YEAR: 2005

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: 4

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Jasper County

LOCATION DETAILS: Edited at request of witness.

NEAREST TOWN: Edited at request of witness.

NEAREST ROAD: Edited at request of witness.

OBSERVED: I [work] in Jasper County, Texas. On Thursday August 4, 2005, [in the early evening] I was walking [outdoors on company property surrounded by the Big Thicket]. There was some rustling in the underbrush about thirty yards off to the left side of the dirt road which I was travelling down. Shortly after hearing the rustling I began to smell what seemed like a mixture of a skunk and strong coffee mixed with kind of like a dead fish smell. At first I thought that it might have been some wild hogs bedding down for the evening, so I stopped to listen for anything that might have indicated piglets since wild sows are dangerous if they are protecting their young. After about thirty to forty-five seconds, the rustling around stopped. I couldn't see into the brush, but I felt like whatever was in there was watching me. Not wanting to be the focus of a hog charge, I hollered in hopes that I would scare off whatever it was in the brush. After not getting any response, I figured that whatever it was had left, so I resumed [what I was doing]. I had to go down to a gate and turn around. When I passed the spot where I had my encounter, I heard a whoo--whoo--whooping sound coming from behind me. It was quiet at first then it got louder as I got farther away. I was puzzled as to what could make that sound. I am an experienced deerhunter, and I have never heard that sound before. It sounded kind of like a howler monkey. In fact that's what I would have thought that it was if I didn't know any better. About two and a half hours later [at a different location] I smelled the same smell. I have smelled that smell there several times after dark. I would like for my specifics to be kept confidential, as well as my job title.

ALSO NOTICED: I've seen broken limbs on the ground, and places where mud was scraped up.

OTHER WITNESSES: Only me there.

OTHER STORIES: Nobody speaks about these incidents. They are like the big pink elephant that stays in the corner of the room.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: See above

ENVIRONMENT: Deep woods with heavy underbrush. No houses. Borders [private organization], but the area is owned by ********** where hunting is prohibited. There is [plenty of water] and lots of wildlife.

Follow-up investigation report:

When I spoke to the witness about his experience, he was adamant that what he heard sounded "just like a monkey." He wrote of "whoops" in his report, and in talking directly with the witness, he was a bit more descriptive. The whoops occurred three times while he was in the area, and were described as being like a "howler monkey" or "gibbon" in a zoo. The witness was quite startled by the sounds; he had never heard anything like them in his experiences in the outdoors of North America.

The smell was quite pungent and quite unusual, although the witness thought he had smelled it before. When the witness first smelled the odor, he considered it to be of hog origin, having no other frame of reference from which to draw. After he heard the vocalizations, the witness's perspective of what he was encountering began to change. It was then that he contemplated the possibility that he might be actually encountering something outside the parameters of known taxonomy.

At the witness's request, I have edited his report so that any and all personal data remains totally confidential. All changes made by me appear in his report enclosed in [ ], and are only indicative of information that would compromise the identity, occupation and location of the witness.