'The Cannibal in the Jungle'...Does Ebu Gogo Exist?

I had the opportunity to watch the two-hour scripted fictional feature The Cannibal in the Jungle on Animal Planet this past Sunday. The promotional description of the presentation stated:

...it follows the story of an American scientist who was convicted of killing and cannibalizing two colleagues in the jungles of Flores, Indonesia in 1977.

Branded “The American Cannibal” by the press during his trial, Dr. Timothy Darrow defended himself by claiming a mythic human-ape creature was responsible for the murders.

Animal Planet’s dramatic story is an imaginative leap inspired by real science. In 2004, a study in the journal Nature announced the discovery of bones of an entirely new, remarkable species of humans. Fully grown adults stood only three feet tall, yet they were able to thrive in the chaotic and dangerous world that surrounded them. The new species was nicknamed “Hobbits,” after J.R.R. Tolkien’s diminutive heroes. These real hobbits are purported to have lived less than 20,000 years ago, which would make them the last other species of human to live alongside ourselves.

But did these hobbits fully go extinct? Later, 60 Minutes sent a film crew to investigate the Nature article. While on site in Flores, the crew unearthed the local legend that the creatures may have never died out at all.

Animal Planet’s scripted film THE CANNIBAL IN THE JUNGLE follows an expedition team deep into the heart of Flores Island to investigate Darrow’s claims and find out once and for all if these legendary creatures still exist.

Personally, I thought the overall presentation was entertaining and imaginative. It brought together the 2003 discovery of Homo floresiensis 'Flores Man' and the local Ebu Gogo legend...a being that the Flores islanders believe to be real. The show went a step further and created a fictional story where Homo floresiensis had survived and evolved during the past 12,000 years into murderous cannibalistic beings. Despite the fictional story, it many not be beyond the possibility that a breeding population hairy hominids may exist in the foreboding jungles of Flores.

So what's the story of the beings known as Ebu Gogo?

Ebu Gogo are a group of human-like creatures that appear in the mythology of the people of the island of Flores, Indonesia. In the Nage language of central Flores, ebu means 'grandmother' and gogo means 'he who eats anything'.

The Ebu Gogo are described as small, nasty people with a voracious appetite that sometimes included the devouring of the occasional human baby. Ebu Gogo have hair covered bodies, longish arms, big bellies and protruding ears. They were said to walk awkwardly and could be heard murmuring in their own language and were said to be capable of mimicking human speech. When they could tolerate the Ebu Gogo no more the Flores islanders drove the small people in the direction of the caves, perhaps near Liang Bau or perhaps they burned the survivors alive. In any case, these stories were probably told to keep truculent Flores children in line in much the same fashion as some western fairy tales are told.

Indonesian culture just like any other has folklore about ghosts, little people and mysterious beings. Word of mouth folktales are handed down from generation to generation. Indonesian village people would talk of an ape-like creature that walks like a man.

Some scientists believe that the Ebu Gogo folklore maybe a shared cultural memory of Homo floresiensis but there is no solid evidence to support that theory. However, legends have the Ebu Gogo disappearing about 400 years ago at the time of the arrival of the Dutch and Portuguese explorers. Scientists working on the Homo floresiensis find have also referred to the Ebu Gogo as 'Hobbits'.