Bigfoot Risks Extinction, says Canadian MP

[Kreskin]

OTTAWA (AFP) - Bigfoot, the legendary hairy man-like beast said to roam the wildernesses of North America, is not shy, merely so rare it risks extinction and should be protected as an endangered species.

So says Canadian MP Mike Lake who has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act, alongside Whooping Cranes, Blue Whales, and Red Mulberry trees.

"The debate over their (Bigfoot's) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing," reads a petition presented by Lake to parliament in March and due to be discussed next week.

"Therefore, the petitioners request the House of Commons to establish immediate, comprehensive legislation to affect immediate protection of Bigfoot," says the petition signed by almost 500 of Lake's constituents in Edmonton, Alberta.

A similar appeal has been made to the US Congress.

Down through history, there have been numerous, if unsubstantiated sightings of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch in North American folklore.

The beast is said to inhabit remote forests, mainly in the US Pacific northwest and western Canada, and many believe it could be related to the equally mythical Yeti said to have found its home in Tibet and Nepal.

While sometimes described as large, hairy bipedal hominoids, Bigfoot are considered by most experts to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes.

But the legend remains strong, and Bigfoot researcher Todd Standing, who was behind the petition, claims to have proof of its existence, and says he fears for its safety.

"When I get species protection for them nationwide, I will make my findings public and I will take this out of the realm of mythology. Bigfoot is real," Standing told Global National television news.

He said he has 12 seconds of video footage of Bigfoot roaming Canada's western Rocky Mountains included in a 30-minute documentary, but his detractors say it was staged with actors.

His supporters hail from Canada's westernmost provinces, but Bigfoot sightings have been reported across the country, which is 90 percent uninhabited.

There are currently 516 plant and animal species at risk in Canada, according to Environment Canada. Another 13 species are already extinct.


http://fe2.news.re3.yahoo.com/s/afp...fp/canadauspoliticsanimaloffbeat_070502173737

 

[mabudon]

Wow....

Well, they sure are scarce, what's to say they ain't extinct already??

 

[Kreskin]

How many were lost on 9-11 alone? Probably culled half of the herd.

Is a group of Bigfoot (or Bigfeet) called a herd?

 

[mabudon]

Yeah, on that day, everything changed- with particular impact on the mythological, eh?

I can't recall what my granpa used to call a group of Bigfeet- he used to tell stories of crossing the Plains in the old days and the praries were just black with the things, tho, that much I do believe I remember

 

[DurkaDurka]

I saw Bigfoot riding a unicorn in downtown Toronto...

 

[Kreskin]

They were used as cheap labour during the building of national railway. To escape slavery they went deep into the bush.

 

[Zzarchov]

You know, It really isn't that far fetched to have some form of monkey or ape in northern climes. Plenty of "Hoax" animals have turned out to be true over the years. I mean, No one believed the platypus was real, even when they brought back a dead one.

In terms of believability, I put a North American Gorilla above "F***ed up duck-beaver-thing", and we know thats real.

 

[mabudon]

Yeah, the platypus really does make a lot of stuff seem more sensible, doesn't it??

 

[#juan]

There is a Sasquatch who lived close to our neighborhood on Gabriola. He is completely covered with hair and stands at least 6'-6" tall. This being is capable of rudimentary communication though I've never heard it utter a word. I say it is capable of communication of some sort because it has somehow acquired a Harley Davidson motorcycle and he must put gas in it occasionally.

 

[Blackleaf]

People in Europe and North America and other places outside Africa made a mockery at the idea of the existence of the gorilla just as you are doing at the idea of the existence of Bigfoot, until 1847 when the existence of the gorilla was proved beyond doubt.

People just found it hard to believe that there was a human-size, hairy, man-like being living in the wild in Africa.

 

[DurkaDurka]

People in Europe and North America and other places outside Africa made a mockery at the idea of the existence of the gorilla just as you are doing at the idea of the existence of Bigfoot, until 1847 when the existence of the gorilla was proved beyond doubt.

Blackleaf.... care to come to Canada and hunt down the ever so elusive Sasquatch for us?

 

[Blackleaf]

Blackleaf.... care to come to Canada and hunt down the ever so elusive Sasquatch for us?

If it's elusive then I wouldn't stand a chance.

I also wouldn't stand a chance of catching what is probably Britain's rarest mammal - the Bechstein's bat - but it still exists somewhere in Britain.

You also have to remember that Canada is one of the Top 10 most sparsely-populated countries on earth and there are probably many places in Canada where no human being has ever set foot.

How do you know what undiscovered animals lurk in your vast wilderness areas?

 

[Blackleaf]

It's also uncanny how people from other countries and cultures have reported seeing similar creatures to the Bigfoot - such as the Yeti in the Himalayas and the Yowie in Australia.

The famous Patterson-Gimlin movie footage of October 1967 filmed in northern California

"Sasquatch" is what the Native Indians of Canada called these creatures - they saw them long before the first Europeans arrived. These creatures were said to exist on Vancouver Island and near Harrison Lake.

Krantz (an expert) argued that a relic population of Gigantopithecus blacki would best explain Bigfoot reports. Based on his fossil analysis of its jaws, he championed a view that Gigantopithecus was bipedal.

Bourne writes that Gigantopithecus was a plausible candidate for Bigfoot since most Gigantopithecus fossils were found in China, whose extreme eastern Siberian forests are similar to those of north-western North America. Many well-known animals have migrated across the Bering Strait, so it was not unreasonable to assume that Gigantopithecus might have as well. "So perhaps," Bourne writes, "Gigantopithecus is the Bigfoot of the American continent and perhaps he is also the Yeti of the Himalayas".

The Gigantopithecus hypothesis is generally considered highly speculative. Given the mainstream view that Gigantopithecus was quadrupedal, it would seem unlikely to be an ancestor to the biped Bigfoot is said to be. Moreover, it has been argued that G. blackis enormous mass would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.[1] An analysis of the famous Patterson-Gimlin film shows that frames 369, 370, 371, and 372 all show a slender lower mandible, that does not match the massive lower mandible of Gigantopithecus blacki, which, assuming that the Patterson-Gimlin film is legitimate, would eliminate G. blacki as a candidate for Bigfoot. (Bigfoot Coop Newsletter, March 1997, also the documentary Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science).

"That Gigantopithicus is in fact extinct has been questioned by those who believe it survives as the Yeti of the Himalayas and the Sasquatch of the north-west American coast. But the evidence for these creatures is not convincing."

Other extinct apes

A species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, with its crested skull and bipedal gait, was suggested by Napier and anthropologist Gordon Strasenburg as a possible candidate for Bigfoot's identity.

Some Bigfoot reports suggest Homo erectus to be the creature, but H. erectus skeletons have never been found on the North American continent.

There was also a little known genus, called Meganthropus, which reputedly grew to enormous proportions. Again, there have been no remains of this creature anywhere near North America, and none younger than a million years old.

Theories

Bigfoot is one of the more famous creatures in cryptozoology. Cryptozoologist John Green has postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon (Green 1978:16).

Indian Native tribes in the Northwest note the appearance of large creatures, they call Sasquatch. Such creatures were said to exist on Vancouver Island and near Harrison Lake.

The earliest unambiguous reports of gigantic apelike creatures in the Pacific north-west date from 1924, after a series of alleged encounters at a location in Washington later dubbed Ape Canyon, as related in The Oregonian.[2] Reports the pro-Bigfoot authors claim are similar appear in the mainstream press dating back at least to the 1860s. The phenomenon attained widespread notoriety in 1958 when enormous footprints were reported in Humboldt County, California by roadworkers; the tracks pictured in the media inspired the familiar name "Bigfoot".


wikipedia.org

 

[eh1eh]

It's also uncanny how people from other countries and cultures have reported seeing similar creatures to the Bigfoot - such as the Yeti in the Himalayas and the Yowie in Australia.





Bigfoot collects Airmiles, so he gets around.

 

[mabudon]

Given that there's humans in all them places, it ain't too shocking that folks see humanoid things thereabouts. Humans seeing things that look a LOT like humans (and could in fact BE humans, perhaps engaged in some kind of "shady business") is a pretty common thing

Some folks truly believe that jesus chooses to manifest in cheese sandwiches, doesn't make it the truth, but I sure have heard a lot of "reports"

 

[Zzarchov]

It also doesn't make it untrue.

Not to be a nay sayer, but scientific method. There is no proof for or against it. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Now, if there was some kind of impossible aspect to sasquatch (it changed shape or had laser eyes or could read minds) then it would be perfectly reasonable to say "prove it exists, because I can show its attributes aren't possible".

But to say "An ape? In an uncharted forest where I haven't seen an Ape..apes much like exist on the rest of the world! Preposterous!" is equally foolish as to blindly claim it is there without proof.

Again, Keep in mind THIS creature is real and it is far less believable

 

[Kreskin]

As skeptical as I am I wish one of these stories would be proven correct; to pick up a paper that says "Bigfoot Caught!". I'm no more confident that such will be than I am of space aliens being caught while creating crop circles or Elvis returning. Makes for good fun to think of what could be, but I won't hold my breath anytime soon. I suppose if they make Bigfoot a protected species then we won't see any hoaxters claiming to have shot one and cooked it up on an open flame. Probably tastes like chicken anyway.

 

[Walter]

Is a group of Bigfoot (or Bigfeet) called a herd?

I believe it would be called a smelly.

 

[Kreskin]

I believe it would be called a smelly.

That's a good one. I would like to make a motion that the word Smelly be the official name of a group of Bigfoot.

 

[Outta here]

I second the motion.

Anybody watch Trailer Park Boys? Bubbles calls 'em Samsquamch.(spelling unverified lolll)

Hey Kreskin... ya really think it tastes like chicken????? :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: