Residents nervous after spotting creature in forest area south of Lake Monroe
By Kurt Van der Dussen, Herald-Times Staff Writer

Indiana Fish and Wildlife Division officials and an Indiana University anthropologist aren't ruling out the possibility that the creature folks have spotted along Chapel Hill Road in remote, rugged Polk Township could be some sort of ape.

The most recent sighting occurred at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the house of Rick Deckard and his sister, Sue Taylor, on Chapel Hill Road west of the entrance to the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area, south of Lake Monroe in Hoosier National Forest.

Two friends, Dale Moore and Penny Howell, had just driven up when they spotted the animal about 200 feet away at the back of the cleared property.

They described it as standing in a sort of crouch on its rear legs, long front legs hanging down in front of it. They said it was covered in very long, nearly black hair, and guessed its height at around 5 feet and its weight at 200 pounds or more.

They said when the creature saw them, it turned and moved away, down the slope into the woods. Howell said she saw a patch of white fur atop its head and down its neck.

It left tracks in the damp clay — tracks still visible Thursday afternoon.The tracks were about 4-by-5 inches, with four toe impressions and a heel mark. As it was four-toed rather than five-toed, they ruled out a bear.The prints were similar to cougar tracks, but for one feature.

Many of the toeprints were tipped by deep punctures in the clay, apparently from long claws. In one print, three claws had cut deep incisions 11 and 1/2 inches long.

DNR wildlife biologist Jim Mitchell said later Thursday that cougars don't leave claw marks when they walk.While boots wouldn't dent the still-wet clay Thursday, the animal's tracks were pressed a good half-inch or more into it. In some spots they had stripped grass off the clay.

The prints were more than double the size of one left by Deckard's big German shepherd.Moore and Howell said the dog was in the back yard when they spotted the strange animal Wednesday. The dog was only 30 feet from it, but it wasn't barking. Instead, it was standing stock-still."It was twice as big as that dog," Howell recalled Thursday.

"I've never seen an animal like that in my life. It scared the crap out of me."Howell was still nervous Thursday afternoon. "It's got me scared," she said. "What if it grabbed a kid and dragged him down into the woods?" Moore had said by phone Wednesday evening he thought it looked and walked like a bear. But Howell said Thursday its appearance and movements were more "apelike."

At nearby Hardin Ridge Store, employee Christi Kline said the sighting was the third she'd heard of in the past six months to a year, all describing the same animal.

She said a woman had seen it at the Hardin Ridge area entrance and that it didn't seem to show any fear and didn't run away. Kline also said that one night a delivery man came in shaking with fear and saying he had just seen "Bigfoot."

"We know it's not Bigfoot, but whatever it was, it scared him," she said. Moore, Howell and Deckard also dismissed any Bigfoot notions, saying it was clearly an animal. "I don't believe in no Bigfoot or nothin'," Moore said Wednesday evening.

Veteran state conservation officer Marlin Dodge said Thursday that a so-called Bigfoot sighting wouldn't be unusual.

"I've had a lot of complaints over the years on a Bigfoot, a lot of 'em in that area," he said. Dodge and three other DNR officials and wildlife biologists offered no explanation of what folks have seen.

But they were not discounting the possibility that some non-native animal is in the area. (Photo is of Penny Howell)At the Paynetown DNR office, Paynetown property manager Bruce Whiting reported black panther sightings, the latest "over around Fairfax."At the Bloomington Fish and Wildlife Division office, wildlife biologists Mitchell and Gary Langell studied a sketch of the footprint.

Given the print and the description of the animal Mitchell got Wednesday from Deckard by phone an hour after the sighting, the two were not ruling out an escaped exotic animal. Mitchell said he told Deckard that sometimes people see things and "misidentify" what they see — an idea Deckard had related and contemptuously dismissed earlier at his house.

"I'm a bow hunter," said the 49-year-old lifelong resident of the Chapel Hill area.

"I know a bear when I see one. I know a panther when I see one. This isn't a bear or a panther.

"We've got a panther back there, too, but this is not a panther. It walks on its rear legs," he said.

Mitchell was more inclined to believe the animal runs on all fours, which was what he said he was first told Wednesday. But he and Langell said the idea that some exotic animal had escaped its owner was quite possible. And they said an escaped ape of some sort might be the best explanation.

Mitchell referred the case to IU anthropologist Dick Adams, who planned to go to the site today to see the prints. He also agreed an ape was a strong possibility.

"It very well could be; this sounds very much like an orang," he said, referring to an orangutan, the large, shaggy-haired ape that is native to Borneo and Sumatra and that some people keep as an exotic pet.

But the black hair of the Chapel Hill Road animal wouldn't match the reddish-brown hair of an orangutan, he said. Dodge disputed the ape theory. "This doesn't sound like an ape to me," he said.

"The only ape I know of that would weigh 200 pounds is a gorilla." But he admitted an escaped exotic animal could be running loose. Last year alone, a species of piranha was caught in Griffy Lake, a 12-foot python that had escaped its Bloomington owner was recovered crawling around Yellowwood State Forest, and a monitor lizard native to the South Pacific was spotted and chased for several hours at Lake Lemon.

"I've taken all kinds of animals out in this county," Dodge said. "I've taken bears, cougars, lions," — all escaped from owners. "We'll go down there and take a look and see what we come up with," he said. "I don't know what it is."

Reporter Kurt Van der Dussen can be reached at 331-4372 or by e-mail.
Copyright The Herald Times, Hoosiertimes.com

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Other newspaper article rehash on the same subject:
Ape-like animal reportedly spotted in Hoosier National Forest
Associated Press, Indianapolis Star:

Updated 06:21 AM, EST, Friday, February 01, 2002 HARRODSBURG, Ind.(AP) -- Wildlife officials and witnesses alike say they're puzzled by an ape-like creature that reportedly has been seen more than once in the Hoosier National Forest. Whatever it was left foot prints that remain unidentified.

After the latest reported sighting Wednesday by four people, biologists with the Indiana Fish and Wildlife Division said they could not discount the possibility that a non-native animal is in the remote area. Biologists referred the case to Indiana University anthropologist Dick Adams, who offered the theory that it could be a primate that escaped its owner.

"This sounds very much like an orang," Adams told The Herald-Times of Bloomington, referring to an orangutan, the large, shaggy-haired ape that some people keep as exotic pets. But the people reporting the latest sighting described a creature with long, nearly black fur or hair -- unlike the reddish-brown hair of orangutans.

Also, they estimated the creature's weight at 200 pounds. "That doesn't sound like an ape to me," veteran state conservation officer Marlin Dodge Dodge said. "The only ape that I know of that would weigh 200 pounds is a gorilla."

Wednesday afternoon's sighting was along a remote road west of the entrance to the Hoosier National Forest's Hardin Ridge Recreation Area, south of Lake Monroe. Dale Moore and Penny Howell had just driven up to the house of some friends, Rick Deckard and his sister, Sue Taylor, when they reportedly spotted the animal about 200 feet away at the back of the cleared property.

They described it as standing in a sort of crouch on its rear legs, and guessed its height at about 5 feet, The Herald-Times reported. They said when the creature saw them, it turned and moved away, down the slope into the woods. Deckard's German shepard dog was about 30 feet from the creature, and didn't bark, Howell and Moore said. "It was twice as big as that dog," Howell said.

"I've never seen an animal like that in my life ... It's got me scared." Footprints that the group said the creature left were still visible Thursday. The prints were about 4-by-5 inches, with four toe impressions and a heel mark -- similar to cougar tracks, wildlife officials said, except for the fact that many of the toeprints were tipped by deep punctures in the clay, possibly from long claws.

At the Hardin Ridge Store, employee Christi Kline said the sighting was the third she'd heard of in the past six months to a year, all describing a similar animal. She said a woman had seen it at the Hardin Ridge area entrance, and that it didn't seem to show any fear and didn't run away. Kline also said that one night a delivery man came in shaking with fear and saying he had just seen "Bigfoot."

"We know it's not Bigfoot, but whatever it was, it scared him," she said.

Source Credit Michael Newton

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After seeing the tracks, Adams was inclined to rule out any fakery. "We can safely say it was not a Bigfoot," he said. The animal had shaggy, long, nearly black hair and was standing on its hind legs in a semi-crouch. It was spotted by Dale Moore and Penny Howell, and a small child who was with them. The animal, about 200 feet away at the rear of a back yard close to a wooded ravine, turned and swiftly shuffled off down the slope into the woods. But it left a number of heavy, four-toed tracks, some with deep claw marks, impressed in the wet clay. Moore said Wednesday night he thought it was a bear. Howell said Thursday that it was "apelike" and not a bear. Later Thursday, two veteran state Fish and Wildlife Division biologists, Jim Mitchell and Gary Langell, said it was possible that some sort of ape someone was keeping as an exotic pet had escaped.At that time, Adams tended to concur with them. He suggested an orangutan, though he agreed that didn't match the description of a nearly black animal with a patch of white fur atop its head and on its neck. That, and the long claws, are characteristic of some badgers. But as Mitchell noted, the animal being described was far bigger than any badger. Friday afternoon, Adams and his son Scott returned to the site, where at least two of the tracks had survived a night of heavy rains. They took numerous photos and poured plaster casts, though they were not hardening in the cold, damp air and clay and were left for retrieval later. Scott Adams also ventured down a ravine to a creek and found two spots with five possible footprints from the animal, including one with claw marks. Scott Adams, an IU computer services employee, shares his dad's interest in both the biology and folklore of unexplained animal sightings, and often investigates them with him. Dick Adams said that "after seeing the prints, I would say on first thought that it is not an ape." He said he thought it more likely might be some sort of bear. And Howell's description of a white patch of fur atop the animal's head and back neck had him thinking it wasn't an American black bear - which also has five toes, not four. Adams said it's possible the animal is an "exotic" bear that was somebody's pet whose escape was never reported. "We just don't have enough evidence at this point," he said, adding, "Let's hope there's more sightings." Finding the other tracks, especially three on a steep, slick hillside well downhill, inclined his son to rule out a hoax. Still, fish and wildlife biologist Mitchell said he is urging people in the area not to shoot the animal if they spot it, despite their fears for children. If it did turn out to be a kid carrying out a hoax, he said, it would be tragic. "You can't take back a bullet," he said. Meanwhile, another area resident recounted Friday his own sighting of a similar animal in the same area a decade ago. Kevin Burrin said it occurred while he was camping with three other people in the Hardin Ridge area by Blackwell Lake. "While walking around the lake, I saw an animal similar to what was described ... only it appeared to me to be taller than five feet," he said. "It quickly disappeared into the woods when I moved toward it to get a better look. "I couldn't find any tracks, but it did run off upright with a gait unlike any I have ever seen," he said. Penny Howell had described the animal as walking downhill back into the woods still hunched over and on its rear feet only, front legs dangling in
front of it.
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Credit Source:Ron SchaffnerAnd finally this comment:

"Let's not be quick to cry "Bigfoot!" Whatever substantial evidence there may be of a bigfoot in the Hoosier state (I'd certainly like to see any), a 4x5-inch four-toed clawed footprint is no corroboration of a bigfoot sighting." ...Dr. Jeff Meldrum
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