Encounter Atlas

Creature index / Hairy hominids

Mono Grande

Also called De Loys's ape, Ameranthropoides loysi, Salvaje, Big monkey of South America

A large, tailless ape said to live in South American forests, famous for the de Loys photo.

Mono Grande means 'big monkey'. It refers to reports of a large, tailless, ape-like animal in the forests of northern South America, where no apes are known to live. Explorer Alexander von Humboldt heard stories around 1800 of hairy wild people called salvajes on the Orinoco, though he did not believe them.

The most famous piece of evidence is a photograph taken by Swiss geologist François de Loys during an expedition near the Colombia-Venezuela border around 1920. It shows a dead, upright-propped animal his party had shot. Anthropologist George Montandon published it in 1929 and named it a new species.

Experts quickly identified the animal as a spider monkey with its tail hidden or removed, and the photo is now widely considered a hoax. Similar photos appeared in the 1950s.

What witnesses report

  • A large, tailless monkey walking upright
  • Aggressive behaviour, throwing branches
  • Seen in riverside forest

Famous cases

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