Something Hiding in the Jungle? The Rock Apes of Vietnam

Generally speaking, cryptids are easily disproven. Such fantasy creatures belong entirely in the imagination of the more creative sections of humanity, but such secret, unknown species do not exist.

There is no giant forgotten ape hiding in the forests of north America, nor is there something similar in the Himalayas. There is no relic population of dinosaurs in Africa nor Plesiosaurs in Scotland, nor are there giant sharks in the oceans.

Such creatures are easily disproven, for several reasons. For example, those who advocate for the Loch Ness Monster do not suggest Nessie is immortal, that being the preserve of an entirely different sort of fantasy. But Loch Ness itself is clearly too small to sustain a single monster, let alone a breeding population which would necessarily number in the thousands and which is required for this creature to survive. Ditto Bigfoot, ditto Chupacabra.

It is no coincidence either that such fanciful creatures are massive, dangerous, imposing and impressive. One never hears of a cryptid ant, or a lost remnant of ancient krill. These monsters are only interesting if they are monstrous, and so in the imaginings of those that believe they become so.

This is before we even get to the more supernatural cryptids. We are not talking about ghosts and goblins here, but those which are never suggested to be a remnant population of a lost species, but rather something else. Werewolves, or vampires, things which require additional leaps of faith regarding religion, or magic.

Things like the Jersey Devil or Mothman belong in this category, but these are so ridiculous to stretch credulity beyond breaking point. Such sightings are almost always from the United States, almost always in the relatively recent past, and almost always easily explained.

But sometimes things are seen which, just possibly, can be true. Sometimes the story is just plausible enough, and the evidence so overwhelming, that there may be a truth at the heart of the legend.

So it is with the Rock Apes of the Vietnam War.

How Much Proof is Enough?

Firstly, a few facts about these creatures. They were unknown until the Vietnam War, when unprecedented incursions into the jungle by the combatants caused them to turn aggressive. They were seen by both sides, and they were described in detail by many eyewitness accounts.

Standing some six feet tall and covered in reddish brown hair, they were known as “Rock Apes” by the US forces and “batututs” by the Vietnamese. And these creatures were not seen fleetingly, but would regularly attack soldiers in the deep forests.

One particular US encampment in a hill was so plagued by attacks from the creatures that is was nicknamed “Monkey Mountain” by the troops stationed there. In 1974 there was even an expedition, officially organized by the NVA, to hunt down and capture one of these creatures, so that the military might know what they were facing. 

Because these creatures, disturbed by the destruction brought into their world, were unknown to the people of Vietnam. They could not be monkeys, as they were far too large and aggressive. Nor could they be a known species of ape, as the only known ape to live in these areas, the orangutan, had not been seen there for a thousand years.

No bodies of this Rock Ape were ever recovered. No clear photos exist of the creatures: they would tend to attack sporadically and without warning, charging at entrenched positions or patrols in a group. The only evidence we have are plaster casts of unknown, ape-like footprints recovered in 1970.

Nor has anything new come to light in the years after the end of the Vietnam War. These creatures apparently disappeared back into their deep jungles, never to be seen again. 

Perhaps they were some manifestation of the fears of battle. Perhaps they were a tale that grew in the telling, with every startled soldier in an unfamiliar environment claiming to have encountered a Rock Ape out there in the jungle.

But this does not scan, either. They were encountered at close range many times. They did not behave like anything else out there, showing no fear of humans and attacking without warning. Multiple incidents were witnessed by groups of soldiers, all of whom offered the same story, not least from the encampment which saw so many attacks that they named there hill for the monkeys.

It seems there really was something out there. And if this is considered in a cold, dispassionate light, it is not so impossible to believe.

The forests of Vietnam are largely unknown, extremely impassable in places and potentially large enough to house unknown species. A new species of orangutan was discovered in Indonesia as late as 2018, and some believe other large ape species to be out there, known only from anecdotal encounters.

This is dangerously close to straying down the path which leads to Bigfoot, but the North American ape would have to exist on a continent empty of such creatures for tens of thousands of years. In Vietnam the Rock Ape would have many cousins, and an environment in which it could conceivably thrive.

Nor is it particularly surprising that it was first seen in the Vietnam War. Nothing like this had ever happened in the region in the entirely of history. The scars left by the conflict on the landscape will remain far into the future, and it should come as no surprise that the ravaged land of Vietnam gave up whatever secrets it had in the violence.

Could there be a Rock Ape in Vietnam? Not a misidentified monkey or a soldier’s excuse but a real, unknown great ape out there in the deepest, darkest parts of the forests? Most, sadly believe not: there are simply too many such stories across the world for this one to be deemed credible.

But, barring conclusive evidence, we can never know for sure.

Top image: Both sides in the Vietnam War became convinced that they had found something unknown in the depths of the jungle (Poisondoll / Public Domain)