A leading expert on Bigfoot has explained the circumstances in which the theorised ape creature might be discovered - and outlined the reasons that he believes we haven’t found it yet. Here's footage from one suspected sighting to whet your appetite.
Bigfoot expert Jeff Meldrum believes that there might actually be a few more of the Bigfoot creatures - or Sasquatch if you prefer - out there than you think, estimating that there could even be as many as 3,000 across North America.
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One of the most interesting things about the Bigfoot mystery is that the same common characteristics have been cropping up for hundreds - perhaps thousands - of years in many different and unrelated parts of the world.
In North America, they have the Bigfoot or Sasquatch, whereas in the Himalayas there is the Yeti, and in Russia the Almas Giant.
These are all different names from different cultures - and there are more, too - but they all describe a large upright-standing ape creature that many claim to have seen, but no-one can definitively prove the existence of once and for all.
This has created much speculation around the world, with some believing the creature to be the product of overactive imaginations and too much time in the woods, while others remain convinced that the creature exists - despite the lack of empirical evidence beyond footprints and the occasional large pile of poo.
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Jeff Meldrum is a respected academic, a Full Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University.
He’s also one of the world’s foremost authorities on Bigfoot.
Meldrum is convinced that the creature is real, and believes that we will one day find one - or the remains of one - so that science can study the creature properly.
But, given humanity’s track record with animals like this - think the Tasmanian Tiger or the dodo - does he actually want us to find one, assuming that we will?
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He told LADbible: “Yes, yes, and yes, because I do think that ultimately the evidence will be forthcoming.
“Either through concerted efforts by persistent investigation, or just serendipitously.
“At some point a hunter is going to shoot one, or a semi-truck is going to hit one on a rural highway, something like that.
“Or some spelunker maybe will serendipitously stick their head into a hole in the ground and come out with a skull or a jaw or a leg bone or something of enormous proportions.”
He continued: “Do I want it to happen?
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“Yes, I do - because I think that as stewards, we do best when we know the most about something.
“There are those who say ‘just leave it alone’ but there are lots of species that have gone extinct despite us just leaving them alone.
“I think that whilst there may be what some perceive as negative consequences [of discovery] I think that the benefits of an informed approach to the subject, to stewardship of that will far outweigh the negative consequences.”
While it would no doubt be fascinating and unbelievably exciting to find a creature such as Bigfoot in 2023, the fact remains that the creature has been rumoured to exist for hundreds of years, yet no-one has stumbled across one conclusively yet, nor has one stumbled beyond doubt into humanity, alive or dead.
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On this, Meldrum admits that his answer is one from an ‘apologist’.
He said: “I think one of the most important factors involved is the rarity, these creatures are very few in number.
“Everything that I have examined and considered points to – this is a large-bodied ape, it has a long life-span, it reproduces infrequently.
“We do have footprints, the smallest footprint I have in my collection is about three, three and a half inches long.
“[That’s] probably the earliest at which an infant is ambulatory on its own to leave a print, not always being carried by its mother.
“There’s no question there is demographics exhibited in the assembled footprint evidence of Sasquatch that all points to a large-bodied ape whose natural history parameters would suggest a very low population size.
“I think in North America we’re talking just a couple – 2,000 or 3,000.”
Wait - is that a lot or a little?
Despite the fact that 2,000 Bigfoot would probably exceed the expectations of most non-partisan observers, it’s worth remembering that the wilderness of North America is still vast and largely unspoiled, meaning that there are huge areas that these creatures could roam without ever happening across a human, particularly if they were trying to remain hidden.
Meldrum continued: “If you combine the relative rarity, the generalised diet, the probably very large [range] – we have indirect evidence to suggest a home range on the order of 1,000 square miles - they are very solitary and moving through a very large area.
“That fits the pattern.
“Historically you get spates of Bigfoot encounters.
“Sometimes you’ll get a flurry of encounters reported, some of that is when someone steps forward it gives someone else the confidence to step forward and share their experiences without too much fear of ridicule, but I think it’s because they are moving through an area and they do encounter humans."
“Their intelligence is as such that they are probably very curious about human activities, as well as being attracted by sights and smells and sounds and such.”
In the end, all we can do is hope that one day Bigfoot walks upright out of the pages of myth and legend and into the realms of observable science.
Until then, all we have to go on is the tales of those who claim to have seen one, as well as the aforementioned footprint casts and piles of poo.
Perhaps the myth is better left unspoiled - as everyone loves a good mystery, after all.
Tom Wood