Monstrous Statistics!

Gigantopithecus by Craig Newsom via flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ca_newsom/2692485285/

Just recently, over at my Cryptozoology-themed blog, There’s Something in the Woods, I ran a poll asking people for their views and opinions on the controversy surrounding Bigfoot. Was it an unknown animal? A relic population of the presumed long-extinct monster-ape known as Gigantopithecus? A paranormal entity? Or, merely a myth of now-stratospheric proportions?

Well, the votes were nearly as intriguing as the Bigfoot puzzle itself! And this got me thinking: what do the Fortean and cryptozoological communities actually think of the legendary hairy monster of the dark and sprawling forests of North America? Let’s take a look. Some of the results may surprise you…

Perhaps what amazed me most of all was that almost 1 in 10 of everyone who voted was of the opinion that Bigfoot was nothing more than a legend, a campfire tale, a hoax, a…well, I guess you see where I am (or, rather, the voters were) going with this! Of course, one might be inclined to argue that full-on believers didn’t feel the need to vote because they were satisfied they already knew the answer, and had no need to bolster their beliefs, or a desire to try and convince people otherwise.

Or, maybe, the number of people within the field of Cryptozoology who believe Bigfoot to exist is actually smaller than most of us assume it to be. Either way, close to 10 percent of all the voters concluding that Bigfoot simply does not exist – at all – is, at the very least, interesting!

As for Gigantopithecus – the huge, lumbering ape that roamed what is now India, China and Japan hundreds of thousands of years ago, and which some researchers believe may account for sightings of the Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Yowie of Australia today - well, again, the results were thought-provoking, with approximately 1 in 5 concluding that the beast is a viable candidate for Bigfoot. And, maybe, that’s exactly what Bigfoot is.

But, as someone who does not – in any way – shy away from the fact that I think there is something very odd about Bigfoot that takes it far away from the camp that suggests the beast is merely one of a flesh and blood nature, I consider it notable that more than 20 percent of the voters were of the opinion that Bigfoot is a wholly paranormal entity. Of course, much of this has to do with how we define (or how we don’t define!) the term “paranormal.”

All I can say for sure is that when Bigfoot never gets hit and killed by a car while racing across the road late at night (as it is often reported doing), when it never dies via bullet and gun, when we never stumble across even a single corpse in the woods, and when Bigfoot can be seen – but never captured – in the near-vicinity of large, built-up areas including major cities, then something is amiss. Truly.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have any problem with Bigfoot being elusive. The thing that leads me down the paranormal path when it comes to the nature of the beast is not that Bigfoot operates in distinct stealth most of the time. Rather, I have a problem with the fact that Bigfoot is elusive – and never gives up a corpse – all of the time. If Bigfoot successfully eluded us on 90 percent of all occasions in recorded history, I would actually be totally cool with that. Maybe I’d even be fine with 95 percent of the time. But 100 percent of the time? No corpse? No accidental killing? No death by bullet? Ever? That’s where I have a very big issue.

That 1 in 5 agreed with me on this matter may be significant. Or, it may not be significant at all, in the slightest. It may simply be due to the fact that people who share my views might be more inclined to check out my blog on a far more regular basis than someone who views Bigfoot as an unknown animal of a “real” nature and who routinely reads sites (unlike mine) suggesting that’s the case.

But, by far the most significant poll result was that relative to Bigfoot being an animal completely unknown in nature and origin, which was the opinion of a full and precise 50 percent of everyone who responded to the poll.

So, what – collectively - does this tell us? Well, my poll certainly does not offer us any definitive answers to the true nature of Bigfoot. No poll – on anything – can ever do that. But, what it does do is demonstrate that within the realm of Cryptozoology there is a very high degree of disagreement on what Bigfoot may be, or even if it exists at all!

I certainly expected that most people would opt for the idea that Bigfoot is a real animal (whether Gigantopithecus or something presently unknown and unclassified). I also anticipated that a fairly significant percentage of people might be inclined to suggest Bigfoot has supernatural origins – which they did. But, even I was surprised that nearly 1 in 10 of the people who took part in my poll simply do not believe the legendary beast exists at all – at least, not outside of folklore, legend, hoaxing and myth.

Cryptozoology is clearly full of big surprises. And some of those same big surprises revolve around the beliefs of the people in the field, rather than just the strange creatures they seek!

TAGS: bigfoot, Gigantopithecus

http://www.facebook.com/feltbettor Jeff N.

I would like to find statistics on how many large wild animals, such as deer, bear, elk, are shot/hit with a car but continue to run hundreds of yards before finally succumbing to death. I would guess quite a few are wounded but continue to live normal lives. I’ve personally hit deer who seemed unscathed and ran away. They may of had internal injuries but they seemed to be able to run for miles.

My point is…of the hundreds of stories I’ve read or heard on Bigfoot/Yeti/Yowie etc., only maybe a couple dozen or so claim to have been shot or hit by a car. Of those, the majority were shot from a distance and they weren’t sure they hit the beast after watching it walk or run away. How many of these tales were made up as a great campfire story for fellow fur traders, hunters, and campers?. How many Bigfoot were shot/hit with a car but lived normal lives? And how many were shot/hit with a car, but being in the wilderness, traveled far enough through dense brush as to elude the shooter before dying? And if you believe they are social creatures as many primates are then we must assume other like themselves can’t be far away from the injured creature. If you or me would retrieve our fallen friends, then I think we might assign that trait to them as well.

Then there’s the other shoe. Quite a few stories tell of bodies that have been captured but misplaced or lost. Bodies of wild men have been reported to have been displayed in the shady carnivals and oddity shows, only to be sold to a collector, or destroyed in a fire. Some tell of soldiers from the 1800′s through until today that collected, transported, and disposed of bodies with no apparent reason given.

There are thousands of possibilities of why Bigfoot/Yeti/Yowie are elusive creatures to capture but only one answer. Because we don’t have the facts yet. Until then, it’s nice to speculate but don’t get invested in any one answer. Otherwise you’ll just end up as cynical, smug, and close-minded as a James Randi or Joe Nickell

If you don’t enjoy the ride you probably won’t enjoy the destination.
Nick_redfern

No one is being smug. It’s a simple fact that there is something very curious about the fact that if Bigfoot is a flesh and blood animal it – and Nessie, the Yeti etc etc – is always the one that NEVER gets caught or yields evidence. Like it or not, that IS a fact.

And that fact – regardless of how far away a person was when they shot it, or the issue of being hit by a car etc – leads me down the path suggesting that Bigfoot is more (or less) than mere flesh and blood.

I wouldn’t say I’m invested in one theory. Rather, I veer strongly towards the paranormal theory (however we term that word!), because it’s always the Cryptids that are ALWAYS elusive.

Yep, there are many normal and known animals that most people never ever see (aside from in a zoo). But, the point is that we do have evidence – in the form of living specimens or dead specimens – of those creatures. Most people never see a cougar in real life, and even fewer have physical proof of their experience if they do see one. But, we do know cougar exist – because we do have specimens.

When ALL the Cryptids (Nessie, Bigfoot, Yeti, Yowie, Ogopogo etc) consistently succeed in eluding us with 100 per cent success – every time – and never, ever give up a corpse, or make a mistake where we find even just 1 body, there’s clearly something going on that goes against the statistical data we see in all regular animals.

So, yes, we should be open-minded. I am open-minded. But, in the same way 1 person may be more inclined to go down the flesh and blood path, I’m more inclined to go down a very alternative path.

But, if Bigfoot WAS hit by a car tomorrow and the corpse was unveiled to the world, of course I would change my view. I hope the flesh and blood believer would do likewise if the evidence suggested something not flesh and blood.
Marja

My guess: they are either something supernatural. Or of human or near human intelligence with strong social bonds and a culture of hiding. So if one was hit by a car and died there is probably another near to take and hide the body, no matter how much trouble it/he has to get into in order to do that.

Groups of humans have been able to hide from other humans for long times even if they live close to those humans they are hiding from. And there hasn’t been any really expensive big scale efforts to find them, right? Not the way something like a group of dangerous escaped prisoners might be looked for – something like having big groups of humans scouring the woods where a sighting was made, right after the sighting, for several days, in lines, with dogs, other groups cutting off all the possible escape routes at the same time, while having choppers with heat cameras in the air at the same time?

And since I do think supernatural exists – although no opinions of what it is, how ‘strong’ it can be, what kind of effects there can be, could be anything from ‘people can sometimes see things’ to actual physical changes happening, that of course leaves also the combination of those two alternatives – there are flesh and blood intelligent humanoid creatures living in hiding, but they have something like working magic which helps them to confuse and elude us.
Anonymous

For me, it’s a plain old mystery. There’s no logical way for bigfoot to exist in North America for reasons Nick mentions and many, many more. What about natural disasters? What about accidental death due to environmental conditions?

‘Hmmm well ya never see a dead bear in the woods!’ Is dragged out in argument. No I haven’t, but I’ve seen them in museums, zoos and on TV docs. Grizzly Adams no less!

A couple of years ago, this was enough to rule out the whole subject as hoaxers and the deluded caught in a self-perpetuating frenzy of self-confirmation with the gullible and needy.

Since then, I’ve read a lot more and have only concluded that I’m baffled.
http://www.facebook.com/feltbettor Jeff N.

I think you took my words to mean I was accusing you specifically of something. I wasn’t. I was only making general observations of dozens of paranormal stories and their writer’s propensity to assign attributes to the creatures science insists do not exist. I just feel it unwise to settle on any theory too heavily until any facts worth reviewing surface. Absolutely no offense to you was intended.
http://www.facebook.com/feltbettor Jeff N.

I was struck just now with a question when reading these comments….Why do we think a Bigfoot body hasn’t been found? We assume reasonably that because all reported remains we find turn out to be hoaxes or mistakes that a body or remains haven’t been found. This is misinformation.

All over the world people encounter rotting flesh and bones in their everyday life. If John Q. Public walks through the woods and sees either chunks of rotting flesh and tissue or half buried skeletons their first response is one of revulsion. Why would they investigate further? Second, they would logically assume a hairy mass of flesh is a dead bear or moose rather than a sasquatch. A carcass that washed ashore in St. Augustine in 1896 that became known as the Lusca couldn’t be identified by science let alone an Accountant on vacation.

Several teams have submitted samples for testing and have been given either “Unknown Species” or “Unknown Primate” results back. The only question now is why are these samples never vetted further? Because we can’t get enough mainstream media to cover this topic seriously. No one in this field is equipped to store samples from across the world and compare them against previous results.

Without scientific backing we are all crazies screaming into the wind until we drag a body to the 50 yard line of the Super Bowl and schedule an autopsy on national television. If Bigfoot, Nessie, Chupacabre aren’t flesh and blood then there’s no reason to even be talking about them because if it’s this hard to convince someone an animal they haven’t seen yet exists there is absolutely no chance in getting them talked into hairy hominids and sea serpents from another plane of reality. Guess it’s time to give up the ghost.
TJT

I consider your points to be valid, yet the one thing that keeps me from accepting that bigfoot does not exist, is that I believe people are seeing something out there. Even if you attribute most of the sightings as hoaxes, there is still a percentage of valid sightings out there and they can’t all be misidentifications.

TJT
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K4Z5AUGGVTOUAVI5JVPJH36DNM DaleDrinnon

The results of your poll are interesting so far as they go but they are basically useless except as an indicator of what public opinion is. And public opinion has no real bearing on the existance of Bigfoot or its non-existance, or what its identification might be.

The most severe problem you have with this is that there is more than one kind of thing being called Bigfoot. To go with this, you have multiple creatures with multiple identities, some known and some unkown. And you are quite wrong when you say there is no body (ie, there is no physical evidence) Part of the problem is that you are visualizing a whole and intact carcass. I can think of a couple of cases where a “body” was found and a possible identity advanced, and in a couple of those cases we are talking about single isolated teeth-that part is not an unusual situation for Paleontologists to deal with. But you’ve got to lower your expectations a great deal. Carcasses don’t pile up, they rot and are broken up by scavengers. And whole bodies would be nearly impossible for any single individuals not equipped with a tow truck to deal with.

In several cases we are talking about basically a human Bigfoot and basically human or hominiid remains. But not exclusively, I understand there are some scraps of “Unknown Anthropoid” skulls found out West that have been recovered but remain unidentified, and something like the larger part of a skeleton of an ape like a chimpanzee recovered in Florida. in that specific case, it was explained as a runaway lab chimp. That explanation does not always work.

And once again I need to reiterate my point: Unless people have seen and examined the physical evidence (at least in photographs) they are not entitled to an opinion about the physical or nonphysical nature of Bigfoot, nor yet its classification, and if the people in question are not professionally trained in the identification of human or ape remains or fossils, they are not entitled to any opinion on their classification in any event

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Mysterious Universe