UFO Map

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Cryptids

Other wild men

Stories of hairy “wild men” exist on almost every continent: the Almas in Mongolia and the Caucasus, the Yeren in China’s Shennongjia mountains, the Yowie in Australia, the Orang pendek in Sumatra. Some researchers link them to relict populations of extinct hominins – especially since the discovery of the “hobbit” of Flores, who lived as recently as tens of thousands of years ago.

cases
6
years
1850–1976

Unexplained: 3 Disputed: 1 Explained: 1 Hoax: 1

  1. 19th century

    1. c. 1850 Other wild men · Explained Zana, the “Wild Woman” of Abkhazia Tkhina village, Ochamchira District, Abkhazia, Georgia According to local tradition, hunters captured a hairy “wild woman” in the forests of Abkhazia – years later, genetics revealed her African ancestry.
    2. 1882 Other wild men · Unexplained Henry McCooey's “Native Ape” Coast between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla, New South Wales, Australia An amateur naturalist described in the press a tailless, black-haired “native ape” seen on the New South Wales coast – one of the oldest yowie accounts.

  2. 1920–1929

    1. c. 1920 Other wild men · Disputed De Loys's Ape from the Tarra River Tributary of the Tarra River, Venezuela–Colombia border, Venezuela A Swiss geologist photographed a shot, tailless animal propped on a crate – an anthropologist declared it an unknown species of American great ape.
    2. 1923 Other wild men · Unexplained Orang Pendek in a Tree: Van Herwaarden's Account Near Pulau Rimau, South Sumatra, Indonesia A Dutch surveyor saw a small, hairy being with a human-like face in a tree in the Sumatran forest – his account is the classic description of the orang pendek.

  3. 1960–1969

    1. 1968 Other wild men · Hoax The Minnesota Iceman Rollingstone, Minnesota, United States Two well-known cryptozoologists examined a hairy body frozen in a block of ice and declared it an unknown hominid species – it turned out to be a latex figure.

  4. 1970–1979

    1. 1976 Other wild men · Unexplained Yeren Encounter in the Shennongjia Mountains Shennongjia, Hubei Province, China Officials driving at night through the Shennongjia mountains met a reddish, hairy being – a year later the Chinese Academy of Sciences sent a large expedition.