Littlefoot: Orang Pendek in Sumatra and South Asia

One of the most common reports from a sighting is about the face. Eye-witnesses talk about the eerie sensation of a human being looking right back at them.

These are people who know the difference between a human being and an ape. Their island is also home to the Sumatran Orangutan. Many dismiss Orang Pendek as being a mistaken glimpse of that great ape instead.

But Littlefoot isn't red.  It's not even vaguely orange. Accounts habitually talk about short brown fur, turning grey as they get older.  Except for the head. 

The Orang Pendek has a mane of long, flowing hair there, just like a human being.

But they are strong, so very strong compared to us. They might be short, but their muscular prowess is more akin to that of a chimpanzee. The tough rattan vines can be snapped in two in their hands.  They can uproot small trees.

Much of this power derives from their broad shoulders and long arms. While slender in all its aspects, it is extremely sturdy and robust.

It is also bipedal, with the small, dainty feet that have given Orang Pendek the moniker of Littlefoot.  They are said to be the size of a human child. Footprint casts and photographs have revealed the requisite five toes. But the big toe is divergent, like the thumb on a human hand.

But most of all, people return to that face. In 1923, Dutch farmstead settler Mr Van Heerwarden seemed to speak for all, when he said, "There was nothing repulsive or ugly about its face, nor was it at all apelike."

And yes, he had seen an orangutan, gibbon and sun bear. He knew the difference.

In 2003, a team of Australian and Indonesian archaeologists were working together on the Island of Flores. Their goal was to find evidence that Homo sapiens passed this way in antiquity.

What they actually found stunned the scientific world. 

A whole new species had to be added to the Hominidae family; and they were part of the genus Homo.  In short, Homo floresiensis had been human.

12,000 years ago, they had lived in the same world as our own ancestors. Their faces were remarkably similar, as the reconstruction image demonstrates.

But there were differences too.  They stood only three to four feet tall; and some of their bone structure was more akin to our evolutionary cousins, the chimpanzees. 

The more that was revealed about the nine Homo floresiensis skeletons, the more cryptozoologists, Sasquatch hunters and the people of Sumatra nodded knowingly.  The scientists were describing Orang Pendek.

Littlefoot not only appeared to be in the fossil record, but the location was telling too.  Flores is very close to Sumatra.  It's also just north of Australia, where the junjudee sightings have long been thought to chime with Orang Pendek too.

It is all an intriguing possibility that Homo floresiensis is not extinct. If so, then Homo Sapiens are not the sole surviving human race. It is this which concentrates the mind upon Sumatra and Australia alike.

Most of the recent sightings of Littlefoot have occurred in and around central Sumatra. This is the Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat (Kerinci Seblat National Park), an area of lush, dense rainforest.

Farmers on the outskirts have seen Orang Pendek launching raids on their crops. They carry off corn, potatoes and fruit.  Within the forest, wild yams and mushrooms are reportedly gathered.

The creatures are omnivorous, picking up logs to snack on the insects found underneath. They have also been spotted moving in small hunting groups, killing their prey with axe-like weapons. Finally, witnesses have reported Littlefoot sightings along the rivers. They fish there, with a favorite meal being river crabs.

The elusive Orang Pendek can survive, largely unseen, amidst that dense foliage. Other large primates can too, notably orangutan, gibbons and humans, as well as hunting mammals such as the Sumatran Tiger.  They are all indigenous to the island.