Sasquatch

Just as outer space has driven mortals to imagine the aliens that might live there, the deep, dark forests of the Pacific Northwest have spawned the lore of the Sasquatch. Could such a creature possibly exist? Plenty of people have so-called evidence of this ape-like creature’s existence, such as hair samples, photos and personal accounts.

Certainly, at the height of Sasquatch-mania in the late 1970s, the existence of Sasquatch was more widely believed. However, since then, the Sasquatch saga is thought by most to be the result of hoaxes, folklore, and plain old misidentification.

The scientific community has discredited the idea of a Sasquatch for a number of reasons. Firstly, evidence of Sasquatch is limited and many of the footprints, hair samples, photos and personal accounts that existed have been exposed as hoaxes. In addition, a creature as large as Sasquatch is purported to be would leave greater traces of its existence through eating, breeding and dying habits (a carcass has never been found), not to mention there would just have to be more reported sightings.

Nevertheless, experts as reputable as Dr. Jane Goodall (on NPR Radio in 2002) have declared their belief that large “undiscovered” primates, such as the Yeti or Sasquatch, do indeed exist. Further, hundreds of societies, organizations, and websites are still devoted to gathering Sasquatch or Bigfoot evidence to once and for all prove to the scientific community that Sasquatch is a reality.

Sasquatch in Canada

Sasquatch sightings in Canada are concentrated on coastal British Columbia, especially Vancouver Island.

It is in Canada that the first sighting of this hairy primate is reported. In 1811, trader David Thompson in Jasper found some strange footprints in the snow, fourteen inches long and eight inches wide, with four toes.

In 1884 the newspaper Daily Colonist of Victoria, British Columbia, told of the capture of a “Sasquatch.” The “capture” was later thought to actually be of a chimpanzee.

Clayton Mack, a Native Canadian of the Nuxalk nation and seasoned grizzly hunter claims to have seen an 8-foot tall bear-like creature with human attributes several times in the 1960s.

In 1988, wildlife biologist John Bindernagel found giant footprints in the snow on Vancouver Island and heard strange calls from the woods. Bindernagel, who has a doctorate in wildlife biology from the University of Guelph in Ontario, worked for 20 years conducting wildlife research for the United Nations around the world. He said he has never heard calls such as the ones he heard on Vancouver Island, but was afraid to come forth with his claims for fear of being labeled a crackpot.