Report Received From: The GCBRO Online Report Submission Form.
 
Report Posted To GCBRO Web Site On:  November 31, 2005

DATE:    October 2002
 

TIME:     N/A
 

LOCATION:   Stone County, Mississippi
 

TERRAIN:    Thicket edge alongside a small branch in an open-wooded hardwood forest.
 

OBSERVED:    Workers with the USDA encounter the carcass of a half-eaten dog while conducting timber survey. There was an abundance of large tracks in the area. The Anthropology Department of the nearby University of Southern Mississippi was asked to send someone to identify the tracks but was unable to at the time. The Hattiesburg Zoo was also asked to send a primatologist to the site as soon as possible to cast and identify the tracks. It is unknown if the zoo responded or not. Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks was unable to provide any knowledge of what could have made the tracks. All employees of the DeSoto National Forest were sent an email regarding the recent event. We were explicitly instructed to deny any knowledge of it and not to encourage anyone to hunt the creature that made the tracks and ate the dog. We were further instructed to stay clear of that area until further notice although none of us did. The tracks were viewed by an anthropology graduate student from USM the day they were discovered and they are described as resembling large chimpanzee tracks. So much so that all zoos were contacted within miles to see if one had escaped. The tracks had two large toes clearly visible with two smaller toes crimped tightly together to give the first impression of having only three toes on each foot. There was a fifth toe, the big toe, which was situated just proximal of the instep on each foot, like an opposable thumb, closer to the heel than the distal end of the foot. This toe was flattened and atrophic indicating that it no longer served as a necessary appendage. The second and third toes having evolved to take the place of the big toe which would be expected in a semi-bipedal creature. The word expressed to USDA employees was that the tracks were from an unknown and undocumented primate. The local sheriff's department and FBI sealed the area and removed the carcass of the eaten dog and made many casts and took hundreds of photographs but nothing of the findings or conclusion of the incident were ever revealed. The site was raked clean. 
 

Activities of Witness:   Timber survey
 

Description of Creature:  N/A
 

Other Notes:    N/A
 

Additional Notes and or Follow up Comments:  Upon contact the witness had no additional information to add to this report.

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