Animals and men

Adam Davies is a British explorer and cryptozoologist. He is a member of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) and has been involved in several crypto-oriented TV shows, including “MonsterQuest” and “Finding Bigfoot”. Davies has written two books about his travels throughout the world in search for cryptids and, I suppose, sheer fun. This is his second book, “Manbeasts”. Jeff Meldrum, one of the few scientists who take Bigfoot and related creatures seriously, has contributed a foreword. Meldrum accompanied Davies on the MonsterQuest expedition to China in search of the Wildman or Yeren.

The book itself is so-so. Davies isn't a bad writer, but he's not a particularly compelling or exciting writer either. A large portion of “Manbeasts” deal with the author's not-so-mysterious hotel stays, restaurant visits and heavy drinking habits. It's intriguing that he gets along so well with Meldrum, who as a Mormon is a teetotaler! Davies' travel companions are frequently involved in accidents or get ill. Hardly surprising, since one of them is 64 years old. Yet, somehow this unlikely band of brothers have managed to climb the hills of Nepal, criss-cross the rainforests of Sumatra or entered the forbidden zone in a remote part of the Russian Federation! I admire their tenacity. And yes, they *have* survived so far, although I wouldn't recommend another visit to Kabardino-Balkaria any time soon…

Two cryptids searched for by Davies stand out. One is the Orang-Pendek, a hairy hominid-like creature said to dwell in the jungles of Sumatra. The Orang-Pendek has acquired a kind of “grey zone respectability” between the strictly scientific and the instantly rejected. It doesn't seem to be a completely illogical creature – after all, it could be a new species of Orangutan, and a fossil of a small hominid nicknamed “The Hobbit” have been found on another Indonesian island, Flores. Also, samples of probable Orang-Pendek hair have come back as “unknown primate”.

The other creature standing out in Davies' accounts is our old favorite, Bigfoot or Sasquatch. While Davies' accounts of other unknown animals sound relatively moderate, he and co-researcher Lori Simmons have found themselves on the more extreme end of the Bigfooting spectrum. Simmons is a “Habituator” and claims to have established close contact with one particular Bigfoot, “The Big Guy”, who instantaneously responds to her attempts at communication by screaming, stomping and wood-knocking. Chocolate bars placed in the forest are unwrapped and disappear. Apples disappear without a trace, suggesting that whoever takes them does it by hand – only primates can do so. This sounds too good to be true, but Davies claims to have observed these phenomena himself. There is even a thermal photo which may show “The Big Guy” as he sneaked into Davies' and Simmons' camping ground! Davies speculates that Bigfoot lives underground or inside mounds, is hyper-intelligent and shows a preference for certain individuals. He understands why Habituators refer to the Bigfeet as “Forest People”, rather than animals. I think his description of Bigfoot matches those of mythological creatures or paranormal entities. While the Orang-Pendek sounds like a flesh-and-blood ape, Bigfoot seems to be a huge troll, ghost or “hairy fairy”.

I'm not entirely surprised…

I will certainly keep an eye on Davies and the CFZ in the future. It will be interesting to see where all this will end!