The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://tlc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030630/apeman.html

Mystery Ape-Like Beast Spotted in China

AFP

June 30, 2003 — An investigation has begun after sightings of a legendary 
"ape-like"
beast in the forests of central China, state press said Monday.

The mythical creature was apparently seen by six people, including a 
journalist, in the
Shennongjia Nature Reserve in China's Hubei province Sunday afternoon, the 
Xinhua news
agency reported. 
 
The reserve is well known as a place where local legend has it that the 
half-man,
half-ape creatures live.

Dozens of sightings have been reported and China organized several 
high-profile searches
for the unidentified animal through the 1980s and 1990s, but no hard evidence 
was found.

Several years ago, China's state press said scientists had unearthed hundreds 
of
fossilized teeth of giant apes in the area, with some speculating that 
Bigfoot could be a
descendant of such primates.

The latest sighting was described as a grayish "mythical ape-like animal", 
1.65-meters
(5.4 feet) tall with shoulder-length black hair.

One of the witnesses, Shang Zhengmin, a local reporter on the way back to 
Songbai town
from an interview in Muyu town with five local people, said they saw the 
beast when they
took a left turn along a mountain road.

He said the "ape-like" animal was moving fast on the road and by the time the 
vehicle
finished the turn, the animal had disappeared.

He said the passengers got out of the vehicle and found several 30 
centimeter-long (12
inches) footprints and newly broken branches in the jungle near the road.

They also claimed to have discovered a three-meter-long (9.9 feet) patch of 
"foul
smelling urine-like liquid" on the road where the creature was seen.

Xinhua said an investigation was underway.

Theories abound about the mythical creature, with some scientists speculating 
that if it
exists, it may be an unknown primate, some arguing that it may be a bear or a 
monkey and
others suggesting it could be a missing evolutionary link between ape and 
human.