The Nittaewo: small hairy humanoids from Sri Lanka

The Nittaewo males where said to be about three to four feet tall, with the females of the species being slightly smaller. They reportedly walked upright with a bipedal gait, had short but powerful arms, no tail, were often covered in a think reddish fur and were completely naked. Their arms were short, with talon-like nails.

They lived in trees, caves and crevices and caught and ate small animals such as hare, squirrel and tortoise. They lived in groups of 10 or 20 and their speech was like the twittering of birds. They reportedly built and lived in platforms constructed high in trees, covered with a thatch of leaves as a means of camouflage.

According to Veddhas legend, the Nittaewo processed very sharp claws and often attacked any intruding Veddhas who may have wondered into their territory to collect fruit or honey combs.
Legends of the Veddha tribe, who still farm in Sri Lanka, say they are responsible for wiping out the Nittaewo sometime in the late 18th century.

Dr. Salvador Martinez, Spanish anthropologist, claimed to have seen a Nittaewo in Sri Lanka in 1984, though he did not report the incident for many years. According to him, the Nittaewo had a human appearance; its body appeared covered with a coat of long hair, with signs of scabs in some areas. Martinez remembers that the Nittaewo began to emit unintelligible sounds before fleeing toward the denseness of the forest. However, people have said he was mistaken and it was simply a member of a local nomad tribe.

Previously associated to the Pithecanthropus and Homo Erectus, in spite of no fossil record, the discovery of Homo floresiensis in 2004 has given support to the existence of a hominid like the Nittaewo.

In October 2004, the discovery of an entirely new species of the genus Homo, Homo floresiensis, on the Indonesian island of Flores has given support to the existence of a hominid like the Nittaewo. This species of man may have lived along side modern humans, Homo sapiens. It was a group of fully grown 3 feet tall humanoids, a new species, who lived as recently as 13,000 years ago.

The natives of the Flores island, were the small remains where found have legends, which took place no less than 100 years ago, of small hairy people, the Ebu Gogo, causing some to think that a remnant population of these small hairy hominids could still be alive today, including hidden populations of similar creatures from different parts of the world including Sri Lanka’s Nittaewo, Sumatra’s Orang Pendek, East Africa’s Agogwe and Hawaii’s Menehune, all alike in description…

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nittaewo

http://www.unknownexplorers.com/nittaewo.php

http://www.srilanka.travel/nittaewo-in-srilanka