In memory of Michael Dennett

 

As what some would call a skeptical cryptozoologist, I prefer to think of myself as a paranatural naturalist—one who first considers allegedly paranatural/paranormal entities as hypothetically natural creatures, then seeks to identify them. Here I focus on North America’s hairy man-beast.

Sasquatch or Bigfoot, long presumed to be a cross between a monster and a myth, may instead be some other type of hybrid. The earliest recorded footprints of the presumed creature are dated 1811. A trader named David Thompson was crossing the Rockies when he came upon a mysterious track measuring fourteen by eight inches and characterized by four toes with short claw marks. Smithsonian expert John Napier (1973, 74), however, would come to argue that it could well have been a bear, whose small inner toe may not have left a mark. Discoverer Thompson himself thought it likely “the track of a large old grizzled bear” (quoted in Hunter with Dahinden 1993, 17).

Although after 1958 generally called Bigfoot, the creature is historically associated with the Pacific Northwest, and sightings have been reported since then throughout much of the United States and Canada (Bord and Bord 2006). Many have been hoaxes, but others are no doubt misperceptions resulting from expectation and excitement. But misperceptions of what? With that question I hope to invoke a thoughtful, investigative approach (rather than a dismissive “debunking” one).

The Bigfoot Bear

Of creatures in North America, the best lookalike for the bipedal, hairy man-beast called Bigfoot—other than the costumed human pretender “Bigsuit”—is what some years ago I began to call the “Bigfoot Bear.” That is any bear, commonly black or brown (grizzly), that may be mistaken for Bigfoot, especially when it is in its alert mode, standing on its hind legs and sniffing the air. (A standing black bear, for example, can be seven feet tall [Yosemite 2013].)

I do have an affinity with bears. As a boy visiting Yellowstone National Park with my family, I was fascinated by upright-standing grizzlies. Traveling in 1971, I would have the rare opportunity to witness a “dancing” bear in Istanbul. And when I lived in the remote north of Canada’s Yukon Territory at Dawson (1975–1976), as manager of a riverboat on the Yukon, I once helped catch a large female grizzly. (A mobile cage had malfunctioned, but I insisted she not be shot. She sat close by, eating a piece of bait meat. Savvy Capt. Dick Stevenson rigged the mechanism to work at the pull of a rope while—ironically—I guarded him with a rifle. Then, voilà!)

Since 1995, for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer, I have been on several Bigfoot searches that have taken me into bear country, including the mountains overlooking Bluff Creek, California (site of the 1967 Patterson film); the wilds of British Columbia; the Adirondacks; along Florida’s Panhandle; and elsewhere, including Mt. Rainier in Washington State. Far up Rainier, I encountered fresh bear droppings (identified by my professional guide). In Pennsylvania once, a bear lumbered across the logging road my wife, Diana, and I were traveling along. Again, a rumored “Bigfoot” that she and I were pursuing in February 2008 (renting a cabin in the north Pennsylvania forest) turned out to have been, apparently, a black bear with mange (Nickell 2011, 62).

Lookalikes

Over time I noticed, in fact, that it was fairly common for claimed Bigfoot eyewitnesses to state they first thought they had seen a bear—thus confirming the similarity of Bigfoot and bears—but then sometimes they would “correct” these first impressions. (Such a revision—like a movie director’s “retake”—could be called a “miss-take.”) Witnesses may cite some aspects of appearance or behavior as the reason for the change of mind, or perhaps the creature was seen only briefly or at a distance, or at nighttime, or otherwise under less than favorable conditions. Were they perhaps right the first time?

The respective creatures (the real and the questioned) have a roughly similar anatomy. For an article comparing them, I did a cartoon in split-image fashion, comparing half each of a bear and of Bigfoot (Nickell 2013). Anthropologist and “Sasquatch” theorist Jeff Meldrum (2019) took exception and responded with overlays showing differences in detail. However, where I had depicted a generic bear, he chose a black bear, which was less favorable to my position. Of course, the real problem we both had was that Bigfoot lacked any real-world example!

Meldrum stated: “The chance of mistaking a bear sighting for a Sasquatch is conceivable, but unlikely for a knowledgeable experienced observer under favourable conditions.” He cited bears’ “prominent ears atop their heads, long snouts, sloping shoulders due to their lack of collar bones (clavicles), and short legs” (Meldrum 2019, 60). But if Bigfoot is reported more by amateur than professional observers, as we may suspect, then the gross similarity of bears to “Bigfoot” is profoundly relevant—despite Meldrum’s attempt to sweep the issue under the forest litter.

Canadian wildlife biologist John Bindernagel notes the fact that most field guides lack information helpful to eyewitness identification of Bigfoot. He states:

As a result, most wildlife biologists continue to insist on misidentified bears as the most likely explanation for sasquatch reports despite its unbear-like appearance. The continued absence of the sasquatch from current field guides constitutes an authoritative statement against the existence of this species in North America. (Bindernagel 1998, 56)

Behavior

Moreover, Bigfoot shares many behavioral aspects with bears. These include eating berries, fruit, grubs, vegetation such as corn, fish, animal carcasses, and human rubbish. It may be seen either day or night, and it often visits campsites—such as one raided by a “cinnamon-colored Bigfoot” in Idaho in the summer of 1968 that left tooth marks on food containers.

Bigfoot also peers into homes (just like a bear, which was once vividly described to me when I was researching Bigfoot in the Adirondacks), as well as vehicles, and it sometimes shows aggression. Then there are Bigfoot’s vocalizations, such as growls and snorts, many of which could well be those of bears (Bord and Bord 2006, 215–310; cf. Nickell 2013, 12–15).

Distribution

The habitat of Bigfoot given in the 1,002 abstracts I studied—from 1818 to November 1980—is extensive (Bord and Bord 2006, 215–310; Nickell 2011, 225–229). It includes most continental American states and eight of the thirteen Canadian provinces. The greatest number of sightings were in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia—the traditional domain of Sasquatch—followed by Pennsylvania and Florida. It was reportedly seen in woods and fields, along streams, and so on. Put another way, Bigfoot is typically found in bear country, except that it cannot actually be found.

Not surprisingly then, black bears are similarly distributed, as shown by population maps provided by the Audubon Society (Herrero 2002, 80). America’s grizzly population—once quite extensive and including the western states—is now relegated mostly to portions of the northernmost areas of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, as well as most of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territory, and Alaska (Herrero 2002, 4; Whitaker 1996, 708). Again, like Bigfoot, bears are seen in woods and fields, along streams, and so on.

Wishful Thinking

Despite the lack of a single specimen, Meldrum stubbornly clings to the idea of Bigfoot, which he unfailingly calls Sasquatch (a term that was homogenized from several Native American names for the alleged creature by Canadian schoolteacher J.W. Burns in the 1920s [Nickell 2011, 66]).

Meldrum puts hope in the “footprint evidence.” However, that is likely polluted with hoaxed prints. And how do we determine which of so many questionable tracks could be genuine, when—like the supposed creature itself—there is not a single “known standard” for comparison? Also, not only does a bear’s hind foot look strikingly human, but at moderate speeds the hind- and forefoot prints may superimpose to create what looks like a single bipedal creature’s track (Napier 1973, 150–151).

So, we can see what appears obvious, that many encounters—other than hoaxes, including the phony “Bigsuit”—can be explained by the “Bigfoot Bear.” Upright bears—especially if seen under poor viewing conditions—are North America’s best Bigfoot lookalike. They also frequently behave like Bigfoot, inhabit regions common to the legendary creature, and sometimes even leave Bigfoot-like tracks. I would go so far as to say that upright-walking bears may have innocently given rise to the myth of Sasquatch/Bigfoot! It may be the simplest explanation after all. If people tend to describe the mythical result as somewhat more resembling a hairy human than a bear, that seems only to confirm interest in ourselves, just like artists who portray the unlikely creature as resembling us.

References

Bindernagel, J.A. 1998. North America’s Great Ape: The Sasquatch. Courtenay, BC: Beachcomber Books.

Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. 2006. Bigfoot Casebook Updated: Sightings and Encounters from 1818 to 2004. N.p.: Pine Winds Press.

Herrero, Stephen. 2002. Bear Attacks, rev. ed. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press.

Hunter, Don, with René Dahinden. 1993. Sasquatch/Bigfoot: The Search for North America’s Incredible Creature. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart.

Meldrum, Jeffrey. 2019. Bears, wildmen, Yeti, and Sasquatch. In Nevin, et al. 2019, 55–66.

Napier, John. 1973. Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality. New York: E.P. Dutton.

Nevin, Owen, Ian Convery, and Peter Davis. 2019. The Bear: Culture, Nature, Heritage. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press.

Nickell, Joe. 2011. Tracking the Man-Beasts. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

———. 2013. Bigfoot lookalikes: Tracking hairy man-beasts. Skeptical Inquirer 37(4) (September/October): 12–15.

Whitaker, John O. 1996. National Audubon Society, Field Guide to North American Mammals, rev. Ed. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Yosemite Black Bears. 2013. Available online at http://www.yosemitepark.com/bear-facts.aspx; accessed March 25, 2013.