Has anyone ever heard of a Rock Ape?

I have a good friend that i worked with over in Afghanistan who is a Vietnam Veteran. He was a member of a special forces unit that used to go into controlled enemy territory. He told me a lot of stories about his time as a combat soldier over in vietnam, a lot of times i could tell it wasnt easy for him, and there were times i could even see the tears in his eyes.

However, there is one story in particular i was thinking of recently when doing some reading on big foot. He used to talk about these ape like creatures in vietnam called rock apes. I did a search online, and all i could come up with , was some small money like creatures, that inhabit vietnam, but this doesnt sound like anything my friend described.

He told me about one instance when a rock ape actually killed their native guide, and i find it hard to believe, any small monkey could kill a man.
The story goes like this... one morning, as they were getting ready to leave their camp, their guide was down by the stream washing some pots or pans, and had a sack, with some of his belongings sitting near him. All the suddent this rock ape jumps out of the trees and grabs the guide's sack. So the guide starts wrestling with this rock ape trying to get his sack back. During this time my friend, and his platoon are watching the struggle and aiming their guns on the ape, but they cant fire because they dont want to give away their position to the enemy patrols in the area. Eventually this "Rock Ape" ends up beating the guide to death with its fists, and all they could do was watch. He said afterwards they all felt very bad, but they werent ready to risk their lives to save the guy, buy shooting the ape.

I never bothered to ask my friend very much about the "Rock Ape", as to its size, (apparently its as large or larger than a man), or anymore else about it really, simply because he acted as though they were very common and are well known. But after looking around on the internet, i really cant find any known species of money / ape that inhabits vietnam, that would have the ability to beat a man to death.

I am wondering, if perhaps he and others like him had really come across something of a vietnamese cousin to the bigfoot, and had never realized the signifigance of it.

Has anyone else ever heard any stories about "Rock Apes?"

I've never heard of a real rock ape, but there was a creature called a rock ape in the Dungeons and Dragons game. They lived in caves and were something like a giant baboon.

I have heard of this. It's likely to be a species of gorilla. There had been gorillas in the highlands along the Laotian border. Rock apes might be rare type of gorilla that science hasn't ID'd yet.

Nguoi Rung
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Người Rừng ("forest man") is a creature said to inhabit Vietnam, reputedly similar to the bigfoot, sometimes also known as "forest people". It is described as being approximately six feet tall and completely covered with hair except 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 seen both solitary and moving in small clans.The creature is most often sighted foraging for food from fruits and leaves to langers and even flying foxes.

Two Người Rừngs were reportedly captured by tribesmen near Dak Lak Province in 1971. In 1974 a North Vietnamese general, Hoang Minh Thao, requested an expedition to find evidence of the creatures, but it was unsuccessful.[1]

The primary theory regarding this unknown hominoid is that the Nguoi Rung are a surviving population of Homo erectus or Neandertal, according to cryptozoologist Loren Coleman. [2]

A man who gave a huge amount of research into the existance of Nguoi Rung, is Professor Tran Hong Viet. In 1982, he got the first definitive piece of evidence of a footprint measuring 28x16cm.

[edit] References

1. ^ Newton, Michael. (2005). "Nguoi Rung". Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide: 336. McFarland & Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-7864-2036-7.
2. ^ *The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (NY: Anomalist Books, 2006, ISBN 1-933665-1-22)

I'll look for some other stuff...

Also found this:

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/wildman.html

http://www.stancourtney.com/2006/08/nguoi-rung-lette

http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/gue...kekelley_3.html

And this site about a kind of monkey w/no tail. But it doesn't say these are Vietman. There is a photograph tho but nothing like what the other links above describe:

http://www.dotcom.gi/map/sites/rockapes.htm

So I guess you make your own decision as I didn't find anything conclusive except for the one guy who said he made casts of the foot prints (which are VERY easily faked).

I have a problem with the gorilla theory: gorillas are wimps. They generally make faces, hoot and beat their chests until the opponent backs away, instead of fighting. They would only attack under extreme circumstances, in which case they would probably quite easily be able to kill an unarmed man. So why would this thing, if it's a gorilla, attack the guide without provocation? If it was a chimpanzee I might be more satisfied, because chimps can get very nasty.

My uncle was a highly decorated Army noncom that did three tours in Vietnam. he told me stories about the rock apes. Said they called them that because they wopuld throw rocks at you. Never described them as particularly odd or threatening. I always assumed he was talking about some primate that lives there.

A buddy of his actually kept one as a "pet," (assuming that was all that was going on between them - my uncle always seemed to insinuate something more )

Harte

It is possible that these "Rock Apes" could actually be an ape, just not in the traditional apes we think of. In Vietnam, China, Indochina, Loas, Cambodia, Sumutra, and Borneo(and many more countries) there are 12 distinct types of Lesser Apes known as Gibbons. Gibbons are apes, but differ much in our conception because they are not nearly as big as the other greater apes and bear a closer resemblance to monkeys than to the Great apes. Gibbons lack a tail, have short legs, and extremely long arms. Gibbons can vary in weight and height with some of the larger Gibbons reaching 20 + pounds and standing (yes standing) upto 3 and a half feet. Gibbon coloration also varies and can come in colors such as black, tan, cream, gray, and brown. Colorations can also differ between males and females of the same species usually with the male being darker and the females being lighter in color.

Gibbons primarily stay in the trees and are masters of moving through the branches due to their extremely long arms. However, Gibbons do come to the ground walking bipedially (meaning on two legs), do to anatmoical structures it is hard for them to keep their balance and often carry their arms outstreched above their heads in order to walk, giving them a much larger appearance than they really are. Gibbons are also very very territorial and if threatened, the male will display numerous vigourous tactics including shaking branches, throwing branches, leaves, and fruits. This display is usually coupled with the females calling to the invading group. Actual attacks, however are extremely rare.

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Just my thoughts, but these "Rock Apes" could be any of the forementioned entities of previous posts.

Edited to show pictures.

Er.. wouldn't they have bayonets?

Interesting i'll look up stuff for ya.

first off not gorillas are not wimps i dare u to slap one in the face silverback knock people down all the time who are observing them second were talkign about vietnam not anywhere near africa so there a problem there too and also it says it came fro mthe trees and we all know gorillas live on the ground

They may knock them down, but do they beat them to death?

would u want to fight a gorilla? a silverback is many many many times stronger then u it could pull ur limbs off is it wanted to and touch a baby in a group and get ready to get pumbled it u dont quickly put it back unharmed and run away fast

Interesting, I've got a friend that was in 'Nam for a couple of tours. I'll have to ask him about this.

You're determined to make me break something, aren't you? I don't remember anything about the native guide touching a baby. If this even was a gorilla.

I'm thinking some kind of crazy, man-eating gibbon.

Here are a few "war time" reports that may be of interest
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/wildman/wartime.html

I'm thinking that this "ape" wasn't necessarily attacking the guide, but as he says in the story, it went after the sack the guide was carrying. Maybe the only reason it ended up killing the guide was because the guide fought back against the ape to keep his sack.

Oh, and nice name, Mister E. How'd you come up with it?

what im saying is first a gorilla has no moral objection to killing a person and second its not a gorilla anyway