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Field Ethos
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By Gayne C. Young
Hey! Did you know the U.S. invaded Venezuela?
Or at least I think we did. I don’t know. I ain’t real good on keeping up with current events.
Regardless, if we did invade Venezuela, I hope our being down there means we can finally get answers about the existence of Mono Grande, aka the Large Monkey.
Also known as the Bigfoot of Venezuela and de Loys’ Ape, the story of the Mono Grande began sometime between 1917 and 1920. It was then that Swiss geologist Louis François Fernand Hector de Loys and other members of the “Colon Development” were searching for oil around the River Tarra and Río Catatumbo. This mountain region of the Venezuela–Colombia border was heavily forested, mostly unknown, and inhabited by less-than-friendly indigenous people. The expedition became lost and several members died from disease, were killed by Indians, or vanished into the jungle. Then the group came to rest on the banks of Tarra River one day when they were attacked by two unknown entities.
The creatures resembled monkeys but had no tail and walked upright. Each stood about five feet tall, were covered in reddish fur, and were thoroughly enraged. They shook bushes, brandished broken branches as clubs, then began throwing excrement in the direction of the men. Scared to death, the members of the expedition responded in the way anyone would in the early part of twentieth century — they shouldered their rifles and fired. The group hit both animals. What the expedition believed was a male, escaped into the jungle. The female dropped dead where it was shot.
As the species was unknown to science, de Loys had the female photographed and tried to preserve the carcass and skull. The latter failed as both rotted. The group finally found their way out of the unexplored and returned to civilization (of the original 20 members only four survived). Years later, in 1929, a French anthropologist named George Montandon was reviewing materials of the Colon Development and came across the only surviving picture and a few notes about the ape that attacked the group.
Montandon knew the animal pictured was not a monkey given its upright stature and, at roughly five feet tall, was almost twice the height of monkeys known to exist in South America. The creature had 36 teeth and carried all the characteristics of an ape. Montandon declared the animal Ameranthropoides loysi (Loys’ American ape form) in the Illustrated London News of June 15, 1929, and in another three scientific articles. Most scientists dismissed this “discovery” but did little in the way to actual disprove it.
In 1998, historians Pierre Centlivres and Isabelle Girod published an article accusing Montandon of fraud. They argued that Montandon was a racist who held many completely outdated ideas about human evolution and used the de Loy discovery to push his own ideas. In 1999, the Venezuelan scientific magazine Interciencia published a letter sent in 1962 from a member of the expedition named Doctor Enrique Tejera to Guillermo José Schael, the editor of the magazine Diario El Universal. That letter in part read, “This monkey is a myth. I will tell you his story…Mister Montandon said that the monkey had no tail. That is for sure, but he forgot to mention something, it has no tail because it was cut off. I can assure you this, gentlemen, because I saw the amputation… De Loys was a prankster and often we laughed at his jokes. One day they gave him a monkey with an ill tail, so it was amputated. Since then, de Loys called him “el hombre mono” (the monkey man).”
Despite this, many claim the Mono Grande as real. Many scientists and cryptozoologist have argued that the picture doesn’t truly resemble spider monkeys of the area where it was shot. The “ape” in the picture has a different chest and hands, lacks the spider monkey’s pronounced underbite, and has a different forehead. Furthermore, the locals that inhabit that area have long told of apelike men in the area.
So, was de Loys’ discovery an actual ape?
Does it still exist?
I know of only one way to find out and that is to put boots on the ground in country. And now that the country in question is under U.S. control…I volunteer.
The post Finding Mono Grande — Venezuelan Bigfoot appeared first on Field Ethos.
Continue reading...
Hey! Did you know the U.S. invaded Venezuela?
Or at least I think we did. I don’t know. I ain’t real good on keeping up with current events.
Regardless, if we did invade Venezuela, I hope our being down there means we can finally get answers about the existence of Mono Grande, aka the Large Monkey.
Also known as the Bigfoot of Venezuela and de Loys’ Ape, the story of the Mono Grande began sometime between 1917 and 1920. It was then that Swiss geologist Louis François Fernand Hector de Loys and other members of the “Colon Development” were searching for oil around the River Tarra and Río Catatumbo. This mountain region of the Venezuela–Colombia border was heavily forested, mostly unknown, and inhabited by less-than-friendly indigenous people. The expedition became lost and several members died from disease, were killed by Indians, or vanished into the jungle. Then the group came to rest on the banks of Tarra River one day when they were attacked by two unknown entities.
Facing the Big Monkey
The creatures resembled monkeys but had no tail and walked upright. Each stood about five feet tall, were covered in reddish fur, and were thoroughly enraged. They shook bushes, brandished broken branches as clubs, then began throwing excrement in the direction of the men. Scared to death, the members of the expedition responded in the way anyone would in the early part of twentieth century — they shouldered their rifles and fired. The group hit both animals. What the expedition believed was a male, escaped into the jungle. The female dropped dead where it was shot.
As the species was unknown to science, de Loys had the female photographed and tried to preserve the carcass and skull. The latter failed as both rotted. The group finally found their way out of the unexplored and returned to civilization (of the original 20 members only four survived). Years later, in 1929, a French anthropologist named George Montandon was reviewing materials of the Colon Development and came across the only surviving picture and a few notes about the ape that attacked the group.
Montandon knew the animal pictured was not a monkey given its upright stature and, at roughly five feet tall, was almost twice the height of monkeys known to exist in South America. The creature had 36 teeth and carried all the characteristics of an ape. Montandon declared the animal Ameranthropoides loysi (Loys’ American ape form) in the Illustrated London News of June 15, 1929, and in another three scientific articles. Most scientists dismissed this “discovery” but did little in the way to actual disprove it.
Finding the Venezuelan Bigfoot
In 1998, historians Pierre Centlivres and Isabelle Girod published an article accusing Montandon of fraud. They argued that Montandon was a racist who held many completely outdated ideas about human evolution and used the de Loy discovery to push his own ideas. In 1999, the Venezuelan scientific magazine Interciencia published a letter sent in 1962 from a member of the expedition named Doctor Enrique Tejera to Guillermo José Schael, the editor of the magazine Diario El Universal. That letter in part read, “This monkey is a myth. I will tell you his story…Mister Montandon said that the monkey had no tail. That is for sure, but he forgot to mention something, it has no tail because it was cut off. I can assure you this, gentlemen, because I saw the amputation… De Loys was a prankster and often we laughed at his jokes. One day they gave him a monkey with an ill tail, so it was amputated. Since then, de Loys called him “el hombre mono” (the monkey man).”
Despite this, many claim the Mono Grande as real. Many scientists and cryptozoologist have argued that the picture doesn’t truly resemble spider monkeys of the area where it was shot. The “ape” in the picture has a different chest and hands, lacks the spider monkey’s pronounced underbite, and has a different forehead. Furthermore, the locals that inhabit that area have long told of apelike men in the area.
So, was de Loys’ discovery an actual ape?
Does it still exist?
I know of only one way to find out and that is to put boots on the ground in country. And now that the country in question is under U.S. control…I volunteer.
The post Finding Mono Grande — Venezuelan Bigfoot appeared first on Field Ethos.
Continue reading...