With just the Causeway separating Johor from Singapore, it is no surprise that there is growing interest in the republic about the "Johor Bigfoot". While the State Government is preparing its scientific expedition in April to track down the creature, a group from Singapore has conducted a Bigfoot experiment in Batam.Members of the Singapore Paranormal Investigators group had planned a search in the jungles of Johor earlier this month, but their request to the Johor National Park Corporation for permission was turned down.Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman had announced that local scientists would carry out their own study to verify any Bigfoot evidence and compile data before inviting foreign groups wishing to explore the phenomena.Worldwide interest in the Johor Bigfoot was sparked by a report in the New Straits Times on Dec 23 of three workers building a fishpond in Kampung Mawai, Kota Tinggi, who claimed to have seen a Bigfoot family of two adults and a child.The report also carried a photograph by a Johor Malaysian Nature Society member of what was claimed to be Bigfoot’s footprints.

International Bigfoot websites such as the Bigfoot Research Organisation and Cryptomundo are running online discussions and advisories on the Johor Bigfoot. Cryptomundo recently ran an interview with Bangkok- based travel correspondent and author Harold Stephens. He claimed to have mountted the first Bigfoot expedition in the Endau-Rompin jungles in the 1970s.In the interview, Stephens said he first entered Endau- Rompin on the invitation of a member of the Johor royalty for a fishing trip.At a village on Sungai Endau, he heard talk of a hairy jungle giant and a prehistoric carving of an elephant on a mountain top. He searched libraries on Bigfoot sightings dating back three centuries in the country, before mounting his expedition with a team that included Orang Asli.

View: Full Article | Source: New Straits Times