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02-04-2008, 08:22 PM
News
Bigfoot researcher Diane Stocking makes notes of a reported sighting for her files. Photo by Gary Corsair
Bigfoot believers have a
nswers for their critics
By GARY CORSAIR, DAILY SUN
PITTMAN — Countless Americans say they’ve seen Bigfoot, and hundreds of footprints have been discovered, but until there’s a body, skeptics will remain non-believers.
Even the most ardent Bigfoot believer has to admit that all the eyewitness reports, casts of footprints, “hair” samples, tree rubs, scat samples, recordings of chilling howls and eerie wood knocks may be compelling, but don’t prove Bigfoot exists.
“We don’t know diddly squat. We know it has five toes and walks bipedal, so it’s a primate. Other than that, we don’t know anything,” said Diane Stocking, who has spent 36 years looking for Bigfoot, and heads Stocking Hominid Research Inc. from her home in rural Mims.
For Stocking, that’s enough.
“We know they exist. There’s been too many sightings and footprints for them not to. And the Patterson film. Something — somethings — are out there making the footprints, and we just happen to label them Sasquatch or Bigfoot. They are big, and they are real.”
Henry Cabbage, communications director for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, isn’t willing to go that far. But then again, he won’t wager the family farm against Bigfoot.
“We have not been able to confirm that it exists, but some very credible people, including policemen, claim to have seen the creature,” Cabbage said. “There are enough reports to warrant further study. I do know some of our officers in the field are among the people who claim to have seen the critter. Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Bigfoot believers understand the skepticism. In fact, they are prepared to answer questions from the non-believers’ camp. Here’s what Stocking and three other well-respected believers — Dan Jackson, who spent 20 years tracking Bigfoot, Longwood primate researcher Pat Rance, and www.bigfootencounters.com owner and editor Bobbie Short — say to critics.
Why hasn’t anyone produced a dead Bigfoot?
Jackson: “Go to any state with a bear population, and go the fish-and-game department and ask how many dead-bear carcasses they find each year, and you’ll get the same answer from everyone one of them: ‘none.’ How can that be? We know there are bears. Well, bears are highly intelligent creatures. When they get sick, they go off to die. When they do, predators eat their bodies. Then scavengers come and eat, and scatter the bones. And then the insects come.”
Florida becomes more developed each year. If Bigfoots exist, why aren’t we seeing them?
Jackson: “These things are migratory. You take a topographical map and you’ll see that they can go from south Florida all the way to south Georgia without ever coming out of the woods. And they’re migratory; they move with the seasons.”
Rance: “It’s almost like a cat-and-mouse game. They can see real well at night, hear real well at night, and smell real well. I think they’re extremely intelligent, and I think they watch everything. They’re so at home in the woods. They own the night, so to speak. They know we’re there before we even get out of the truck. There have been so many reports of people hearing wood knocks as soon as they arrived in the woods. It’s like someone’s on guard duty.”
Most photos and videos turn out to be hoaxes. Has any camera captured a real Bigfoot?
Stocking: “M.K. Davis enhanced Patterson film and it’s definitely Homo something. Homo sapien, Homo erectus, something. But Homo what? It definitely has independent movement. When you look at her, just by herself, you can’t understand the massiveness of her until you put her next to another person. Her body is just massive. Look closely at frame 352. You can see so much definition. The film is legit. If you’re going to make it a hoax, why put breasts on it? Why make it a woman? Great apes don’t have breasts.”
Why didn’t you capture Bigfoot on film or video?
Jackson: “When I first started searching, I carried a camera like anyone else. ‘Got to get that photographic evidence!’ Then I talked to a friend of mine who manages a photo processing shop and he told me, ‘I can put anything in a picture, or I can take it out and nobody will ever know.’ With today’s technology it would be easy to hoax a photo and no one would be able to prove it is a fake.’ That’s when I decided, ‘Then I’m going to carry a .44-Magnum instead of a Kodak.’”
What is this creature?
Jackson: “This is a magnificent creature that’s learned to survive in the wild as well as man has learned to survive in his environment. I have been crucified for what I think of it, but they are not the missing link. They are not related to man. They are animal, they are from the zoological world.”
Rance: “I definitely think they are primates. They’re probably going to fall somewhere between chimps and humans. I think it’s a descent of Gigantopithecus Blackie (a long- extinct Southeast Asia gorilla), whose fossil remains were found in China. I think some branched off and crossed the land bridge like our ancestors.”
Have there been any recent significant discoveries?
Short: “On Nov. 7, the History Channel reported that a DNA sample from a Sasquatch has been analyzed from a board of sharp, threaded, protruding screws placed in front of a cabin in remote Canada. Dr. Curt Nelson, senior scientist and biologist from the University of Minnesota, and anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum from the University of Idaho found a bloody footprint and collected hair, small portions of foot tissue and blood from the bottom of the foot from the ‘screw board’ for DNA sequencing.
“The hair sample looked human, but human hair has a medulla, a spongy mass of material in the center of the hair’s core. According to the program, the hair sample matched no known primate and nothing living known to science, certainly not bear. The DNA from the tissue found on the bloody screws was identical to human DNA, except it had one nucleotide polymorphism. The nucleotide that was different, was one shared with chimpanzees. It was primate DNA. They knew they were looking at the DNA structure of a sasquatch. The DNA said ‘primate’ but not quite human and not-quite nonhuman primate … just one of the base pairs is deviated from ours! Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that pretty much cinch the case for Sasquatches being classified in the genus Homo, probably with little difference from us?”
Gary Corsair is a senior writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119 or gary.corsair@thevillagesmedia.com.
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Bigfoot researcher Diane Stocking makes notes of a reported sighting for her files. Photo by Gary Corsair
Bigfoot believers have a
nswers for their critics
By GARY CORSAIR, DAILY SUN
PITTMAN — Countless Americans say they’ve seen Bigfoot, and hundreds of footprints have been discovered, but until there’s a body, skeptics will remain non-believers.
Even the most ardent Bigfoot believer has to admit that all the eyewitness reports, casts of footprints, “hair” samples, tree rubs, scat samples, recordings of chilling howls and eerie wood knocks may be compelling, but don’t prove Bigfoot exists.
“We don’t know diddly squat. We know it has five toes and walks bipedal, so it’s a primate. Other than that, we don’t know anything,” said Diane Stocking, who has spent 36 years looking for Bigfoot, and heads Stocking Hominid Research Inc. from her home in rural Mims.
For Stocking, that’s enough.
“We know they exist. There’s been too many sightings and footprints for them not to. And the Patterson film. Something — somethings — are out there making the footprints, and we just happen to label them Sasquatch or Bigfoot. They are big, and they are real.”
Henry Cabbage, communications director for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, isn’t willing to go that far. But then again, he won’t wager the family farm against Bigfoot.
“We have not been able to confirm that it exists, but some very credible people, including policemen, claim to have seen the creature,” Cabbage said. “There are enough reports to warrant further study. I do know some of our officers in the field are among the people who claim to have seen the critter. Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Bigfoot believers understand the skepticism. In fact, they are prepared to answer questions from the non-believers’ camp. Here’s what Stocking and three other well-respected believers — Dan Jackson, who spent 20 years tracking Bigfoot, Longwood primate researcher Pat Rance, and www.bigfootencounters.com owner and editor Bobbie Short — say to critics.
Why hasn’t anyone produced a dead Bigfoot?
Jackson: “Go to any state with a bear population, and go the fish-and-game department and ask how many dead-bear carcasses they find each year, and you’ll get the same answer from everyone one of them: ‘none.’ How can that be? We know there are bears. Well, bears are highly intelligent creatures. When they get sick, they go off to die. When they do, predators eat their bodies. Then scavengers come and eat, and scatter the bones. And then the insects come.”
Florida becomes more developed each year. If Bigfoots exist, why aren’t we seeing them?
Jackson: “These things are migratory. You take a topographical map and you’ll see that they can go from south Florida all the way to south Georgia without ever coming out of the woods. And they’re migratory; they move with the seasons.”
Rance: “It’s almost like a cat-and-mouse game. They can see real well at night, hear real well at night, and smell real well. I think they’re extremely intelligent, and I think they watch everything. They’re so at home in the woods. They own the night, so to speak. They know we’re there before we even get out of the truck. There have been so many reports of people hearing wood knocks as soon as they arrived in the woods. It’s like someone’s on guard duty.”
Most photos and videos turn out to be hoaxes. Has any camera captured a real Bigfoot?
Stocking: “M.K. Davis enhanced Patterson film and it’s definitely Homo something. Homo sapien, Homo erectus, something. But Homo what? It definitely has independent movement. When you look at her, just by herself, you can’t understand the massiveness of her until you put her next to another person. Her body is just massive. Look closely at frame 352. You can see so much definition. The film is legit. If you’re going to make it a hoax, why put breasts on it? Why make it a woman? Great apes don’t have breasts.”
Why didn’t you capture Bigfoot on film or video?
Jackson: “When I first started searching, I carried a camera like anyone else. ‘Got to get that photographic evidence!’ Then I talked to a friend of mine who manages a photo processing shop and he told me, ‘I can put anything in a picture, or I can take it out and nobody will ever know.’ With today’s technology it would be easy to hoax a photo and no one would be able to prove it is a fake.’ That’s when I decided, ‘Then I’m going to carry a .44-Magnum instead of a Kodak.’”
What is this creature?
Jackson: “This is a magnificent creature that’s learned to survive in the wild as well as man has learned to survive in his environment. I have been crucified for what I think of it, but they are not the missing link. They are not related to man. They are animal, they are from the zoological world.”
Rance: “I definitely think they are primates. They’re probably going to fall somewhere between chimps and humans. I think it’s a descent of Gigantopithecus Blackie (a long- extinct Southeast Asia gorilla), whose fossil remains were found in China. I think some branched off and crossed the land bridge like our ancestors.”
Have there been any recent significant discoveries?
Short: “On Nov. 7, the History Channel reported that a DNA sample from a Sasquatch has been analyzed from a board of sharp, threaded, protruding screws placed in front of a cabin in remote Canada. Dr. Curt Nelson, senior scientist and biologist from the University of Minnesota, and anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum from the University of Idaho found a bloody footprint and collected hair, small portions of foot tissue and blood from the bottom of the foot from the ‘screw board’ for DNA sequencing.
“The hair sample looked human, but human hair has a medulla, a spongy mass of material in the center of the hair’s core. According to the program, the hair sample matched no known primate and nothing living known to science, certainly not bear. The DNA from the tissue found on the bloody screws was identical to human DNA, except it had one nucleotide polymorphism. The nucleotide that was different, was one shared with chimpanzees. It was primate DNA. They knew they were looking at the DNA structure of a sasquatch. The DNA said ‘primate’ but not quite human and not-quite nonhuman primate … just one of the base pairs is deviated from ours! Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that pretty much cinch the case for Sasquatches being classified in the genus Homo, probably with little difference from us?”
Gary Corsair is a senior writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119 or gary.corsair@thevillagesmedia.com.
printable version
e-mail this story
search archives
Co