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Awesome or Off-Putting: Bigfoot's Back

The world's favourite large-footed ape-man is making a stir again, and that stir includes misconstrued bison hair, Malaysian scientists and a kid with a video camera.

Whether you call him Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti or The Skunk Ape, it's all the same supposed creature: Usually an extremely tall hair covered and stinky man-ape biped. Everyone knows the general scenario that accompanies a sighting: a lone witness who sees something out of the corner of their eye. They look over only to find a giant upright gorilla with the face of a person and a barrel chest disappear behind a pine tree. The sightings rarely last long, and are generally at a distance, but they're reported all the time.

In Malaysia some of these reports are leading to scientific research teams heading into the rain forest to find a Sasquatch, or evidence there-of. In America one of the more recent sightings comes with actual video footage...

There's been a rash of Bigfoot (Stuff) sightings the world over in recent months, several of which come out of Malaysia. The Sasquatch has been at the forefront of the Malaysian minds for weeks now, and their government is taking it very seriously. One of the specified reports comes from a Malaysian man who claims to have seen the animal standing at about ten feet tall (three metres) on its huge hind legs next to a river. In ( and of itself that generic sighting isn't overly stimulating, but when it gets put into the context of the sighting epidemic that it's a small piece of, it's legitimacy gains some serious momentum.

There have been so many sightings, in fact, that the Malaysian government is readying two scientific teams to get in there and have a look around. An unnamed government official said: "Yes, the State Government has decided to send teams of scientists to try and track it" and Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman said on the matter: "We hope the expedition will be able to prove its existence."

Switching continents, in the summer of '05 there were some witnesses in the Canadian town of Teslin that actually saw Bigfoot make some tracks past a house in the middle of the night. He'd reportedly left behind footprints, and a much more substantial clump of hair. The hair was submitted to geneticists at The University Of Alberta, with the hopes that it's analysis would come back from the awe-stuck scientists as: Never having been identified before, but probably from some sort of monkey.

It didn't happen. The tests said it was Bison hair, and the disappointed hopefuls probably walked away with their hands in their pockets kicking a pebble down the street.

In more uplifting Sasquatch news (and this is the good part), we've got some recent video. Now, Bigfoot video is usually quite terrible, we know. You have the Patterson Film filmed on October 20, 1967) which - after viewing - hecklerspray thought, "That looks like a guy in a cheap monkey suit."

Then you have the more recent 2 minute 49 second Manitoba footage, which shows a Bigfoot walking calf-deep along a river's edge. hecklerspray hasn't seen this video yet. It was made available for a very short period of time, but on the advice of lawyers, the owner of the tape withdrew any permission to air it. It was filmed from a ferry, and at some distance, leading to the creature's features being indiscernible, and over all being very small on screen.

Now the footage we'd like you to see here was filmed on November 14, 2005 in northern California. It was filmed by one Mark Nelson, who was backpacking along a dear trail at the time. He saw the creature, then looked away to grab his video camera out of his bag. That's why at the beginning of the film, it looks like a desperate scramble to find something again.

hecklerspray has seen its fair share of Bigfoot footage, be it video or still photo. Usually such a viewing leads to a disappointed shake of the head, and wishing harm onto the people we think faked it. In this case though, we were surprised to find ourselves thinking: "That actually looks pretty good." Keep in mind Biggie's time in-shot is pretty short, and ends up really blurry, but the several seconds of clarity had us play it again and again.

hecklerspray's verdict on Bigfoot's recent rebirth: Awesome.

[story by Shawn Lindseth]

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I was quite impressed with this video when I first saw it. I wrote the kid via email and suggested he contact the BFRO. I also told him he could be making some big money off of this if it's legit. He should license it. If he read that email I don't know but shortly there after it appeared on the BFRO website. I am now of the opinion that this video is a hoax. He has been interviewed and his story unfortunately doesn't hold water. Here's a link to what people are saying about the video. It's quite long but somewhere in there is the interview with Mark Nelson by Dan Frietas a respected Sasquatch investigator.
http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=13453

I don't know much of this site but found it doing a quick search on the video. They believe it to be a hoax.
http://squatchdetective.com/video.html

Also the BFRO is posting some stuff lately as credible, possibly to peak interest in their Sasquatch expedition business they've started. A.K.A. - Expensive camping trips