Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids

Mythic Creatures | Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids

Mysterious Ape-men Around The World?

Other primates, from tiny monkeys to larger chimpanzees and gorillas, fascinate us, maybe because we see in them so much of ourselves. Primates are intelligent and often take care of one another, especially their young. But they can also be violent, attacking outsiders and even turning on friends and family. So perhaps it's not too surprising that many people around the world tell stories of creatures that appear to be half-human and half-ape. These mythic primates, like bigfoot, yeti, or even King Kong, are sometimes gentle, sometimes ferocious. Not quite human, not quite beast, these creatures hint at our other side.

Ape-Men Sightings
Around the world, people tell of mysterious beasts that are part-human, part-ape: typically large, hairy creatures that walk on two legs but always seem to stay just out of sight.

Name	Location(s) to be indicated on the map	Fun Facts
Almas	Mountains of central Asia and the Altay Mountains and Tian Shan ranges in particular.	"In the [Tian Shan] mountains themselves live a wild people, who have nothing in common with other human beings, a pelt covers the entire body of these creatures & They run around in the hills like animals and eat foliage and grass and whatever else they can find." —German traveler Johann Schiltberger, c. 1400
Bigfoot (sasquatch)	Across North America, though the majority of reports come from the dense forests of the northwestern United States and Canada.	The majority of bigfoot sightings occur in the northwestern United States and Canada, but reports of the creature have come from across North America. Some Floridians report that terrible-smelling "skunk apes" inhabit the Everglades National Park.
Chemosit	East-central Kenyan forests.	Some witnesses say that the chemosit looks like a hyena or a bear and call it a Nandi bear after a Kenyan tribe that lives in its reported range. The Nandi people, however, consider the creature to be an enormous, ferocious primate that enjoys eating the brains of its victims.
Hibagon	Japanese mountain ranges and the Hibayama mountains in Hiroshima in particular.	According to Japanese legends, the hibagon stands only five feet tall, shorter than most other bigfootlike creatures. But its footprints are enormous—two or three times the size of a human's.
Mapinguari	Central Brazil	In 1937, a mapinguari reportedly went on a three week rampage in central Brazil. Witnesses report that over 100 cows were found slaughtered, each with its massive tongue ripped from its body.
Orang Pendek	The Kerinci-Seblat National Park in central Sumatra, Indonesia	Orang pendek means "short person" in Indonesian, an appropriate name considering its supposedly short stature and humanlike face. Local folklore holds that the elusive creatures walk with backward-pointing feet to confuse anyone trying to track them.
Wild Man of Borneo	Borneo	Reports of "The Wild Men of Borneo" probably referred to large, hairy primates called orangutans. In Indonesian, orang hutan means "man of the forest."
Yeren	Remote forests and mountains of Hubei Province, China.	According to Chinese legend, when the yeren encounters a human, it grabs him or her tightly by the arms and faints, overwhelmed with joy. Still holding on, it awakes and eats its victim.
Yeti	The Himalayas	Westerners often call the yeti "The Abominable Snowman" of Tibet.
Yowie	Australia, particularly in the eastern part of the continent/south and central coastal regions of New South Wales and Queensland's Gold Coast.	Over 3,000 distinct yowie sightings have been reported in the Blue Mountain area west of Sydney in the past few decades.

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