Original headline: China's 'Bigfoot' seen again, agency reports
BEIJING (AP) — China's version of Bigfoot has been spotted again, and this time it may have left a urine sample.
Six people, one a radio reporter, say they saw the "mythical ape-like animal" in central China's Shennongjia Nature Reserve, the official Xinhua News Agency said today. Xinhua referred to it as a "Bigfoot," after the legendary North American ape-man.
More than 100 sightings of the creature have been reported in Shennongjia in the forested mountains of Hubei province about 1,200 kilometres southwest of Beijing.
The latest witnesses were in a Jeep on a mountain road yesterday when they saw the grey creature moving quickly away from the road, Xinhua reported. It said the creature was about 1.65 metres tall and had shoulder-length black hair.
The witnesses found several footprints 30 centimetres long, freshly broken branches and a "three-metre-long patch of foul-smelling urine-like liquid," Xinhua said.
The sighting was reported to authorities and "an investigation is in full swing," the report said. It said one of the witnesses was Shang Zhengmin, a reporter for a local radio station. The others were residents.
At least three scientific expeditions in Shennongjia have searched for evidence of the creature's existence. Researchers said they found hair that didn't match either humans or known animals, but no other evidence has been reported.
Sightings of a similar creature have been reported in Tibet, although its existence hasn't been proven either.
