By Rand Scott

In the wilds of western Canada and the United States lives a wild man of the woods. This wild man is supposed to be as tall as 10 or 12 feet, although more commonly they are 6 to 8 feet tall. They are covered in long shaggy hair which, out of modesty, covers their bodies. Unfortunately, they seem to be unfamiliar with personal hygiene and it has been told that they stink; it’s a smell worse than what emanates from old Uncle Albert.

In Canada this beast is known as Sasquatch, while in the States he is called Bigfoot, due to the size of the footprints he has left. I’m glad it’s only footprints he has left otherwise I would hate to think of what he might have been called.

Most serious scientists refuse to even give this creature a second thought. They believe he is a character of myth and legend. They ignore the footprints as hoaxes perpetrated by bored mountain folk with no television to keep them entertained. There are hair samples that have been examined but they are unconvincing to scientists because they seem to come from known animals. Lastly, there are tapes of the big guy screeching in the night. Could these sounds have faked as well? I think if I had a nail gun driven into my foot I could make some ungodly sounds too.

There are a lot of sightings of this creature every year by seemingly reputable people. These sightings have gone back to times before Europeans arrived in the New World. Natives, for the most part, were in fear of the giant who ran around the woods naked, and who can blame them? I’d be afraid of naked men running around in my neighborhood!

The biggest question asked by serious scientists is, “Why has there been no body found.” I guess they are thinking of Sasquatch road kill. So the believers simply suggest that science rarely finds the body of a bear or other large animal that has died of natural causes in the forest. There are so many little bugs and critters just waiting for their next tasty bear meal to come crashing to the forest floor the result of a heart attack. These critters could devour a bear in a matter of days. Besides maybe Bigfoot has the intellect to carry away their fallen Bigfoot brothers and honor their lives in a Bigfoot burial ceremony, with a large funeral pyre lighting the night sky. Or maybe they just get eaten by all those hungry bugs and critters.

The believers in Sasquatch have even suggested that the big guy is already known to science through the fossil record. Gigantopithecus blacki is the fossil of choice. Some of these folks would suggest that G. Blacki found its way from Asia to America as other animals had and they have only gone extinct in those areas which are easily accessible to scientific researchers. But G. Blacki lives on in the wilds of western Canada and the U.S. or so the believers would have you believe.

So take a trip yourself to the Pacific Northwest and see if you can find Bigfoot.

By Robert Benjamin

The evidence of creatures whose existence is uncertain is studied by cryptozoology, a science researching presumable proof of animals considered extinct or out of this world, which are still occasionally reported as seen in diverse locations. Such hypothetical creatures are usually referred as “cryptids”, a term coined by John Wall in 1983, while cryptozoology is a term attributed to the Scottish adventurer and explorer Ivan T. Sanderson, the Father of cryptozoology is regarded as Bernard Heuvelmans, who published a book using this term for the fist time in 1955. Bernard Heuvelmans believed that cryptozoology would be undertaken with scientific rigor, but keeping an open-mind to find the grains of truth behind fantastic elements in folk tales depicting fantastic unseen creatures, and that folklore and traditions are the best sources to approach these myths.

William J. Broad wrote in the New York Times, “Monster lovers take heart. Scientists argue that so much of the planet remains unexplored that new surprises are sure to show up; if not legendary beasts like the Loch Ness monster or the dinosaur-like reptile ‘Champ’ said to inhabit Lake Champlain, then animals that in their own way may be even stranger. Cryptozoologists try to unveil the mystery behind hidden creatures which all of us have heard about, but just a few have been seen very briefly that it is impossible to determine where the truth ends, but usually is where the myth begins.

The Loch Ness monster (Nessie), Mothman, the Abominable Snowman, and Chupacabras, are just a few of those creatures whose existence is not clear, and there is not enough proof whether to confirm or deny the legitimacy of reports made by witnesses who have seen them. Skepticism is prevalent among scientists, despite the fact that many cryptozoologists are also respected scientists in other fields, who have found vestiges of previously unknown animals, but still cannot find the missing proof of creatures seen during the last two centuries.

Anyway, notable cryptozoologists have contributed actively with their research, including Bigfoot researchers Erik Beckjord, Peter Byrne, René Dahinden, Paul Freeman, Cliff Crook and John Green. Loch Ness Monster researchers Tim Dinsdale, Fredrick William Holiday, Roy Mackal, and Peter Scott, and Cadborosaurus researcher Paul LeBlond, Chupacabra researcher Scott Corrales, Mothman researcher John Keel, Champ researcher Joseph W. Zarzynski, Jonathan Downes, founder of Centre for Fortean Zoology, and John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, among many other scientists and researchers.

Cryptozoologists have found over a hundred creatures, whose existence is not confirmed, including the Winnipogo, Yeti, Kongamato, Igopogo, Globsters, Congo Peacock, Abogwe, Giant Anaconda, Minnesota Iceman, Mokele-mbembe, besides the widespread creatures mentioned above. In addition, researches have found dozen of different lake monsters, the Mountain Gorilla, Discovered in October 1902 by Belgian Army, the Kouprey and the Komodo Dragon discovered in 1937 and 1912 respectively, and the unbelievable Goblin universe.

There is a website that describes this and numerous other creatures of Cryptozoology in detail. The website is called: Unknown Creatures, and may be found at this address:

http://www.unknown-creatures.com

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright © 2006

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