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I bumped into a critter in Korea one night back in 1989 that I could not identify. It happened about 50 miles north and slightly east of Seoul in a sparsely populated area very close to the DMZ. It was not a bear or anything canine, but had longish reddish brown fur. It ran across the road right in the headlight beams of my humvee at less than fifty feet with a gait that looked more like swimming than running. No tail visible, estimated length about five feet, weight about 250 - 300 pounds. Flat face.

None of the locals wanted to talk about it at all. No response or a rapid change in subject. No language barrier -- I can read, write and speak Korean quite fluently -- and I was already well known to most that I asked.

Of course, my points could be turned around and used to support the theory of a stink ape/bigfoot/yeti.

Let's say there was a primate that existed that bore a very strong resemblance to a bear, or some other large mammal. This could help explain how it could go undiscovered for so long.

The thing that gets me about big foot is that no one has found a dead one or no hunter with hound dogs has been able to tree one or get one cornered in a cave or something. They're on foot. If a man on horseback can chase down wild horses, he sure should be able to chase down a bigfoot. Especially with dogs. If this thing exists, it's got to have some very un-primate-like habits...like being solitary, nocturnal and a very swift runner(and bipedalism isn't usually very swift), and escapes danger like a deer...not like a raccoon, by running and using the terrain to disguise it's path of escape. It's got to be a creature that always chooses flight over fight and never attempts to climb a tree or rock to escape or hide in a den. And it's got to be really really good at it.

The only way these things could exist, in my opinion, is if they are able to disguise themselves. I don't mean just their appearance, but also their tracks, scent, and their den. Just being rare and shy isn't good enough. There's been too many people looking for them. If they exist, then people have been seeing their signs all along and just not known it. Their hair must look alot like the hair of something else. Their scat must look and smell like the scat of something else. Their dens must look like the dens of something else. The remains of their meals must look like the remains of some other creatures meals. This creature would have to look like something else from a distance and only when it's startled and stands up and bolts does a human realize what he/she is looking at.

And there's another possibility I can think of. IT could be kind of bear that has some primate-like characteristics. There is a special subspecies of chimp called a bonobo. These look like ordinary chimps at first glance, but if you look closely, you see very strange differences. Bonobos are thinner, longer legged, more human like, are female dominated rather than male dominated, and have a tendency to walk upright when carrying food. Chimps will carry food with one hand, and then walk on three limbs while clutching the food to it's chest. Bonobos stand up and carry with two hands. I think I could picture a bear-like animal doing something like that...walking upright while carrying food. Maybe even while fleeing from a human.

Whatever it is, It's definitely a very unusual animal and I sure would like to see one with my own eyes.