![]() ![]() ![]() 16th century Spanish explorers and Mexican settlers in California told tales of the los Vigilantes Oscuros, or "Dark Watchers", large creatures alleged to stalk their camps at night. The local tribespeople call the largest of the glyphs "Hairy Man" and they are estimated to be between 5 years old. On the Tule River Indian Reservation in Central California, petroglyphs created by a tribe of Yokuts at a site called Painted Rock are alleged by some to depict a group of Bigfoot called "the Family". Many of the indigenous cultures across the North American continent include tales of mysterious hair-covered creatures living in forests, and according to anthropologist David Daegling, these legends existed long before contemporary reports of "Bigfoot." These stories differed in their details regionally and between families in the same community. History Indigenous and early recordsĪ reproduction of the petroglyphs at Painted Rock. Some footprint casts have also contained claw marks, making it likely that they came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws. The enormous footprints for which the creature is named are claimed to be as large as 610 millimetres (24 in) long and 200 millimetres (8 in) wide. Michael Rugg, owner of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Northern California, claims to have smelled Bigfoot, stating, "Imagine a skunk that had rolled around in dead animals and had hung around the garbage pits". However, eyeshine is not present in humans or any other known apes and so proposed explanations for observable eyeshine off of the ground in the forest include owls, raccoons, or opossums perched in foliage. Some alleged nighttime sightings have stated the creature's eyes "glowed" yellow or red. Ĭommon descriptions include broad shoulders, no visible neck, and long arms, which skeptics describe as likely misidentification of a bear standing upright. In 1971, multiple people in The Dalles, Oregon, filed a police report describing an "overgrown ape", and one of the men claimed to have sighted the creature in the scope of his rifle, but could not bring himself to shoot it because, "It looked more human than animal". Some alleged observations describe Bigfoot as more "man-like", with reports of a human-like face. Anecdotal descriptions estimate a height of roughly 1.8–2.7 metres (6–9 ft), with some descriptions having the creatures standing as tall as 3.0–4.6 metres (10–15 ft). īigfoot is often described as a large, muscular, and bipedal ape-like creature covered in black, dark brown, or dark reddish hair. "Sassy the Sasquatch" roadside attraction statue in the Garden of the Gods Wilderness within the Shawnee National Forest in Herod, Illinois. Other creatures of relatively similar descriptions are alleged to inhabit various regions throughout the world, such as the Skunk ape of the southeastern United States the Almas, Yeren, and Yeti in Asia and the Australian Yowie all of which are also engrained in the cultures of their regions. Wishful thinking, a cultural increase in environmental concerns, and overall societal awareness of the subject have been cited as additional factors. Folklorists trace the phenomenon of Bigfoot to a combination of factors and sources including indigenous cultures, the European wild man figure, and folk tales. Mainstream scientists have historically discounted the existence of Bigfoot, considering it to be the result of a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than a living animal. Bigfoot is an icon within the fringe pseudoscience of cryptozoology, and an enduring element of popular culture. Tales of wild, hairy humanoids exist throughout the world, and such creatures appear in the folklore of North America, including the mythologies of indigenous people. Some of this evidence was later discovered to be hoaxes or misidentification, and scientists do not find any of the remaining evidence compelling. Dubious evidence has been offered to prove Bigfoot's existence, including anecdotal claims of sightings, photographs, video and audio recordings, hair samples, and casts of large footprints. Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid alleged by cryptozoologists and enthusiasts to inhabit the forests of North America.
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