I have never encountered Bigfoot. My painting is a whimsical experiment with a new set of gouache paints; and the sasquatch would be a gentler giant. When I was nine or so, I THOUGHT that I detected the American great ape, in the Pacific Northwest. My mom and I went for a short tromp in the woods, and I heared a strange cry in the distance (probably some other animal.) Later, while travelling the roads by car through the small town with parents and brother, I smelled a foul odor (probably garbage.) Still enough to spark a youngster's imagination, just as I liked to regularly declared the blinking lights in the sky from airplanes at night back home “UFOs.”
However, the Sasquatch recently gained a
very credible witness, which has given me pause, and made me
contemplate the possibility of large hominids in the bush. Les Stroud (Survivorman) has had two close encounters with Bigfoot. (Survivorman
is the best and most authentic television series on wilderness
survival, wherein the intrepid star goes out to varied remote parts
of the world and SURVIVES, for 7-10 days at a time, truly alone,
carrying four video cameras and various tripods, and filming himself
on the quest. This starkly contrasts with all other survival
shows—such as Man vs Wild—where the guy pretends to be alone in
the woods, but in fact has a camera crew, and only stays out for three days at a stretch.) Les Stroud's second brush with Bigfoot occurred during the making of the Alaska episode—the furry beast appeared in a tree, hooted at the lone survivor, and crashed away through the treetops when he reached for his camera. The
Survivorman said that he does not know what he encountered, but it
was not moose, wolf, or bear. (And he has abundant familiarity with
such fauna, having lived and slept among them for years.)
Shortly after watching Stroud's
fireside chats, I took the opportunity to see Jeff Meldrum, Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University, give a talk—at the Salt Lake City
Comic Con. Dr. Meldrum is one of the few scientists who gives serious
consideration to the possibility of the Sasquatch, and has given
close review to the evidence, rather than dismissing it out of hand.
He appeared at Comic Con because so many scientists started out as
science fiction fans, so he knew there would be an attentive and
appreciative audience. Meldrum has extensively researched and taught
on the evolution of bipedalism in primates, on various branches of
evolutionary tree, including modern humans—and the alleged distant relative
of Sasquatch. He has constructed a proposed anatomical model of the Bigfoot's foot and leg. He claims that the Sasquatch's foot is more prehensile than ours, and lacks our rigid arch, giving a distinct flexion curve to the tracks. He has noted this and other anatomical
consistencies across many Bigfoot tracks, in many parts of the world (including the information-isolated rural China,)
and finds it extremely unlikely that so many common folks could have
independently made up the same plausible bipedal ape anatomy. He also points out how the Patterson-Gimlin film is
consistent with his model of Bigfoot anatomy, and with the proposed skeleton of Gigantopithecus (inferred by various Anthropologists from limited fossil remains.) Meldrum accepts the convention in zoology that for an
animal to exist, there must be a type specimen. He argues that there
is compelling evidence for the Sasquatch, therefore a search for said
specimen is a worthwhile endeavor. And he is not alone: the veterinarian Dr. Melba S. Ketchum led a research project to test samples of hair, blood, saliva, etc from Bigfoot encounters, and concluded that some of the samples did belong to a hitherto-unknown species of ape-human hybrid. (Although these claims have not yet been tested by independent researchers.) Obviously, most scientists
disagree with Meldrum and Ketchum. But I must admire these researchers for daring to challenge the
status quo, with evidence-based arguments.
In a radio discussion among Les Stroud, Jeff Meldrum, and the Bigfoot seeker Todd Standing, the three contemplate: if the large hominid does exist, what implications would it have for conservation of the American wilds? The great apes are our siblings; and the intelligence of a Sasquatch might be comparable to ours. (Granted, the coal companies in West Virginia don't let a legacy of ravaged ecosystems and people with cancer and birth defects interfere with their profit margin; so the discovery of an endangered and intelligent mega-hominid might have little effect on resource extraction.)
In the meantime, tales from the annals
of science fiction and science nonfiction have communicated and
expressed our closeness to the apes, at a deep level, as only stories
can. In the nonfiction realm, Radiolab has produced multiple killer
episodes about the hearts and minds of animals—the story of Fu Manchu, an orangutan with a penchant for picking locks, is good one
to start with. Then check out "Animal Minds," "Zoos," "Lucy," "Wild Talk, " "the Shy Baboon" and "New Normal?." In science
fiction, the Planet of the Apes series (in both its older and newer installments) has been quite effective at making us contemplate the
thin line (or perhaps imaginary line) between great ape and human. When the ape-rulers of Earth argue that humans are unthinking brutes because they cannot speak (in the original 1968 film,) it is mostly the same argument that René Descartes ominously made towards animals centuries ago, his flawed logic giving a lasting foundation to western cruelty towards our fellow earthlings. In recent media, Writers of the Future Volume 30 contains a gem: the short story
“Animal” by Terry Madden. In a future earth overpopulated and overrun with humans, a nonstop mega-metropolis, zoologist Mackenzie Guerrero is devoted to the preservation of species, and runs a complex where the last members of extinct animals endure. She must face the closure of her beloved facility, which the government has decided to sell for other developments (and the animals for steaks.) There is little public outcry, since everyone is lost in virtual reality safaris of the mountains and jungles that once were. While the feds claim that the animals will be regrown from frozen embryos at some undetermined time in the future (when birth control measures have returned human populations to pre-2075 levels), Mackenzie has a bolder plan to bring back a great ape--and I won't ruin the surprise. Brilliant
speculation, and it truly gives one pause, both a cautionary tale and
an uplifting one.
We share the world with thinking,
feeling creatures. Not only apes but also elephants and whales and
wolves and ravens have shown remarkable emotional bonds and logical
problem-solving abilities. If Sasquatch is real, it will be one more
to add to this cognitive menagerie. I really hope that we can
preserve our furry family, against the forces of population growth,
resource extraction, pipelines and oil spills, omnipresent plastic trash, pesticides and herbicides, invasive species, and global
climate disruption.
