What happened
In the early 20th century, Dutch settlers on Sumatra increasingly heard from locals about the orang pendek – the “short man,” a bipedal being smaller than an adult human. In 1923, surveyor van Herwaarden, carrying out survey work in the forests of southern Sumatra, noticed a dark, hairy figure on a branch. He later described it in detail: the hair on its head fell below the shoulder blades, the fur on the front of the body was somewhat lighter, the arms were long and the legs rather short; the toes looked completely normal, and the face was “not repulsive, nor was it ape-like.” The being jumped down from the tree and ran away. The account was later popularized by Bernard Heuvelmans, and in the late 20th century the search moved to the area of Kerinci Seblat National Park.
Witnesses
Van Herwaarden, a Dutch surveyor working in the forest; similar descriptions were given by local residents and hunters.
Explanations and hypotheses
Skeptics note the resemblance of the description to the orangutan, which lives on Sumatra, though mainly in the north of the island, as well as to gibbons and sun bears standing on their hind legs. Hair and track casts collected in later years have yielded no conclusive results. Proponents point to the discovery of Homo floresiensis – a small hominin from the Indonesian island of Flores – as evidence that unknown hominid forms could have survived in the region for a long time. The orang pendek is considered one of the most zoologically plausible cryptids.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.
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