountains  and valleys of central Sumatra. However,in the Kerinci region this unknown hominid is more commonly known as Tirraw. Sometimes the word hantu is added to the name to create Hantu Tirraw. This now means ghost or spirit Tirraw.

On January 27th my guide and I set up a trail cam on a remote plantation just below some steep jungle clad hills. The following morning when I examined the pictures through the view finder I was surprised that only one photo had been triggered,the rest being taken using the pre-set field scan mode. On closer inspection I found find that a strange and shadowy image had been captured at 7:01pm.To make things even more puzzling a 5-foot long stick that had been baited with fruit and stuck into the ground was missing from the photo.Only to reappear in the morning field scan shots leaning against a tree.

In the photo below the yellow elongated triangle represents the initial position of the stick when we left it at 5 pm.The red line is its approximate position in the morning.The blue circle indicates the area where something very black and without eyeshine appears to be lying on the ground,possibly falling on

top of the stick after trying to climb or pounce on it.

Since the object is lacking any distinguishable physical  features and its outline is barely discernible I can only speculate as to what it could be. My initial reaction was that it was a siamang or possibly a langur as there seems to be something elongated like a tail coming off the the main body.Other possible candidates would be a binturong or a local species of jungle feline,but once again the lack of detail makes it impossible to know for sure. As a result I will simply name it the "Hantu Photo".

ORANG PENDEK EXPEDITION 2015: Trail Camera Photos

ORANG PENDEK EXPEDITION 2015: Photos from the Rainforest

After a 20-month break I was back in Sumatra to conduct my fourth Orang Pendek expedition.Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words I'm starting off my report with a series of photos.The last one is a bit strange.