The Batutut, sometimes referred to as the Ujit, is a proposed hominid which is thought to inhabit the Vu Quang nature reserve and surrounding tropical wilderness located in and around the 14 state federation which make up Malaysia. The Batutut is described by some eyewitnesses as being roughly 4 feet tall with reddish hair and is rumored to be very aggressive, with some reports stating that they occasionally attack and kill humans, tearing out the unlucky individual’s liver. Some researchers have made the connection between the Batutut and Nepal’s apparently much shyer Teh-lma.

During a 1970 expedition to the Malaysian state of Sabah, British zoologist John MacKinnon, who would later because world renowned for his discovery of new mammals in Vietnam during the 1990’s, found several short, broad, human like footprints. “I stopped dead,” MacKinnon would later write in his book In the Search of the Red Ape. “My skin crept and I felt a strong desire to head home” “farther ahead I saw tracks and went to examine them….

I found two dozen footprints in all.” Mackinnon would later report that he was very happy to leave the scene of these footprints stating, “I was uneasy when I found them, and I didn’t want to follow them and find out what was at the end of the trail. I knew that no animal we know about could make those tracks. Without deliberately avoiding the area I realize I never went back to that place in the following months of my studies.”

In 1982, Tran Hong Viet of Pedagogic University of Hanoi reported that he had found similar footprints to those that MacKinnon discovered near Chu Mo Ray in the Sa Thay District while making an extensive post war inventory of natural resources. In his book, Very Crazy GI – Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War, Veteran Kregg P.J. Jorgenson relates an actual sighting of the Batutut, referred to as a Rock Ape by the team of LRRP’s that witnessed the creature.

This idea of small hair covered hominids living in the remote corners of the world is possibly backed up by the discovery of Homo floresiensis in October 2004. These small skeletons found in a cave on Flores Island, located in Indonesia, date back roughly 12,000 years. The skeletons, which where originally thought to be the bodies of children, are roughly 3 feet tall and later determined to be a new, be it very small, species of the genus Homo. The fact that an unknown form of hominid like Homo floresiensis existed so recently in geographically terms, breeds new life into the possible existence of small hominids like the Batutut and the Teh-lan.

The Evidence
With the exception of a few small footprint casts there remains no physical evidence to support the existence of the Batutut.

The Sightings
During the Vietnam War, a group of soldiers reported seeing a 5 foot tall creature, covered in reddish fur, which they called a Rock Ape. This account was reported and retold in the 2001 book Very Crazy GI – Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War, written by veteran P.J. Jorgenson.

The Stats – (Where applicable)

• Classification: Hominid
• Size: 4 to 5 feet tall
• Weight: Unknown
• Diet: Unknown, most likely small animals like frogs.
• Location: Malaysia and surrounding forest regions
• Movement: Bipedal Walking
• Environment: Tropical Forests