Kawuk

The Kawuk is a little-known cryptid from Malaysian folklore, described as a nocturnal creature resembling a small, wiry man covered entirely in coarse black hair, with disproportionately long arms. Villagers tell of it skulking near fruit orchards, deftly climbing trees to steal mangos or durians before vanishing back into the jungle. Some local stories attribute an eerie giggling or whispered chatter to its nighttime raids. Skeptics suggest these accounts likely stem from encounters with macaques or other primates behaving unusually under cover of darkness. Still, the Kawuk remains part of regional oral tradition, embodying a mischievous forest trickster that blurs the line between animal and spirit, always just beyond the lantern’s glow.