it's a hoax after all and the bigfoot website is shutdown
ST. Aug 13, 2006
Bigfoot hoax exposed
First, a website claimed to have photographs of the elusive Johor Bigfoot. Then, when the photos were exposed as a hoax, the site was quickly shut down. The Malaysian men behind it explain how things went wrong
By Sandra Leong
FOR a brief, heady two months, it seemed like King Kong may not have been a figment of Hollywood's imagination after all.
That is, if news coming out of Johor, Malaysia, were to be believed.
In mid-June, the people behind Malaysian website Johor Hominid (www.johorhominid.org) claimed that they had laid their hands on supposedly convincing photographs of the Johor Bigfoot.
The Johor Bigfoot is the Malaysian incarnation of that elusive, tall, hairy man-like creature that is also known in other parts of the world as the Yeti or Sasquatch.
The site's claims followed Bigfoot mania that erupted last December when workers at a fish farm reported spotting a family of giant, two-legged creatures near the Endau-Rompin National Park, a three-hour drive from the Causeway.
The website, naturally enough, dubbed the beast the Johor Hominid.
Soon after, the site owners - self-described Malaysian Bigfoot hunters Sean Ang and Vincent Chow - also started an online petition.
In it, they breathlessly cited the 'recent discovery of a dozen of close-up photographs of living Hominids in Johor', and called on no less than the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to help with the creature's preservation.
The frenzy grew, even spawning a government- led Bigfoot research steering committee. A fascinated public flocked to the website and it got 16,000 hits in two days.
Things really exploded when the website claimed it had pictorial proof of Bigfoot's existence.
Researchers the world over flew into a tizzy. They demanded that the photos be released for independent inspection.
But over the ensuing weeks, the site merely teased its enthralled audience, releasing only hand-drawn sketches of the alleged Bigfoot's eyes and hands.
The site maintained that the actual photos belonged to two men from the Johor Wildlife Protection Association (JWPA), who would reveal the pictures only at an opportune time.
Some online sites linked to Johor Hominid even went so far as to say the photos had been taken by the JWPA from a treetop observation deck that they had built.
But there was no Hollywood feel-good ending. Far from discovering Bigfoot, Mr Ang and Mr Chow were simply branded big fools when, on Aug 4, the pictures were exposed as a hoax.
That came about when they published a cropped photograph of the alleged Bigfoot's eyes on their website, and offered an RM1,200 (S$515) reward, a hotel stay and a guided rainforest tour to anyone who could prove it was a hoax.
It was an offer made to appeal to 'cryptozoologists', who study mythical creatures with the presumption that they do exist.
By 6pm the same day, French hominologist Jean Luc Drevillon unmasked the photos as fakes.
In an e-mail to the Johor Hominid website, he pointed out that the photos were in fact from a 2003 French book, L'Odyssee de l'espece (A Species Odyssey), which was made into a documentary of the same name the same year.
To support his claim, he attached a full copy of the picture which he had scanned from the book.
In an e-mail interview with LifeStyle last week, Mr Drevillon said he recognised the Bigfoot's eyes from 'seeing the documentary and book many times'. He also sent his discovery to Cryptomundo (www.cryptomundo.com), a reputable cryptozoology website, which then broadcast the news.
An hour after the photos were discredited, the Johor Hominid website shut down. A message on the now-defunct site reads: 'Down but not out, the search continues... Given that the current evidence for the existence of a hominid is weaker, we are currently closing down this site temporarily... Vincent Chow will focus more on the fieldwork and exploration.'
'What a disgrace'
SO THE big Bigfoot question is, why did Mr Ang and Mr Chow post fake pictures on the site?
After all, doing so casts doubt on their other pieces of 'evidence', such as supposed Bigfoot footprints and hair said to have been collected by researchers on their expeditions.
Said one irate Cryptomundo user named crypto-randz: 'This makes me sick... Everyone involved in this hoax should be held accountable including Chow... What a disgrace.'
Similarly, Mr Loren Coleman, an American cryptozoologist and editor of Cryptomundo, said via e-mail that he began to doubt the authenticity of the photos 'as soon as all efforts to have the photographs shown to primate and cryptozoological experts were denied'.
Asked if he thought the Malaysian researchers had orchestrated a publicity stunt, he said: 'The word 'orchestrated' is too harsh. But certainly, something sinister appears to be afoot, and we need to patiently discover who was behind this fakery.'
'No ulterior motive'
SPEAKING over the phone to LifeStyle last week, both Mr Ang and Mr Chow said that they had acquired the photos from the JWPA and could not answer queries on how the photos had come about.
Mr Chow, 60, a semi-retired horticultural consultant and member of the Malaysia Nature Society, is widely seen as the leader of Bigfoot hunting efforts in Johor. He said the sole intention behind setting up the website was to 'find out the truth'. He revealed: 'We, too, had our own reservations as to where the photos came from because it is very difficult to capture the Bigfoot on film. We stated that very clearly from the beginning, but people have short memories.'
The RM1,200 and hotel stay which he offered for the reward were to have been paid out of his own pocket, he added. 'There is no ulterior motive. Why would I want to waste time and effort if I didn't believe in the cause?'
In fact, he added, he was 'happy' that the truth had been outed so he would no longer have to 'misdirect my energies'. 'Our passion is genuine, but society interprets you differently. They like to criticise and throw cold water at us. To me, this is all very petty and the issue is closed.'
He appeared to pin the blame on the JWPA, saying: 'I do not want to waste time on that group anymore.'
Mr Ang, 36, an IT specialist with an interest in the science of paleoanthropology, which studies Ancient Man, said he would be more careful with photos from the JWPA in future. 'The next time, I want the negatives and a photograph of the photographer to verify authenticity.'
The fate of the Johor Hominid site is still in limbo. It is not permanently closed, said Mr Ang. 'This is just one piece of evidence that has been debunked. We'll be back when we have more evidence.'
Mr Kenny Fong, founder of paranormal research group Singapore Paranormal Investigators, puts the Bigfoot blunder down to 'a case of over-enthusiasm'.
'Obviously, someone made a mistake and jeopardised everything. But I believe it's not Vincent, as he would not be so stupid as to knowingly use fake pictures and talk so loud about it.'
Not for the money
THAT left one more avenue to be explored - the usually low-profile JWPA, a 40-member body which was founded last year to look into the protection of endangered animals.
LifeStyle went to Johor last Wednesday to meet the association's secretary, Mr Tay Teng Hwa, 64, and another member, Mr Wee Pao Chin, 60.
Mr Tay, a consultant, said that the JWPA got the photographs of the Johor Bigfoot in April from a member named Michael Yap.
The two men showed LifeStyle two colour photo- copied pictures of the animal they received, the same ones later exposed by the French researcher as having been taken from the book.
Asked where Mr Yap had got the pictures from, Mr Tay said he never asked. Mr Wee, a watch technician, said: 'We are not professionals in the area so we have no reason to question where the photos came from.'
When asked to contact Mr Yap for this story, Mr Tay said he did not have his e-mail address or phone number.
The JWPA said there was no incentive for it to lie about the photos. 'We are not in it for the money,' said Mr Tay, adding: 'A Korean newspaper wanted to buy the photos of the footprints for RM1.5 million and we turned them down.'
Meanwhile, the search for the real Bigfoot continues...
[email protected]'This is just one piece of evidence that has been debunked. We'll be back when we have more evidence'
- Mr Sean Ang, who set up the Johor Hominid website with Mr Vincent Chow. On the left is a sketch of the Bigfoot by the latter.
Footprints of a hoax
December 2005:
Bigfoot fever erupts in Johor after a group of three workers building a fish pond in Kampung Mawai, Kota Tinggi, claim to have seen a Bigfoot family of two adults and a child. They also claim to have seen several footprints, including one 45cm long.
January 2006: The Johor government launches its first effort to track down Bigfoot, with researchers and wildlife officials traipsing the national parks in search of the beast. A Bigfoot research steering committee and hotline was also set up.
In the same month, members of Singapore's Asia Paranormal Investigators do an 'interview trail' of Johor to collect eyewitness accounts from the indigenous Orang Asli who claimed to have spotted Bigfoot.
February 2006: The Singapore Paranormal Investigators, API's rival group, visits Johor's rainforests. They find a set of 63 footprints in Bukit Tanti, which they believe to have been made by a two-legged creature.
June 2006: The Johor Hominid website ( www.johorhominid.org ) is set up by Malaysian Bigfoot researchers Sean Ang and Vincent Chow. They claim to have pictures of a Bigfoot that was sighted in Johor.
July 2006: Johor Hominid releases sketches of the photographs. They incur the ire of the international cryptozoological community which calls for the actual images to be made public.
August 2006: The photos are exposed as a hoax after Mr Ang and Mr Chow publish online a cropped photograph of the alleged Bigfoot's eyes. Within 12 hours, a French hominologist traces the source of the photos to a book based on a French documentary about species evolution. One hour after news of the hoax is made public, the site shuts down.
