Yowie flick 'Throwback' gets the schlock horror pulp treatment

We love a good movie poster and this one is a pearler!

A new poster has been released for the upcoming Australian horror feature "Throwback."

Designed by Brazilian artist Juarez Ricci, the retro-style poster evokes the '60s/'70s creature features and pulp adventure movies that inspired the film itself.

Writer/Director Travis Bain says he wanted to avoid the clichés of contemporary movie posters.

"From the get-go I knew I wanted an illustrated poster rather than your typical modern 'floating heads' Photoshop design," Bain says. "Juarez's work reminds me of the old Drew Struzan and Richard Amsel posters I grew up with, so he was a natural choice to create this artwork."

"Throwback" follows two modern-day treasure hunters, a female park ranger and an unhinged ex-cop as they tangle with a Bigfoot-type monster known as a Yowie in the remote jungles of northern Australia. The film stars Shawn Brack, Anthony Ring, Melanie Serafin, and Vernon Wells of "The Road Warrior" and "Commando" fame. The new one-sheet poster is available for collectors to purchase at: www.zazzle.com/throwback_one_sheet_movie_poster-228922243441439784

"Throwback" recently premiered at the Bram Stoker International Film Festival in England, and Australian and North American premieres are expected to be announced over the coming months. Already the film has received strong interest from the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York, which recently invited Bain to submit "Throwback" for consideration for their 2014 programme.

"It's not an official acceptance, but it's a step towards one," Bain says. "They're very keen to see the film, so we're crossing our fingers they'll select it for their Midnight Section."

Additionally, the trailer for "Throwback" has been selected for the International Movie Trailer Festival, an online festival in which the public can vote for their favourite trailers. Viewers can vote for the "Throwback" trailer at: www.internationalmovietrailerfestival.com/all-trailers/throwback/

"Throwback" is expected to be released on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD in 2014. For film festival or distributor enquiries, visit www.travisbain.com.au or www.facebook.com/throwbackmovie.

Yowie sighted at Bexhill in northern NSW

A Yowie has been sighted on Bangalow Road, just north of Bexhill by a Lismore resident.

The witness said the creature moved across the two lanes of bitumen, raising his arm to apparently shield its eyes from the bright high beam glare of the approaching car.

"I would have seen it for between 20 and 30 seconds," the witness recalled. "It was really moving at the time. It leapt the fence no problem. All I can remember was seeing this large black object with a solid build, lanky legs and long lanky arms.

"It wasn't clothed ... it wasn't wearing clothes like a human."

The witness said the creature ran with a fast, stooped pace. It had high shoulders and almost no neck and a small head.

"It was like its head was shrunken into its shoulders."

Sydney-based yowie researcher, Paul Cropper, said the recent sighting revealed some "classic" elements which provided a common thread linking many experiences by many people over many decades.

"The fact that this thing was heavy set, with long arms and a small head ... these are classic traits," Mr Cropper said.

The area where the yowie was seen has a long history of similar sightings with stories running in the local paper, The Northern Star, since the 1800s.

Finding Bigfoot (or not) Down Under

In 2011, the Finding Bigfoot team travelled to Australia to look for evidence of the Yowie. The resulting program was aired this week in the US.

Bigfoot hunters Matt Moneymaker and James 'Bobo' Fay joined Cliff Barackman and field biologist Ranae Holland to track down the Yowie in New South Wales and Queensland.

As the program teaser states:

The team travels half way across the world to investigate recent reports of Australia’s yowie, a creature similar to sasquatch in both appearance and behaviour. They traverse deep into the jungle in hopes of proving bigfoot’s cousin down under is real.

We hope the crew from Finding Bigfoot had fun while they were Down Under - because it looks like they ultimately came up empty-handed. The only real 'score' of the trip seems to be some dubious 'vocalisations' recorded by the team.

Some of the personal experiences shared at one of the show's popular 'town hall' style meetings were interesting, however if you're looking for a serious analytical program then this probably isn't it.

But who are we to spoil the fun? They all seem like friendly guys, and there are plenty of amusing exchanges between the hosts (although their Australian gags will fall a little flat with antipodean audiences).

There is a reason this program rates as highly as it does!

Catch part of the episode here:

Is this the sound of a Yowie walking?

In 2010 a mystery animal researcher ventured into a bush location in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. For several minutes he recorded the sound of something walking nearby and throwing what were possibly rocks towards him.

Another researcher, 'Bluegem', who has a background in sound engineering, managed to dampen the man's voice and footsteps so that the other sounds could be more clearly heard.

Thank you to both gentlemen for sharing this audio with us. What do you think, readers?

Have a listen here:

Meet the Cryptozoologist: Dr Karl Shuker

How did you first get involved in researching strange and mysterious creatures?

I'd always been interested in the more unusual animals as opposed to the familiar ones, so when I was bought a copy of Bernard Heuvelmans's book On the Track of Unknown Animals as an early teenager by my mother, it sparked what has become an enduring, life-long interest in cryptozoology.

What were some of the early influences in your life?
Heuvelmans, definitely, also my mother, whose own interest in animals and nature immeasurably encouraged and directed my own.

Have you personally seen one of these creatures?
Sadly, no, though the upside of this is that I can remain entirely objective in relation to cryptid cases, not being influenced by personal experience.

What creatures particularly interest you?
Even with cryptozoology, I prefer the lesser-known, less-publicised animals as opposed to the more famous ones, so I have a wide range of interests in this field, including many that until I documented them had not been chronicled within the cryptozoological literature - such as the Scottish earth hound, the Sri Lankan devil bird and horned jackal, a vast diversity of mystery birds, the New Guinea devil pig, and all manner of little-known mystery cats from around the world.

What cryptids are most likely to exist in your opinion?
The two that seem most plausible and also most likely to be discovered at some point are the Sumatran Orang pendek and the Thylacine (though the latter may actually be discovered on New Guinea before/if at all on Tasmania or mainland Australia, if only because New Guinea is far less well-explored).

What’s your favourite?
The Fujian blue tiger has always held a particular appeal for me – the thought that there may have been and may even still be tigers with blue fur seems surreal and yet is backed by very reputable eyewitness reports.

What’s your favourite Australian cryptid?
The Yarri or Queensland tiger. I'd love it to exist and to be a living Thylacoleo (marsupial lion) – that would be an immensely significant cryptozoological revelation if one day confirmed.

Have you developed any theories around where the more unusual animals - i.e. yowies/bigfoot - have come from?
The yowie is definitely an enigma, in terms both of its origin and of its identity. In my book In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, I discussed the lesser-known theory that it may actually be a marsupial, possibly a surviving unusually primate-like diprotodont, which would certainly make sense zoogeographically. If a genuine placental primate, however, it might have arrived in Australia by rafting from south-east Asia. Indeed, although not widely known, there is even a very yowie-like entity reported from New Guinea, so perhaps yowies crossed the Torres Strait from there into Australia.

Have you written any books/articles?
Eighteen books to date, hundreds of articles, and I've been consultant and/or contributor to ten other books, so I've kept myself busy since I began writing in the mid-1980s! My most recent book is Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery (CFZ Press: Bideford, 2012), published in December 2012, which contains a lot of information concerning Australasian examples.

Do you have a website?
My official website is at www.karlshuker.com and I also have my award-winning blog, ShukerNature, at www.karlshuker.blogspot.com, which contains nearly 300 articles on a very diverse range of subjects appertaining to cryptozoology and (un)natural history.

How many mystery animal reports would you receive a year?
Lots! I've never actually counted them, but it has to be in the hundreds.

What’s the closest you’ve personally come to finding something?
I spotted two unusually large quails on the New Zealand island bird sanctuary of Tiritiri Matangi when holidaying in Auckland in 2006, which I later read may actually be surviving specimens of the supposedly long-extinct and fairly large native New Zealand species of quail (quails living in New Zealand today are all supposed to be the smaller naturalised Australian quail). When DNA studies of these oversized Tiritiri quails (also spied by others there over the years) were carried out, however, they revealed that the quails were not New Zealand quails after all, sadly.

What’s the farthest you’ve traveled to go ‘in search of’ mystery animals?
I've travelled all over the world, to every continent except Antarctica, and to locations as isolated as Easter Island in the mid-Pacific (which is about as remote as anywhere on the whole of planet Earth, in fact), and I've always combined holidays with mystery beast investigations on-site whenever possible.

What’s next for you - any trips planned? Books or articles to write? 
Talks to give?
All three, hopefully – certainly, more books and articles, from which I earn a living, so it's not just for the fun of researching and writing them, though I do definitely derive immense pleasure from that.

Could you share some of your favourite cryptozoology book titles with us?
Heuvelmans's On the Track of Unknown Animals will always be #1 on the cryptozoological bookshelf for me, but nowadays there are so many others that we're spoilt for choice. Obviously, however, I definitely favour Michael Newton's massive Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology, and George Eberhart's hefty 2-volume counterpart, Mysterious Creatures.

What advice would you give anyone getting into the field of cryptozoology?
Read as much information as possible re: the cryptid that you plan to seek before setting forth into the field – too many crypto-expeditions in the past have set out ill-equipped with knowledge on the animal that they are seeking. Know your cryptid thoroughly, and then you have a decent chance of discovery. A fair time ago, one ill-fated expedition clearly did not do this, because it actually went looking for the cryptid concerned in entirely the wrong country! Incredible but true.

'Throwback' catapults Yowie to the small screen

Seems everyone has Yowie fever!

Another group of film makers is shooting a movie right now in far north Queensland.

It's called Throwback and it's been a labour of love for all involved. They've been filming it for 2 years at various locations around Cairns.

The director, Travis Bain, is so confident it will take off, he's attracted a major name to the production. He arrives in the far north next week, so the Cairns based crew are busily rehearsing the scenes he'll shoot so all will be ready.

Check out the trailer!

Yowie looked like 'big black person'

"The trees...sounded like they were exploding, rather than being knocked over..." according to this witness, whose Blue Mountains yowie encounter left him shocked and shaken.

Yowie-haunted farm yields weird prints on car!

Holy hairy hominid Batman!

This Yowie-plagued property yielded a few surprises for our cameraman - strange (marsupial?) prints all over the window of the occupant's car.

What? Where? How? Why?

Book review: Yowie Tales 1

by Mike Williams

UPDATE: The reason Mr Green did not answer any questions is because he had "borrowed" the photos he claimed he had captured. Typically unapologetic, Green has now withdrawn the book and is no longer involved in any form of research. The "borrowed" photos and other Green "accidents" are listed here.

Queensland writer Brett Green's book 'Yowie Tales' has just been published, and there are more than a few surprises contained within it.

I found the stories and reports by eyewitnesses really interesting and look forward to the second book by Brett.

The two images purportedly of yowies, if proven to be real one day, could be some of the most important secondary evidence of unusual creatures ever recorded!

The Queensland area that Brett concentrates on in his book surpasses, in many ways, the Blue Mountains of NSW, which has been promoted for many years now as a Yowie 'hot spot'. 

'Yowie Tales' is a definite 'must have' for any cryptozoology enthusiast in Australia. 

Those interested in Bigfoot-type phenomena will be equally enthralled by tales of strange encounters in the Australian bush.

I recently corresponded with Brett by email and sent a list of questions. 

Brett decided to respond to all my questions listed below with this single response:

"Under legal advice, the author has been advised not to make any comment on any unreliable or approved Internet source to any person not duly authorised while a current situation is being investigated."

The Questions

1. In the book sales post on AYR you stated the photos were "verified"

All I am going to say is that the cover image was taken from a genuine photograph from 1998; verified; and has been kept under "wraps"since then along with 3 others.

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=3952

Which person/group examined and "verified" the photo? And how did they verify the photo?

2. On the Australian Yowie Research board we were told there were four photos in total.

In the book we are told "...sadly when the photographs were developed, six were clear, five were blurred." How many clear, unedited photos were there. Four or six?

3. Where are the five blurred photos?

4. Is their anyone who sighted the original negatives that we are able contact?

5. The photos and negatives are very important secondary evidence of unknown creatures.

Were the original photos/negatives ever shown to scientists/anthropologists etc that can be contacted?

6. The "raid" occurred on January 23-2012 "...duly demanded entrance entrance to the authors workplace and confiscated all research files, photographs, negatives, CD and DVD records..." 

Did you have in your possession, at your workplace, the complete roll of negatives of the yowies before the raid?

7. Did the "government departmental staff" remove the complete roll of negatives of the yowies?

8. Regarding the first photo described in the book, the two males, there is this description:

Then out of nowhere, two creatures appeared on top of the rocky waterfall ledges near a fig tree in a fighting mode as they stood with their backs towards me and facing(or gesturing to other invisible entities in the far tree line ahead ( I was around 100 feet up the hill from them with the road in between, I snapped some hurried snapshots without thinking then they disappeared.

This photo (not released yet, but discussed in the book) was shown to me. This interesting photo shows two creatures level with the photographer. The current description of any elevation above the creatures is impossible. Can the author please explain this?

9. Over the last 14 years since the incident, has the author had time to re-create the original photos at the location?

10. On page 113 "some of the 'illustrations' officialdom did not want anyone to see".

Why would a government department not want the photos to be seen, but allow you to use the photos, so that people can see them?

12. The original interview with AYR is below.

http://www.yowiehunters.com/index.php?o ... Itemid=145

The original story was five witnesses and no photos.

"It was at this location where Brett and 4 friends had witnessed first hand the power of the Yowie in a freak incident while bush walking 3 years ago... Brett went through the story stage by stage, pointing out the exact places and what was viewed... It was a most incredible and amazing story with the names of all the people involved as back up of the encounter."

The next version of the story in 'Yowie Tales' is one witness and photos. Can the author please explain this?

13. The author has been a Justice of the Peace for over 40+ years. With your legal background, are you claiming that you handed over your entire life's work and forgot to ask the two government staff for a copy of the search warrant, forgot to ask them where the police were to serve the warrant, forgot to ring the police and demand these people leave your property, forgot to ask the two government staff for identification for you to record, forgot to ask them for receipts for items seized, and forgot to write down their car registration?

14. If you have handed over your life's work to two frauds, who were not government employees, how could they have possibly known that you knew absolutely nothing about the law (even less than Joe Citizen) and would merely hand over your life's work? They essentially were risking jail time by impersonating government officials while carrying out an illegal raid with fraudulent documentation.

Can the author please explain this?

A sneak peek at the new Orang Pendek book...

Isn't it grand? We'll be ordering a copy of Orang Pendek: In Search of Sumatra's Forgotten Ape ASAP after it has rolled off the printers.

Artist Mark North is the man behind the stunning cover; CFZ Zoological Director Richard Freeman is the author whose writing, multiple trips to Sumatra and unique insight will combine to make this an unforgettable tome; and CFZ Director Jonathan Downes is the brains behind bringing this book to publication.

Tell Santa you want this one for Christmas cobbers!

And for those who want a taste of what might be contained therein, watch our CFZ Sumatra Expedition video here:

What does the Yowie really look like?

Just what does a Yowie look like? It is commonly described as 'ape-like', but sports many other attributes according to witnesses.

Some report the creature has "glowing red eyes" like the picture above, created by Australian artist Sharaya Brooks, and that it moves with supernatural speed. 

Some people believe tales of the Yowie paint the creature as more faerie-like than fierce physical beast.

Aboriginal lore does support the existence of 'little people’ (of a small, hairy variety) in Australia – the yuuri (pronounced 'yawri’, not unlike Yowie) or 'brown jack’, which fulfil a similar role to that of European elves and leprechauns, guarding certain places, granting favours and playing tricks on people.

Early colonial encounters describe the creature as "gorilla-like"with black hair, or "half baboon half man". The animal regularly startled white settlers, spooked indigenous people and frightened horses and livestock.

Other descriptions refer to the Yowie as a monster - a "big hairy thing", "man like" and hulking - ranging in size from 4ft-10ft in height - with shaggy, woolly hair.

"Like a huge man with hair all over it" with an "ugly and hairy" face, according to one witness whose horse was frightened by the creature.

One thing many witnesses agree on is the smell the creature exudes - like "something dead", rancid, stinking, a "burnt bakelite smell", and like "something electrical".

"It was like an elephant on two legs wearing size 20 boots," Blue Mountains resident Neil Frost would later describe the ape-like creature he encountered in thick bush near his backyard to local police.

His neighbour Ian described the monster as "7ft [2m] tall, two of me in build. I weigh 100kg [16st], so we’re looking at a creature at least three times my body mass. It was big. It ran sort of like a person, but not quite. There was something odd in its gait... It was a big hairy beastie."

An article from 1842 reads: "The natives of Australia...believe in...[the]Yahoo...This being they describe as resembling a man...of nearly the same height,...with long white hair hanging down from the head over the features...the arms as extraordinarily long, furnished at the extremities with great talons, and the feet turned backwards, so that, on flying from man, the imprint of the foot appears as if the being had travelled in the opposite direction. Altogether, they describe it as a hideous monster of an unearthy character and ape-like appearance."

In an article entitled “Australian Apes” appearing in the 1880s, a Mr. H. J. McCooey, claimed to have seen an "indigenous ape" on the south coast of New South Wales: "A few days ago I saw one of these strange creatures…on the coast between Bateman’s Bay and Ulladulla… I should think that if it were standing perfectly upright it would be nearly 5 feet high. 

"It was tailless and covered with very long black hair, which was of a dirty red or snuff-colour about the throat and breast. Its eyes, which were small and restless, were partly hidden by matted hair that covered its head… I threw a stone at the animal, whereupon it immediately rushed off…”

Kilcoy claims to be the home of the mythical Yowie, Australia's equivalent of Bigfoot or the Yeti, which is said to live in the hills around Kilcoy. There is a large wooden statue of the creature in town (above and below) that looks more man than ape.

Some local boys saw the creature, which they said was three metres tall and "smelled of sulphur".

Bongo's Pilliga Yowie hoax

In 2006 a late-night caller to an ABC radio show captivated listeners - 'Bongo', as he called himself, claimed to have been abducted by a Yowie (Australian Bigfoot) in the badlands of the Pilligia scrub (an area infamous for Yowies and sightings of the ghostly 'Pilliga Princess').

Bongo's 'everyman' demeanor - he described himself as an old truckie who worked in a rig hauling cargo up and down the arterial roads of regional Australia - and use of dates and locations convinced many his story was legitimate.

En route to Gunnedah one night, he takes a wrong turn and runs out of fuel halfway between the NSW country towns of Narrabri and Coonabarrabran.

Sleeping in his truck, he's awoken by the cab of his truck rocking wildly and the door being ripped off its hinges. He's grabbed by a thing that "defies explanation...it looked like it was horrific!" and carried off to its lair.

"We ended up at a humpy (bush shelter)...this thing had a real fetish obviously for real thin bow-legged knock-kneed white hairy legs - he had pairs of legs hanging up..." a stuttering Bongo tells the radio presenter. [Anyone remember that scene in Star Wars where Luke Skywalker is knocked out and carried off to a snow cave by a Yeti-type creature he later slays using The Force?]

Now, before Bongo launches into his tale, straight off the bat he tells the radio presenter he's in a sanitarium, Happy Days Retreat, an improbably named nut house for the insane, perhaps better suited to a Stephen King novel because some quick research proves it doesn't exist!

Apparently he has been there since the big incident, but he's got access to phones and 'Nurse Annie' tells him people go out looking for the monstrosity that damaged his truck and took him back to its humpy, which alarms him no end.

His wild and highly derivative experience supposedly inspired the play 'Acacia Hills'.

We think Bongo's tale is a funny hoax, but what do you think? Have a listen to Bongo here.

Santa escaped Yowie - with a tale to tell!

We were as shocked as anyone to see the Christmas presents under the tree this year. It appears Santa managed to escape the Yowie after all - and with a tale to tell! 

Yowie researcher hits the airwaves

Australian yowie researcher Tony Mehmed is a special guest on the Nite Callers internet radio show this week. This is the second time Tony has appeared on the show, and apparently he's pulled one of the highest audiences the show has ever experienced!
Tony discovered his interest in the Yowie while in High School in 1980. His friend's dads would tell stories of large hairy creatures that would stand by the side of the highway and watch them as they drove by in their trucks. These stories captured Tony's attention and spawned a major interest in the subject.

Tony has been researching for more than 20 years and has had several close encounters with the Yowie and has photographed what many believe to be the image of a Yowie in one of his research areas.

Listen to the show at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nitecallers/2010/11/22/tony-mehmed-returns-to-nite-callers-radio

Yowie! hits the small screen

A Griffith University film student has made a film about one of Australia's favourite crypto critters, the Yowie. The film is inspired by the being from Aboriginal folklore, and based on two characters, couple James and Vivian, who are spending a weekend camping when a mysterious figure appears in the bush. The plot follows the couple as they battle to survive the night!

According to Australian Yowie Research, almost 10,000 sightings have been reported around the nation, the majority on the east coast, including bushland areas around Brisbane.

Similar to the North American Bigfoot and Himalayan Yeti, AYR believes two kinds of yowie live in Australia - a larger yowie which stands between 1.8 and 3 metres tall and a smaller version that stands between 1.2 and 1.5 metres, fully grown.

Interesting facts about yowies in Australia

* There have been almost 10,000 reported sightings of yowies across Australia.

* The name 'yowie' is believed to be an adaptation of Aboriginal names 'yuuri' and 'yowri' which were two commonly used words to describe the creature, particularly in NSW

* Yowies are believed to be similar to the equally mysterious ape-like creatures known as bigfoot (in the US), sasquatch (Canada), yeti (China) and chuchuna (Russia).

* The largest populations of yowies are believed to be in the remote mountain ranges of southeast Australia.

* Yowies have thick, dark skin on the face, with deep skin folds and a flattened, wide nose. They often have a strong odour. They are powerfully built with broad shoulders, a small neck and muscular legs, similar to an ape.

* Yowies have some serious body hair and walk upright.

Reported yowie sightings in Queensland

July 2009 - Rockhampton:
A driver, who had pulled off to the side of a road, reported seeing a a very tall, grey-haired creature with similar body features to a human standing on two limbs. The creature ran extremely fast and dove into scrub.

September 2002 - Beerwah:
A horticulturalist, name withheld, was in the Beerwah State Forest off Roy's Rd when he heard a high-pitched scream. He turned around and saw a ``black furry thing about waist-height'' which ``got taller, almost to my height''.

August 2001 - Laidley:
Mrs Crouten (first name withheld) was driving north towards Laidley Creek when a creature appeared on the right side of the road. It was walking on ``all fours'', was covered in dark hair and looked like a large version of an orangutan. Simlar sightings have been reported over the years.

Mid-2001 - Mount Tamborine:
A jogger was running along a road when he saw ``this big dark form''. As it turned to its side, he realised it was mobile, on two legs, and 2.13m-2.43m (7ft-8ft) tall.

1999 - Ormeau:
Jason C spotted something moving in bushland while clearing trees for a house construction. He recalls seeing an ``ugly thing'' sitting crouched in the bushes and decsribed it as an ``ugly human'' with dark brown hair body hair, a flat nose, a large head, about 2.74m (9ft) tall, long arms and solid. It ran in a side to side motion.

1977 - Springbrook:
Former Queensland National Party senator Bill O'Chee reported that he came face-to-face with a yowie while he was a young boy on a school camp. He said he was with a group of 20 fellow TSS students when they saw what they described as a 3m tall, hair-covered creature. It had a flat face and walked to the side in a crab-like style.

From the archives: hairy, scary Pilliga Yowie (1979)

For more contemporary Yowie reports, visit www.yowiefile.com or www.yowiehunters.com.au

Mystery print puzzles farmers

Yowie, big cat or a collage of curious beast tracks - what could have left behind these mysterious prints? That's what the good folk of the Upper MacLeay are asking after a local farmer found and preserved some weird tracks he spotted on the banks of a river.

Toorooka resident Reg Wooderson found the footprint last month while working on his tractor.

“We had a big rise in the river and a lot of debris got washed down after a couple of day’s rain,” Mr Wooderson said.

“I was tidying the bank on my tractor when it just collapsed.”

Remarkably lying on top of the rubble was a set of large footprints.

“This clod just rolled out and was very noticeable.” Mr Wooderson said. “There were two footprints but one just crumbled away. It was just too much of a coincidence to be a freak of nature.”

One thing's for sure - the 'print' appears to actually be two or three overlapping prints of an animal featuring big rounded toes. Not unlike the large cat prints commonly found but...sometimes these things are too difficult to call. The mystery deepens...

Read more: http://www.macleayargus.com.au/news/local/news/general/mystery-print-we-cant-say-what-made-it/1963377.aspx

Do Wild Men roam the earth?

Could wild men still be roaming the jungles, forests and wilderness regions of the world?

There are reports from all over the globe of large 'man apes' - America has its Bigfoot; Canada has its Sasquatch; Australia has its bush ape, the Yowie; Indonesia boasts the Orang-Pendek; Brazil has its Mapinguary; China has its Yeren; Vietnam its Wildman; India its 'forest man' or Mande Barung; Nepal its Yeti...surely there must be something to all of these tales?

And what are they? Remnant race? Distant cousin? A new species?

Henry Gee, senior editor of that esteemed journal Nature, reckons there's a strong chance:

"It is entirely legitimate to ask whether H. floresiensis, or something like it, still exists, or, perhaps, became extinct in historical times: a human version of the red gazelle, perhaps.

"And if one admits H. floresiensis to the canon, what of other celebrated mythical beasts - if not necessarily Nessie, then the orang pendek of Malaysia? The yeti? The sasquatch? Bigfoot? Are all such creatures the products of delusion, conspiracy theories and hoax? Perhaps - but not necessarily. The little we know of those large mammals on the fringes of knowledge suggests that they live in remote places, are very shy, are extremely rare, and that to find them before they become extinct requires a degree of luck. So far, no hard evidence for yetis (say) has emerged. But in a world that hosts H. floresiensis and the saola, the kouprey and the red gazelle, one should keep an open mind."

How refreshing and inspiring to know there are still some very open minds in science, and that the spirit of adventure and inquiry isn't dead - not by a long shot!

This week there has been talk of launching a high-level expedition in the remote mountains of China's Shennongjia Nature Reserve in search of the Yeren, a costly exercise but one that could very possibly bear fruit given the remote locality.

In neighbouring India, the CFZ will soon be searching for the Mande Barang (or Burung) during a three-week expedition departing October 31 and returning November 20. The team consists of seasoned explorers Adam Davies, Dave Archer, Jon McGowan, Dr. Chris Clark and Richard Freeman.

To get an idea of what the team are in for when they get there, read Alistair Lawson's BBC story from 2008 about the Mande Barung sightings.

Now don't you wish you were getting out of that armchair and going with them?