Unknown Mega-Society of Chimps Found in The Congo

Actually these newly discovered chimps kill leopards, but we thought this was cuter.

The Times of India is reporting a newly discovered mega-society of chimps, a population of perhaps thousands. Locals have been talking about them for yearss, they have even claimed the chimps were known to take down leopards. Read an excerpt below.

An unknown mega-society of chimpanzees has been discovered living in a 50,000sqkm forest in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands walked hundreds of kilometers in the forests across the region for several years and caught their activities on motion activated cameras.

The Eastern chimpanzees, as they are called, inhabit remote Bili-Gangu forest which is infested with poachers and rogue militias. Local people reported that there were great apes in the forest that could kill and eat leopards, but to the outside world, nothing was known.

The article continues to mention the use of game trail cams, "The chimpanzees of Bili-Gangu build nests on the ground, patrol their territory and were caught on cameras killing an occasional leopard."

The scientists covered a total of 1,800km of reconnaissance walks to the north and 500km to the south of the Uele River as well as 160km of line transects in the Bili-Gangu Forest, and discovered a population of chimpanzees numbering in the thousands. Evidence of behavioral continuity shows that the north and south groups may be connected culturally as well.

"Our results suggest that a large and widespread population of chimpanzees inhabits the forests and savannas of northern DRC", says Thurston C. Hicks, a primatologist based at the Max Planck Institute. "This population has remained unnoticed to researchers until now and may represent the largest viable population of this subspecies, but it currently lacks any protection." When they re-walked parts of these transects again in 2012, the researchers found that the number of chimpanzee sleeping nests had not declined since 2005.

You can read the article in it's entirety at  Unknown mega-society of chimps found in Africa
The Daily Mail also has a great article on the same topic Researchers discover 10,000-strong community of Chimpanzees

Eduardo Sanchez: Exists is like a feature length Patterson-Gimlin film

Promo Pic for Eduardo Sanchez's Exists

"Not a comedic Bigfoot. Not a fake-looking, CG Bigfoot. Not an alien Bigfoot with super human abilities - just the creature I loved - a feature-length PATTERSON-GIMLIN film." --Eduardo Sanchez on the type of Bigfoot he wanted in his movie

Exists, by director Eduardo Sanchez, is the Bigfoot movie that the film community has been waiting for. It will be screened at this years SXSW 2014 Film festival in March during the coveted midnight showing. Drew McWeeny from HitFix says, "When I attend Toronto, Sundance, and SXSW each year, one of the things I specifically focus on is the midnight programming."

In Drew McWeeny's HitFix article, he continues to mention how he looks forward to the screening of Exists, "Another familiar name. Eduardo Sanchez is, of course, best known as the co-creator of "The Blair Witch Project," but I think he's made a strong showing in the last few years. "Lovely Molly" is a film that really stuck with me, and I think he's got a great sense of creepy these days, plus he's constantly thinking about the role technology plays, not only in how we tell these stories, but in which stories we tell. Plus it sounds like this is a Bigfoot movie, and that's fine by me."

On the SXSW website Eduardo Sanchex is interviewed regarding his movie.

Tell us a little about your film.
I've been obsessed with Bigfoot ever since I saw the Patterson-Gimlin film as a kid. It was the SCARIEST thing I had ever experienced. It fascinated me and took over my world.
Since then, I've wanted to make a movie about the big guy...
But a movie where Bigfoot felt scary and REAL - like the Bigfoot that I experienced all those years ago. Not a comedic Bigfoot. Not a fake-looking, CG Bigfoot. Not an alien Bigfoot with super human abilities - just the creature I loved - a feature-length PATTERSON-GIMLIN film.
Exists is the Bigfoot movie I've been waiting to see.

Why did you start making films?
I saw Star Wars and that was it - I wanted to make films. But I didn't really take it seriously until high school, where I took a TV production in 11th grade that changed my life.
I still remember the moment: first day of class - first few sentences that came out of Mr. Baron's mouth about careers in television and film...
I knew what I was going to do.
Or at least try to do...

Have you been to SXSW before? Any tips?
Yes - I was at SXSW for Lovely Molly in 2012 and VHS2 in 2013.
Tips - figure out how not to drive into the downtown area during the day - it's tough love.
Most looking forward to - the filmmaker's lunch that Robert Rodriguez hosts every year...and the BBQ.

Tell us a random fact (or two!) that would help our attendees get a better idea of who you are.
I am probably the tallest Cuban-American filmmaker at this year's festival.

Official Synopsis of Exists:

When brothers Brian and Matt Tover secretly sneak out to their Uncle's long abandoned cabin in East Texas for a party weekend with their friends, they find themselves stalked by the legendary Sasquatch.

Cut off from the world, and knowing help isn’t coming, the kids must try to make it out of the woods alive while hunted by a creature that’s smarter, stronger, and more terrifying than they would have ever believed exists.

You can read about the Exists' innovative creature design, Watch exclusive clips and stills from Exists, or just click read our complete coverage of Exists.

For an extra bonus, you can even watch this excellent Eduardo Sanchez interview by Ro Sahebi from MuldersWorld.. Ro and I have some exciting stuff coming round the bend so stay tuned.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 27, 1976 | 5 Tracks Cast Near Snoqualmie River in WA

A portion of the Snoqualmie River in Washington State

We are big fans of the TV series Twin Peaks. So to find out that there was any activity in the Snoqualmie/North Bend area, where Twin Peaks was filmed, perked our interest.

And just like Twin Peaks this mystery was not what it seems from the outset. Read the original reporting by the Lewiston Tribune below where a man claims to have cast five Bigfoot prints.

Footprints of 'Bigfoot' reported

Lewiston Tribune

NORTH BEND, Wash. -

Jim French says he was skeptical of reports about Bigfoot, the Northwest's legendary ape-man, until he and a companion discovered 18-inch long footprints Sunday in a river sandbank.

"I always believed it was a bunch of bunk," French, 38, said Monday after he and Joseph Langston, 33, found the four-toed, 8 1/2-inch wide indentions near the south fork of the Snoqualmie River.

French estimated the creature weighed about 400 pounds because of the depth of its prints in the sand when compared with his own. French said he weighs about 180.

The animal's size has not been verified by the scientific community, however.

French said he made five plaster casts of the footprints and he and Langston found hair on some tree limbs along the creature's path.

The hair was found about five or six feet off the ground, he said.

French said he intended to contact University of Washington scientists and let them analyze his findings.

His first reaction Sunday, French said, was that the prints were a hoax.

"I could not believe what I saw," said the veteran outdoorsman. "There was no evidence of any four-footed marks anywhere."

French and Langston consulted three other outdoorsmen. They concluded the prints were authentic.

"No man helped me make those tracks," he said. "Whatever made them, made them by themselves."

French first noted the tracks in hard sand. He could see only the toe marks and thought they were from a club-footed elk.

They tracked the creature for a quarter of a mile before losing it amongst loam and leaves and then pasture land where prints of horses and dogs could be seen.

The creature was moving east to west French said, adding that all the tracks matched the terrain.

Slide marks appeared when the animal was going downhill and deep indentations were found when it dug in going up a slope, French said. The stride lengthened when it loped across flat ground.

French, a self-employed subcontractor, and Langston, a lumbermill employe [sic], were using a metal detector to search for items of value along the river when they found the prints.

Not everybody was convinced of the evidence. Peter Byrne thought that a movie about Bigfoot playing in the same area was to coincidental. Check out the clip below.

From the Spokane Daily Chronicle - Jan 29, 1976 (click to enlarge)