Natural History: Forensic Expert Says Bigfoot Is Real

Forensic Expert Says Bigfoot Is Real

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News

October 23, 2003

It's been the subject of campfire stories for decades. A camera-elusive, grooming-challenged, bipedal ape-man that roams the mountain regions of North America. Some call it Sasquatch. Others know it as Bigfoot.

Thousands of people claim to have seen the hairy hominoid, but the evidence of its existence is fuzzy. There are few clear photographs of the oversized beast. No bones have ever been found. Countless pranksters have admitted to faking footprints.

Yet a small but vociferous number of scientists remain undeterred. Risking ridicule from other academics, they propose that there's enough forensic evidence to warrant something that has never been done: a comprehensive, scientific study to determine if the legendary primate actually exists.

"Given the scientific evidence that I have examined, I'm convinced there's a creature out there that is yet to be identified," said Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University in Pocatello.

Thousands of Sightings

Sasquatch stories go back centuries. Tales of mythical giant apes lurk in the oral traditions of most Native American tribes, as well as in Europe and Asia. The Himalaya has its Abominable Snowman, or the Yeti. In Australia, Bigfoot is known as the Yowie Man.

Bigfoot advocates hypothesize that the primate is the offspring of an ape from Asia that wandered to North America during the Ice Age. They believe there are at least 2,000 ape men walking upright in North America's woods today.

An adult male is said to be at least 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall, weigh 800 pounds (360 kilograms), and have feet twice the size of a human's. The creatures are described as shy and nocturnal, and their diets consist mostly of berries and fruits.

Matt Moneymaker had been searching for Bigfoot for years. In the woods of eastern Ohio, he claims he finally came eye to eye with the elusive primate.

"It was 2 o'clock in the morning and the moon was a quarter full," recalled Moneymaker. "Suddenly, there he was, an eight-foot-tall creature, standing 15 feet away, growling at me. He wanted to let me know I was in the wrong place."

Moneymaker, who lives in Dana Point in southern California, is a lawyer who runs his own marketing agency. In his spare time, he leads the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, a network of more than 3,000 people who claim to have seen the Sasquatch.

Unfortunately, no one has been able to snap a clear picture of the beast.

Perhaps the most compelling photographic evidence of Bigfoot is a controversial short film shot by Roger Patterson in 1967, which appears to document a female Bigfoot striding along a riverbank in northern California.

"It certainly wasn't human"

Now, Bigfoot advocates are increasingly turning to forensic evidence to prove the existence of the giant creature.

Investigator Jimmy Chilcutt of the Conroe Police Department in Texas, who specializes in finger- and footprints, has analyzed the more than 150 casts of Bigfoot prints that Meldrum, the Idaho State professor, keeps in a laboratory.

Chilcutt says one footprint found in 1987 in Walla Walla in Washington State has convinced him that Bigfoot is real.

"The ridge flow pattern and the texture was completely different from anything I've ever seen," he said. "It certainly wasn't human, and of no known primate that I've examined. The print ridges flowed lengthwise along the foot, unlike human prints, which flow across. The texture of the ridges was about twice the thickness of a human, which indicated that this animal has a real thick skin."

Meldrum, meanwhile, says a 400-pound (180-kilogram) block of plaster known as the Skookum Cast provides further evidence of Bigfoot's existence. The cast was made in September 2000 from an impression of a large animal that had apparently lain down on its side to retrieve some fruit next to a mud hole in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington State.

Meldrum says the cast contains recognizable impressions of a forearm, a thigh, buttocks, an Achilles tendon and heel. "It's 40 to 50 percent bigger than a normal human," he said. "The anatomy doesn't jive with any known animal."

A few academics believe Meldrum could be right.

Renowned chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall last year surprised an interviewer from National Public Radio when she said she was sure that large, undiscovered primates, such as the Yeti or Sasquatch, exist.

The Skeptics

But the vast majority of scientists still believe Bigfoot is little more than supermarket tabloid fodder. They wonder why no Bigfoot has ever been captured, dead or alive.

"The bottom line is, they don't have a body," said Michael Dennett, who writes for Skeptical Inquirer magazine and who has followed the Bigfoot debate for 20 years.

Bigfoot buffs note that it's rare to find a carcass of a grizzly bear in the wild. While that's true, grizzlies have not escaped photographic documentation.

Hair samples that have been recovered from alleged Bigfoot encounters have turned out to come from elk, bears or cows.

Many of the sightings and footprints, meanwhile, have proved to be hoaxes.

After Bigfoot tracker Ray Wallace died in a California nursing home last year, his children finally announced that their prank-loving dad had created the modern myth of Bigfoot when he used a pair of carved wooden feet to create a track of giant footprints in a northern California logging camp in 1958.

Dennett says he's not surprised by the flood of Bigfoot sightings.

"It's the same kind of eyewitness reports we see for the Loch Ness Sea Monster, UFOs, ghosts, you name it," he said. "The monster thing is a universal product of the human mind. We hear such stories from around the world."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1023_031023_bigfoot_2.html - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1023_031023_bigfoot_2.html

I think they can exsist (well not werewolf), but only if body/actually caught

http://www.messinwithsasquatch.com/ - http://www.messinwithsasquatch.com/

Who here thinks that Chewbecca of Star Wars would be a pretty accurate likeness of the Sasquatch (as I like to call him/her/it)?

Yes, I agree with this. I think perhaps some of this species survived somehow, least up until historical times, where the memory would be fresh.

Well same can be said about the other possibilty, the "terror bird" being a source for the tales of "Thunderbirds" and maybe other beasts, like Roc's. Also these sightings are very frequent to this day as well.

Supposedly now however some scientists have been revising their theories with the Terror Birds and human contact, claiming instead of their deaths 10,000 years ago they're being pushed back some 2 million years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6313741.stm - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6313741.stm

The Argentavis Magnificens(or Teratorns), is also another giant bird, one that which flew.

Some upcoming shows on the History Channel.

Birdzilla - Native Americans have long revered huge birds called Thunderbirds. There was a rash of giant bird sightings in Illinois, Texas and Alaska back in the 1970's. A giant bird with a 15-foot wingspan allegedly attacked a small child in Illinois. Could there really be a giant bird or is it mass hysteria? Take a scientific journey and follow the many eyewitnesses' accounts across the country and examine the most compelling evidence.
Wednesday November 21st at 10PM

Sasquatch Attack - Does Canada have its own Bigfoot? Owners of a fly-in fishing cabin report attacks by an unknown creature. Can DNA tests on blood and tissue from the alleged beast reveal its true identity? The test results will surprise you. The best evidence available will be examined, from pictures and video, to hair and bones. Scientists will be brought in to tell viewers what the evidence reveals. Discover the truth behind these beasts and take a scientific look at legendary creatures around the world.
Wednesday November 7th at 10PM

Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Smalfut.jpg"> Image:Smalfut.jpg

Photographic proof or outstanding hollywood make-up artists?

Some upcoming shows on the History Channel.

I recently saw the show myself. The story the guy told about being carried off as a kid by one of the Thunderbirds while his mom watched, was a tad bit crazy. But as for the famous BigFoot film in which a supposed big foot is caught walking away, is quite interesting, especially since no human being can walk nor move the way the creature did.