Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction

The Bigfoot Legend has endured for more than half a century. It is the most famous of the world's Hairy Hominid legends. The story originated out of the forests of North America and Canada. Big Foot has been spotted in every state of the United States, except Delaware and Hawaii. Over time Bigfoot has received many names - "Sasquatch" by the Indians of British Columbia, " Bokbokwolli " by American Indians and Yeti in Asia. Bigfoot is said to have been spotted by all kinds of people. The Westerners claim to have seen it in the heights of the Himalayas. The Sherpas who live by the foothills of the great mountains have corroborated this on occasions. There has also been occasion when mountaineers have claimed that the Yeti has shown them the way when they were lost. But it is not uncommon to conjure up illusionary images at twenty thousand feet.

Bigfoot is supposed to be between 6 and 9 feet in height and between 300 to 600 lbs in weight. Their facial features are human, and the skin on their faces, hands and feet, which are distinct and human-like, are dark and leathery. It has a large head and the body is covered completely in hair. They have muscular bodies and massive shoulders that enable them to climb steep surfaces very easily. The female version of the species are said to have large breasts. Most of the people who claim that they have spotted Bigfoot try to lend credence to the theory that Bigfoot is one of the missing links in the human evolutionary chain. Evidence is provided in the form of handprints and footprints. More often than not these prints are a cross between that of a human and an ape.

The sighting of Bigfoot draws a certain amount of publicity and curiosity. Many good-natured pranksters in the past have admitted to faking Bigfoot evidence to create some mischief. The more creative amongst theses have also managed to make some money by selling their "evidence." As a result of the sheer numbers of Bigfoot sightings, eyewitness accounts to do not have too much credibility to day. Even a claim made by a zoologist is refuted at the outset if it is only an eyewitness account. Bigfoot tracks are the most popular form of evidence that is provided. But the problem is that there is absolutely no consistency in the Bigfoot tracks. Some tracks have toes while others have splayed toes. The number toes ranges from two to six. There has been a claim that stated that Bigfoot slithered like a snake because it did not want to leave behind any tracks! Hair samples have turned out to be Elk, bear and cow hair. Even commercially available imitation hair has been found. While blood samples could be transmission fluid.

The most effective of all forms of evidence is recording it on film. It is difficult to refute something that can be seen by everyone. The short 16 mm film n 1967 by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in Bluff Creek, California, is the most famous amongst them. Even if it is assumed that it was not a human in an ape's costume, the film has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The reasons are that Roger Patterson told people that he was going to the woods with the sole purpose of capturing Bigfoot on camera. This is something that has not happened in the thirty-seven years following his "sighting." He made a tidy profit from the sale of a book that he had written on the subject. Believers in the film contend that no human has a chest that is as broad as that of the creature in the film and his gait cannot be duplicated by any human being.

The discovery of the Mountain Gorilla more than a hundred years ago was cloaked in some amount of mystery and doubt. It was not until a body was found that the fog cleared. But since it has been more than half a century that the first Bigfoot was "sighted" it is highly unlikely that anything of the sort exists. There are various organizations in the United States who are convinced that Bigfoot exists and spend considerable amount of time trying to convince the non-believers.