Bigfoot Backgrounder

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alleged ape-like creature said to inhabit remote forests, mainly in the Pacific northwest region of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia. In northern Wisconsin, Lakota Indians know the creature by the name Chiye-tanka, a Lakota name for "Big Elder Brother."[1] Bigfoot is sometimes described as a large, hairy bipedal hominoid, and some believe that this animal, or its close relatives, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti of Tibet and Nepal, the Yeren of mainland China,the Orang Pendek of Indonesia, and the Yowie of Australia.

Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of cryptozoology, with an ongoing debate on whether it exists or not. Most scientific experts on the matter consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes. Despite its uncertain scientific status, Bigfoot is nevertheless a popular symbol, included as "Quatchi," one of the mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and used to name both a provincial park and the annual Sasquatch Daze event in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. A minor league baseball team in Arkansas, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, uses a stylized and smiling version of Bigfoot as the team mascot.

In reports on July 27, 2008, Clayton County police officer Matthew Whitton claimed to have found and retrieved a Bigfoot corpse as part of a group of "trackers".[2] In a press release published August 12, 2008, Bigfoot "trackers" announced that they have collected a Bigfoot corpse; alleged photos and DNA evidence are to be issued in a press release on August 15.[3]

Description and behavior

Bigfoot is described as being between 6–10 feet (1.8–3 meters) tall, and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair. The head seems to sit directly on the shoulders, with no apparent neck. Alleged witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla.

They are claimed to be mainly nocturnal, and seemingly omnivorous. In encounters where a human reported shining a flashlight at them, the eyes glowed red, possibly due to a tapetum lucidum in their eyes, not found in any other higher primate.

Sasquatches are rarely claimed to be aggressive, with only one reported case of a man being killed by one (found in The Wilderness Hunter by Theodore Roosevelt). Although there are claims of harassment of humans traveling through a forest that could be a part of a Sasquatch’s territory.

[edit] Proposed creatures

Various types of creature have been described by proponents to explain the sightings. These descriptions have generally received little support from the scientific community.

[edit] Gigantopithecus

Grover Krantz argued that a relict population of Gigantopithecus blacki would best explain Bigfoot reports. Based on his fossil analysis of its jaws, he championed a view that Gigantopithecus was bipedal.

Geoffrey Bourne writes that Gigantopithecus is a plausible candidate for Bigfoot since most Gigantopithecus fossils were found in China, whose extreme eastern Siberian forests are similar to those of north-western North America. Many well-known animals have migrated across the Bering Strait, so Bourne believes is not unreasonable to assume that Gigantopithecus might have as well. "So perhaps," Bourne writes, "Gigantopithecus is the Bigfoot of the American continent and perhaps he is also the Yeti of the Himalayas."[4]

The Gigantopithecus hypothesis is generally considered entirely speculative. Given the mainstream view that Gigantopithecus was quadrupedal, it would seem unlikely to be an ancestor to the biped Bigfoot is said to be. Moreover, it has been argued that G. blacki's enormous mass would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.[5] An analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin film shows that frames 369, 370, 371, and 372 all show a slender lower mandible, that does not match the massive lower mandible of Gigantopithecus blacki, which, assuming that the Patterson-Gimlin film is legitimate, would eliminate G. blacki as a candidate for Bigfoot.[6]

"That Gigantopithicus is in fact extinct has been questioned by those who believe it survives as the Yeti of the Himalayas and the Sasquatch of the north-west American coast. But the evidence for these creatures is not convincing."[7]

[edit] Other extinct apes

A species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, with its crested skull and bipedal gait, was suggested by primatologist John Napier and anthropologist Gordon Strasenburg as a possible candidate for Bigfoot's identity.

Some Bigfoot reports suggest Homo erectus to be the creature, but H. erectus skeletons have never been found on the North American continent.

There was also a little known genus called, Meganthropus, which reputedly grew to enormous proportions. Again, there have been no remains of this creature anywhere near North America, and none younger than a million years old.

[edit] Arguments

Bigfoot is one of the more famous creatures in cryptozoology, and, like many cryptids around the world, there is a fierce debate as to whether the Bigfoot species exists or not.

Cryptozoologist John Willison Green has postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon.[8]

Indian Native tribes in the Northwest note the appearance of large, anthropoid creatures. Such creatures were said to exist on Vancouver Island and near Harrison Lake.

The earliest unambiguous reports of gigantic apelike creatures in the Pacific Northwest date from 1924, after a series of alleged encounters at a location in Washington later dubbed Ape Canyon, as related in The Oregonian.[9] Reports the pro-Bigfoot authors claim are similar appear in the mainstream press dating back at least to the 1860s. The phenomenon attained widespread notoriety in 1958 when enormous footprints were reported in Humboldt County, California by roadworkers; the tracks pictured in the media inspired the familiar name "Bigfoot."

Mainstream scientists generally dismiss the phenomena due to a lack of representative specimens. They attribute the numerous sightings to folklore, mythology, hoaxes, and the misidentification of common animals.

Ecologist Robert Michael Pyle argues that most cultures have human-like giants in their folk history. "We have this need for some larger-than-life creature."[10]

[edit] Skeptical view

Scientists and academics overwhelmingly "discount the existence of Bigfoot because the evidence supporting belief in the survival of a prehistoric, bipedal, apelike creature of such dimensions is scant".[11] In addition to the lack of evidence, they cite the fact that while Bigfoot is alleged to live in regions unusual for a large, nonhuman primate, i.e., temperate latitudes in the northern hemisphere, all other recognized nonhuman apes are found in the tropics, Africa, continental Asia or nearby islands. The great apes have never been found in the fossil record in the Americas, and no Bigfoot bones or bodies have been found.

Many scientists do not give the subject of Bigfoot's existence serious attention, given the history of dubious claims and outright hoaxes. Napier wrote that the mainstream scientific community's indifference stems primarily from "insufficient evidence ... it is hardly surprising that scientists prefer to investigate the probable rather than beat their heads against the wall of the faintly possible."[12] Anthropologist David Daegling echoed this idea, citing a "remarkably limited amount of Sasquatch data that are amenable to scientific scrutiny."[13] He advises that mainstream skeptics take a proactive position "to offer an alternative explanation. We have to explain why we see Bigfoot when there is no such animal" (ibid 20). Indeed, many scientists insist that the breeding population of such an animal would be so large that it would account for many more purported sightings than currently occur, making the existence of such an animal an almost certain impossibility.

George Schaller is one of a few prominent scientists who argue that Bigfoot reports are worthy of serious study. A 2003 Los Angeles Times story described Schaller as a "Bigfoot skeptic", but he also expressed disapproval for other scientists who do not examine evidence, yet "write [Bigfoot] off as a hoax or myth. I don't think that's fair."[14][15] In a 2003 Denver Post article Schaller said that he is troubled that no Bigfoot remains have ever been uncovered, and no feces samples have been found to allow DNA testing. Schaller notes: "There have been so many sightings over the years, even if you throw out 95 percent of them, there ought to be some explanation for the rest. I think a hard-eyed look is absolutely essential".[16][17]

On May 24, 2006 Maria Goodavage wrote an article in USA Today titled, "Bigfoot Merely Amuses Most Scientists", in which she quotes Washington State zoologist John Crane, "There is no such thing as Bigfoot. No data other than material that's clearly been fabricated has ever been presented."[10] Several other prominent scientists have also expressed at least a guarded interest in Sasquatch reports, including George Schaller, Russell Mittermeier, Daris Swindler and Esteban Sarmiento.[18]

Prominent anthropologist Carleton S. Coon's posthumously published essay Why the Sasquatch Must Exist states, "Even before I read John Green's book Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, first published in 1978, I accepted Sasquatch's existence."[19] Coon examines the question from several angles, stating that he is confident only in ruling out a relict Neanderthal population as a viable candidate for Sasquatch reports.

As previously noted, Napier generally argued against Bigfoot's existence, but added that some "soft evidence" (i.e., eyewitness accounts, footprints, hair and droppings) is compelling enough that he advises against "dismissing its reality out of hand."[20]

Krantz and others have argued that a double standard is applied to Sasquatch studies by many academics: whenever there is a claim or evidence of Sasquatch's existence, enormous scrutiny is applied, as well as it should be. Yet when individuals claim to have hoaxed Bigfoot evidence, the claims are frequently accepted without corroborative evidence.

In 2004, Henry Gee, editor of the prestigious magazine Nature, argued that creatures like Bigfoot deserved further study, writing, "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth ... Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold."[21]

[edit] Hoaxes

Bigfoot sightings or footprints are often demonstrably hoaxes. Author Jerome Clark argues that the "Jacko" affair, involving an 1884 newspaper report of an apelike creature captured in British Columbia was a hoax. Citing research by John Green, who found that several contemporary British Columbia newspapers regarded the alleged capture as very dubious, Clark notes that the New Westminster, British Columbia Mainland Guardian wrote, "Absurdity is written on the face of it."[22]

In 1958 bulldozer operator Jerry Crew took to a newspaper office a cast of one of the enormous footprints he and other workers had been seeing at an isolated work site in Bluff Creek, California. The story and photo garnered international attention through being picked up by the Associated Press.[23] The crew was overseen by Wilbur L. Wallace, brother of Raymond L. Wallace. Years after the track casts were made, Ray Wallace got involved in Bigfoot "research" and made various outlandish claims. He was poorly regarded by many who took the subject seriously. Napier wrote, "I do not feel impressed with Mr. Wallace's story" regarding having over 15,000 feet of film showing Bigfoot.[24]

Shortly after Wallace's death, his children called him the "father of Bigfoot." They claimed Ray faked the tracks seen by Jerry Crew in 1958. There were some wooden track makers among Ray's inherited belongings which the family said were used to make the 1958 tracks[citation needed].

[edit] Alleged sightings

There have been many hundreds of alleged Bigfoot sightings, however here are some of the most notable ones:

* 1840: Protestant missionary Reverend Elkanah Walker recorded myths of hairy giants that were persistent among Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants steal salmon and had a strong smell.[25]
* 1924: Fred Beck and four other miners claimed to have been attacked by several sasquatches in Ape Canyon in July, 1924. The creatures reportedly hurled large rocks at the miners’ cabin for several hours during the night. This case was publicized in newspaper reports printed in 1924.[26][27][28]
* 1941: Jeannie Chapman and her children claimed to have escaped their home when a large sasquatch, allegedly 7½ feet tall, approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.[29]
* 1940s onward: People living in Fouke, Arkansas have reported that a Bigfoot-like creature, dubbed the “Fouke Monster”, inhabits the region. A high number of reports have occurred in the Boggy Creek area and are the basis for the 1973 film The Legend of Boggy Creek.[30][31][32][33][34][35]
* 1955: William Roe claimed to have seen a close-up view of a female sasquatch from concealment near Mica Mountain, British Columbia.[36]
* 1958: Two construction workers, Leslie Breazale and Ray Kerr, reported seeing a sasquatch about 45 miles northeast of Eureka, California. Sixteen-inch tracks had previously been spotted in the northern California woods.[37]
* 1967: On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured a purported sasquatch on film in Bluff Creek, California in what would come to be known as the Patterson-Gimlin film.
* 1970: A family of bigfoot-like creatures called "zoobies" was observed on multiple occasions by a San Diego psychiatrist named Dr. Baddour and his family near their Alpine, California home, as reported in an interview with San Diego County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Doug Huse, who investigated the sightings.[38]
* 1995: On August 28, 1995, a TV film crew from Waterland Productions pulled off the road into Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and filmed what they claimed to be a sasquatch in their RV's Headlights.[39]
* 2005: On April 16, 2005, A creature resembling a bigfoot was reportedly seen on the bank of the Nelson River in Norway House, Manitoba. Two minutes and forty seconds of footage was taken by ferry operator Bobby Clarke from across the Nelson River.[40] Canadian rock band The Weakerthans later recorded a song about this sighting, "Bigfoot!", on their 2007 album Reunion Tour. [41]
* 2006: On December 14, 2006, Shaylane Beatty, a woman from the Dechambault Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, was driving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan when, she claimed, saw the creature near the side of the highway at Torch River. Several men from the village drove down to the area and found footprints, which they tracked through the snow. They found a tuft of brown hair and took photographs of the tracks.[42][43]
* 2007: On September 16, 2007, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of a possible sasquatch using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree.[44] A spokesperson for the Pennsylania Game Commission challenged the Bigfoot explanation, saying that it looked like "a bear with a severe case of mange."[45] The sighting happened near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny National Forest, which is about 115 miles north of Pittsburgh.[46][45]
* 2008: Berry-pickers reports a sasquatch sighting in northern Ontario, Canada.[47]
* 2008: In July, Rick Dyer made claims that he had discovered the deceased body of a possible Sasquatch in the woods of Georgia.[48] A press conference to release alleged photographs and DNA evidence was scheduled on August 15, 2008.[49]

[edit] See also

* Bigfoot in popular culture
* Bigfoot trap
* Evidence regarding Bigfoot
* Formal studies of Bigfoot

Similar alleged creatures

* Almas - Mongolia
* Barmanou - Afghanistan and Pakistan
* Chuchunaa - Siberia
* Ebu Gogo - Flores Island, Indonesia
* Fear liath - Scotland
* Fouke Monster - Fouke, Arkansas
* Hibagon - Japan
* Kapre - Philippines
* Karakoncolos - Turkey, Bulgaria
* Lake Worth monster - Lake Worth, Texas
* Momo the Monster - Missouri, Louisiana
* Người Rừng - Vietnam
* Nuk-luk - Northwest Territories
* Old Yellow Top - Canada
* Orang Mawas - Malaysia
* Orang Pendek - Sumatra, Indonesia
* Pennsylvania Creature - Pennsylvania
* Pitt Lake Giant - British Columbia, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania
* Skunk Ape - Florida
* Woodwose
* Yeren - Hubei, China
* Yeti - Tibet
* Yowie - Australia

Similar beings in folklore

* Giant - Southern Europe
* Ogre - Northern Europe
* Troll - Scandinavia
* Wendigo - Canada and Eastern US

From: www.wikipedia.org