Retired anthropologist Gregory Forth argues that stories from Flores Island and fossil evidence could allow for the possibility that a small, apelike hominin—locally called the lai ho’a—survives in remote areas. Forth spent about four decades collecting oral histories and published his findings in a 2022 book. While the villagers’ descriptions sometimes resemble paleoanthropological reconstructions, mainstream scientists remain cautious because no verifiable physical evidence of a living population has been produced.
Could a Tiny, Ape‑Like Hominin Still Live on Flores Island? One Anthropologist Thinks So
Retired anthropologist Gregory Forth argues that stories from Flores Island and fossil evidence could allow for the possibility that a small, apelike hominin—locally called the lai ho’a—survives in remote areas. Forth spent about four decades collecting oral histories and published his findings in a 2022 book. While the villagers’ descriptions sometimes resemble paleoanthropological reconstructions, mainstream scientists remain cautious because no verifiable physical evidence of a living population has been produced.
08:54 AM, 11/20/2025Science
Retired anthropologist Gregory Forth argues that a tiny, apelike hominin long believed extinct may still survive in remote parts of Flores Island, Indonesia. Drawing on roughly four decades of fieldwork, local oral histories and the fossil record, Forth lays out why he considers the possibility plausible in his 2022 book, Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid.
Local stories meet fossils
Most paleoanthropologists agree that Homo floresiensis, a diminutive human species, lived on Flores tens of thousands of years ago and is no longer extant. Forth, however, says villagers describe a creature they call the lai ho’a in ways that match paleoanthropological reconstructions: small stature, an upright gait, a face described as more apelike than human, and a body hairier than modern humans but less so than nonhuman apes.
“What really interested me in the lai ho’a is that it was small, like the figures in Nage country,” Forth said. “But it was reckoned still to be alive. And indeed, there were a few people around, it seemed, who claimed to have seen one or more.”
Forth first encountered these oral accounts while conducting ethnographic work in the region and later compared them with paleoanthropological findings from the early 2000s. He says the anatomical reconstructions based on fossil material sometimes resembled the villagers’ descriptions.
Why most scientists remain cautious
Although Forth presents decades of interviews and field notes as evidence that the lai ho’a could persist into modern times, the broader scientific community remains skeptical. Extraordinary claims require verifiable, physical evidence: specimens, clear photographic records, DNA, or other reproducible data. To date, such evidence for a living population on Flores has not been produced.
Forth’s work is important for two reasons: it preserves and documents indigenous knowledge that may otherwise be overlooked, and it highlights the value of combining ethnographic fieldwork with paleoanthropological research. Whether or not a living population exists, the story underscores how folklore and science can intersect and why rigorous, respectful field investigation in remote regions remains valuable.
The search continues—but any claim of surviving hominins would need solid, independently verified evidence to reshape the scientific consensus.