Cryptozoology

must.... resist..... Oprah jokes.......
Idaho scientist seeks to launch aerial Bigfoot search with blimp - Yahoo!7 News
5 November 2012

An Idaho scientist shrugging off skeptical fellow scholars in his quest for evidence of Bigfoot has turned his sights skyward, with plans to float a blimp over the U.S. mountain West in search of the mythic, ape-like creature.

Idaho State University has approved the unusual proposal of faculty member Jeffrey Meldrum, an anatomy and anthropology professor ridiculed by some peers for past research of a being whose existence is widely disputed by mainstream science.

Now Meldrum is seeking to raise $300,000-plus in private donations to build the remote-controlled dirigible, equip it with a thermal-imaging camera and send it aloft in hopes of catching an aerial glimpse of Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch.

Meldrum, author of "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," said the undertaking represents a giant leap in the quest for an animal he believes may have descended from a giant ape that once inhabited Asia and crossed the Bering land bridge to North America.

"The challenge with any animal that is rare, solitary, nocturnal and far-ranging in habitat is to find them and observe them in the wild; this technology provides for that," he said.

Decades of alleged sightings, elaborate hoaxes and the discovery of huge footprints in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere have led to beliefs that Bigfoot is a man-like ape, an ape-like man or a figment of the popular imagination.

Most scholars discount Bigfoot as a phenomenon borne of myth and perpetuated by a mix of fakery and misidentification of real animals. They contend that science demands a high standard of evidence that has not been achieved in the case of sasquatch.

No fossils or other physical evidence has been unearthed to suggest that the largest primate ever known migrated from Asia to the Americas, and no Bigfoot has been captured or killed, skeptics argue.

"There is no Bigfoot," said University of Iowa anthropologist Russell Ciochon.

Believers describe an enormous, fur-bearing figure that walks upright in the remote high country of mostly Western states.

'WELL-MANICURED' BIGFOOT?

The blimp-based search - dubbed the Falcon Project - was the brainchild of William Barnes, a Utah man who said he encountered Bigfoot in 1997 in northern California.

Barnes said he watched an immense, hairy creature that was otherwise "well-manicured" approach his tent before striding up a rocky ledge. Years later, he approached Meldrum, well known in Bigfoot circles, about his idea for an airship expedition.

Barnes and Meldrum hope the Falcon Project will take flight next spring. They envision a months-long expedition that will survey swaths of remote forest across parts of the Pacific Northwest as well as northern tiers of California and Utah.

The aerial evidence is to be dispatched to teams on the ground that would seek to trace evidence or "try to make contact," Meldrum said.

Financial support for the venture has been slow in coming, with Meldrum failing so far to raise a single dollar for the effort. But he told Reuters he was in talks with two cable channels vying for rights to produce a new weekly TV series following the Falcon Project from its inception.

Indigenous peoples from Asia to North America possess lore about colossal creatures akin to apes that live in extreme alpine environments, shun contact with humans and are variously identified as the yeti, Bigfoot, the wild man or mountain man, said William Willard, professor emeritus of cultural anthropology at Washington State University.

While powerful, those myths have no scientific validity, he said.
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What do you guys think of Heck Cattle possibly being breed back Aurochs and Heck Horse possibly being breed back Tarpan?
 
I was reading an article on the Extinct Caribbean Monk Seal and I wanted to ask what you guys think about possible Caribbean Monk Seal sightings really being Hooded Seals that wandered down as some scientists have said.
Personally, I think it's crazy to think that Hooded Seals, a species native to the Northern Atlantic, would migrate down to the warm waters around Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands for no apparent reason. It makes more sense that these are possibly juvenile West Indian Manatees spotted by an untrained eye and, being someone who has seen wild Caribbean Manatees on Puerto Rico, can understand the confusion when seen from the land and when the animals aren't above water but I can't see a local fisherman or a diver, who see the animal underwater, confusing a seal for a manatee.
 
I've just aan intersting article on kentnews.com(don't know how to attach links) about a 'british bigfoot'sighting near tunbridge wells.
you can find the link from criptozoology.com
 
epickoala123 said:
I've just aan intersting article on kentnews.com(don't know how to attach links) about a 'british bigfoot'sighting near tunbridge wells.
you can find the link from criptozoology.com
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?Britain?s Bigfoot? spotted in Tunbridge Wells - News - Kent News
You see some strange things in and around the county, but perhaps this could be the weirdest yet, after claims a British Bigfoot has been spotted in woodland near Tunbridge Wells.

Dubbed the Kentish Apeman, it is claimed he towers eight-foot tall, is covered in hair and has red demonic eyes.

And while that may sound like lots of people after a night on the town, what’s intriguing many is the fact a recent sighting ties in with one nearly 70 years ago on the same spot.

The most recent sighting is believed to have taken place last month on Tunbridge Wells Common – the 200-acre wooded site which sits in the centre of the town and is one of its most picturesque features.

But after it was reported, it jogged the memory of another local resident who went online to reveal how it tallied closely with a story he had heard years ago.

The author, who billed themselves as Graham S from the town, revealed how when he was working as a painter in the house of an elderly lady, she regaled him with a tale of coming face to face with the apeman on the Common during World War Two.

The post read: “One particular day she went to the Common with her husband and was sitting on a bench when they became aware of a shuffling noise behind them.

“Upon turning around both her husband and herself saw what she described as a tall, hairy ape like creature with eyes that were burning a reddish colour and it was moving towards them at a slow pace. They observed this creature for some time until they became afraid and they both fled – terrified.

“She went on to say that they told the police and members of their family, thinking that a gorilla had escaped from a zoo, but were laughed at and were not believed.”

Sceptics may say the incidents could be down to a trick of the light, but Neil Arnold, a paranormal expert from Rochester, said he has received numerous reports of the apeman over the years.

One of the sightings took place in Dartford by a girl named Charlotte who was heading home in her car from the University of Kent. She said she saw a creature with long arms and knees which came up under its chin as it walked. She was so petrified she nearly crashed her car.

Other sightings, according to Mr Arnold, include five members of the Territorial Army in 1991 spotting the beast on Blue Bell Hill, near Maidstone, and throwing stones and shouting at it before running away.

Another sighting in Chatham by a young girl with her partner saw the apeman appear then run off into the bushes.

Mr Arnold, who doesn’t believe the apeman to be a flesh and blood ‘monster’, but a paranormal figure, has also had reports from Maidstone and Hythe. In each example the figure appears the same and Mr Arnold said tales of an apeman date back decades.

He said: “It’s a very touchy subject in the sense that these things are really not normal. I get some unusual reports. There have been reports all over England, but we can never prove something paranormal.”

Mr Arnold said he believes the reports could be similar to folklore tales which described ‘wild men of the woods’.

He also compared the apeman to fictional children’s character Stig of the Dump, which could have been inspired by a sighting as the author, Clive King, grew up in Kent.
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I like this bit in particular: "Upon turning around both her husband and herself saw what she described as a tall, hairy ape like creature with eyes that were burning a reddish colour and it was moving towards them at a slow pace. They observed this creature for some time until they became afraid and they both fled – terrified"

Husband: "oh look, an eight foot tall ape-man. How monstrous"
Wife: "yes, and I see it is moving straight towards us, should we be worried?"
Husband: "no, wait a little bit, it's still a hundred feet away"
Wife (ten seconds later): "it's quite close now"
Husband: "yes, I suppose we should be prepared to be terrified soon"
 
Chlidonias said:
I like this bit in particular: "Upon turning around both her husband and herself saw what she described as a tall, hairy ape like creature with eyes that were burning a reddish colour and it was moving towards them at a slow pace. They observed this creature for some time until they became afraid and they both fled – terrified"

Husband: "oh look, an eight foot tall ape-man. How monstrous"
Wife: "yes, and I see it is moving straight towards us, should we be worried?"
Husband: "no, wait a little bit, it's still a hundred feet away"
Wife (ten seconds later): "it's quite close now"
Husband: "yes, I suppose we should be prepared to be terrified soon"
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That's just a bit of what is known as good old British Stiff Upper Lip, I bet you they where having a picnic or similar and in typical Brit style they refused to be interrupted by such a ghastly sight until they had eaten. It is similar to Sir Francis Drake back in his day when he was warned about the approaching Spanish Armada, in true British style he calmly said there is plenty of time to finish the game and then beat the Armada.


Seriously though (if you can be about Bigfoots), one living in the UK is certainly crossing the lines of possibilities, just about every single species of insect to amoeba has been classified in this country, I don't think that 8foot of hairy ‘manape’ is not going to go unnoticed on a regular basis. I am honestly open minded about their existence in Canada, US and parts of Asia where there are literally scores of England’s of forested areas where they could possibly exist due to the number of sightings and some peoples stories seem so conceivable. I would love to have the time and money to go to places of sightings within the world and have the money and people to undertake a really seriously sensible scientific attempt to track, or capture one or prove at least prove its existence definitively.
 
I also liked this bit in the article: "Other sightings, according to Mr Arnold, include five members of the Territorial Army in 1991 spotting the beast on Blue Bell Hill, near Maidstone, and throwing stones and shouting at it before running away."

The Territorial Army: defending Queen and Country by throwing stones and then running away, since 1908.

That should be their new slogan.
 
Actually, lions have historically been in the jungles before being wiped out. There is a fantastic map showing lions previous range versus their present range that I will try to find and post now.
 
Chlidonias said:
The Territorial Army: defending Queen and Country by throwing stones and then running away, since 1908.

That should be their new slogan.
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Don't forget the shouting too.

:p

Hix
 
Pootle said:
Seriously though (if you can be about Bigfoots), one living in the UK is certainly crossing the lines of possibilities, just about every single species of insect to amoeba has been classified in this country, I don't think that 8foot of hairy ‘manape’ is not going to go unnoticed on a regular basis. I am honestly open minded about their existence in Canada, US and parts of Asia where there are literally scores of England’s of forested areas where they could possibly exist due to the number of sightings and some peoples stories seem so conceivable. I would love to have the time and money to go to places of sightings within the world and have the money and people to undertake a really seriously sensible scientific attempt to track, or capture one or prove at least prove its existence definitively.
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Manape - the canape for men.
 
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