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Vietnamese and US soldiers of the Vietnam War reported seeing unknown apes in the jungle, dubbed the Rock Apes of Vietnam. What were they seeing out there?

3 FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditEmail Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... The Vietnam war changed those who experienced it forever. American GIs, trained for conventional warfare, were left scarred by an enemy who refused to engage on normal terms. Then as now, the jungles of Vietnam are dense and mysterious, and many United States soldiers returned shaken, with stories that it was not just the enemy Viet Cong who were attacking them out there. Some soldiers reported that they had been attacked by something else out there, humanoid creatures dubbed “rock apes” who left hardened combat troops frightened. Some even claim that the rock apes of Vietnam changed the course of the war. Many believe in unknown large land animals which have yet to be discovered. Generally called “cryptids” these are usually fanciful tales of hidden alien visitors or a remnant population of dinosaurs. However, some, like these rock apes are more plausible. The forests of Vietnam could support an unknown population of apes, unlike say a sustainable breeding population of plesiosaurs surviving undetected in a single Scottish loch. As recently as 2017, a new species of orangutan was discovered in neighboring Sumatra, the Tapanuli Orangutan. The three species of orangutan. The Tapanuli, discovered in 2017, is on the right (Eric Kilby Aiwok Tim Laman / CC BY-SA 3.0) Could there be rock apes in the jungles of Vietnam, hostile to the American soldiers? Or are these manifestations of psychological damage, given credence by the soldiers and general US public who could not comprehend that the Viet Cong had defeated them? Rock Apes and a Hostile Jungle At first, the second explanation seems more plausible. It is not uncommon for the soldiers to talk about seeing something strange after they return from wars, and throughout history there have been many monster sightings reported in wartime. But to dismiss these apes as a psychological scapegoat for losing the Vietnam war does not answer all the questions. For one, even before the war broke, there were stories of “jungle people” standing some 6 feet (1.8 m) tall with an ape-like appearance. People talked about these jungle people having a stoutly built body and muscular physique. The stomachs were protruding, and their bodies were covered in hair. The feet, hands, knees, and face didn’t have hairs, giving them an ape-like look. They were reported as living were living in remote jungle regions. They were not bothered by the humans living around them and mostly preferred to live with themselves. Orang Pendek: Is There An Unknown Great Ape In Remotest Sumatra?The Mysterious “Set”: An Ancient Egyptian Cryptid? However, with the ingress of American soldiers into the jungle, it appears they felt their territory had been threatened. Their response was to become aggressive and bold. They do not hesitate to attack any intruder, even those who stumbled on them by mistake. Sightings were so common at one US base it was dubbed “monkey mountain” (US Air Force National Museum / Public Domain) These rock apes were mostly active during dusk or at night, and were often reported as travelling in a troop. They were familiar to American soldiers who would assume they were just another jungle species, and who saw them so frequently they nicknamed them “bathtubs”. Known but Misidentified? Initially, descriptions of the creatures were dismissed as misidentified orangutans. But there are no known orangutans in Vietnam, as they became extinct around thousand years ago. Moreover, the behavior that the American soldiers explained was not similar to that of any known orangutan behavior. Orangutans may be social animals, but they prefer to live most of their lives alone, whereas the rock apes were consistently sighted in groups. Another candidate is the cheeked gibbon that is native to Vietnam. The gibbons also live in large social groups and spent most of their time in trees. But again, the size description of the rock apes, as given in descriptions by the soldiers, doesn’t match the size of gibbons. Gibbons are less heavily-built than these rock apes and are smaller in size than the description of jungle people. The average weight of gibbons is around 20 pounds, which doesn’t match the descriptions. Some rock ape sightings were reported of smaller primates, which may be gibbons, but the majority cannot be. Attempts to Capture or Kill a Rock Ape Viet Cong and north Vietnamese troops also reported sighting these rock apes, and an expedition to find them was even carried out in 1974, under General Hoang Ming Tha. This expedition was intended to capture or kill at least one of these creatures. The jungle was often so dense that soldiers would encounter the apes unexpectedly (manhhai / CC BY 2.0) But the expedition failed, and no hard evidence was found proving the existence of rock apes within the jungle. Similarly, Professor Vo Quy, an esteemed zoologist of Vietnam National University organized another expedition, agai...

Rock Apes of Vietnam: Jungle Cryptid of the Vietnam War? - Historic Mysteries