[Physicist]

There's no obvious reason why something like bigfoot couldn't exist, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If someone claims to have discovered a new species of beetle, I'll take his word for it that a specimen has been placed in a drawer somewhere in the British Museum. If someone claims to have discovered a second living species of hominid, he'd better bring one in.

[spetznaz]

I personally do not believe in the existance of Sasquatch/bigfoot/yeti etc, but there is a wee chance it might be true. After all for many years explorers thought that the Mountain Gorilla in Africa and the Orangotang in Asia were figments exuded from the superstitious imaginations of the natives, but to their chagrin both gorillas and Orangs came to be real. Hence there is a slight chance that Sasquatch exists. As for the lack of bodies it is really not that often that someone out in the woods comes upon a bear carcass! Hence it is within the realm of probability that a rarer species like Sasquatch (if it exists) would have an even harder likelihood of a carcass been discovered! A good example is stray cats! Unless they get run over by a vehicle one never finds their remains after their demise. Hence lack of body evidence does not necessarily mean no creature.

However my personal theory is that maybe what the BigFott 'witnesses' have seen is either a prank, or might be an escaped pet goreat ape (ranging from an orang to a gorilla ....maybe even a large gibbon)! After all the gorilla is a creature that is unlike any found in the States, and maybe confusion could come from a sighting.

And although a wild gorilla running free in North America may seem absurd at first, remember that in Britain there have been reports of Lions, Leopards and 'mystery cats' stalking he wild countryside and killing sheep! On top of that some have actually been caught, and to the surpirse of naturalist turned out to be 'amalgamations' of two cat species (eg when a Male lion and a female tiger mate they produce offspring called a Liger which is larger than a lion or tiger; and when a male tiger and a lioness mate they produce a Tigon. Do a search on them ...especially the Liger. Interesting). Anyways the British cats were not Ligers or Tigons, but there were several Leopards, and some Leopard/Cougar combinations! The leopards were especially bad for the sheep farmers since leopards have a penchant for slaughtering for pleasure (they are the only cat species that does that, and int heir native Africa they are feared more than the lion). Hence if exotic Wild cats can be found in the UK there is a chance a gorilla could be lose in North America.

Anyways i would say Sasquatch is merely wishful thinking. Or it might be an escaped ape. However i doubt there is actually some hominid bipedal creature chilling out in the woods!

It is possible, but at the same time highly improbable.

[matrix]

  The Skunk Ape is one of the many local variations

of the Bigfoot phenomena, this one hails from way

down south in Dixie; in particular Florida, the

Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, (where's he's

been given the delightful moniker, Pigman),

and the swampy bottomlands of the Mississippi River.  The creature became more than just a local story in 1973, when a rash of reports brought him to national attention.  The skunk ape was even covered by all three national TV network news shows, though Walter Cronkite looked

as if he was having a hard time repressing a snicker as

he narrated the account.

  The report that made a celebrity out of the skunk ape

was one in which a Florida man claimed that he had actually hit one of the creatures while it was crossing the road.  The monster was obviously hurt, the man said, but it managed to limp off the road and into the dense swamp, where it disappeared.  The police examined the man's car and determined that he had indeed hit something - the fender was dented and there were traces of blood and fur on the car.  Investigators thought the man had hit a cow.  The witness insisted differently, it was a large hairy biped with an evil smell, he said.  It was the creature known as the skunk ape.

  While a bad odor is a feature of many Bigfoot stories, the Southern variety does appear to possess a particularly awful smell - hence the name skunk ape.  When Ralph Chambers reported spotting the thing near his Elfers, Florida home in 1966, he says that he particularly remembers the creature's sickening odor.  What Chambers saw was big, hairy, over seven feet tall, and four feet wide.  The thing vanished into the swamp and when Chambers tried to track it with his dogs, the poor pooches seemed so disgusted by the strong odor that

                                                       they would not follow the trail.  Chambers

                                                       said that a year later the thing showed up

                                                       in his backyard.  The dogs attacked it, but

                                                       the creature barely noticed.  According to

                                                       Chambers, "The dogs kept on biting at its

                                                       ankles and feet."  But the thing turned very

                                                       slowly away and started walking down the

                                                       road that led back to the swamp.

                                                         A man named H.C. Osborn, an engineer

                                                       and amatuer archaeologist, said that he'd

                                                       been hearing skunk ape stories for years,

                                                       and he was told they had been circulated

                                                       among trappers and fishermen since the

                                                       1920's.  But Osborn insisted he had never

                                                       personally believed any of the stories until

                                                       one day in the spring of 1970 he and four

                                                       friends were digging up an Indian mound

                                                       in Florida's Big Cypress Swamp, and the

                                                       creature popped up right in front of them.

                                                       "It's made a believer out of me," said the

                                                       bewildered Osborn.  He too said the beast

                                                       was seven feet tall, and he estimated that it

                                                       must have weighed some 700 pounds.

  The creature left footprints in the soft earth, and Osborn measured them at a lenght of some17 1/2 inches, and a width of 11 1/4 inches at the toes.  "In later trips we found smaller tracks indicating that there are at least three of them in that section of the swamp."

  One of the other members of Osborn's group, Frank Hudson, said, "We have talked to many old-timers in the area.  They say they are afraid to talk openly about it.  They thought people would laugh at them or think they were crazy."

  In June of 1977, a heavily advertised

film called "Sasquatch" was playing in

Florida.  Commercials for the film were

appearing regularly on television, and

as one might imagine, they seemed to

stimulate a rash of skunk ape sightings.

Three youths reported to the Charlotte

County Sheriff's Department that they

saw the creature twice in one night.

The first sighting took place at 9:00 PM,

the secondaround midnight.  They said

the creature was about seven feet tall,

had reddish-brown, and didn't seem to

friendly, it stood up and then growled

at them.  Deputy Carl Williams drove

all around the area where the sightings

were made.  At a small pond he caught

"something" in the beam of his police

spotlight.  "It was a big animal ... it was

hunched over and seemed to be having

a drink."  It had long brown hair, and

when hit with the spotlight, lumbered

off into the woods.

  The deputy's first thought was that the

creature was a bear, for bears are fairly

common in the region.  "I couldn't say

it was wasn't a bear for sure, but it just

seems logical that it must have been,"

Williams said.  He did however, think it

a bit passing strange that the creature

had reddsh hair while most of the bears

he had ever seen were black ...

 

.

On September the 8th, 1998   after an eight month vigil,   Dave Shealy took this shot of a skunk ape crossing the backyard of his Collier Co.             Florida home.

Everglades Day Safari tour guide Dow Rowland saw a Skunk Ape when he had a dozen tourists in   his Ford van on July 18th, 1997

"It did look like some sort of a creature out there in the swamp,   but I thought it was a guy in a       gorilla suit.  I had to tell the       British children on the tour it           wasn't a real creature."

                          Dow Roland

Three days later Collier County   Fire Chief Vince Doerr snapped the picture above of a skunk ape           on July 21st, 1997.