ROCK APES: VIETNAM´S BIGFOOT

Source: Cryptomundo.

By Gundhramns Hammer
December 5, 2013

The Vietnamese call it Nguói Rúng, meaning "forest people". Like the Bigfoot in North America, this is its counterpart in Vietnam. They are cryptic species of unknown human-like creatures that have been reported from various parts of the world. 

According to Wikipedia (2013), this hominid cryptid "is described as being approximately 1.8 m (6 ft) tall and covered with hair except in the knees, the soles of the feet, the hands, and the face. The hair ranges in color from gray to brown to black. The creature walks on two legs and has been reported both solitary and moving in small groups. The creature is most often sighted foraging for food from fruits and leaves to langers and even flying foxes."

The distribution of Nguói Rúng ranges from the Vũ Quang nature reserve and other forested areas of Vietnam to northern Borneo and Laos.

During the Vietnam War, a few U.S. soldiers reported having seen these tall and hairy creatures. They called them "Rock Apes". And the encounters were not friendly at all, for rock apes were very agressive. Vietnamese military also mentioned having had the same problem with these creatures during the same conflict.

These wild hominids attacked the soldiers, screaming and charging against them and at times throwing sticks and stones at them, thus the name rock apes given to these cryptids by the U.S. soldiers

Cryptozoologists believe these apes belong to a group of mammals that have evolved colaterally to humans and somehow have been able to survive to the present day by hiding deep in the jungle in various parts of the world, as in the case of the Nguói Rúng, the thick conifer forests in higher latitudes, as for example the famous Bigfoot or Sasquatch in Canada and the United States, or in the valleys and snowy mountains, like the Yeti in the Himalayan region of Tibet and Nepal.

Various scientists, for instance Dr Bernard Heuvelmans, have been tracking these animals with the hope of capturing a specimen but so far to no avail. The efforts of an expedition requested by Hoang Minh Thao, a Vietnamese general, also proved unsuccessful in 1974.

From time to time, there have been reports of footprints which presumably belong to these cryptid creatures but upon close examination have turned out to belonged to known animals or were frauds. 

Hairs from unknown mammals thought to belong to mysterious apes have also been found by people but DNA analyses have been inconclusive or were samples shown to be from other known apes.

This is the case of the rock apes. There is little evidence of their existence except stories from the local tribesmen in the Vietnamese highlands and one footprint.

According to ANU (Australian National University), "a 10 year resource inventory of the entire Central Highlands also netted little. Tran Hong Viet, now Professor of Zoology at Hanoi's Pedagogic University, found a suspicious footprint which he photographed and cast, but his concern was such that he did not report on this or stories he had collected at a summation conference in 1985."

Efforts to prove whether rock apes are real life creatures and members of the human family continue to this very day. 

Recently there has been a new attempt to find rock apes by some cryptozoologists. The results have been presented in a documentary (Video 1).

Watch documentary: Click HERE.


References

Newton M. (2009). Hidden Animals. A Field Guide to Batsquatch, Chupacabra, and Other Elusive Creatures. Greenwood Press, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. 200 p.