What are they?

Harry and the Hendersons movie still

Harry from the film Harry and the Hendersons.

Did they save us from Y2K? Some sources are saying:

"Sorry, what?"

Some say Bigfoot is simply a beard gone too far, perhaps severing itself from its host-man to start a new life and species. Others say they're just the government dressing up all silly in the woods to divert attention away from the lizard people riding American subways.

Luckily, enough people have been eye to smell with these woodsy hair clogs that we have a set of basic characteristics.

- Roughly 6 ft. 7 in.–9 ft. 10 in.

- Covered in hair that may be: black, dark brown, or dark reddish.

- Large eyes

- Pronounced brow ridge

- Large, low-set forehead

- Claimed to be as large as 24 in. long, 8 in. wide

- Some footprint casts contained claw marks

Omnivorous.

Boy will finish them chili fries if they ain't gettin' e'te.

Nocturnal.

All about that nightlife.

Like, what's their deal?

Formal Studies of Bigfoot

The first scientific study of available evidence was conducted by John Napier and published in his book, Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality, in 1973. Napier wrote that if a conclusion is to be reached based on scant extant "'hard' evidence," science must declare "Bigfoot does not exist." However, 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 eyewitness accounts. Napier concluded, "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."
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.
Beginning in the late 1970s, physical anthropologist Grover Krantz published several articles and four book-length treatments of Sasquatch. However, his work was found to contain multiple scientific failings including falling for hoaxes.
A study published in the Journal of Biogeography in 2009 by J.D. Lozier et al. used ecological niche modeling on reported sightings of Bigfoot, using their locations to infer Bigfoot's preferred ecological parameters. They found a very close match with the ecological parameters of the American black bear, Ursus americanus. They also note that an upright bear looks much like Bigfoot's purported appearance and consider it highly improbable that two species should have very similar ecological preferences, concluding that Bigfoot sightings are likely sightings of black bears.
In the first systematic genetic analysis of 30 hair samples that were suspected to be from bigfoot, yeti, sasquatch, almasty or other anomalous primates, only one was found to be primate in origin, and that was identified as human. A joint study by the University of Oxford and Lausanne's Cantonal Museum of Zoology and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B in 2014, the team used a previously published cleaning method to remove all surface contamination and the ribosomal mitochondrial DNA 12S fragment of the sample was sequenced and then compared to GenBank to identify the species origin. The samples submitted were from different parts of the world, including the United States, Russia, the Himalayas, and Sumatra. Other than one sample of human origin, all but two are from common animals. Black and brown bear accounted for most of the samples, other animals include cow, horse, dog/wolf/coyote, sheep, goat, raccoon, porcupine, deer and tapir. The last two samples were thought to match a fossilized genetic sample of a 40,000 year old polar bear of the Pleistocene epoch; however, a later study disputes this finding. In the second paper, tests identified the hairs as being from a rare type of brown bear.

The Patterson-Gimlin Film

Where & How to get 'em!


Map of Sightings

"Joshua Stevens used data compiled from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization to show alleged sightings of Bigfoot from 1921 to 2012."

Bigfoot Sightings Map

Courtesy of Business Insider

Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization

Comprehensive database of sightings and reports in the U.S. and Canada. You can view sightings/reports by state and county.

Image

Check out the clickable sightings map at BFRO.net

WikiHow's "How to Search for Bigfoot"

"The legend of Bigfoot continues to thrive and if you're fascinated with Bigfoot, maybe you've got what it takes to experience a Bigfoot sighting yourself. Here are some suggestions for how you can search for this legendary creature."

Man spying on Bigfoot Image

'Squatch It to the MAX