Out of the wilderness

Flower and barrack at Warner Robins AFB, Ga.

    It has been a hot, sweaty, wet, and at times, perilous eight days in the woods of North Georgia, but I am very pleased to announce that I am now back and ready to surge forward with new and (hopefully) interesting content! I was only run over by one raft while riding the white waters of the Nantahala and stung just once by a scorpion who decided my sheet was a comfortable place to spend the night. Now I'm back at my laptop, so here we go!

    For the past few weeks I have been in contact with the The Sasquatch Hunters, a Florida based research organization. I am very pleased to announce that I will be attending their Central Florida expedition this August, which will be my first experience with bigfoot field research. I am interested in the ideas this group brings to the table when out in the field. Their ability to mobilize a decent sized team of bigfooters as well as a large amount of expensive equipment has really caught my interest. The amount of money this group has put into purchasing gear is quite staggering considering they do not charge for attendance on their expeditions. If anything, this increases my faith in their genuine desire to work towards answering the question of an undiscovered North American great ape's existence. Conversing with the group's founder, Stacy Brown Jr., I am reassured that the group is serious about what they do. In the past they have traveled throughout Florida and Georgia, with occasional trips to Mississippi and Tennessee, in search of the big guy. Their team consists of interested bigfooters from all background and walks of life. A recent addition is the esteemed Tim Whitfield:

"Tim has been an adjunct professor at Saint Petersburg College and St. Leo University where he was instrumental in helping to establish both forensic science programs, having authored all 6 forensic courses at St. Leo University. Tim has also been an adjunct instructor in Forensic Investigation Classes at the Institute of Police Technology and Management out of the University of North Florida since 1987, having taught classes internationally and in over 40 states."

    Mr. Whitfield will be working as an evidence consultant for the team and has already attended one expedition. On the Central Florida expedition he will be teaching a lesson on how to properly collect and analyze DNA evidence in the field, something he has done for many years. As well, other members of the team will be teaching classes in various areas, depending upon their expertise. With a line up like this and the dedication I have witnessed, I feel my experience with The Sasquatch Hunters will be a good one. Here's to a hopeful tomorrow!

    Interested in joining The Sasquatch Hunters on an expedition or as a member? Click here.

    Thanks for reading!

 - A.Z.

Outsider's Perspective

Guest Post

   

    Before I met A.Z. I had never even heard of the possibility of bigfoots being real.  I thought it was on the same level as mermaids, ghosts and the Loch Ness monster.  In fact, I thought that it was just one mystical creature -- Bigfoot -- not an entire species, making it even harder for me to consider the idea since it would have had to been living for hundreds of years.

     

    However, now that I have been exposed to the whole world of bigfooting I am learning some of the finer points of what people believe the species may be like. From its suspected calls and whoops to its walking patterns and habits, I am being exposed to it all. Nevertheless, I must admit I am not a believer. I am not someone who completely dismisses the idea though. 

     

    There are major trust issues between the rest of the world and the bigfoot community and I think I have fallen victim to that. Another blurry video of “bigfoot”, a grouping of sightings in the same area, or a new footprint draws hardly any attention from the media and is not given any credence from the outside world because of the stigma that is against the whole idea of believing in something that the majority think to be mystical and has no chance of existing. 

      

   On the other hand, back in 2004 when blurry video was caught of a thought-to-be-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker and there were eight sightings in one area over the course of a year, there was loads of media coverage. People were much more willing to believe in, and admit that they believed in, the reemergence of a bird than the emergence of bigfoot. For more information on this mysterious bird, check out the video to the right from Texas Parks and Wildlife. The 2004 video can be seen at 0:58.

     

    Therefore I am left wanting to be able to convince myself that there are bigfoots out there, but not being able to. I am just not able to overcome the need for extremely definitive evidence and the societal dismissal of the idea. Despite this, I admire those greatly who do believe in bigfoots and I hope one day that crucial piece of evidence you need will come and you do get the coverage you deserve.

Thanks for reading!

-E.R.

Bigfoot Around the World

Orang photo by Sandro_Lacarbona - Flickr.com

    Yowie, Yeti, Orang Pendak, Bigfoot, Yeren, Sasquatch, Windigo, Skunk Ape, Mapinguary, Maricoxi, etc, are all names for various alleged undiscovered hominins around the world. Bigfoot is not just a phenomenon limited to North America. Peoples the world over have reported sightings of creatures that fit the description of sasquatch for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

    This article from Crystalinks.com hosts a very comprehensive listing of bigfoot sightings from all around the world. I've been a follower of bigfoot research for most of my life, and yet, this article taught me a thing or two.

"Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a figure in North American folklore alleged to inhabit remote forests, mainly in the Pacific northwest region of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia. In northern Wisconsin, Lakota Indians know the creature by the name Chiye-tanka, a Lakota name for "Big Elder Brother".
Bigfoot is sometimes described as a large, hairy bipedal hominoid, and many believe that this animal, or its close relatives, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti of Tibet and Nepal and the Yowie of Australia.
Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of cryptozoology, a subject that the scientific community tend to dismiss as pseudoscience because of unreliable eyewitness accounts, lack of scientific and physical evidence, and over-reliance on confirmation rather than refutation. Most experts on the matter consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes."

    Considering the incomplete fossil record and all it has taught us about previous hominins to inhabit this planet, it seems to me that most of these alleged bi-peds are entirely possible. Nothing highlights this fact better than the 2003 discovery of Homo Floresiensis, as touched upon in this post.

    Whether you're looking to brush up on your global bigfoot knowledge, or just interested in learning more about other cultures' versions of the big guy, this article is definitely worth your time. The same site also hosts other information on Cryptozoological matters that explores other cryptids ranging from believable to outright weird.

    Thanks for reading!

 - A.Z.