Cryptid Animals: Your thoughts? (Bigfoot, etc)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Over the years I have read about and seen alleged pictures posted in books and on the internet of what they call "cryptid" or cryptozoological animals and creatures, and I am sure many of you here have heard and read things about this.

This includes all alleged sightings and claims and eyewitness accounts of creatures that are not quite classed as "supernatural" such as angels and devils, but, physical creatures that could possibly exist or are claimed to exist, such as "Big foot" and the "Swamp ape".

What are your thoughts on this? Could there be reality to some of these beings?

There are literally thousands if not more accounts of people seeing large ape like and humanoid like hairy "monsters". A native American man once told me he had a direct sighting; where one of these creatures walked into an area where he was, starting looking into various outdoor shelters, and took off; he claimed it did not harm him or try to harm him, and seemed to have a more curiousity-based interest. I asked him what size it was: He said it was in the 9-12 foot range, covered in thick animal like hair, but very man-like in its arms and hands and legs and feet and face. Very strange.

Some claim these world wide sightings of such a creature could be some unknown to current zoological science, primate/ape, that is very good at avoiding capture and official human interaction, because they know how dangerous we humans are in the form of hunting and habitat destroying. But is that possible, with all of our modern cameras and technology and vehicles such as aircraft, for an entire species of ape to avoid us? Its true, mountain gorillas were once thought to be a myth until explorers went and found actual living and dead specimens.

This also includes stuff like the "Lochness Monster" and various sea monsters.

An oceanographer told me and I have studied how the oceans of the world are divided into layers, and there is the ocean Abyss that we have only scratched the surface about what lurks below. New animal and plant species are still discovered yearly to this day. Could there be "living dinosaur" creatures that live deep in the wildernesses of the world? I have read claims by Australian farmers and Aborigines that they have seen what appear to be a species of living predatory dinosaur, similar to the velociraptors and trexes of history.

How much of this is hoax, hallucination, and reality?

We know giant squids exist which have fought with and been eaten by sperm whales down in the ocean. And there is the persistant idea of living Megalodons. As you may know, Megalodon was a giant shark akin to the Great White Shark/White Pointer, and much larger, with huge serrated teeth. They have found thousands of fossilized megalodon teeth and you can even buy them on the internet and in person from various sellers. Could such a living species of giant shark be alive in the deep recesses of our oceans today? Or would they have been captured by now? A giant shark like that would have to be eating a lot of fish and whales to survive, that's for sure.

A friend of mine believes that some of these creatures are real, and he thinks they are so hard to catch and get solid photographs of, because they are animated by very evil intelligent beings, and are not "legitimate natural creatures", but rather, 'designed monsters' intended to harass and scare humans.

[holeshot]

Does your friend wear a tin foil hat on a regular basis? :)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Does your friend wear a tin foil hat on a regular basis? :)

Nope. But I wear a tinfoil Stetson. Just kidding :)

holeshot, do you think there could be some grain of truth to these bigfoot/sasquatch/yeti sightings? Or would such a creature have been officially captured by now?

[Evil D]

Either is possible, could just be the moonshine talking or could be legit undiscovered species. If what we're told about Sasquatch is true, he's an intelligent creature and capable of staying hidden. Judging by what we know of humanity, it's no surprise he would want to stay hidden.

It's a fact that earth is still full of animals we haven't discovered, but it does seem less likely that an intelligent 12 foot ape man is running around remaining undetected. It also seems unlikely that if that creature did manage to go this long undetected that he would slip up and let people see him rummaging through garbage and such.

[holeshot]

Does your friend wear a tin foil hat on a regular basis? :)

Nope. But I wear a tinfoil Stetson. Just kidding :)

holeshot, do you think there could be some grain of truth to these bigfoot/sasquatch/yeti sightings? Or would such a creature have been officially captured by now?

I believe what I have seen, other than that it's all an illusion.

[zacmangray]

What if Bigfoot is Cain from the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Cain is cursed to walk the earth for all eternity and is marked so no one will kill him. His mark being that he is now a 12 foot beast coved in hair. Something folks would either be way to freaked out about or way to interested in to kill.

[zacmangray]

And he simple hasn't gotten caught because he knows all the best hiding spots.

[demoncase]

The whole 'Bigfoot' thing is fun- but I seriously doubt there is an unknown species of 8 foot tall ape-like creature wandering around the woods in the US without more than the most shaky camera footage as 'proof'....Especially considering the amount of guns and camera phones that fill the woods in deer season, proof in the form of a pelt or a HD video seems to be taking a long time in appearing

That said: It's a big old world with lots of places to hide- and that goes double for the Ocean.....We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the sea.....Pretty much every lake of decent size has one or more 'monster' myths (Loch Ness Monster downwards)

When they found Coelacanths alive as a breeding colony in the 1938- when it'd been considered extinct for 66 million years- then hope springs eternal on these things :D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth

[demoncase]

Related aside- should anyone dive off the Maine coast and encounter strange humanoid fish-like creatures, or obtain footage of a sunken many-angled city in the Pacific with hideous octopoid carvings of alien scale then I would suggest calling Miskatonic University immediately.....

...At least before the chanting starts in the darkness.....

[Doc Dan]

What is odd about Bigfoot is that credible bio scientists, zoologists, naturalists, and etc. have claimed to see them close up. Police officers, high ranking military personnel, and others trained in observation have claimed such sightings. I have tramped a lot of territory from FL to AK and have never seen one (but I have seen big bears). I know that there have been hair samples tested that are of unknown species. Is there a Bigfoot? I do not know. I hope so, but I also doubt it. Still, in SEA they are "discovering" new mammals all the time (large ones). So, who knows?

I will tell you all a funny story. When we were kids, we got into this Hollywood monster kick. We sent off to Paramount for theatrical make up and dressed one of the guys up like a werewolf, hair, fangs, and all. Then, he would jump out on the side of the road where cars could spot him, day and night. We would all run off laughing when the car screeched to a halt at the sight. Years later, when I was in high school, there was a legend of a small bigfoot like creature that inhabited that mountain area. HaHaHa!

My father and I were busy building a swamp monster prank before his health deteriorated and we were unable to finish it out. As brilliant as he was (and he was) he loved a good practical joke.

A lot of the sightings that people are reporting are probably just that. Many people are playing practical jokes.

[paladin]

Before the advent of HD handheld, readily carried, point & shoot cameras <read smartphones>, there seemed to be photographs of all these creatures and UFO's dropping into the papers and nightly news weekly, but...they all had a common denominator >>>>> they were always out of focus, low resolution and grainy.

In addition, there were at least as many "sightings" when the witness would claim their camera was out of film or overexposed or the developer mysteriously lost the negatives, etc.

But since the smartphone era these "excuses" for having poor photographic evidence have been factored out of the equation and consequently the volume of staged pics has evaporated, or so it seems to me.

There has been a definite downturn in the amount of incidents when the huckster could claim he/she saw a creature but "didn't have my camera on me." But thanks to the ubiquitous smartphone-- that excuse just doesn't cut it anymore, either.

I've personally noted a paradigm shift in the nature of smartphone era sightings...maybe Sasquatch realizes/senses there has been a quantum leap in photographic capability and capacity for the masses and he's adjusted the distance he keeps away from humans accordingly. :rolleyes: But now, the sightings seem to come from greater distances, in heavier cover, or, are limited to hearing things rather than photographing them.

Add to this the fact that multiple people have had death bed confessions-- or similar, and admitting being duplicitous with their stories.

So it's obvious <to me> that these accounts are almost universally "put on." The balance of "true" encounters can be written off to inebriation, classified military exercises, or folks' imagination running wild and playing tricks on their senses.

Having said that, I was fascinated with the "Patterson Film" as a boy and I still have a nostalgic curiosity about it. And I can't think of a better place to broach the subject than here with all these reasonable and wise forumites! Good thread SEF! :)

[Mad Mac]

There are so many Bigfoot near my property in East Texas,
the county commissioner had to put up a crossing sign.

[O,just,O]

Please explain then why it is that the American Indian, the Tibetans & the Australian Aboriginal have stories & accounts of Bigfoot/Yowie/Snowmen, with drawings & the same description before any white eyes pilgrim or first fleeter prankster turned up on their shores.
They ascribed the same mysticism to them as does SEF's friend.
O.

[Mad Mac]

You may not have seen a Bigfoot, but you've smelled one.

You know how when you pass a dead skunk on the side of the road
you get a nose full of skunk odor.

Then sometimes, you get that odor but there was no dead skunk.
That is where a Bigfoot crossed the road.

The locals here call them Skunk Apes.