- A hair expert is helping British researchers discover
if a legendary Yeti is living on an Indonesian island.
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- Three part-time British explorers recently came
across two strands of unknown hair and a footprint while tracking a primate
on the island of Sumatra.
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- By day, Adam Sanderson, Adam Davies and Keith Townley
are mild-mannered crypto-zoologists, but in their spare time they pursue
a never-ending quest to prove the existence of mythical creatures like
the Yeti.
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- The group has already filmed Selma the Norwegian
Loch Ness monster and next year they plan to search the Gobi Desert for
the 7ft Mongolian Death Worm, which natives believe can KILL a
person with a glance.
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- But in this case, the trio set out on a three-week expedition
to discover if the Yeti-like creature local tribespeople call Orang
Pendek, or Little Man of the Forest, is real.
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- Tribes say the Orang Pendek stands 5ft tall, is
chocolatey-brown with ORANGE hair and, unlike apes, walks upright on its
back legs WITHOUT using its arms.
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- After examining their find and being stumped by
the hairs, the group published details of their discovery and two
Aussie scientists answered the call.
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- One of them was Dr Hans Brunner who, in the 1980s, helped
prove a dingo took the baby daughter of Lindy Chamberlain at
Ayers Rock in the Aussie outback after she was wrongly convicted of murder.
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- Yeti still hasn't been able to find out what type of
creature these two hairs belong to.
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- But Dr Brunner confirmed that the mystery strands were
not orang-utan, chimpanzee, gorillia, sun bear, red leaf monkey, pigtail
macaque, Malaysian tapir or human.
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- "So far I have found that the two hairs which I
have are different from any species which I have compared them with,"
Dr Brunner said.
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- Although he has yet to compare the hairs to samples from
the Thomas' leaf monkey, gibbons and langurs of Western Sumatra, Dr
Brunner is confident they will not match.
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- "If nothing comes which looks the same I would have
to say there could be an animal that we do not yet know about," he
said.
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- Primatology professor Dr Colin Groves from Australia's
Canberra University is lending a hand by examining the footprint
- but he will not release his findings until Dr Brunner does.
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- Explorer Adam Sanderson, 31, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
said he believed the team may have discovered a new form of primate.
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- "The very fact the leading world-renowned hair
expert has come forward and offered to analyse our findings shows we
have credibility," Mr Sanderson said.
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- "The fact he has struggled to find a match for the
hair is equally significant as it means this creature could exist."
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- Fellow explorer Adam Davies, 33, from Manchester, said
the discovery would send shockwaves through the scientific community if
tests proved the hairs belonged to a new primate.
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- If the Orang Pendek is proven to exist, it is
expected to spark debates about a potential "missing link"
between apes and humans.
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- "All eye-witness reports are that it walks like
a man. This has all sorts of anthropological ramifications because there
is great speculation about how man has developed," Mr Davies said.
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- "This could be living proof of how man evolved."
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- © 2002 <http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,22,00.html>News
Group Newspapers Ltd.
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- http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002410080,00.html
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- Scientists Close To Proving Existence Of Yeti
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- From LorenColeman.com
BBC News
9-4-2
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- A group of British explorers is on the verge of proving
the existence of a "Yeti-like" creature.
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- The three-man team has given hair samples found in Western
Sumatra to an expert in Australia to test.
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- "If our discovery continues to bear up to scientific
scrutiny, it would be a world-first find," -- Explorer Adam Davies
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- Andrew Sanderson, Adam Davies and Keith Towley spent
three weeks in the rainforests of Sumatra tracking the mythological creature.
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- Hans Brunner, an associate of Deakin University in Melbourne,
offered to analyse two hairs found by the team.
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- Sideline zoology
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- Mr Brunner has previously provided testimony which helped
prove the innocence of Lindy Chamberlain - the mother wrongly convicted
of killing her baby in the 1980s.
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- The team members are crypto-zoologists, who take time
off from their jobs to investigate the existence of such creatures.
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- No match could be found when the samples were tested
against orang-utan, chimpanzee, gorilla, sun bear, red leaf monkey, pigtail
macaque, Malaysian tapir and human hair.
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- Mr Sanderson, of Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said the
involvement of Mr Brunner had given their search credibility.
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- "The fact he has struggled to find a match for the
hair is equally significant as it means this creature could exist,"
he said.
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- Dr Brunner has yet to check the hair samples against
other native species from Western Sumatra but is confident they will not
resemble hairs found by the explorers.
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- "So far I have found that the two hairs which I
have are different from any species which I have compared them with.
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- "If nothing comes which looks like the same I would
have to say there could be an animal that we do not yet know about."
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- Footprint examined
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- A digital re-print of the footprint found on the expedition
is being analysed by Dr Colin Groves, professor of primatology at University
of Canberra, Australia.
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- He will not make his findings public until Mr Brunner
releases a scientific paper on the hair analysis.
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- Explorer Mr Davies, from Manchester, said: "If our
discovery continues to bear up to scientific scrutiny, it would be a world-first
find.
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- "All eye witness reports are that it walks like
a man.
-
- "This has all sorts of anthropological ramifications
because there is great speculation about how man has developed.
-
- "This could be living proof of how man evolved."
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- Next year, the trio plan a trip to the Gobi Desert in
search of the Mongolian Death Worm, a 7ft snake which is reputed among
natives to cut a person dead with one look.
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- http://www.lorencoleman.com/OrangPendekHair.com
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- For background information, please see Chapter Ten, "Rhinos
and Orang Pendek." in Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0941936740/cryptozoologi-20
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