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Frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film
This article is about the unconfirmed North American ape-like creature called "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch". For other uses of Bigfoot, see Bigfoot (disambiguation). For other uses of Sasquatch, see Sasquatch (disambiguation).

Bigfoot, also called Sasquatch, is described as a large, apelike creature living in the remote wilderness areas of the United States and Canada, specifically those in southwestern Canada, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, the forests of the U.S. Northeast, and the U.S. Southern states. The majority of mainstream scientists consider the stories of Bigfoot to be a combination of myth and hoax.

Description

Bigfoot witnesses generally describe a 7 to 10 feet (2.1 to 2.7 m) tall, ape-like (or some would say more human-like) bipedal creature. Broad-shouldered and strongly-built, it has small eyes, a pronounced eyebrow, and a small, pointed, low-set head that is alternately reported as crested and rounded. Excepting the face, palms of the hands and soles of the feet, Bigfoot's body is covered with short shaggy hair that is usually black or dark brown in colour; though rust, reddish, sandy or silver are occasionally reported.

Enormous human-like footprints attributed to this creature gave rise to the name "Bigfoot" (see "Bigfoot" below). Ecologist Robert Michael Pyle describes them as follows: "Tracks commonly measure fifteen to twenty inches or more in length. They have five toes, a double-muscle ball, and a wide arch" (Pyle, 3).

A pervasive foul odor, reminiscent of feces, sewage or strong human body odor, is sometimes associated with Bigfoot.

Sasquatch vocalizations have been described in some sightings as high-pitched shrieks or whistles, and in others as low-pitched, guttural grunting or squealing.

Most sightings have been at night, leading to speculation that Sasquatch are nocturnal. Some witnesses reported what Pyle calls "red eyeshine," similar to that of nocturnal animals (Pyle, 209). Individual males are more frequently reported; less often do witnesses report pairs, family groups, or females.

Regarding Bigfoot's diet, anthropologist Grover Krantz writes, "he kinds of food that are consumed by sasquatches are reported by many observers; how many of these reports are accurate is a matter of diverse opinion" (Krantz, 159). He also adds, "In general I would describe the sasquatch as omnivorous. It is probably mainly a vegetarian and what might be described as an 'opportunistic carnivore'" (ibid, 160-161).

Bigfoot phenomenon

Etymology

Bigfoot

Primatologist John Napier inserts that "the term Bigfoot has been in colloquial use since the early 1920's to describe large, unaccountable human-like footprints in the Pacific northwest" (Napier, 74). However, according to Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, Andrew Genzoli deserves credit for the first formal use of the word on October 5, 1958 (Coleman and Clark, 39-40). Genzoli was a columnist and editor at The Humbolt Times, and that day's front page story showed Jerry Crew, a bulldozer operator on a road-building crew, holding an enormous plaster cast of a footprint. The text began, "While the tracks of old Big Foot have been in evidence for some time...," before detailing the workers' claims to have discovered an enormous footprint at an isolated work site . Genzoli's story was picked up by the Associated Press and garnered international attention, culminating several years later into what anthropologist Grover Krantz characterized as "sasquatch mania" (Krantz, 5).

It is worth noting that Crew was overseen by Wilbur Wallace, brother of Ray Wallace, who both later claimed to have conclusive evidence of Bigfoot's existence and to have hoaxed substantial amounts of it. Wallace 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 (Napier, 89).

Sasquatch

The term "Sasquatch" was coined in the 1920s by J.W. Burns, a school teacher at a British Columbian Chehalis reservation. Burns collected Native American accounts regarding large, hairy creatures said to live in the wild. Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark wrote that Burns's "Native American informants called these beasts by various names, including 'sokqueatl' and 'soss-q'tal'" (Coleman and Clark, p. 215). Burns noted the phonetically similar names for the creatures and decided to invent one term for them all. That name, sasquatch, happens to be similar to the word for the beast in the Chehalis dialect of Halkemeylem, sesqac (c=ts). Interestingly, Chehalis is in the area where historic sightings are densest, and is generally considered to be, if anywhere, "sasquatch territory". The Sasquatch is, in fact, a local clan totem and the band is nonchalant about the creature's existence, except to say that the creature is camera-shy and would rather be left alone.

Over time, Burns's neologism came to be used by others, primarily in the Pacific Northwest. In 1929, MacLean's (a popular Canadian general-interest magazine) published one of Burns's articles, Introducing British Columbia's Hairy Giants, which included the word "Sasquatch." After widespread publicity surrounding the 1958, Humbolt County, California Bigfoot reports, researchers began searching old newspapers and documents for similar accounts, thus rediscovering and popularizing Burns's term. To many ears, "Sasquatch" has a less sensationalistic association than does "Bigfoot", and is consequently more popular among researchers who strive for legitimacy. The term "Sasquatch" usually refers to the species, whereas "Bigfoot" is often used as the name of an individual of this species.

WIKIPEDIA SUCKS!!!!!

Conclusion

Mainstream response

Skeptics:

Mainstream scientists and academics generally "discount the existence of Bigfoot because the evidence supporting belief in the survival of a prehistoric, bipedal, ape-like creature of such dimensions is scant" . Furthermore, the issue is so muddied with dubious claims and outright hoaxes that many scientists do not give the subject serious attention. Napier wrote that the mainstream scientific community's indifference stems primarily from "insufficient evidence ... it is hardly unsurprising that scientists prefer to investigate the probable rather than beat their heads against the wall of the faintly possible" (Napier, 15). Anthropologist David Daegling echoed this idea, citing a "remarkably limited amount of Sasquatch data that are amenable to scientific scrutiny." (Daegling, 61) He also suggests mainstream skeptics should 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). While he does have some pointed criticism for mainstream science and academia, Krantz concedes that while "the Scientific Establishment generally resists new ideas ... there is a good reason for it ... Quite simply put, new and innovative ideas in science are almost always wrong" (Krantz, 236). A species cannot exist as a single individual, there must be enough numbers for a breeding populatiion. Every remote area of California is thorougly examined by prospectors, hunters, dogs, loggers, biologists, fishermen, and so on. A real population of creatures this size would have had a lot more contacts with people.

Believers:

Although most scientists find current evidence regarding Bigfoot unpersuasive, a number of prominent experts, however, have spoken out on the subject, offering sympathetic opinions.

In a 2003 Denver Post article, Jane Goodall said, "People from very different backgrounds and different parts of the world have described very similar creatures behaving in similar ways and uttering some strikingly similar sounds ... As far as I am concerned, the existence of hominids of this sort is a very real probability" . The same article cites several other prominent scientists who have expressed at least a guarded interest in Sasquatch reports: George Schaller, Russell Mittermeier, Daris Swindler and Esteban Sarmiento.

Prominent anthropologist Carleton S. Coon wrote "Why the Sasquatch Must Exist" during his life, but was published after he died. He wrote, "Even before I read John Green's book Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, first published in 1973, I accepted Sasquatch's existence" (Markotic and Krantz, 46). 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 noted above, Napier generally argued against Bigfoot's reality, but he also argued that some "soft evidence" (eyewitnesses, footprints, hair and droppings) is compelling enough that he advises against "dismissing its reality out of hand" (Napier, 197).

Krantz and others have argued that a double standard is applied by many academics to Sasquatch studies: "When a claim is made or evidence is presented alleging that Sasquatch is genuine, enormous scrutiny is applied to the claim or evidence, as well as it should be. Yet when individuals claim to have hoaxed Bigfoot evidence, their claims are often quickly accepted, though they typically lack corroborative evidence."

In 2004, Henry Gee, editor of the prestigious Nature, wrote of an unexpected discovery. "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" .

Proposed creatures

Various types of creature have been proposed by believers to explain the sightings.


Paranthropus

If an animal like Sasquatch has ever existed in North America, it has been argued that a likely candidate would be a species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, which would have looked very much like Sasquatch, including the crested skull and naturally bipedal gait. This was suggested by Napier and by anthropologist Gordon Strasenburg.

Meganthropus

There is also a little known subspecies of the Homo erectus, called Meganthropus, which reputedly grew to enormous proportions, though most recent remains of the hominid are more than 1 million years old, and are only to be found several thousand miles away from North America.

Alternative theories

Some researchers have suggested that Bigfoot is not a normal flesh-and-blood creature at all, but rather a "trans-dimensional" entity that can pass through wormholes and enter our universe for short periods of time . Other researchers have proposed a connection between Bigfoot sightings and UFO activity, implying that Bigfoot may be of extraterrestrial origin. . Indeed, reports of Bigfoot-like creatures have been made in connection with UFOs on several occassions . The majority of those involved in Bigfoot studies, however, strongly reject any paranormal explanations.

Formal studies of Bigfoot

There have been a number of formal scientific studies of Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

1950s:

Bernard Heuvelmans’s 1955 magnum opus, On The Track of Unknown Animals, did not specifically discuss Bigfoot, but did discuss Yeti accounts and is often seen as the root of cryptozoology.

1960s:

Ivan T. Sanderson’s articles on mysterious animals, some appearing in the Saturday Evening Post, as well as his book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come To Life (1961) that went through several printings, were aimed at popular audiences. Coleman and Clark write that the 525-page volume "remains a useful reference book" (Coleman and Clark, 212), while Krantz characterizes Sanderson’s writing as "'enthusiastic' ... reporting data from a variety of sources with what seemed to be little concern for consistency or verification," an approach which "certainly lowered his credibility in the eyes of the few scientists who read his work" (Krantz, 1). Sanderson’s book remains notable as perhaps the first book-length survey of enigmatic "hairy hominids", and certainly helped popularize Yeti, Bigfoot and other mysterious primates, reported worldwide. In his last year of life, Sanderson gave up on conventional explanatins and adopted a paranormal view of Bigfoot. (Pursuit Magazine, 1980)

1970s:

Perhaps, the first mainstream scientific study of available evidence was by prominent primate expert, John Napier. Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality (1973) offers an even-handed and sympathetic examination. While giving high marks to some earlier researchers ("Ivan T. Sanderson and John Green (and) Rene Dahinden... have made a far better job of recording the major events of the sasquatch saga than I could ever hope to do." (Naper, 73)), Napier wrote that if we are to form a conclusion based on scant extant "'hard' evidence," science must declare "Bigfoot does not exist" (ibid, 197).

Yet this conclusion is qualified, as Napier seemed willing to leave the question unresolved. He found it difficult to entirely reject thousands of alleged tracks, "scattered over 125,000 square miles” or to dismiss all "the many hundreds" of eyewitnesses. He also adds that "if one track is genuine and one report is true-bill, then myth must be chucked out the window and reality admitted through the front door" (ibid, 203). In the end, Napier writes, "I am convinced that Sasquatch exists, but whether it is all it is cracked up to be is another matter altogether. There must be something in north-west America that needs explaining, and that something leaves man-like footprints." (ibid, 205) Decades later, Krantz suggests that Napier "stuck his neck out a lot further than most primatologists by writing a book about hairy bipeds in which he took the subject quite seriously" (Krantz, 240).

In 1974, the National Wildlife Federation funded a field study, seeking Bigfoot evidence. No formal Federation members were involved, and the study made no notable discoveries (Bourne, 295).

The 1975’s The Gentle Giants: The Gorilla Story was co-authored by Geoffrey H. Bourne, another noted primatologist. Its final chapter is a brief summary of various mystery primate reports worldwide. Like Napier, he laments the dearth of physical evidence, but Bourne does not dismiss Sasquatch or Yeti as impossible.

From May 10-13, 1978, the University of British Columbia hosted a symposium, Anthropology of the Unknown: Sasquatch and Similar Phenomena, a Conference on Humanoid Monsters. Presented, were 35 papers (abstracts collected in Wasson, 141-154). Most attendees came from anthropology backgrounds, and Pyle writes that the conference "brought together twenty professors in various fields, along with several serious laymen, to consider the mythology, ethnology, ecology, biogeography, physiology, psychology, history and sociology of the subject. All took it seriously, and while few, if any, accepted the existence of Sasquatch outright, they jointly concluded 'that there are not reasonable grounds to dismiss all the evidence as misinterpretation or hoax'" (Pyle, 186).

Notable was a plenary address, by prominent anthropologist Coon: Why There Has To Be A Sasquatch. Coon stated, "Even before I read John Green's book, Sasquatch: the Apes Among Us, I accepted the Sasquatch's existence ... Unfaked footprints are reported every year. (One can usually tell the difference because a man's weight is not enough to press the phony template down enough, among other things)... Professor Stephen I. Rosen of the University of Maryland has identified its hair as that of a previously unknown primate — and he has hair on file for most of the living primates of the world... On this substantially impeccable evidence we may be justified to state that a primate other than man, which is either a pongid (ape), or hominid (kind of man) is alive in Washington... It is easier to say what they are not than what they are. They are not Neanderthals" .

Pyle does not offer a publication date, but he reports that some time after the early 1970s, the Army Corps of Engineers mentioned Bigfoot in their formal Environmental Atlas of Washington State. "Under fauna," Pyle writes, "the corps listed Bigfoot and said, 'Reported to feed on vegetation and some meat. The Sasquatch is covered with long hair, except for the face and hands, and has a distinctively humanlike form.' It called the Sasquatch, agile and strong, with good night vision and great shyness, 'leaving minimal evidence of its presence.'" Pyle goes on to suggest, “While the army did not come out and say that Sasquatch occurs in Washington, it discussed the subject seriously at some length and included a map of sightings... the compilers, with the U.S. Army’s imprimateur, classified the animal’s existence as not unlikely" (Pyle, 229).

Following this modest peak in interest in the late 1970s, there has been little formal academic interest in the subject; many experts see further study as a waste of time. In more recent years, Grover Krantz achieved a degree of notoriety as probably the leading accredited expert to devote considerable effort to the subject, though a few professionals have followed in his footsteps. Few have endorsed Krantz’ conclusions that Sasquatch is a real creature, but at the very least, such experts argue that serious studies on the subject deserve fair consideration.

1980s:

Some papers presented at the symposium were collected in 1980 as Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records and Modern Evidence, edited by Marjorie Halpin and Michael Ames.

1990s:

It’s worth noting that Pyle’s Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide (1995), as much a survey of Bigfoot’s cultural impact as of the likelihood of the creature’s reality, was researched and written with a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation.

1997 - Italian mountaineer, Reinhold Messner, claimed to have come face to face with a Yeti. He has since written a book, My Quest for the Yeti, in which he argues that the Abominable Snowman was actually an endangered Himalayan brown bear, ursus arctos, that can walk upright or on all fours.

2000s:

In 2003, Japanese mountaineer, Makoto Nebuka, published the results of his 12-year linguistic study and postulated that the word "yeti" is actually a regional dialect term for "bear". The ethnic Tibetans fear and worship the bear (as do many primitive peoples) as a supernatural being.

This evidence detracts from the credibility of bigfoot sightings in the United States and Canada, especially in British Columbia which is home to about 170,000 bears (as well as Sasquatch Provincial Park).

Bigfoot in popular culture

Whether they are real creatures or not, Bigfoot has had a demonstrable impact as a cultural phenomenon.

Advertising:

The meanings of the words, "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch", are quickly understood by most individuals and have been used in advertising and applied to many products, such as pizzas, skateboards, skis, an Internet search engine, computer hard drive series, gas station, Kokanee beer, and a monster truck.

Movies and television:

It has been suggested that the Wookiee race from Star Wars resemble Bigfoot and are probably inspired by the legendary creature. Wookiees, in particular the character Chewbacca, have made cameo appearances on The Simpsons and South Park. At least one feature length motion picture has been produced, Harry and the Hendersons. Sasquatch or Bigfoot appeared in three instances in the television series, The Six Million Dollar Man, in the form of an indigenous (Terran) life form that a friendly alien scientist enhanced with neosynthetic limbs (i.e. bionics), and served as a guardian for their peaceful observations of the Earth. Sasquatch's ultimate disposition, after the aliens left the planet, was a gradual transition of his neosynthetics back to natural biology. See also the movie/documentary The Legend of Boggy Creek.

Literature:

Many have written on the subject, demonstrating a broad spectrum of approaches from lurid tabloids to a small body of serious scholarly work. The Weekly World News occasionally runs a story on the mysterious creature. There have been several Bigfoot-related novels (such as Monster, which describes the capture of a woman by a group of bigfoot, later revealed to be the products of a science experiment), as well as a Marvel Comics character named Sasquatch.

Conventions:

There are annual Bigfoot-related conventions, and the creature plays a role in Pacific Northwest tourism, such as the annual "Sasquatch Daze" in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Napier writes, "Bigfoot in some quarters of North America has become big business ... It can no longer be considered simply as a natural phenomenon that can be studied with the techniques of a naturalist; the entrepreneurs have moved in and folklore has become fakelore" (Pyle, 160).

Law:

Regarding Sasquatch, Skamania County, Washington passed a law in 1969 that "any wilful, wanton slaying of such creatures shall be deemed a felony", subject to substantial fine and/or imprisonment. The fact that this legislation was passed on April 1 did not escape notice, but County Commissioner Conrad Lundy said that "this is not an April Fool's Day joke ... there is reason to believe such an animal exists" (Pyle, 278). Hunter and Dahinden record their own "speculation that Skamania County authorities had their ears tuned much more to the music of a publicity bandwagon than to any song of distress" for Bigfoot (Hunter and Dahinden, 135-136).

Alleged Bigfoot sightings

Footnotes

  1. The method of locomotion for Gigantopithecus is not entirely certain, as no pelvis or leg bone has ever been found; the only remains of Gigantopithecus being discovered is the teeth and mandible. A minority opinion, championed by Grover Krantz, holds that the mandible shape and structure suggests bipedal locomotion. The only fossil evidence of Gigantopithecus — the mandible and teeth— are U-shaped, like the bipedal humans, rather than V-shaped, like the great apes. A complete fossil specimen, with the pelvis and leg bones, would be necessary to conclusively resolve the debate one way or the other, but are absent to date.
  2. Gorillas are in the same class as chimpanzees; gorillas are more closely-related to humans and chimpanzees than any of them are to orangutans.

Sources

  • Bayanov, Dmitri, "America's Bigfoot: Fact, Not Fiction," 1997, Crypto-Logos, ISBN 5-900229-22-X
  • Bourne, Geoffrey H and Maury Cohen, "The Gentle Giants: The Gorilla Story," 1975, G.P. Putnam's Sons, ISBN 399115285
  • Bryant, Vaughn M . and Burleigh Trevor-Deutch, "Analysis of Feces and Hair Suspected to be of Sasquatch Origin" (in Halpin and Ames)
  • Byrne, Peter, "The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Man or Myth," Acropolis Books, 1975, ISBN 0874911591
  • Clark, Jerome, "Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences and Puzzling Physical Phenomena," Visible Ink, 1993, ISBN 0810394367
  • Coleman, Loren and Jerome Clark, "Cryptozoology A to Z," Fireside Books, 1999, ISBN 0684856026
  • Coleman, Loren and Patrick Huyghe, "The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide," 1999, Avon Books, ISBN 0380802635
  • Coon, Carelton, "Why Sasquatch Must Exist" (in Markotic and Krantz)
  • Daegling, David J, "Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend," Altamira Press, 2004, ISBN 0759105391
  • Gill, George "Population Clines of the North American Sasquatch as Evidenced by Track Lengths and Average Status" (in Halpin and Ames)
  • Guttilla, Peter, "The Bigfoot Files", Timeless Voyager Press, 2003, ISBN 1-892264-15-3
  • Halprin, Marjorie, "The Tsimshan Monkey Mask and Sasquatch" (in Halpin and Ames)
  • Halpin, Marjorie and Michael Ames, editors, "Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records and Modern Evidence", University of British Columbia Press, 1980, ISBN 0774801190
  • Hunter, Don with Rene Dahinden, "Sasquach/Bigfoot: The Search for North America's Incredible Creature," Firefly Books, 1993, ISBN 1895565286
  • Krantz, Grover S., "Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry into the Reality of Sasquatch," Johnson Books, 1992,
  • Markotic, Vladimir and Grover Krantz, editors, "The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Primates," Western Publishers, 1984, ISBN 0919119107
  • Mozino, Jose Mariano, Noticas de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound, Iris Higbe Wilson, editor and traslator, University of Washington Press, 1970
  • Napier, John "Bigfoot: The Sasquatch and Yeti in Myth and Reality," 1973, E.P. Dutton, ISBN 0525066586
  • Powell, Thom, "The Locals" , Hancock House, 2003, ISBN 0-88839-552-3
  • Pyle, Robert Michael, "Where Bigfoot Walks," Houghton Mifflin, 1995, ISBN 0395441145
  • Shakley, Myra, "Wildman: Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma," Thames and Hudson, 1973
  • Sprague, Roderick, "Carved Stone Heads of the Columbia and Sasquatch" (in Halpin and Ames)
  • Sprague, Roderick and Grover Krantz, editors, "A Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch II," University Press of Idaho, 1978, ISBN 0893010618
  • Suttles, Wayne, "On the Cultural Track of Sasquatch" (in Sprage and Krantz)
  • Wasson, Barbara, Sasquatch Apparitions: A Critique on the Pacific Northwest Hominoid, 1979, self-published, ISBN 0961410507

See also

External links

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