BIGFOOT

Native American and Canadian tribes have passed down stories for thousands of years about giant ape-men living in the forests of the western United States and Canada. They called these creatures Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or Mountain Devils. Regardless of the name, the descriptions of these animals are usually the same. Bigfoot is described as being very tall-well over two meters. It is covered in thick, dark hair and usually emits a bad odor. Its body is usually very muscular¹ and ape-like, yet it walks upright² and has a face more similar to that of humans than that of apes. For the most part, this creature appears not to be violent or aggressive. Bigfoot sightings are usually of lone, or single, creatures, but there have been periodic reports of people seeing groups or families of Bigfoot. People in other countries also tell stories of similar ape-men. In the Himalayas, a mountain range in Nepal, people call these creatures Yeti or Abominable Snowmen. Some Africans call them Nandi bears, and the Chinese tell stories of the Gin-Sung, or "Bearman."

Though sightings have been reported for centuries, is there any scientific evidence for the existence³ of these creatures? Some say yes, and others say no. Dr. Grover Krantz, a physical anthropologist⁴ at the University of Oregon who died in 2002, believed that Bigfoot may be a type of creature known as Gigantopithecus. The Gigantopithecus are a group of apes that lived in Asia—maybe as recently as 100,000 years ago—but are now believed to be extinct⁵. They had many physical similarities to the legendary⁶ Bigfoot. Dr. Krantz argued that these animals may have actually migrated from Asia and  settled in the heavily wooded area of the US Pacific Northwest, where food was plentiful.

Is it possible that creatures like these could have survived for so many years, unknown to humans? Cryptozoologists are researchers that study mysterious creatures whose existence has not been proven. These researchers compare the case of Bigfoot to that of the coelacanth. The coelacanth is a type of fish that was believed to have become extinct over seventy million years ago but then was discovered to be still living off the coast of South Africa. Cryptozoologists suggest that the animals that we now call Bigfoot have been able to survive by living in habitats where people, until recently, have seldom gone.

There are, however, some questions that cryptozoologists have been unable to  answer, which is why their ideas remain on the fringe of science. For example, why have no dead Bigfoot specimens ever been discovered? And where is the physical proof of their existence? Bigfoot researchers point out that it is unusual to find the dead remains⁷ of any animal in the forest. Most of the time, they say, other animals eat the remains soon after death; this may be the case for Bigfoot, too. Many skeptics⁸, however, say that the videos and photographs of Bigfoot are really pictures of people wearing ape costumes. They also believe that the Bigfoot footprints are really the footprints of a bear, or footprints made by tricksters trying to fool scientists.

It is possible that we may never know the truth about these creatures. If they have avoided being seen for thousands of years, then maybe they will stay hidden for  another several thousand. Or it may be that as we humans go deeper and deeper into the forests of Northwest America and Canada, we may finally come face-to-face with the elusive⁹ Bigfoot.

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The Death of Bigfoot?

Is Bigfoot dead? The answer is yes, according to the family of Ray L. Wallace, who died November 26, 2002, in Seattle, Washington. After the death of his father, Michael Wallace told a story that surprised many people who had been trying to solve the Bigfoot mystery. He claimed that his father had made up the idea of a Bigfoot creature; though he did not invent the name “Bigfoot,” he developed it as a practical joke to make money. According to Michael, Ray Wallace asked a friend to make a pair of sixteen-inch (40 cm) feet out of wood. Wallace then used them to make fake Bigfoot footprints around the woods near his house. Wallace would use these footprints to support the stories about Bigfoot that he told to newspapers. Some of these stories were quite strange.

He once told a newspaper reporter, "[Bigfoot] creatures are people; they speak a language." Wallace tried to make money from these stories. He made tape recordings of strange sounds that he said were “Bigfoot conversations" and sold the tapes to tourists along with Bigfoot photos, posters, and pieces of animal hair that he said came from Bigfoot.

Though his family claims that Bigfoot died with Ray Wallace, others are not so sure. Scientist Jeff Meldrum, a professor at Idaho State University, does not believe that Bigfoot is imaginary. Professor Meldrum claims to have copies of over forty footprints that he says belong to a very large, unknown creature, which he believes is the real Bigfoot.