Vietnam Rock Apes And Indochina

[Rockape]

Hi everyone!!

I just found this on "Phantoms and Monsters", some stories about rock apes and a nice picture of a "rock ape..."

http://naturalplane....s-rock-ape.html

While checking out that link I saw this, which makes me wonder if "Rock Apes" are a different thing that what some were seeing.

Linderer was the closest team member to the hubbub, his heart was jumping in his chest as he watched and waited for the intruder.

While he was ready for a VC soldier, he wasn't ready for the face that peered through the underbrush. If it was a Viet Cong soldier, then it was a **** ugly one! An oblong head framed the hair-covered face. Dark, deep-set eyes lay beneath a prominent brow, and they did nothing to complement the heavy jowls and angry mouth. As it stepped into a small clearing, Linderer could see that matted reddish-brown hair ran down the creature's neck and covered most of its body. Whatever it was, it stood at least five feet tall, had broad shoulders, long thick muscular arms, and a heavy torso. It walked upright. In the small clearing, it stopped and studied the Americans.

"What the hell is that?" someone called out from behind Linderer.

"It's a rock ape," said another team member. Another team member disagreed. "No, it ain't," he said. "I've seen rock apes, and that sure as hell isn't a rock ape!" "It's an orangutan, isn't it?" Linderer asked while the others kept their eyes glued on the strange creature. "Well, if it is, then he can't read a map. There are no orangutans in Vietnam."

The apelike creature soon lost interest in the six LRRPs, turned back the way it had come, and easily climbed back up the steep rise. "It's an ape of some kind," one of the LRRPs said. "It has to be." But then, maybe it wasn't.

And it appears it has a name

there is mounting evidence of the existence of strange, humanlike creatures the locals call the nguoi rung --"The people of the forest." Bigfoot.

[Guest BFSleuth]

This is a telling quote, part of the story of the 7' tall rock ape that got caught in the crossfire:

"We returned to the area and found a blood trail, leading into the jungle. We trailed it for quite some time when we found the body of an enemy soldier that had been almost entirely torn apart. We do not know exactly what happened, but I have a good notion to what may have happened. We basically ran out of the area back to our hill."

Fair warning to anyone wanting to shoot a BF. A wounded BF would not be a happy experience for the hunter.

Another of the stories in the link provided from Kronprinz told of a fighting unit being over run by about 100 rock apes in a coordinated attack, all barking like dogs. If our BF is capable of that...

It brings to mind the concept of Native American and First Nations People and their descriptions of wars with BF. I can't imagine trying to face an army of BF with only bows and arrows.

So far it seems there are several stories of at least smaller groups of rock apes attacking fighting units, usually when they are on patrol. This kind of aggression might be linked to the fact that their territory was suddenly being invaded by fighting armies of humans, and they were taking exception to the incursions.

[Guest Kronprinz Adam]

...Another of the stories in the link provided from Kronprinz told of a fighting unit being over run by about 100 rock apes in a coordinated attack, all barking like dogs. If our BF is capable of that...

It brings to mind the concept of Native American and First Nations People and their descriptions of wars with BF. I can't imagine trying to face an army of BF with only bows and arrows.

So far it seems there are several stories of at least smaller groups of rock apes attacking fighting units, usually when they are on patrol. This kind of aggression might be linked to the fact that their territory was suddenly being invaded by fighting armies of humans, and they were taking exception to the incursions.

Dear Bfsleuth.

On the video, a GI told that sometimes, they indeed encountered large troops of local monkeys. I think they will be noisy if you enter their territory, but I do not know if they actually throw objects...

As you have seen, some stories describe a large, sometimes aggresive, bipedal apeman with long hair (red or black). Do you think they have encountered a large mainland orangutan? Some asian miocene apes are commonly described by paleonthologist as orangutan-like. Or maybe GIs were attacked by large troops of macaques?

But other reports make me think that they found some kind of tropical apemen creature...a neanderthaloid?

About Bigfoot clashing with humans in the past, I have more questions than answers. Did Bigfoot formed entire tribes on ancient times? There are some native legends that describe that long time ago, humans clashed with large hairy giants, and there was a large battle. (The giants sometimes were described as "cannibal", did they hunted or kidnapped humans at first?) In these stories, the natives usually located the cave where the giant lived, waited until they were asleep, placed some branches on the entrance and burned them. But I agree that hunting Bigfoots, which are fast and stealthy and can take hunters by surprise, it is not a good idea.

Greetings from Guatemala.

K. Adam.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Kronprinz Adam

[salubrious]

(The giants sometimes were described as "cannibal", did they hunted or kidnapped humans at first?) In these stories, the natives usually located the cave where the giant lived, waited until they were asleep, placed some branches on the entrance and burned them. But I agree that hunting Bigfoots, which are fast and stealthy and can take hunters by surprise, it is not a good idea.

Seems to me that particular story comes from the Taos Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico.

[Guest Kronprinz Adam]

Seems to me that particular story comes from the Taos Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico.

HI Salubrious!! I do not remember very well, (I have read a lot of stuff in the last time), but it was probably from the Taos people.

I found another story, from mexican folklore. On this story, there is a large party of men that goes to the mountain to collect honey. They built a campsite and went to collect the honey, and left a small boy to take care of the campsite.

While they are collecting the honey, a large and hairy female "Chilobo" (the local wildmen) comes to the campsite and speaks with the boy. The Chilobo scares the kidsand tells to leave immediately the mountains, otherwise Chilobos will devour the people.

The boy tells to all the honey gatherers, but they do not believe the story. And at night, the Chilobos attack fiercely the campsite The men had "guns", but they could no nothing.

The boy escapes to the town and gives the alarm to the "bishops".

[The tale seems to be a relatively modern version, but it could be possible that there was an older tale with arrows instead of guns and native priests or shamans instead bishops].

On the next day, several people gathered and went to the caves where the Chilobos lived (the entrance of the "Underworld"). They placed a very old man in front of the cave and covered him with honey. He entered the cave and saw the bones of the first group of humans, eaten by the Chilobos. The chilobos followed him to lick the honey. He came outside of the cave and the Chilobos followed, one by one, Then, the bishops killed the chilobos with large "machetes" [large knifes], to prevent them of devouring more people!!!

http://www.ciesas-go...-a-los-chilobos

Edited May 23, 2012 by Kronprinz Adam

[Cotter]

FWIW, my neighbor is a Vietnam Vet, he was a boat captain (or whatever they're called), that would take SEALS and special ops forces up the river for night missions (typically prisoner runs).

He has no recollection of seeing or hearing about any rock apes. But that is one man's experience.

[Guest Kronprinz Adam]

FWIW, my neighbor is a Vietnam Vet, he was a boat captain (or whatever they're called), that would take SEALS and special ops forces up the river for night missions (typically prisoner runs).

He has no recollection of seeing or hearing about any rock apes. But that is one man's experience.

Maybe the only troops that encountered these creatures were in specific regions (Khon Tum, or near the Laos border), and staying for some time on the jungle...(specially at night?)

According to the Discovery channel video, it is possible that the large ape troops that the GIs encountered were "Bear macaques".....but some other reports are intriging...bipedal neanderthaloids..,reported by the american GIs, the VIetcongs and vietnamese and laotian villagers....

Unfortunately, the war created a lot of destruction on Laos..so there are still some quantity of bombs and explosives deep into the jungle

Greetings.

K. Adam.

[Guest BFSleuth]

Sanderson noted in his book that most of the ABSM's (Abominable Snowmen) throughout the world, and especially in hotter climates, were in montane environments or higher mountains. The reports we have been reading seem to all come from the Highlands area in the upper region of Vietnam, bordering Cambodia or Laos.

[Guest]

@4:40 is that a Rock Ape, cuz that looks pretty real ?

-DreamSquatcher

[Guest]

I have a book titled Vietnam 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal. On page 219 there is and entry about a soldier seeing a big ape. Here is the full entry.

24 January 1970

Still here-Will move tomorrow-Hard moving 292

One of men spotted a large ape-He said "gorilla"-

Troop said "He's 5-foot and that's hunched over"-

He's actually scared of the damned gorilla

Night-much moonlight-even kind of pretty

The longer we stayed in the same position, the more vulnerable we became. After several calls to Battalion, we received permission to move the next day to another location.

A full moon with crystal clear skies almost made the night in Vietnam beautiful. Instead of being romantic or awesome, it created threatening shadows, reminding me of how insignificant our presence was on the barren hill-top.

I had finally dropped off to sleep a little after midnight when one of the men awoke me to report seeing an ape. If any gorilla were present, it would be accurately spelled g-u-e-r-r-i-l-l-a. I had seen enough monkeys in the trees to believe his report, except regarding the animal's size. the soldier's sighting of the gorilla may not have been real, but his fright was genuine. The only thing I could not figure out was why a soldier whom I had seen kill men-who were trying to kill him- was scared of a **** un-armed monkey that was likely just looking for discarded C-ration cans.

This book was written by Michael Lee Lanning

Edited July 4, 2012 by squating squatch

[Rockape]

Great find SS!

[Rockape]

I'm bumping this old thread to add some recent info I found along with some photos of the "Rock Apes".

First, here are a couple of photos of what the soldiers serving in Vietnam called a "Rock Ape".

And here is a question and answer from the fellow in the photo holding the Rock Ape.

Regarding the above photograph, I recently contacted Dave "Doc" Snider to ask him some specific questions about the ape he's shown holding. Here are my questions, followed by his answers:

Posted July 19-20, 2012

Randy Merrill: OK, I found several accounts of the "Infamous Battle of Dong Den" as well as several other minor encounters. Then I found a pic I think I saw before of you holding up a dead ape. Can you verify for me that it's authentic and that what you're holding is really one of the so-called "Rock Apes"? If so, is that its tail you've got it by? There was some speculation among my fellow cryptos that they were tailless. Thanks Dave!

Dave Doc Snider: Hi Randy, this is the animal that we all referred to as a rock ape. It stood about 4' tall and was outside the wire on Dong Den down in a tree line. I hit it in the forehead with a M-79 round. It might have been another animal whose name... we did not know. I have also googled rock ape and it appears that there is a conspiracy to make it a distant cousin of 'Bigfoot'. hehehhehe We were on a patrol in Antennae Valley and was awakened early in the morning at first light by a terrific racket coming through the trees. Everyone was grabbing their rifles and and fighting belts ready to fight off the battalion of NVA when we discovered it was just a tribe of rockapes swinging through the trees passing us by...................and we didn't have any time to dig rabbit holes.

Randy Merrill: Dave, can I quote you in my most recent post about the Rock Apes? Also, some folks I showed your photo to think that white thing your holding it by is a tail; I think it's some sort of cloth or something. Can you clarify which? It would make a big difference in identifying the species. Thanks again, my friend!

Dave Doc Snider: Randy, anything I say here, please feel free to use. I am holding the tail of the animal. The upper body was brown with a hint of redness. The ass cheeks and tail were white, the outer cheeks and hips were black all the way down to the feet. The forearms were white with black hands. It is hard to determine the facial features, they were messed up by the round.................

Randy Merrill: Excellent description Dave! And thanks for giving me permission to post your comments!

Randy Merrill: Oh, and by the way, are you saying you hit him between the eyes with a grenade launcher??

Dave Doc Snider: Yes, hit him on top of the head, took off the head. In some of the pictures I am seen holding my 16, but have a distinct memory of using the 79. My buddy in California also remembers the 79..............44 years is a long time.

LINK>>The incredible "Rock Apes" of Vietnam's Dong-Den

So it seems some of the mystery of the Vietnamese Rock Ape has been solved. They apparently were some sort of unidentified monkey erroneously referred to as an ape.

I say "some of the mystery" because there are other eyewitness reports that don't match the monkey pictured in the photo. And it seems perhaps the one in the photo is an unidentified species, at least from what I can find.

[Cotter]

Excellent find.

I agree, some of the stories you hear don't fit that description. But I'd like to see what folks think this monkey is.

[Guest BFSleuth]

The picture of the backside of the monkey doesn't seem to show a divergent big toe on either foot. I wish we could ask him whether there was a divergent big toe on the feet to confirm.

[Rockape]

I cropped the photo and enlarged the area in question. Could that be toes folded under the foot where I put the arrows?

I'm thinking they are not, as it seems you can see the same type structure on the other side of the foot, but it's hard to tell.

Well photobucket is doing strange things. I did crop it and enlarge it, and it shows up on my photobucket account that way, but isn't coming through here. So I removed the edited photo.

Stupid photobucket.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Rockape