Guide des Animaux Cachés (2009) is an obscure cryptozoology handbook penned and illustrated by Philippe Coudray, notably including a diverse assemblage of cryptozoological phenomena. Of these is the curious "spiny-backed chimpanzee", created for this book ( Coudray 2009 ). Coudray states that an anonymous US Navy unit member—by their own request—recalls the incident. Between 1997 and 2002, a sensitive mission in the Congo came across a band of thirteen chimpanzees with "spines" perched on their back that rose upon agitation and a uniform gray colouration. Allegedly, the unit took a three minute video of the chimpanzees attacking a smaller animal that was seized by the United States government for having been taken during a secretive mission. Coudray describes them as small (1.35-1.5 meters in height, possibly), being partly carnivorous and with porcupine-like quills that react to excitement ( Coudray 2009 ). Much of this story is quite dubious. Coudray himself adm
Specializing in paleoanthropology.