Cryptozoologist Adam Davies recently met with members of his team of fellow cryptid researchers who will accompany him on his latest expedition to the West Garo Hills district of the state of Meghalaya in India, which is in the northeastern part of the country, bordering Bangladesh.
Once there, Adam and his team will search for evidence of the Mande Burung, a legendary man-like ape (or perhaps ape-like man) that has long been reported as having been seen and encountered in this heavily forested and remote region.
Here are the plans for the expedition, as conveyed to me by Mr. Davies:
- The Team will be on expedition for approx three weeks. They will depart on Halloween, 31st October, from London, and return on 19/20 November.
- The team will be headed by Adam Davies. He will be joined by Dave Archer and John McGowan, who will be bringing their tracking expertise to the Team, whilst Dr. Chris Clark and Richard Freeman will be providing Technical and Zoological expertise, respectively.
- Dipu Marak will head up the Indian Team, which includes both trackers and porters.
- They will be deploying both traditional tracking techniques, as well as using hi-tech equipment such as infra-red, camera traps, thermal imaging, and filed microscopes as well as a heli-cam, if appropriate. They will use Silicon Moulding should they find any prints.
- The team will be engaging in both arduous physical treks and night stakeouts.
- They have already arranged a series of appointments with alleged Mande-Burung eyewitnesses.
- The expedition will be filmed for a forthcoming documentary.
In a personal aside, Adam told me, “I would love to see one, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the science. Getting pictures on the camera traps would be amazing. What the expedition really hopes to do though is obtain tangible physical evidence of the creature, should it exist, which can then be analyzed by independent scientific experts (e.g. to extract D.N.A.). I also hope to have a great adventure when we are there, and chill with the locals!”
And in a personal aside of my own, I apologize to Adam (and the readers of this blog) for not posting this last week as I’d planned and told him I would. I sincerely appreciate the updates and I’m always eager to post them on The Paranomalist. Just been dealing with a lot of personal issues, centered around my ailing dad and busy work schedule of late. It’s been a lot to juggle, and I’m afraid I’ve been rather neglectful of my writing duties. I’ll try to get back on track this month. Thanks again, Adam, for staying in touch and letting me know about your plans.
John,thanks very much for posting this.I look forward to telling you more about what we find, on my return!
My pleasure, Adam! Good luck and a safe journey on the expedition. I’m looking forward to hearing about your findings when you get back home.
Personally I don’t think they will find Mande Burung, because NONE of these similar creatures has ever been found. Evidence now points in the direction that sea serpents, Bigfoot, the Yeti, Orang Pendek, Mande Burung, etc. are paranormal and does not exist as physical creatures of flesh and blood. I searched for sea serpents myself for 10 years, in four European countries, doing over 30 expeditions all together, and found nothing…
Jan,
I loaned out my copy of Adam’s “Extreme Expeditions” and never got it back (guess I’ll have to order a new one), so I haven’t been able to check my facts, but didn’t Adam accompany you on the expedition to find the Loch Ness Monster and/or the Seljord Serpent?
That’s an interesting conclusion that you’ve come to regarding the possibility that these creatures may exist in a paranormal or interdimensional context. I’ve been reading some of Philip Imbrogno’s work recently, and he’s of the same opinion. I know that cryptid researchers such as Adam Davies and Loren Coleman avoid taking that stance, but I personally feel that at least in some cases it may be very plausible. That’s not necessarily say that all mystery creatures are paranormal. I’m sure that flesh-and-blood species of animals that are as yet undiscovered do exist.
Thank you for the comment.
John Carlson
The yeti and orang-pendek are not supernatural. We brought back hair from Sumatra that Dr Lars Thomas says is akin to orang-utan but with important structural differences. He says he is forced to conclude that there is a large unknown primate in Sumatra.
It’s difficult to deny tangible evidence, and I know that Adam is very convinced of the orang-pendek’s existence — probably above all of the other mystery primates for which he’s searched. Thanks for the input, Richard. I respect what you and Adam do and I wouldn’t belittle it by suggesting that your chasing after some type of phantom apparitions. I do think there may be some crossover between sightings of mysterious beings and animals and the paranormal, however. I was impressed by the book “The Hunt for the Skinwalker” and there were examples of sightings of creatures that seemed to straddle or reality and another. I think that at least sometimes this might be the case. But I understand any cryptozoologist’s hesitation to even entertain the idea because it definitely tends to detract from the serious scientific inquiry that you do.
Although I’m a student of science, but I still believe that there is many things going on or present in this world that is beyond the knowledge or reach of science. And according to me some of the stories of cryptids are also true.
Hi John!!
I heard about Mande Burung about 2yrs back but I have heard about folklores of mysterious plants in my childhood. Such beliefs may not be out of context as ethnic cultures show NO penchant to concoct any creature de novo.
I come from botany background and my area of research is ethnobotany. But having heard so many things about cryptozoology, I contributed a small article “Influence of the evil figure, Tisso Jonding on the Socio-religio-cultural life of Karbis” in folklore journal published from India.
Science will benefit if physical evidence of Mande Burung can be established.
Best wishes to cryptozoologist Adam Davies and his team.
Thanks John for hosting this site.
Greetings
Teron
Thanks for your comments, Teron. Adam feels that there’s solid evidence for the creatures existence. He was even kind enough to give me a very impressive foot print caste, and I spoke with one of his team members, Dave Archer, who saw one in plain daylight. I’ll pass along your message to him.