Kota Kinabalu: A mysterious insect-like creature that has been captured on film in several parts of the world but never physically and also not scientifically explained because of the tremendous speed at which it travels has also been found in Sabah.
Called, among others, "flying rods", "skyfish" and "solar entities", these creatures are invisible to the naked eye and can only be noticed on slow motion camera and resemble a flying centipede.
First made known to the world in 1994 in Roswell, New Mexico, by an Unidentified Flying Object enthusiast who was attempting to film an UFO - at the site of what is believed to be an UFO landing in 1947 - people in several parts of the world have since also claimed to have captured images of the creature and put them on the Internet.
They were, initially, dismissed as some super-flying insect specie unknown to man until technology made it possible to capture them using today's sophisticated cameras.
There are sceptics who still dismiss them as tricks of light or camera but other sceptics who have studied newer images of these so-called creatures have begun to acknowledge their existence although unable to pin them down as insects, a paranormal creation or even a possible alien life form.
"We are very excited with our discovery and what this means to Sabah in terms of research in the new realm of cryptozoology or even UFOlogy given that their existence has stirred so much controversy and debate worldwide," said Matthew Lazenby @ Jigger, an enterpreneur and avid traveller.
The Sabah discovery was made two weeks ago by this British national who has a particular interest in cave systems and was indulging in his favourite pastime while on holiday here.
He and a renowned local tour guide, John Nair, decided to get deep into an inaccessible cave using a helmet-mounted camera.
"We chose a cave that no one has been for a long time to find out if there would be anything of interest," said Nair, who specialises in adventure trails and whose expertise is often sought by documentary film makers such as the BBC.
"We were surprised at what we found when reviewing the video," said Matthew, who was aware of the existence of "flying rods" in the Internet and having seen documentaries done on the subject in TV's "Monster Quest" series.
"We did not know they were there until we reviewed the video footage.
For obvious reasons we will not disclose the cave's location until we have devised a sure-fire method of successfully trapping them on the next visit to this cave."
He explained: "The first thing we noticed were, of course, bats.
But as we slowed down the speed we noticed what seemed to be like little specks that got bigger and bigger.
"As we were going further and further into the cave, we noticed (upon slowing the film) more and more of these theoretical insects, since there is no official name given to them.
"We don't even know if they were an insect specie or creature of some sort that holds an element of intelligence that interacts with other entities or animal species," Matthew said.
They are bent on trapping these on their next visit.
"If we managed to trap these specimens, we want to make sure that Sabah gets the credit as it will be a world first.
"Already the news that we have discovered them in Sabah should make the State a magnet for scientists researching unexplained matter," Matthew said. A previous attempt to capture "flying rods" in China only yielded only moths and other insects.
What separates the Sabah footages from those taken elsewhere are the sheer abundance. "We even have footages of bats trying to avoid colliding with these creatures. Bats are never frightened of insects.
"I have one footage of a group of them together and you can see them turning at extreme speed. They even chased a bat away.
No one has got footage of this. It's never been seen before.
Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: 'Flying Rods' discovered in Sabah
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