Orang Short is a two-legged ape that is said to roam Sumatra, lives on the ground and is between 80 and 150 cm tall. Several people report seeing it, from locals, guides, and Western researchers.
In fact, scientists think that the Orang Kunci really exist because Indonesia, like Brazil or Madagascar, is rich in species and not all of them have been studied.
One of the people who is sure to meet Orang Short is Jeremy Holden, a freelance photographer. He claims to have seen it himself in Sumatra in October 1994, in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, where several others have previously claimed to have seen it.
"The animal was maybe 7 meters in front of me. It was walking upright," he claims. Holden said the creature was about 1.5 meters tall, stocky and covered in yellowish hair.
Holden actually had a camera strapped to his neck at the time of the incident, but didn't take a photo because he didn't want the creature to hear the camera click and see him.
"I stayed silent because there were a lot of emotions going through my head, one of which was actually fear," he said. According to him, animals that are similar to Orang Short are Gabon, but Gabon are smaller.
In 1995, out of curiosity, he began to seriously look for Orang Short in a 3-year project funded by a conservation organization in England, Fauna & Flora International (FFI).
He worked with conservation activist Deborah Martyr, who also claimed to have seen Orang Short and tried to record it on camera. The project failed to find Orang Short, only mysterious footprints.
"The project failed to obtain any solid evidence other than a few footprints that do not appear to match any known primate species," the report states.
Subsequently, National Geographic funded the Orang Short project separately between 2005 and 2009. This project also used camera traps, but found none. Alex Schlegel, who worked on the project, is still confused as to whether Short People even exist.
As for Holden, he said he has continued to look for Orang Pandek since the FFI research project ended. Despite failing to photograph Orang Short, he has discovered species previously unknown to science, including Nepenthes holdenii, the carnivorous plant in Cambodia that is named after him. He also led the team that photographed new species for the first time, including primates.
In fact, Holden has managed to snap so many animals that are not Short Persons that he thinks any attempt to find them can be seen as evidence that they don't exist, even though he still believes they exist.
Holden points to the Sumatran ground cuckoo as the justification for why Orang Pendek has escaped documentation. The cuckoo that lived on land went missing for more than 90 years without being seen until it was trapped in 1997. This means that Orang Short could also be found later, even though it took a very long time.
"So these things happen. But whoever doesn't believe me, I can sympathize, because I have nothing but stories," he concluded.