Showing posts with label Big foot lunch club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big foot lunch club. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 09 | Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science Debuts

Cover art for Discovery Channel documentary and companion book

2003. It was a Thursday night exactly ten years ago today when a documentary film, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, aired on the Discovery Channel. The program featured scientists from various disciplines analyzing the most compelling evidence. Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science was produced by Doug Hajicek with White Wolf Entertainment, the same people who brought us Monster Quest. It is narrated by the distinctive voice of Stacy Keach.

The documentary can be defined by the analyses of three pieces of Sasquatch footage and 17 categories of evidence.



The three pieces of footage were the Patterson/Gimlin film, the Freeman footage and the Memorial Day footage. The 17 different categories of evidence included: fossil evidence, new species discoveries, dermal ridges, the Sasquatch body, images, step frequency, biomechanics, forensic measurements, Patterson-Gimlin film, behavior parallels, vocalizations, visual misidentification, track morphology, kinesiology, soft tissue pathology, statistics, and DNA.

Also included in the documentary were six experts, described by the official webpage below:
In the documentary, scientists from various disciplines put the most compelling sasquatch evidence to the test. Collectively their conclusions are ground-breaking. There is now scientific proof for the existence of a giant primate species in North America -- a species fitting the descriptions of sasquatches (bigfoots). 

The nation's top primate anatomist, Dr. Daris Swindler of Washington State Univeristy examines the Skookum Cast, along with prominent primatologist Dr. Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University, give their conclusions about the Skookum cast, and what it points to.

The nation's top bioacoustics analyst, Dr. Robert Benson at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, analyzes sound recordings of purported Sasquatch vocalizations with an advanced computerized system in his laboratory. He explains his conclusions about the recordings.

Primate fingerprint expert, Officer Jimmy Chilcutt, discusses the consistent and distinct dermal ridge patterns found in track casts from the northwest and southeastern United States. He states his conclusions about the level of proof provided the dermal ridge casts evidence.

DNA expert Dr. Craig Newton from BC Research in Canada attempts to extract DNA from hair samples and saliva taken from the Skookum Cast site. He explains the potential and problems with DNA analysis.

Dr. Russel Ciochon shows life-size models of Gigantopithecus, and describes their interactions with early man. Various other scientists fill in other parts of the puzzle.
Anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum also wrote a companion book with the same title, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science."

According to Wikipedia, the DVD version is slightly different from the broadcast including extra footage.


  • The full length of the Patterson footage in digital format, allowing you to zoom in on individual frames with unprecendented clarity
  • More of the Freeman footage
  • More of the Memorial Day footage
  • An FAQ on the Sasquatch mystery
  • A gallery of images related to Sasquatch evidence and research






Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 08 | Circus Train Wreck Blamed for Wildman Sightings

Recreation of Bigfoot escaping a train wreck

Today in 1905 The Washington Post published an article regarding the sighting of a "wildman".

The "wildman" was described with all the Bigfoot characteristics we have become familiar with.

The story continues to speculate that the wild man may have escaped from a traveling circus during a train wreck. You would be surprised how often "a wild animal escaped from the circus" is used to explain a Bigfoot sighting.  In the book Historical Bigfoot by Chad Arment there are at least 24 counts in as many papers suggesting circus train wrecks as the origin of the escaped "wildman". Here is a quote from the Jan 8th 1905 event.


Several persons give it as their opinion that this creature is a wild animal of some kind that made its escape from the Robinson & Franklin circus that was touring this peninsula a number of years ago. The circus train met with a railroad wreck, and several wild animals were freed from their cages, many of these beasts were captured, and others were shot, and while others were never seen by the circus people again.

The source of all of this can be read online at Google books. The Historical Bigfoot, by Chad Arment, which covers sightings of Wild Men, Gorillas, Yahoos, and What-Is-It's, from the early 1800s to the 1940s. Before the term "Bigfoot" was coined to signify an unknown species of North American primate, sightings of towering bipedal apes were reported throughout the continent, and were called by a variety of names. This book compiles and sorts the most significant sightings, but also provides a look at hoaxes, mis-identifications, and the influential perspective of newspaper editors as they dealt with reports of a strange hairy manlike ape.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 07 | First Documented Mystery Footprint

Postage stamp commemorating David Thompson's Life and reputation as a mapmaker
Today in 1811, marks the first recorded account of an overly large foot print in North America by a non-native person. The honor goes to David Thompson, a British-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, who was known for keeping detailed records. On January 7th, 1811, Mr. Thompson found curious animal tracks in the snow near Jasper, Alberta. He described the tracks as 14 inch long footprints (see T.C. Elliott, "Journal of David Thompson", Oregon Historical Quarterly, 15 March-June 1914) Some years later, a book of Thompson's, David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations of Western America, based on his journal, was published. In it he says:
I now recur to what I have already noticed in the early part of last winter, when proceeding up the Athabasca River to cross the mountains, in company with.... Men and four hunters, on one of the channels of the River we came to the track of a large animal, which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth by a tape line. As snow was about six inches in depth the track was well defined, and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us, this animal was proceeding from north to south. We did not attempt to follow it, we had not time for it, and the Hunters, eager as they are to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast, for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal? Report from old times had made the head branches of this River, and the Mountains in the vicinity the abode of one, or more, very large animals, to which I never appeared to give credence; for these reports appeared to arise from that fondness for the marvelous so common to mankind: but the sight of the track of that large a beast staggered me, and I often thought of it, yet never could bring myself to believe such an animal existed, but thought it might be the track of some Monster Bear.
For all you rational, critical thinkers who took Santa Claus away from us at 6yrs old. Yes, we know snow melt distorts prints and we don't know how long the tracks were laid before they were discovered. We are also aware that 8 inches is rather wide for a 14 inch print. Prints 8 inches wide are usually at least 17-18 inches in length. So even with the obligatory caveats listed in the previous sentences, we still love adopting David Thompson's mystery creature into the Bigfoot lore. After all, we are the same blog that thinks historically, werewolves are potentially misidentified Bigfoots.


Sunday, January 6, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 06 | Meldrum Backs Freeman

Photoshopped picture of Jeff Meldrum holding a Paul Freeman cast
“So the thought occurred to me: Well, if [Paul Freeman] is responsible for this [Bigfoot] hoax, why would he portray it so incorrectly on the chance I would read it differently?” -- Dr. Jeff Meldrum

Today in 1997 according to the book, Bigfoot Exposed, Dr. Jeff Meldrum stakes much of his academic reputation on the Paul Freeman trackway. This trackway was a series of  Bigfoot tracks from the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla, Washington. He wrote his support on a posting to the Internet Virtual Bigfoot Conference, an online (email-based) Bigfoot research community.

This was a pretty big deal since at the time Dr. Jeff Meldrum was member of the Biological Sciences faculty at Idaho State University and Grover Krantz’s professional heir-apparent in the field of anthropology. Currently as of 2013, Meldrum is a full professor. Krantz was the first university professor to publicly support and research the possibility of Bigfoot's existence.

If you have ever heard Dr. Meldrum speak, you may be fortunate enough to hear how he first met paul Freeman and the circumstances of thier meeting. In our previous post, "Dr. Jeff Meldrum Compelled by Freeman Tracks" you can read Dr. meldrum retell the story, below is a short excerpt from that post:
Meldrum began following the tracks, far beyond where Freeman’s boot tracks ended, and found additional sets of footprints coming and going. Whatever had made the tracks had apparently come down the Mill Creek drainage, using the brush along an empty irrigation ditch as cover, possibly to raid the apple and plum orchards further below.

“At that point it was clear Paul had read the whole circumstance completely backward,” Meldrum says. “So the thought occurred to me: Well, if he’s responsible for this hoax, why would he portray it so incorrectly on the chance I would read it differently?”
The point is, Dr. Meldrum found enough interesting about the trackway himself, that he was compelled independently what he had observed himself. But let’s back up and discuss Paul Freeman a bit.

Paul freeman is described in an AP article.
Freeman, 45, does not seem the type to spook easily. He is beefy, bearded and, at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, approaches Sasquatch proportions himself. He's a meat-cutter by trade; an outdoorsman and hunter by nature.
Apparently he put down the butchers knife and started to search for bigfoot. Before his death he had claimed to see Bigfoot himself 4 times and has collected more cast, most of them with dermal ridges, more than any other Bigfoot hunter. This brings us back to Meldrum. Meldrum not only staked his good name but also put his money where his mouth is, he ended up buying Freeman’s collection for a sum of nearly $2000 dollars. 

Dr. Meldrum was quoted by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, "I’d been given an earful by people about Paul’s reputation, and it was bad. I went into it very skeptical."

You can read Meldrum's initial reaction to the prints at our post, Dr. Jeff Meldrum Compelled by Freeman Tracks. You can get further details at Cliff Barackman's Cast Database.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 05 | 5 Primatologist Advocate Bigfoot

5 prominent primatologist that advocate Bigfoot (left to right: Jane Goodall,  George Shaller,  Russel Mittermeier,  Daris Swindler, Estaban Sarmiento)
“Even if you throw out 95 percent of [the sightings], there ought to be some explanation for the rest..."--GEORGE SCHALLER; International science director for the Wildlife Conservation Society

On this day in 2003 Theo Stein, environmental writer for the Denver Post writes an article entitled BigFoot Believers. It is an encouraging article showcasing the pendulum of public opinion swinging towards the scientific consideration of Bigfoot. He goes into great detail describing each of the five prominent primaotologist's advocacy for Bigfoot as a scientific endeavor. Read the complete article below. There is even an interesting epilogue to all of this that you can read about after the article.

Bigfoot Believers: Legitimate scientific study of legend gains backing of top primate experts 
Author Theo Stein

Publication -Denver Post , Sunday January 05, 2003 – EDMONDS, Wash. – After enduring decades of ridicule, Bigfoot researchers are enjoying support from some of the world’s most respected scientists in their efforts to prove the hulking creatures of legend are no myth.

The persistence of reported sightings of Bigfoot-type creatures in North America and elsewhere has convinced leading researchers on primates – including Jane Goodall, made famous by her studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania – to call for something never seriously considered before: a legitimate scientific study to determine whether the greatest apes that ever lived persist in the world’s moist mountainous regions.
Skeptics, who include those in the scientific mainstream, scoff at such ideas. They say reported Bigfoot encounters, tracks and other evidence are either hoaxes or mistakes, and that people who believe such nonsense are soft-headed.

But dedicated amateurs and a smattering of professionals are trying to change that attitude. Using accepted scientific methods, they believe they can show at least some of the claimed evidence for Bigfoot – footprints, hair, voice recordings and a 400-pound block of plaster known as the Skookum Cast – are authentic traces of a rare giant primate.

Recently they have received support from a handful of the field’s top experts.

Daris Swindler, for example, is not the typical Bigfoot believer.

When he retired in 1991 after more than 30 years at the University of Washington, Swindler was an acclaimed expert in the arcane study of fossilized primate teeth.

His book, “An Atlas of Primate Gross Anatomy,” went through several printings and was among the standard references in the field.

So it comes as a surprise to some of his peers that Swindler believes that the Skookum Cast, discovered by amateur Bigfoot researchers in 2000, is a genuine record of a hairy giant that sat down by a mudhole to eat some fruit.

“Daris said that?” asked Russell Ciochon, a prominent paleo-anthropologist and professor at the University of Iowa. “He’s an important figure. But I still don’t think Bigfoot exists in any form.”
Mythical giant apes lurk in the traditions of nearly every Native American linguistic group and in legends handed down through the ages from Europe and Asia. Each year, Bigfoot or similar creatures are reported by hundreds of hunters, hikers, motorists and others from central Asia to the central Rockies. But no one has provided the minimum proof required by science: a type specimen or remains that researchers can pick up, measure and argue over.

Nevertheless, Goodall is intrigued.

“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,” she said. “As far as I am concerned, the existence of hominids of this sort is a very real probability.”

George Schaller, director of science at the Wildlife Conservation Society, has spent 40 years studying rare animals in remote places, including pioneering studies of Central Africa’s mountain gorilla, which Western scientists first discovered in 1903.

THE SCIENTISTS:
JANE GOODALL A world-famous primate researcher and author, she revealed, in studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park, surprising behaviors in humanity’s closest living relative. Goodall has won numerous international awards for her contributions to conservation, anthropology and animal welfare. Currently affiliated with Cornell University, she serves as the National Geographic Society’s explorer-in-residence.

GEORGE SCHALLER
International science director for the Wildlife Conservation Society. His pioneering field studies of mountain gorillas set the research standard later adopted by Goodall and gorilla researcher Dian Fosse. Schaller’s 1963 book, “The Year of the Gorilla,” debunked popular perceptions of the great ape and reintroduced “King Kong” as a shy, social vegetarian.
Schaller’s studies of tigers, lions, snow leopards and pandas also advanced the knowledge of those endangered mammals.
In 1973, he won the National Book Award for “The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations,” and in 1980 was awarded the World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal for his contributions to the understanding and conservation of endangered species.During the past decade, he has focused on the little-known wildlife of Mongolia, Laos and the Tibetan Plateau.

RUSSELL MITTERMEIER
A trained primatologist, herpetologist and biologicalanthropologist, he has discovered five new species of monkey,including two last year. Mittermeier has conducted fieldwork in more than 20 countries around the tropical world, with special emphasis on Brazil, Guyana and Madagascar.
Since 1989, Mittermeier has served as president of Conservation International, which has become one of the most aggressive and effective conservation organizations in the world during the last decade. His publications include 10 books and more than 300 scientific papers and popular articles.

DARIS SWINDLER
Emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Washington, Swindler is a leading expert on living and fossil primate teeth and one of the top primate anatomists in general.His book, “An Atlas of Primate Gross Anatomy,” has become a standard reference in the field. A forensic anthropologist, Swindler worked on the Ted Bundy and Green River murder cases along with hundreds of others.

ESTEBAN SARMIENTO
A functional anatomist affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History, Sarmiento focuses on the skeletons of hominids.In 2001, he participated with George Schaller in a search forCongo’s Bili ape, a possible species super-chimp reported by natives but unknown to Western science. Sarmiento has also studied the Cross River gorilla, a critically endangered subspecies on the Nigeria-Cameroon border whose population is thought to be numbered in the hundreds. He has taught in the U.S., South Africa and Uganda.

Schaller remains troubled by the fact no Bigfoot remains have been produced, nor have any samples of feces whose DNA can be chemically poked and prodded to unlock the identity of their maker. And he is mindful of hoaxing.

But he, too, considers Bigfoot an open question.

“There have been so many sightings over the years,” he said. “Even if you throw out 95 percent of them, there ought to be some explanation for the rest. The same goes for some of these tracks.”

“I think a hard-eyed look is absolutely essential,” he concludes.

The most common evidence allegedly left by these animals are the footprints: big prints in remote locations, some deeply pressed in sand or gravel firm enough for a grown man to pass without leaving a trace. Some footprints, like those Ray Wallace’s family claim he left near Bluff Creek, Calif., in the late 1950s, are hoaxed. Many more are too vague to be conclusive. But a few are so detailed and anatomically accurate that they baffle the experts.

“Either the forgers are spending an awful lot of time on this, or there is reason to give this evidence another look,” said primate researcher Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural History. “I think a serious scientific inquiry is definitely warranted.”

Skeptics argue that large mammals, particularly great apes, simply aren’t discovered anymore. Not true, says Russell Mittermeier, vice president of Conservation International, who has co-authored scientific papers describing five new primates.

Since the 1990s there have been several spectacular finds, he said, including the antelope-like spindlehorn from Vietnam and a South American peccary thought to have gone extinct thousands of years ago.
“I’m not one to pooh-pooh the potential that these large apes may exist,” Mittermeier said. “I guess you could say I’m mildly skeptical but guardedly optimistic. Whoever does find it will have the discovery of the century.”

Words of encouragement like these are music to Bigfoot researchers’ ears.

“My whole motivation has not been to convince anybody of the existence of the animal, but to convince them that there’s a body of evidence begging for further consideration,” said Idaho State University professor Jeff Meldrum, whose expertise in primate locomotion led him to become one of the few academics openly researching Bigfoot tracks.

“This is immense,” said author John Green, who has tracked Bigfoot reports for almost half a century from British Columbia and investigated some of the most famous sightings and track finds. “The possibility that there could be a real animal behind it just didn’t occur to scientists 20 years ago.”

The flap over recent claims of Bigfoot hoaxing has not deterred Swindler. But the lack of a body plus the acknowledgment of at least some hoaxing adds up to too many questions for Ciochon.

Like that of Swindler, Ciochon’s work focuses on fossilized primate teeth, but of a very special species: Gigantopithecus blacki, the giant Asian ape of the Miocene epoch, which lasted from about 24 million to 5 million years ago.

Most Bigfoot supporters advance Gigantopithecus, or Giganto for short, as the likely ancestor of Bigfoot, if not the hairy beast itself. It’s a tantalizing but entirely unproven link that drives Ciochon to distraction.
Ciochon thinks his study subject, which co-existed with the human ancestor Homo erectus for hundreds of thousands of years, may well be the archetypal inspiration for the “boogeyman” and other nocturnal monsters that populate the traditions of aboriginal cultures from Nepal to North America.

But he vigorously rejects any suggestion that Giganto, which he thinks was a specialized, bamboo-eating vegetarian, could persist today.

And he worries that the hotly contested grants that fund his work overseas may go elsewhere if the stigma of the shambling sasquatch of Native American lore attaches to his study subject.

“My biggest problem is there’s no evidence, other than conjectural hair and these footprints, some of which we know are faked,” Ciochon said.

“If someone finds a skeleton, I’ll be there in a nanosecond,” he said. “But that’s what it’s going to take to get me to change my mind.”

“There are so many problems,” agrees Swindler, who six years ago told a USA Today reporter to count him among the skeptics.

But as he examines the Skookum Cast on a rainy December afternoon in this Seattle suburb, Swindler points out landmarks in the lumpy landscape: a hairy forearm the size of a small ham, an enormous hairy thigh, an outsized buttock, and a striking impression he feels confident was made by the Achilles tendon and heel of a creature that is not supposed to exist.

“Whatever made this was very well adapted to walking on two feet,” he said. “It’s not conclusive, but it’s consistent with what you’d expect to see if a giant biped sat down in the mud.”

Swindler hopes that his assessment of the Skookum Cast, and a Discovery Channel documentary set to air Thursday, will generate support for further research.

The key, Schaller said, will be finding dedicated amateurs willing to spend months or years in the field with cameras. “So far, no one has done that,” he said.

It was a group of dedicated amateurs that discovered the Skookum Cast. A team of volunteers from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization had spent two days in Washington state’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest, putting out pheromone-basted plastic chips during the day and blasting sasquatch calls at night in an attempt to attract an animal.

On the second night, researchers heard a powerful reply to their broadcasts, said Richard Noll, an aerospace toolmaker who has spent 30 years researching the mystery. The next morning, Noll was stunned to realize that an unusual impression of a large animal on the edge of a mudhole near their camp could have been left by their elusive quarry.

“An elk will gather their feet under them when they get up,” he said. “But there are no elk hoofprints in the center of the cast.”

Meldrum and Swindler concur there are only two logical explanations for the cast: Bigfoot and elk. And they have also ruled out elk.

John Mionczynski, a wildlife researcher who has spent 30 summers studying bighorn herds in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains, has his own reasons for believing in Bigfoot.

On a moonlit summer night in 1972, he backhanded an animal he thought was a bear as it sniffed at a bacon stain in his tent, then watched as the silhouette of a giant, shaggy arm with a broad hand at the end swept toward his tent, collapsing it on him.

“That hand was three times as wide as mine and had an opposed thumb that stuck out as plain as day,” Mionczynski said.

He spent the rest of the night huddled by the fire with a revolver in his hand as the creature lobbed pine cones at him from the dark woods behind his tent.

“That pretty much eliminated bears,” Mionczynski said.

Mionczynski is working on a contraption of tiny hooks and barbed wire that he intends to place near seasonal foods he thinks sasquatch depend on. He hopes the snare will let him get a DNA sample.
North of Seattle, Noll is collaborating with Owen Caddy, a former Ugandan park ranger who studied chimpanzees in the mid-1990s.

For the last 18 months, they’ve scoured certain sandbars on a north Cascades river, documenting more than 30 suspected sasquatch footprints they believe were made by a mother and two young. They hope to identify the animals’ food sources and travel corridors, then set out a picket line of infrared camera traps.
“I feel the animal is out there, and I don’t hedge on that,” Caddy said. “I’ve found physical evidence myself, and I’m confident in my analysis of it.

“Something is making these tracks, and it’s not people.”

As stated above, this article has an interesting epilogue. Dmitri Bayanov of the Darwin Museum of Moscow, wrote two letters; one to Theo Stein and the other to Daris Swindler.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 04 | Oliver the "Baby Bigfoot" DNA Results

Oliver was known as baby bigfoot, the missing link and even the humanzee
"I still get inquiries about Oliver really being a Bigfoot." -- Loren Coleman

Today in 1976, a newspaper declared the mDNA results of a captured “Baby Bigfoot,” while unique, the Baby Bigfoot was merely a chimpanzee. Oliver (pictured above) was often known as Baby Bigfoot, but a more modern, and perhaps cleverer moniker, was coined in a recent documentary broadcast on the Discovery Channel. This documentary called "Humanzee," featured an upright walking chimpanzee named Oliver. For those who have heard of Oliver before, he's just a chimp according to test results. Chimp or "Humanzee," Oliver was a remarkable, upright walking chimp who appeared to prefer living and behaving as a human being than a chimpanzee for the better part of his life.

At cryptomundo.com Loren Coleman wrote in 2007, "I still get inquiries about Oliver really being a Bigfoot."

Oliver's had a real strange and sordid history. Others have noted Oliver's peculiar smell, eye coloring, bird-like voice and various mannerisms as being very un-chimp-like. And then there is Oliver's sense of himself. The prevailing view is that Oliver is simply a mutant chimp. Could Oliver be the result of clandestine genetic alchemy? A mutant or hybrid chimp? Missing Link perhaps?



BOERNE -- His days on the freak circuit and on tabloid covers as the fabled ``missing link,'' are finally behind him, as are seven lost years in a medical research laboratory.

Now, Oliver, a mild-mannered, middle-aged ape that walks upright like a human, is taking a well-deserved Hill Country retirement, but is no less a scientific mystery than he first appeared 25 years ago.

"Oliver's had a real strange and sordid history. He was exploited tremendously for his very unusual morphological characteristics,'' said Ken DeCroo, a California anthropologist and animal trainer who owned him a decade ago and, like others, has not forgotten him. "His physical appearance was rather different than most chimps. He's bipedal, which means he walks on two feet, and that is very unusual. And another aspect is his very small head,'' he said.

Others have noted Oliver's peculiar smell, eye coloring, bird-like voice and various mannerisms as being very un-chimp-like. And then there is Oliver's sense of himself. "He was not like normal chimps and other chimps didn't get along with him too well. He preferred to be with humans,'' recalled Bill Rivers, another former owner. But Oliver has mellowed with the years. Since May, when he and 11 other chimps were retired from the Buckshire Corp., a research center in Pennsylvania, Oliver has shared a spacious open-air cage with other chimps at Primarily Primates.

Wally Swett, director of the primate sanctuary, said his newest celebrity guest is adapting well, and, after years in isolation, has formed an attachment. "He's bonded with one little female,'' said Swett.

"And he understands a lot and is quite cooperative. And he's not like other male chimps which can get quite grabby and aggressive,'' he said.

Old news accounts assert that Oliver has 47 chromosomes (see results info below), one more than a human, one less than a chimpanzee, but there are no records to confirm it. Quite soon, possibly for the first time, Oliver will undergo sophisticated blood and genetic analysis to resolve, once and for all, exactly who or what he is.

"The prevailing view is that Oliver is simply a mutant chimp. Others think he may be a cross between a common chimp and a pygmy chimp, and soon we'll be able to make a determination,'' said Dr. Gordon Gallup, an anthropology professor at the University of New York at Albany.

But, said Gallup, who has lectured about Oliver in his evolutionary psychology course, there are other possibilities holding infinitely more complicated implications. "It's difficult to know for sure, but I think there is reason to suspect that Oliver may be a human-chimpanzee hybrid. It turns out that humans and chimps are at least 99 percent identical in terms of basic biological chemistry, and you can get hybrids among much more diverse creatures than that,'' he said.

Rumors of such taboo experiments being conducted in China, Italy and the United States have persisted for years, but have never been acknowledged. Could Oliver be the result of clandestine genetic alchemy? The answer may come after a blood sample -- to be taken from Oliver at an upcoming medical examination -- are tested at the University of Chicago, allowing scientists there to finally determine his genetic pedigree.

"Let you imagination run wild. It has such mind-boggling implications for things like religion, and whether such a creature would be covered by the Bill of Rights. It could make people think about their relationship to evolution,'' said Gallup. "But until there is some evidence either way, it's simply an academic exercise rather than anything you can take seriously,'' he said.

Dr. David Ledbetter, who will do the testing, said genetics technology will allow him to determine if Oliver is a normal or mutant chimp, and if he proves to be a hybrid, his parentage. "It seems a little silly to me to have all this rumor and controversy floating around when its a very straightforward thing to do the chromosome analysis,'' he said. A spokesperson for the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, the most prestigious primate research facility in the country, said scientists there had never heard of Oliver.

Oliver surfaced in the early 1970s, when he was acquired as a baby by trainers Frank and Janet Burger whose dog, chimp, pony and pig acts were once regularly featured on the Ed Sullivan Show, at Radio City Music Hall, and once even by dancer Gene Kelly. "He came in from Africa with three other chimps that one of Frank's brothers had sent over from the Congo. But this one we could never use. He was odd and the other chimps would have nothing to do with him,'' recalled Janet Burger, 69. But if Oliver was strange in appearance, and was shunned by other chimps, his intelligence and personality were also quite different from the other apes in the Burgers' entourage.

"You could send him on chores. He would take the wheelbarrow and empty the hay and straw from the stalls. And when it was time to feed the dogs, he would get the pans, and mix the dog food for me. I'd get it ready and he'd mix it,'' she said. As he grew older, Oliver also acquired habits normally enjoyed only by humans, including a cup of coffee and a nightcap. "This guy, Oliver, he enjoyed sitting down at night and having a drink, and watching television. He'd mix his own. He'd pour a shot of whiskey and put some Seven-Up in there, stir it and drink it,'' she recalled.

Oliver also displayed emotions not normally associated with chimpanzees, including tears of remorse at temporary separations. But ultimately, it was another of Oliver's human like traits that forced the Burgers to sell him. By 1976, when he was approaching sexual maturity, Oliver was turning into a masher.

"He had sex on his mind. The old hormones flared up but he didn't care about the female chimps we had, he started trying to have sex with me and any other woman,'' recalled Burger. "I was leery of him. He was as strong as five men, so I told my husband, "I'm not putting up with this. He's going or I'm going," so we sold him to Michael Miller and his partner for $8,000,'' she said.

Miller, a New York City lawyer, had seen dollar signs in Oliver, and took him on the road, including Japan, where newspaper accounts report that 26 million Japanese viewed him.

In the United States and overseas, breathless speculation raged over the ape with the shaved head. Was he "the baby Bigfoot?'' A mutant or hybrid chimp? Or perhaps a newly discovered primitive African humanoid? Miller also hinted at the unspeakable: An ape-human hybrid.

In press accounts of the time, Miller said he intended for Oliver to undergo a full battery of scientific tests to determine his identity, but the results, if any, were never made public. After belonging to Miller for several years, Oliver was owned by a series of West Coast animal trainers, beginning with Ralph Helfer, owner of Enchanted Village in Buena Park, Ca., where Oliver was exhibited as a freak. "They had two or three shows a day. I'd just walk him out on stage while another fellow talked about him. They had theories that he was half-man, half-ape. That was part of the show,'' recalled Bill Rivers, who years later would be the last animal trainer to own Oliver. "It was just like seeing a space alien,'' he said.

Oliver later became part of Helfer's menagerie at Gentle Jungle doing occasional television commercials and shows. But when the facility closed he was given to Ken DeCroo who had worked there. DeCroo, an anthropologist and animal trainer, said Oliver was unlike any of the hundreds of chimps he had worked with in both research and commercial settings. "It was very hard to predict what was happening in that brain and generally he acted more human than chimp in a lot of settings,'' recalled DeCroo.

"This is the classic example. Very often I would sit him down in the living room with me to drink coffee. And one time he was out of coffee. I never trained him to do this, but maybe he knew it from the past. He got up from the table, walked into the kitchen, picked up the coffee pot, poured coffee into my cup, then into his, and then took the pot back into the kitchen,'' he said. "But here's the chimp part. He's making a terrible mess. His brain is telling him what to do, but his body isn't quite doing it. But he had the awareness. He understood where all the elements fit and that I was out of coffee. It was shocking,'' he said. DeCroo is now struggling to put Oliver down on paper. "I'll tell you how much Oliver has affected me in my life. I'm writing a novel, which is very much fiction, but is very much based on Oliver,'' he said.

"It's about researchers in a university that decide to do the experiment: man and ape. This experiment is quite possible, but would you do it?" he asked. "In deciding that, you can imagine the ramifications both ethically and scientifically. And what do you do with the creature in the end? It's quite an adventure and Oliver inspired it,'' he said.

DeCroo said in 1986, when he closed his animal compound, he sold Oliver to Bill Rivers with the understanding Oliver would be given a decent retirement. When he heard later Oliver had ended up at a research facility he was remorseful. "He was a good friend and I've always felt guilty. I failed Oliver. I really thought he wasn't going anywhere,'' said DeCroo. But Rivers said he eventually sold Oliver to the Buckshire Corporation, where he languished for almost seven years, when the ape proved too difficult to keep. "He couldn't get along with the other chimps. I was doing a lot of traveling. I really didn't have a place for him,'' said Rivers.

According to Buckshire president Sharon Hursh, Oliver showed signs of a rough treatment, but was never used for research. "When we got him, we gave him an entrance physical and it was evident to us he'd had a pretty tough life. Somewhere along the line, he must have been a tough chimp. He had scars that indicated rough handling,'' she said. "We basically purchased him for laboratory research but he was never used. He just sort of ate, kicked back and slept all day,'' she said. Fortunately for Oliver, others did not forget him.

Vincent Pace, a concert pianist and circus ochestra leader, met Oliver when the Burgers were traveling with the Vargas Circus in the early 1970's. But when Oliver was put up for sale in 1976, Pace said he was outbid by Miller, the New York lawyer. "I lost track of him totally for 20 years,'' said Pace.

"But two years ago I came into a big sum of money and I made a list of things I wanted to do. I wanted to buy a new Rolls Royce, I wanted a face lift and I wanted a new baby chimp. And in searching for a new chimp, I bumped into Oliver at the Buckshire,'' he said. Initially, he said, the Buckshire appeared willing to release Oliver. "I spent $70,000 to build a room on my house here for him. It's all plexi-glass, stainless steel and Formica. He'd have private eating quarters,'' he said. But after his attempt to get Oliver failed, said Pace, he was glad to see him and 11 other Buckshire chimps end up with Primarily Primates in Boerne.

"I'd lived without him for so long, I thought getting him out and into anybody's hands would be better than him being where he was,'' said Pace. "Someday I'll go to Texas and see Oliver before he dies. This animal is almost human in his emotions,'' he said.

Regardless of the outcome of the genetic testing, Oliver will enjoy a peaceful and permanent refuge in Boerne, said Swett. "He's been dragged around and exploited for over 20 years, but this is his final retirement. He'll never go into research or on exhibit again,'' said Swett. "In terms of significant scientific findings, we'll play it by ear, but never to the point of inconveniencing Oliver,'' he said.


Thanks to astute and resourceful BLC fan, Nadia Moore for finding this link for the abstract of Oliver's DNA results.  

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 03 | New York Times Declares Wallace is Bigfoot

Rough estimate of the New York Times Front Page, Headline accurate 

In 2003, January 3rd, The New York Times printed a front page article reporting Ray Wallace's "death bed" confession as the guy wearing a Bigfoot costume in the famous Patterson/Gimlin film. To Bigfooters the Sasquatch in the film is referred to as Patty. Ray Wallace has been claiming he was Patty long before he died, but somehow as a "death bed" confession the story seemed to stick better. He also claimed at one point his wife was in the suit. The testimony of Michael Wallace, Ray's son is the thrust of the article.

''This wasn't a well-planned plot or anything,'' said Michael Wallace, one of Ray's sons.

''All it means is that Ray Wallace is dead, not Bigfoot,'' said Dr. Wolf Henner Fahrenbach, a zoologist in the Portland area who is retired from the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center.

Though some Bigfoot believers had long suspected that Mr. Wallace created the tracks, he kept his secret, and his family never confirmed it until his death.

Michael Wallace said his father had a friend carve the feet. Dr. Fahrenbach has tried to prove -- by DNA analysis of hair samples -- that Bigfoot is a species heretofore unknown to science. ''Sasquatch feet grow in substantial excess of general body dimensions,'' Dr. Fahrenbach wrote in one study. ''Hence the justifiable moniker Bigfoot.''

Filmed in the Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California, not far from where Ray Wallace laid his tracks, the short film shows a bewildered-looking apeman walking upright, while glancing at the camera.

The film has its believers, Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Fahrenbach among them. ''As long as Dad was alive, he was Bigfoot,'' Michael Wallace said

Our favorite part is when Dr. Matthew Johnson get's wrapped into this famous article. Dr. Matthew Johnson is an active leader in the Bigfoot community and a Bigfoot witness who currently offers parenting advice via books, CDs, and conferences. His site Family-Rules.com is one-stop center for "Parenting with a Plan." He also has a popular Facebook Group Team Squatchin' USA


Dr Matthew Johnson (Dr. J) in the wilderness. In 2003 he was quoted
in the now famous New York Times article about Ray Wallace

Below is the excerpt that includes Dr. Matthew Johnson.
Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Fahrenbach may have some academic investment in Bigfoot, but Dr. Matthew Johnson, a clinical psychologist from Grants Pass, Ore., said his conviction could not be dismissed as scholarly bias.

Dr. Johnson said he was too big - 6 feet 9 inches tall - too educated, and too familiar with the outdoors after living in Alaska for years to be fooled by some guy in an ape suit, or a logger with wooden feet.

"I've never had a U.F.O. encounter and have not seen the Loch Ness monster," he said. "I was just a husband and father out for a hike."

Two years ago, while hiking with his family in the Oregon Caves National Monument, Dr. Johnson said, he ventured off to the side of a trail, looked up to some trees and stared, eye to eye with Bigfoot. He reported his find to the National Park Service.

"Ray Wallace may have indeed hoaxed his own tracks," Dr. Johnson said. "But I can guarantee you that Ray Wallace was not walking around in a nine-foot Bigfoot suit in the Oregon Caves at the age of 82. What I saw was real."

Since the encounter, Dr. Johnson, now president of the Southern Oregon Bigfoot Society, has led numerous outings to feed and track Bigfoot. He leaves bananas and husked corn for the animal.

Click the following link to read the entire Bigfoot New York Times article.

In a previous post we broke the news that Judge Rheinhold is planning on producing a movie about Ray Wallace.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 02 | The Bigfoot Bulletin is Published

George Haas pioneer of disseminating Bigfoot news and research
"One of the most significant developments of the year 1969, at least from a Sasquatch hunter's point of view, was the birth of an unassuming little publication called the Bigfoot Bulletin. " -- John Green

In 1969 on January 2nd George Haas, the organizer, archivist, and spokesman of the Bay Area Group of Bigfoot investigators, publishes the first issue of The Bigfoot Bulletin a two-page newsletter that allowed Bigfoot researchers to actually compare and share notes.

A diagram of a Bigfoot hand trap, the type of ideas you would see in The Bigfoot Bulletin

The Bigfoot Bulletin was a new kind of venture in North American hominology, much approved at the time both by René Dahinden and John Willison Green. In Fact one chapter of Green's Year of the Sasquatch (1970) is devoted to that newsletter. Green writes:

One of the most significant developments of the year 1969, at least from a Sasquatch hunter's point of view, was the birth of an unassuming little publication called the Bigfoot Bulletin. For years people who were spending their spare time and money running down Sasquatch reports have talked about the need for a means of communication, but none ever did anything about it. Some kept in fairly regular contact by letter, but others did little or no writing, only dropping in during their travels or telephoning at intervals that might be years apart. Quite a few didn't know that anyone else was active in the field at all.
The man who changed all that is George Haas, of Oakland, California. George has worked at a variety of outdoor jobs and has been a keen woodsman for many years, but he got into the Sasquatch business via the bookshelf. From correspondence with George I know that his experience included a period as Ranger in Charge of the Calaveras Big Trees State Park in California and six years in Yellowstone National Park where he designed, built, and operated an 18-acre reforestation nursery.

The first issue of the Bigfoot Bulletin came out on January 2, 1969. It was just two mimeographed pages. The first item reported the finding of 16-inch tracks in the snow on the Bluff Creek Road, December 2, 1968. Most of the rest of the first page listed published articles on the subject in current papers and magazines, but on Page 2 was an article by Jim McClarin, who has continued to be the Bulletin's most prolific contributor. It was the first of a series of old-time stories to reach a modern audience in the Bulletin.

Despite its growth in size and circulation, George Haas has continued to distribute it (the Bulletin) free of charge, as well as handling an ever-growing volume of correspondence resulting from it.

A number of Sasquatch hunters are basically more inclined to compete than co-operate — because they each want to be the first to bring one in. From this point of view some already object to the Bulletin as making too much hard-won information available at no cost and no effort to anyone who comes along. But for those whose main interest is to see the facts brought home to a doubting world, the Bigfoot Bulletin is an undiluted blessing. No one can buy the Bulletin. It is sent only to those who contribute information.
As someone who has been blogging about Bigfoot since 2007, I am reminded of my hard-copy predecessors. Men like George Haas,  Ray Crow, and Mike Rugg; men who were compelled by research and were interested in sharing as much insight on Bigfoot as possible. These Bigfoot newsletters were made with typewriters, scissors, paste and are still impressive today.

Click the following link to see the Bigfoot Bulletin archives
You can also buy archives of Ray Crows newsletter, "The Track Record."

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 01 | Chief Big Foot and Finding Bigfoot Season 2 Premiers

Photo of Chief Big Foot taken on January 1st 1891, 2 days after the Wounded Knee massacre .
This photo had been taken on January 1, 1891, two days after the chief was killed by a horrific revengeful Seventh Cavalry gone berserk. Although far from the cryptozoological Bigfoot, Chief Big Foot got his namesake in a similar way; not from his actual feet, but from his tracks. Jut as Jerry Crew's 16 inch print discoveries led the media to describe our favorite cryptid as Bigfoot, Chief Big Foot was also known for his extra large snowshoe prints he left while pursuing deer. In other words, white people have been abusing the word Bigfoot 70 years earlier than we thought. It should be noted that only U.S. soldiers referred to the Chief as Big Foot, he was known by the Lakota as Spotted Elk (Unpan GleÅ¡ká).

Spotted Elk (Chief Big Foot) The son of Lone Horn, he was cousin to Crazy Horse and half brother of Sitting Bull. He became chief upon his father's death in 1875.

Though skilled in war, he was known as a great man of peace, adept at settling quarrels between rival parties. Known for his political and diplomatic successes, he was often called upon to mediate disputes. Following their defeat during the War for the Black Hills, he encouraged his people to live in peace, and to adapt to the white men’s ways while retaining their native language and cultural traditions. He encouraged them to adapt to life on the reservation by developing sustainable agriculture and building schools, taking a peaceful attitude toward white settlers.

This makes all the more tragic the circumstances of his death. Sick with pneumonia, he was en route to the Pine Ridge Reservation, seeking shelter with Red Cloud's band. Apprehended, he became a victim of the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890) in which nearly 300 men, women and children of his tribe lost their lives.

Cliff Barackman trying to be a "baby Bigfoot"
On a less somber note, on January 1st, 2012 the second season of Finding Bigfoot kicked off. Below is an excerpt from the full Finding Bigfoot press release.

Over the course of 10 hour-long episodes, Animal Planet’s FINDING BIGFOOT returns for a brand-new season on Sunday, January 1, 2012, at 10 PM (ET/PT) for further expeditions to investigate reports of the mysterious bigfoot. From small towns in the South to remote areas of the mountain West and dense forest of the Northeast and into Canada, four passionate, driven researchers and adventurers embark on one single-minded mission – to find this beast.
BFRO members Matt Moneymaker and James “Bobo” Fay, professional educator Cliff Barackman and skeptical biologist Ranae Holland engage in the ultimate quest in search of proof that Bigfoot really does exist – and that he or she is alive and abundant in North America. By examining photos and videos of the creature, speaking to local witnesses, using new technology and luring the mysterious beast with the team’s squatch calls, the group uncovers startling proof of the legendary and highly intelligent enigma that has eluded capture for centuries and fascinated man for just as long.
During the series premiere, called “Baby Bigfoot,” the quartet of investigators head to the Catskills in New York near Poughkeepsie to provide in-depth analysis of 15-year-old video footage from 1997 that indicates a juvenile or baby sasquatch could have been in the area at the time.
 Click the following link to read responses to the Baby Bigfoot episode.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Cryptomundo X BigfootLunchClub Collaboration



Not since chocolate and peanut butter has such a combination made so much sense. Well, bananas and strawberries are pretty good too. We are extremely excited and proud to announce that Bigfoot Lunch Club is now a contributor to Cryptomundo.com.

Nothing changes here, all the same breaking news, exclusive reports and humor you have come to love will continue. Basically, we will have another way for people to find us, and it gives us an opportunity to add to the great body of work already established by Craig Woolheater and Loren Coleman.

We would like thank Craig Woolheater for inviting and welcoming us aboard. This collaboration is at the heart of what we try to encourage at Bigfoot Lunch Club; share openly and support each other. None of us have a monopoly on truth or good ideas.

So please give Cryptomundo some love back and visit them by clicking on the "Cryptomundo Contributor" button below, Loren Coleman has been prolific about his postings this week and there are tons of great stuff to read.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Bigfoot and other Pongidae Skeletons

You can click the picture above to see larger version.

New Illustration for you Bigfoot Lunch Clubbers. As most primatoligist and anthropologist know, we humans share a classification called Homindae which includes Pongidae (the three/four other great apes; Gorillas, Orangutans, and Chimps/Bonabos).

Well, obviously BF would fit into that class as well. Above are the skeletons of the homidae/pongidae family, notice different porportions such as a a gorillas wider torso, orangutans longer slimmer build, and the chimps thicker, stockier leg bones. The BF skeleton is a blend of a Gigantopithecus reference and the Patterson film.

RELATED LINKS
Homidae Taxonomy at Wiki
Gigantopithecus at Wiki
Patterson/Gimlin at Wiki

Friday, August 21, 2009

Bigfoot Knows what your thinking--or feeling.


In our "never play poker with bigfoot" series we file a report from Newsweek claiming all major apes are able to empathize and understand human emotion just by the expressions on our face.

For those who have seen Bigfoot and been scared, he/she knows it.

A cool paper in the September issue of the journal Developmental Science describes studies on 17 chimps, five bonobos, five gorillas and five orangutans from the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center in Leipzig, Germany…The apes' skill at reading an expression of happiness… indicates that they can read meaning in the emotional expressions on human faces, suggesting that despite 6 million years of separate evolution apes and humans share a common emotional language.


you can read the full artcle here or click below


Apes Feel Your Pain
by Sharon Begley
There's new evidence that primates can read human emotions.

Memo to zoo visitors making faces at the chimps and gorillas on the other side of the glass: they know what you're thinking. Or, more precisely, feeling.
The extent and limits of ape intelligence is a hot area in science, but most of the research has focused on cognition. Now a team of scientists has turned the spotlight on emotions, and how well apes can read the human kind as displayed in our facial expressions. Earlier studies had shown that apes understand people's goals and perceptions. But whether apes understand our emotional expressions was pretty much a mystery, even though there are striking similarities between the facial expressions that we and our more hirsute cousins make, as researchers as far back as Darwin noted. Both human babies and newborn chimps make a pouting face to get mom’s attention, for instance, and bare their teeth in something like a smile in order to make nice—or "achieve social bonding," as primatologists put it.

A cool paper in the September issue of the journal Developmental Science describes studies on 17 chimps, five bonobos, five gorillas and five orangutans from the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center in Leipzig, Germany. In the first test, a researcher sat at a table on one side of a plexiglass panel while an ape sat on the other side. Two opaque boxes rested on the table. The scientist opened one box (making sure the ape could not see inside) and smiled with pleasure. He next opened the other and made a disgusted face. The ape was then allowed to reach through one of the holes in the panel and pick one box. Which would he choose?

In 57 percent of the tests, the ape chose the box that elicited a smile from the scientist rather than an expression of disgust. Good choice. The box that brought the smile contained a grape, and the ape was rewarded for his perspicacity in reading human facial expressions. The other box contained dead cockroaches. The apes' skill at reading an expression of happiness, write David Buttelmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and his colleagues, indicates that they can read meaning in the emotional expressions on human faces, suggesting that despite 6 million years of separate evolution apes and humans share a common emotional language. (It's always interesting to compare apes to babies: human infants can read facial expressions and act on them at around 14 to 18 months.)
In the next experiments, the set-up with the plexiglass was the same. An ape saw the scientist hold up a grape and a slice of banana, but his view was then blocked as the scientist put one treat under one cup and the other under the other cup. The ape then watched as the scientist looked under each of the two cups in turn, making an expression of happiness at one and of disgust at the other. The scientist next reached under one cup (at this point, the ape's view was again blocked, so he could not see which cup the scientist chose) and ate what was inside. His view restored, the ape saw the scientist munching on something, and then was allowed to choose a cup for himself.

This time the apes tended to choose the cup that had triggered the expression of disgust. Counterintuitive? Not at all. The apes went beyond the simplistic "pick cup that elicited happy face" to make a fairly sophisticated computation. That is, they seemed to reason that the human would eat the food that made him smile, emptying that cup, with the result that only the disgust-inducing cup would still contain a snack.

That was even stronger evidence than in the first test that the apes understood the meaning of the human's facial expression, and were not simplistically equating "disgust" with "stay away from this cup." Their skill at inferring how people will act on their emotions, conclude the scientists, suggests that they "understand facial expressions as expressing internal states that cause certain [human] actions—in this case, eating one food but not another." The apes had to understand that expressions of disgust or happiness reflect an internal state that people will then act on, and infer that the person was more likely to eat the food that made him look happy. Species did not matter—chimps, gorillas, and the others all did about the same—but age did: the older the animal, the better he did. Call it the wisdom of old age.

In my recent story describing the rising criticism of evolutionary psychology and the idea of human universals, I noted that emotions and emotional expression do seem to be universals (unlike, say, rape). If so, that suggests that emotional expressions have deep evolutionary roots, perhaps reaching as far back as the common ancestors of humans and modern apes. That possibility looks even more likely as evidence accumulates that apes can read the emotions on our faces.
© 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

DID HUMANS MAKE LOVE OR WAR WITH CAVEMEN


Its an ongoing question. Time Magazine has a new article out today suggesting we made war.

It is one of the world's oldest cold cases. Sometime between 50,000 and 75,000 years ago, a Neanderthal male known to scientists as Shanidar 3 received a wound to his torso, limped back to his cave in what is now Iraq and died several weeks later.

New research suggests that Shanidar 3 may have had a more familiar killer: a human being.

At the time of his death, only humans, who had adapted their hunting techniques to the open plains of Africa, had developed projectile weapons; Neanderthals, who hunted in the close quarters of forests, used thrusting spears. To learn the cause of Shanidar 3's wound, Churchill and his team used a specially designed crossbow to fire stone-age projectiles at precise velocities at pig carcasses (a pig's skin and ribs are believed to be roughly as tough as a Neanderthal's). At kinetic energies consistent with a thrown spear, the pig's rib bore damage resembling Shanidar 3's isolated rib puncture. What's more, Churchill found that the weapon that killed Shanidar 3 entered at about a 45-degree downward angle. Churchill also found that Shanidar 3's rib had started healing before he died. By comparing the wound with wounds documented in medical records from the American Civil War, a time before antibiotics, Churchill hypothesized that Shanidar 3 probably died within a few weeks of the injury.

Others suggest they may have interbred with humans.


Read The full Article here.
Read the competing interbreading theory here.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

FAYETTE, PA SIGHTING

The incident occurred on July 10, 2009, outside of Uniontown, in Fayette County.

On July 15, 2009, a team from the (Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society) PBS traveled to the location where the reported Bigfoot encounter occurred to interview the witness and to look over the area for any possible physical evidence. The team was comprised of Eric Altman and PBS members Dave Dragosin and his wife Cindy. When we arrived on the scene, the witness and her husband were awaiting us. The creature, which walked upright on two legs, had a head that was said to be large and elongated, and covered with hair that just looked wild.

The neck was somewhat hard to explain since it was covered in hair. The witness said that it appeared to be thin and long. The nose was flat and dark, but was also mostly covered in hair. The eyes were dark, possibly black in color, wide set, and “wild looking.” The witness thinks that is why the eyes looked so odd. The wild look and the fierceness of the eyes of the creature, scared the woman.

The creature was stocky and muscular in appearance. The witness said the hair on the arms was long, like ape hair. The witness had the impression that this creature was older in age. At the scene, Dave Dragosin sketched an illustration of the creature under the direction of the eyewitness. Eric and the witness’s husband searched a wooded area not far from the location of the encounter, but nothing of interest was found.

The scratched area was about 8.5 inches long and 2 inches wide. The witness told me that after the encounter, she drove down the road a short distance and parked her car. The fast movement of the creature and the way it leaped over the trunk. The eyes of the creature frightened her.

Original Report at Pensyvannia Bigfoot Society
Read about it at Paranormal News
See drawings posted at Cryptomundo

UPDATE!!!!
Cryptomundo has some photos of the sighting location here.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

FIND SASQUATCH

I just got the coolest gift. It is Sasquatch folder made by the Corolina Pad company. They have a bunch of products made from recycled materials under the brand Sasquatch Leave Nothing But Tracks.
In fact they have an entire website called find-saquatch.com to promote these eco-friendly products. Its a beuifully designed site and deserves attention. In Their own words...

Leave Nothing But Tracks
Sasquatch lives deep in the forest, far from where most humans dare to go. He lives off the land, and except for a footprint now and then, leaves little trace of his existence.

Sasquatch lives a green life, using only what he needs. Carolina Pad is trying to follow in Sasquatch's footsteps. We know that forests are one of our greatest treasures.

What Makes Sasquatch Products Eco-friendly?
Sasquatch™ Brand products use less virgin wood products. They are made of mostly recycled paper. This means fewer trees are cut down and less water and fossil fuels are used during processing. This helps reduce air and water pollution and helps protect wildlife from harmful chemicals and habitat changes.

It seems to reinforce this trend we have seen lately in the world of Bigfoot, Bigfoot as a mascot for environmentalism.

Thank you for the gift Julie!!!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Lloyd Pye Calls Bigfoot Hominoids

Lyoyd Pie is a UFOlogist ala Zacharia Sitchen. Now there is a camp (pun intended) of Bigfooters who believe UFOlogist should stay away from Bigfooting. I would say The Bigfoot Lunch Club falls into this camp. Bigfoot as an inter-dimensional extra-terrestrial biological entity goes against the grain of the credibility many scientists and researchers have spent much of their sweat equity on.

Prominent cryptozoologist Jeff Meldrum and Loren Coleman would prefer to study fossil records and modern primates as oppose to exclusively searching for clues in ancient Babylonian texts. My very moniker, Epic Gilgamesh, gives away I am at least interested in Babylonian kings, but mostly because it is the first recorded relationship between a mortal (1/3 mortal anyway) befriending a wild-man. Enkidu is probably literature's first bigfoot, in my humble opinion.

Going back to Pye, you can go to his Hominoids website to judge for yourself whether or not he has a place in Bigfooting. I will say this, although we disagree with his theories, his theories do suggest a great amount thought and are well constructed.

Below is an audio interview where he talks about human origins and what he calls hominoids A.K.A. Bigfoot.



Friday, July 17, 2009

Primatology From The Edge


Interesting article at the edge.org

OUT OF OUR MINDS: HOW DID HUMANS COME DOWN FROM THE TREES AND WHY DID NO ONE FOLLOW?
By Vanessa Woods & Brian Hare

In the 6 million years since hominids split from the evolutionary ancestor we share with chimpanzees and bonobos, something happened to our brains that allowed us to become master cooperators, accumulate knowledge at a rapid rate, and manipulate tools to colonize almost every corner of the planet.

VANESSA WOODS, author of "It's Every Monkey for Themselves", is an award-winning journalist who has a double degree in biology and English from the University of New South Wales. She is a researcher with the Hominoid Psychology Research Group and studies the psychology of bonobos and chimpanzees in Africa.

BRIAN HARE is an anthropologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University. His research centers on human cognitive evolution, and his experience in the field includes work in Siberia, the jungle of Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bigfoot's walking cousins

Just some videos showing how primates walk upright. All major apes do, a;lthough not are aas well engineered as the Orangutan. It is interesting to see the gait of these and finally I have a clip of the patterson film.

THE GORILLA



THE CHIMPANZEE


THE BONOBO


THE ORANGUTAN


THE PATTERSON FILM


Full Disclosure: I want to believe in Bigfoot. After reviewing several videos fo this post I noticed one thing that is different about the patterson film. The primate in the Patterson film does not swing from side to side as much as the other primates.

I do not make any conclusions or hypothesis beyond this, but thought you may want to discuss why this is the case. Any opinions?

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sasquatchploitation: Top 51 Bigfoot Movies



Sasquatchploitation? Yeah I said it. Sasquatchploitation is an reference to the portmanteau of blacksploitation. Blacksploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made that targeted the urban black audience.

Well I choose the term carefully. Blacksploitation movies stereotyped african- americans, the audience they aimed to appeal to, as pimps and drug dealers.

I feel most of these sasquatch movies also stereotype Bigfoot as a monster-of-the-week horror show or a cuddly cute wookie to have as a pet. Expand the full post to see the full list of the 51 BF movies and their respective The Internet Movie Database rating.





No.YearMovie TitleIMDB Rating
012004Yeti Vengeance10.0
022006The Shabbos Bigfoot9.7
032006The Lumberjack of All Trades: The Bigfoot Massacre8.6
042006The Legend of Sasquatch7.5
052008Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie7.3
061976The Secret of Bigfoot6.8
071999Sasquatch Odyssey: The Hunt for Bigfoot6.7
082006Scream of the Sasquatch6.7
091972Bigfoot: Man or Beast?6.5
101970Yeti, El6.5
111976The Mysterious Monsters6.1
12 1995The Last Chance Detectives: Legend of the Desert Bigfoot6.1
132006The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang6.0
141979Revenge of Bigfoot6.0
152007A Yeti in the City5.8
161987Harry and the Hendersons5.5
171977Bigfoot and Wildboy4.9
18 2003They Call Him Sasquatch4.8
191977Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot4.4
202006Yeti: A Love Story4.4
211976In Search of Bigfoot4.4
222002Julius and Friends: Yeti, Set, Go4.4
232008No Burgers for Bigfoot4.3
242006Bigfoot at Holler Creek Canyon4.2
252008Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon4.0
262006Sasquatch Mountain3.8
271976The Legend of Bigfoot3.6
281997Little Bigfoot3.5
292005Sasquatch Hunters3.3
301972The Legend of Boggy Creek3.1
311994Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter3.1
321995To Catch a Yeti2.9
331997Little Bigfoot 2: The Journey Home2.7
342004Suburban Sasquatch2.6
352005Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch2.3
361978Curse of Bigfoot1.9
371985The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek, Part II 1.7
381977Return to Boggy Creek1.7
391979The Capture of Bigfoot1.6
40 20042004 East Coast Bigfoot Conference0.0
412006Hoax: In Search of Bigfoot0.0
422007Bigfoot Lives0.0
432007The Long Way Home: A Bigfoot Story0.0
442007Southern Fried Bigfoot0.0
452007Sesquac: The Story of Sasquatch0.0
462008Bigfoot: A Beast on the Run0.0
472008Hair of the Sasquatch0.0
482004Quest for the Yeti0.0
492009Tale of Sasquatch0.0
502009Sasquatch Assault0.0
512009Bloody Rage of Bigfoot0.0
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