Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, the Amomongo is a creature described as a

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

y, man-sized

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

with long nails. The name is probably derived from the Hiligaynon word ''amó'', which translates "ape" or "monkey". Residents of La Castellana in

Negros Occidental Negros Occidental (; ), officially the Province of Negros Occidental (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Negros, Negros Island. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically s ...

view the Amomongo as a violent, wild creature that lives in caves near the foot of the volcanic Mount Kanlaon. Amomongo is featured in a local folktale called "Amomongo and Iput-Iput," or "The Ape and the Firefly." The name Amomongo has also been translated to mean the word "

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

," though this is not a native animal to the region. On June 9, 2008, Amomongo supposedly attacked Elias Galvez and Salvador Aguilar of the La Castellana settlement and disemboweled numerous goats and chickens in the area for the purpose of eating the

entrails The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The tract is the largest of the body's systems, after the cardiovascular system. T ...

. Attacks lasted until the next day on June 10. Medical records reveal that Galvez and Aguilar sustained numerous scratches on their faces, backs, and abdomens. Residents described it as a "hairy white ape with long, sharp nails and stands tall." Some compare the creature to other ape-like cryptids around the world, such as

Bigfoot Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

Yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...

, though the scientific community holds that it is just a legend mixed with mistaken identity. The native community holds that it is a wild animal, not an intelligent being like a witch or

aswang Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil creatures in Filipino folklore, such as vampires, ghouls, witches, viscera suckers, and transforming human-beast hybrids (usually dogs, cats, pigs). The aswang is the subject of a ...

References

{{authority control Visayan mythology Philippine legendary creatures Culture of Negros Occidental Hominid cryptids