Just as most Americans scoff at Bigfoot, most Australians laugh off yowies as a kooky myth or hoax. And zoologists are quick to point out that there's no verifiable evidence of such a creature. But, real or phantom, the yowie says a lot about the nature of Australia and its capacity to both engender and embrace the weird. It was only in 1994, for instance, that, two hours' drive from Sydney, a park ranger stumbled upon a stand of towering pines thought to be the arboreal equivalent of living dinosaurs. That natural backdrop leads to endless speculation about the possibility of survivors among species like the Tasmanian tiger, believed to be extinct.
Science proves time and time again that they get things wrong.
What is known, he says, is that the yowie is related to the North American Bigfoot and the Himalayan yeti and probably came to Australia via a land bridge from Asia thousands of years ago. Like its cousins elsewhere, Harrison claims, the yowie resembles a cross between a human and an ape. Covered in thick black or gray fur, it walks on two feet and has arms that dangle to its knees. The first, he claims, is a smaller, less aggressive version known as the jingera in Aboriginal lore, while the second can grow to 8 feet or more and is far more ferocious than its cousins elsewhere. Harrison says he has made casts of footprints and heard what he believes to be yowies crashing through the woods.