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We returned to the same area the next day to interview another witness, called Ata, who claimed to have seen the creature about three weeks after Seman. He heard a strange ooooha! ooooha! cry coming from the same part of the the Garden where Seman had his encounter. Upon investigation Ata found himself only five metres away from the beast, which was a metre tall and had short black hair. Its prominent chest made him think it was female. Its lower half was hidden by vegetation.

Three years previously he had seen an orang pendek close to the wonderfully named village of Anoolie Pie some 23km away. It was around 1.2 metres tall and covered with black hair. The creature's face reminded the man of a macaque, with a flat nose and broad mouth. It stood and walked on two legs, never once dropping down on all fours. He said it was not a monkey, gibbon or sun bear. The creature seemed afraid of him and walked quickly away while looking from side to side.

I am a former zoo keeper and have worked with all the known great apes. I have seen their tracks in just about every medium and I can tell you that the orang pendek's tracks are quite different, with a human-like heel but a well separated big toe that seems less prehensile than that of any other ape.

Only a few yards into the jungle we stumbled across a trackway made by a tiger about a week before. A little further on Adam spotted something that even the guides had missed. Coming up a slope towards the path was a set of orang pendek tracks that were clearer than any we had seen before. The toes were all individually visible. We photographed them extensively and cursed our lack of plaster (ruined by the damp) to cast them.

Shortly after my return to England, Dally - the man who had been our "fixer" on this expedition - emailed to tell me of further sightings in Kerinci. On 8 October some birdwatchers from Siulak Mukai village saw an orang pendek near Gunung Tapanggang. They watched it for 10 minutes from a distance of only 10 metres. It had black skin and long arms, and walked like a man.

This will be my fourth expedition to Sumatra since 2003. Each time I visit I see the rainforest shrinking. Areas that were once verdant jungle are now agricultural monocultures.

Kerinci Seblat National Park is huge, but it cannot hold out against human pressure forever. If we can prove the existence of a new species of ape in these jungles then the eyes of the world will be on Sumatra and pressure will be exerted on the Indonesian government to fight poaching, logging and to stem the tide of agriculture that is eating into the park.

No one knows how many orang pendek are left. It would be an unthinkable crime and a massive loss to science if this animal were allowed to slip into extinction before it is even officially recognised.