Bigfoot in Brunei?

[From the “Borneo Bulletin”. September, 26/ 2006.]

Bring on the cryptozoologists. The Bigfoot has left the jungles of Johor to the allure of Brunei's Labi, or so it seems.

A Sungai Liang resident has discovered several strange footprints along the Andulau forest area in Labi, which according to him do not resemble human or animal footprints.

Liew Kim San, 34, a permanent resident, said the footprints could be of an unknown wildlife while most of his Than friends speculated that it could be that of a forest genie, which they believe could be the reason why people normally get lost in the Labi forest area.

Lim, who frequents the forests to look for birds, called the Borneo Bulletin to narrate the unusual sighting.

Lim, a freelance electrical contractor, said he was in Andulau forest area last Friday to take photographs of maintenance works to cut branches of trees that could pose a hazard to the light tension wires going across the forest.

However, before work to trim the trees began, he spotted the unusual footprints along a long patch of sandy area in the forest leading towards the main road, which is a good 15 minutes walk.

Lim, accompanied by four other contract workers, followed the footprints and took photos of them. He said the footprints do not belong to a human, as they looked much wider in size.

When the Bulletin approached some people for their opinion, some speculated that it could be the footprints of an orang utan or some animals while some said it could be a ?supernatural? phenomenon.

Malaysia was gripped by the sighting of the Bigfoot in November 2005 in the jungles of Johor when three fishery workers claimed to have seen a Bigfoot family that left footprints up to 45cm long.

Speculations were so intense that the Johor Wildlife Department directed officials to install cameras in strategic areas to capture the Bigfoot on camera.

Bigfoot was popularised in the US after a string of sightings years ago. Even though similar sighting have been reported from many parts of the world, their existence has never been confirmed, according to reports.

The sighting in Labi only adds to the myth of the Bigfoot. Or is it the beginning of the Smallfoot.

WCSRO, 2006.