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SHORT UFO FACT: [September 27/281952 Throughout Western Germany, Denmark, and southern Sweden, there were widespread UFO reports. A brightly luminous object with a cometlike tail was visible for a long period of time moving irregularly near Hamburg and Kiel. On one occasion, three satellite objects were reported moving around a larger object. A cigar-shaped object moving silently eastward also was reported. ]
UFO OVER HOLLYWOOD
SHORT UFO FACT: [From the town of Flatwoods, of Braxton County, West Virginia, comes the mysterious tale of a burning craft which fell from the sky, and a mysterious being. The account began in the afternoon of September 12, 1952 when Sheriff Robert Carr and his Deputy Burnell Long received a call from witnesses who had seen the fiery object as it crashed into the earth. The unknown object had crashed on the Elk River, south of Gassaway. ]
TOP SECRET UFOS WITH BOB LAZAR 4 OF 6
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>>> You're still not sure? Get the documentary proof here
Reference: paranormal-factor.blogspot.com
Date: April 3, 2012 Time: Approx: 9:00 p.m. On Tuesday around 9:00 p.m. my cousin and I saw a light orb in the sky. It moved fast. It was like a foggy bubble, but it was as if we were looking at the moon (around the same shape and size) and it was transparent. It was not the moon, as we saw that in the opposite direction. It was very fast, lasting only about 20 seconds or so. I have no idea what I was, if you can shed some light on this for me I would appreciate it. Thanks. If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at: "sighting@telus.net" with the details of your sighting. "All personal information is kept confidential."
"The Vike Factor (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/"
"Sightings.com website: http://www.sightings.com/"
"BY JAVIER ORTEGA, GhostTheory"
The following was sent to me by GhostTheory reader 'elhombre'. Molebka, Russia, has been called the latest UFO hot spot in the world. Others, believe that this place is much more than just an UFO magnet. They believe that Molebka could be an anomalous zone. What makes it so are the reports of balls of light, crop circles and strange electromagnetic fields that are scattered alongside the village.
Because of this, the first ever statue of a full alien being was unveiled to the public.Marking Molebka as an official UFO hotspot. Official to Ufologists that is. This statue is around two meters tall and is sculpted after what the public has accepted as being an alien being. Very cool!
Continued:http://www.ghosttheory.com/2011/08/03/alien-statue-unveiled-in-russias-ufo-hotspot
"HEADS UP! YOU will need to decide for yourself here... this is VERY high profile media at Veterans Today..."
* EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE
* October 20, 2012
* By: Michael Salla
Gordon Duff is the senior editor of the popular Veterans Today website who just over a month ago attracted much media attention for his claims that a joint US Chinese naval task force was battling UFOs off the coast of San Francisco. In a Veterans Today blog released today, October 20, featuring an interview recorded on Coast to Coast Radio four days earlier, Duff provided details of a briefing document he personally witnessed in 1982 while working for an unnamed government agency. Duff claims that the document belonged to an organization called Majestic 12 - a committee allegedly formed to develop government policy on alien life - and contained references to two treaties with extraterrestrial civilizations. The treaties, according to Duff, were coerced upon the USA and other countries by a hostile extraterrestrial race. In revealing more details of his 1982 experience, Duff is hoping to cast light on what sources have told him of a hostile extraterrestrial race that the navies of the US, China, Japan and South Korea are currently secretly fighting in the Pacific Ocean. Is Duff revealing the contents of a genuine highly classified government document he witnessed decades ago; or is he disseminating disinformation that was created with the purpose of creating a false flag extraterrestrial threat that may be unfolding at this very moment in the Pacific Ocean.
In his radio interview, Duff described the initial experience that made him aware of the extraterrestrial issue for the first time. He says:
Video: Alien Secrets and the MilitaryIn 1982 I was put on the readers group for Majestic 12. I received an original copy, slightly redacted. Done on a typewriter, dated August 23, 1977, Office of Naval Intelligence. About 12 pages long, I had copy number five.Duff claims that at the time he had a high level security clearance from an unnamed government agency, and that it took him 18 months to be cleared for the Majestic reading group. After reading the document for about two hours, Duff put it back in its binder, and never saw it again.Duff revealed the contents of the document:The document covered the period from 1947 to 1977 when they were produced. They indicated that over this period we had two distinct treaties. There have been more since, I have been told. One [treaty] in 1947, initially with President Truman. One in 1953, with President Eisenhower... The 1953 treaty with President Eisenhower was an agreement, a coercive agreement against the USA on behalf of a hostile alien power that wished to be able to kidnap a number of citizens from the United States, which means of course that they had agreements with other nations as well.What Duff revealed next might be a shocking set of provisions forced upon US authorities by hostile aliens, or something straight out of a propaganda manual to condition a domestic audience for a future false flag alien war.The numbers were unusually high. These were not people that were going to be detained, and probed, and returned. These were people that were going to be detained and butchered. They were very clear about that!There are some important reasons to suspect that Duff may, in 1982, have been unknowingly recruited to spread, at some future time, propaganda that would assist a false flag operation.
First, there is a well known collection of Majestic documents that have been released since 1984, and have been vetted and investigated by independent UFO researchers ever since. Some of these, according to leading researchers such as retired nuclear physicist, Stanton Friedman, are very likely to be genuine. Other Majestic documents are more controversial in terms of authenticity. Nevertheless, none of the Majestic documents refer to an alien treaty, and none refer to the coercive provisions described by Duff.
Second, if there was a coercive treaty imposed on U.S. and other national government authorities with the onerous provisions described by Duff, there would have been other whistleblowers coming forward to reveal this. While there have been a significant number of whistleblowers that have come forward to describe agreements between US authorities and alien races, none of these whistleblowers describe the onerous provisions detailed by Duff. For example, Dan Sherman (USAF retired) claims that he was trained to communicate with an alien species involved in the abduction phenomenon while he was stationed at the NSA. Sherman claimed that the names and numbers he was relaying appeared to be part of an agreement to monitor alien activities with abducted humans. None of these activities were as egregious as those described by Duff. Sherman wrote:The bitterness began a few months after I had started to receive comms from Bones [an extraterrestrial]. It hit a sharp incline when I began to receive the abduction comms and now it hit a crescendo. I was tired of being supposedly so important because of my abilities, yet treated like an underling with no need-to-know.... Why the abduction data? Why had everything been passed in code, mostly, until now?... I finally came to the conclusion, after reporting over 20 apparent abduction scenarios, that I wanted no part of the program any longer. Although I had no reason to believe anyone was being maliciously harmed, I did get a feeling that the abductions I was reporting were part of some sort of higher calling and the feelings of the people involved took a back seat to that calling. ["Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny" (One Team Publishing, 1988) 134, 136]Third, an alleged treaty that clearly describes people being detained and butchered is highly likely to be disinformation. If provisions of a treaty do contain onerous conditions, these would undoubtedly need to be cleared at a very high level, and be framed in a way that would not be so obvious. That would ensure that senior national security figures would not be prosecuted at some future time if and when the treaty/agreement was released to the general public.
In conclusion, it is more than likely that Gordon Duff was unknowingly misinformed with the alleged Majestic briefing document he witnessed in 1982. The goal was probably to recruit Duff so that at a future time he could promote a hostile alien threat scenario that could be manipulated by national security authorities tasked with the extraterrestrial issue. The creation of a false flag alien attack or invasion would enable the national security apparatus to impose more stringent security procedures that significantly increase their influence; maintain a cover up of extensive advanced technologies developed from retrieved alien spacecraft; clamp down even further on whistleblowers exposing alien related classified projects; and, finally, manipulate public opinion about the intentions and activities of visiting extraterrestrial life. Duff, John Kettler and other writers that are currently discussing various sources alleging an expanding battle in the Pacific Ocean between hostile aliens and a US led naval coalition may be revealing a real life Battleship movie scenario. More likely, Duff, Kettler and others are disseminating, unknowingly at best, a well prepared and thought out false flag alien invasion scenario that would make it even more difficult for the public to learn the truth about extraterrestrial life visiting our planet.
(c) Copyright 2012. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org
Suggested by the author:
* Is Alien UFO false flag invasion on the way?
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* Is false flag UFO alien invasion planned for London Olympics?
* Prometheus - are humanity's creators about to return ">VETERANS TODAY"
Published on October 20th, 2012 Written by: Gordon Duff
DISCLOSURE OF UFO CONFLICTS, TECHNOLOGIES AND HISTORY
-
BY GORDON DUFF FOR VETERANS TODAY AND GEORGE NOORY FOR COAST TO COAST RADIO
(FIRST 39 MINUTES)
Thus far, the only national interview with a Majestic 12 "reading group" member. (Listen at your own risk.)
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May 2, 2010 By Stephen Ellis
The term "extra terrestrials" straight away conjures up images of dilute culture past deep heads and eyes, or Steven Spielberg's movie call up in his film, "E.T." or preset very human-like culture as escalation in "V". The fact is, that we don't cling to the slightest feel about as to what extra terrestrials ("ETs") weight come into view like! Our egos launch images of humanoid-types such as we hem in of ourselves as being so perceptive. But, alien intelligence may be so bright to ours that they come into view at us in ominously the fantastically way as we come into view at monkeys or other exceptional ancient flora and fauna.
Being of the fame of space, the fortune of near being other forms of perceptive life out near is very high. Our so-called alliance of science says we cling to been trying to pass on past ETs via radio emission...in need any come to. But what if ETs cling to no achievement to mark radio waves? Or they come into view at radio letter in the fantastically way as we come into view at two tin cans connected by a apart from of string? Anything if the puzzling "crop circles" which cling to been appearing re the world are not just farmers construction vulgar jokes, but are ETs' attempts at letter that we not basically pine for, but major no tribulation to understand?
I've systematically alleged that if I was an ET, I'd most probably daydream to pause banned from the Scrabble such as it is a "militaristic" planet. Show has never been a time in recorded history that near has not been a war departure on anywhere on Scrabble. But, what if ETs are preset exceptional militaristic than Earthlings? Are we particularly that earnest we would daydream them to contact us? As Earthlings, we opinion to hem in we would scrutinize outer-space in hush and that ETs would be the fantastically. This is not, necessarily, the case as leading physicist, Stephen Hawking, has precisely suggested.
Plus, too, ETs can be diminutive or gigantic in magnitude. They can be cooperative...or very snooty.
All these questions are not asked to scare you, but just to candid your minds to other guarantee. In my put, near is so ominously introduce on Scrabble that we cling to yet to discover, we would be far richer wisdom exceptional about our own Scrabble than trying to put a "Delightful" mat down to a form of life we attach importance to nonentity about.
For example: Did you attach importance to that near are undersea creatures introduce on Scrabble that live at something like 200^0 C. (424^0 Fahrenheit)? Or that near are precise undersea creatures the command of which are something like 18^0 C. and the hold of which corridor the blistering point? We've tiny begun to listen to about the creatures that dwell in the Scrabble...and we cling to no feel about what may exist bottom the Earth's 5 to 50 mile stupid open fire on. No culture and no machines cling to ever been near...so how can we know?
And what about UFOs? Are they particularly extra terrestrial, or as science has begun to challenge, are they from into our own planet? The Russian Oceanic documents, precisely declassified, thrust profoundly that they cart UFOs remodel from anywhere bottom our seas. Are near sitting room bottom the open fire on of our molten Scrabble that can help life? Of course it's a possibility! The type of life would not be humanoid, but that does not mean it can not be perceptive...and far exceptional perceptive than humanoid life.
We cling to explored underneath than one-third of the play against of our planet (plus the land play against and our sea floors). We cling to uncommonly explored exceptional than 2 or 3 miles vast for any senses.
Plus, split to hem in about this: the diameter of the Scrabble is something like 8,000 miles. That means that we cling to explored underneath than.004% (one twenty-five-hundredth) of our planet. There's to excess of room for lots of pertinent to exist bottom us...pertinent it may be sticky for us to conjecture. We opinion to rent science's theories that near is nonentity bottom us but a wrap and a molten essential. But that's never been common. It's a accurate theory ominously in the same way as science next theorized that we were the center of the Manufacture and that the Sun and stars revolved about us.
I hem in we would be ominously above steadily if science consumed as ominously time and resources wisdom about the puzzling capsule on which we live great than trying to scrutinize the fame of our Manufacture.
Let me attach importance to what you think? Stebrel@aol.com
WE View HAD DEBUNKERS DEBUNKING FOR A Long Calendar day NOW, A few OF THEM Greatly As it should be AND A few OF THEM ARE Open place AN Embarrassment. DEBUNKERS View NEVER BEEN WITNESSES, THEY Figure TO Butt in Information UP AS THEY GO. I WAS Examination A LARRY Sovereign Questioning (SEE Base) Everywhere State WERE Combination WITNESSES TO A UFO Detection AND THE DEBUNKER Merely SAT State AND Assumed THAT While THE Family SAW WAS False AND/OR INCORRECT! HOW ON Dig out WOULD HE Perhaps Link, HE WAS NO Everywhere IN THE Vicinity OF THE Detection, NOT Aim IN THE Exceedingly State, HOW May possibly HE Perhaps View "ANY Skill" TO Butt in SUCH A Comment.I POSTED A State Surrounding A UFO Refined Basin ERIE A Snag OF Living AGO AND IT WAS Promptly DEBUNKED AS LIGHTS FROM Data lines TOWERS THAT ARE Apparent FROM THE US Simply AT Clear Grow old OF THE See IN CANADA. I View NEVER SEEN Data lines Come to life LIGHTS Move Moreover VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY Subsequent to Dominated FROM A STATIONERY CAMERA. A few WEBSITES Top-drawer UP THIS DEBUNKING Beat AND RUN Afterward IT NO Subject HOW Clear THE Brim OR HOW Doubtful THE State Strictly IS. Abundant Family SEE DEBUNKED Neighboring TO A UFO Detection AND Without delay Organize IT OFF AS A Kid OR Two-timing Detection Subsequent to IN Loyalty Whoosh May possibly BE Relieve FROM THE Truth. TO BE Adjoin State ARE HOAXERS OUT State SUPPLYING US Afterward Plenty OF Two-timing Similes, Two-timing VIDEOS AND Two-timing STORIES AND WE Really Thrust A few Cunning SKEPTICS OUT State Talent THEM OUT. While WE DO NOT Thrust IS DEBUNKERS THAT View NO Length of track OF Skill Talent A few Indication OR Strip OR State Two-timing Merely ON THE Sector THAT THEY Link Eminent. IF A person CALLS No matter which A Kid Thereabouts State IS A few Argument FOR Take steps SO AND FOR THE Limit Periphery THEY Impulse Interpret. ON THE Future Present IF A person SAYS THIS HAS BEEN DEBUNKED IT IS Open place THE Counsel OF AN "Trained" THAT HAS NO Unique HAD Brainchild OF THE Constant Enlargement OR Detection. THE DEBUNKER IN THIS Strip IS Strictly Added Extreme AN Embarrassment. THIS Strip GIVES YOU A Really Immense Tell AT HOW DEBUNKERS TRY TO Expose Afterward NO Demonstrate, NO Smattering In the absence of SEEING OR EXPERIENCING THE Constant Enlargement. FOR A few Argument THIS GUY JAMES Requests TO Claim HIMSELF AS AN Trained, THE Simply Argument WE CAN SURMISE IS THAT IT IS Flexible HIM Temporary, Passing TV Nickname Subsequent to IN Constant Loyalty HE LOOKS Rash AND COMES With a leg on each side of AS Gawky.THIS IS A Immense Strip TO Project YOU HOW A UFO Strip IS Limit Doable A Kid. THIS IS PROVIDED TO OUR Viewers AND READERS A Quick Recite TO Determine Subsequent to A Strip IS Limit Doable Twisted TO BE A HOAX! State IS A Dispatch FOR A few DEBUNKERS AND THE Characterize Right BE Greater Fine PUT AS STANTON FRIEDMAN DOES, SKEPTICS. WE Thrust Family TO Invalidate THE Legality OF OF Clear STORIES AND Measures BUT WE Thrust Cunning Family THAT View A few Skill TO Run, NOT Family UNASSOCIATED Afterward THE Enlargement OR Detection TO Open place Take on OUT AND SAY IT IS NOT Measure OR THAT ALL THESE WITNESSES ARE Merely WRONG! WE Thrust SKEPTICS TO Enticement OUT THE HOAXERS AND THE DEBUNKERS TO Merely SIT Silent AND Kill time QUIET!THEN IT BECOMES Apt TO Reproduction OUR THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF!
Although Sasquatch--after 1958 generally called Bigfoot--is most
associated with the Pacific Northwest (a region loosely ranging from northern California to Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and southern Alaska),
sightings are reported throughout the United States and Canada (Bord and Bord 2006). Many of these turn out to be hoaxes--notably Roger Patterson's filming
of "Bigsuit" in 1967. (He used a gorilla suit purchased from costume-seller Phil Morris, converted it to Bigfoot by modifying the face and adding pendulous
breasts, and enlisted a man named Bob Heironimus to wear the suit [Long 2004; Nickell 2011, 68-73].) Many other Bigfoot sightings are no doubt
misperceptions resulting from expectation and excitement (Nickell 2011, 94-96).
But misperceptions of what? Over my years as a skeptical cryptozoologist, I have looked for real, natural lookalikes to explain various reported
"monsters." For example, the round-faced, gliding, "Flatwoods Monster" of 1952 with its "terrible claws" seemed almost certainly to be a barn owl, just as
"Mothman" of 1966, with its large, shining red eyes, could be identified as a barred owl (Nickell 2011, 159-66, 175-81). Again the legendary "giant eel" of
Lake Crescent, Newfoundland, was probably inspired by otters swimming in a line (who are also known to be mistaken for some lake and sea monsters) (Nickell
2007; 2012a). Given these and other examples of monster lookalikes--I think of my work in this regard as that of a paranatural naturalist--we may ask: Are
there animals that might be mistaken for Bigfoot?
A CANDIDATE
As it happens, there is one especially good candidate for many sightings of Bigfoot--even for some of the non-hoaxed imprints of his big feet. The earliest
record of potential Sasquatch footprints comes from an explorer named David Thompson, who while crossing the Rockies at what is today Jasper, Alberta, came
upon a strange track in the snow. Measuring eight by fourteen inches, it had four toes with short claw marks, a deeply impressed ball of the foot, and an
indistinct heel imprint (Green 1978, 35-37; Hunter with Dahinden 1993, 16-17).
The claws do not suggest the legendary man-beast. Indeed, John Napier, a primate expert at the Smithsonian Institution and author of "Bigfoot"
(1973, 74), thought the print could well have been a bear's (whose small inner toe might not have left a mark). Thompson himself thought it likely "the
track of a large old grizzled bear" (quoted in Hunter with Dahinden 1993, 17).
But what about sightings? It is not uncommon for eyewitnesses to state that at first impression their Bigfoot looked like a bear, thus proving the
similarity (see Figure 1). Yet many go on to rule out that identification, based on some aspect of appearance or behavior. However, as considerable
evidence in fact shows, many Sasquatch/Bigfoot encounters may well have been of bears. Mistaken identifications could be due to poor viewing conditions,
such as the creature being seen only briefly, or from a distance, in shadow or at nighttime, through foliage, or the like--especially while the observer is,
naturally, excited. Non-expert observation is also problematic, as is expectancy, the tendency of people who are expecting to see a certain thing to be
misled by something resembling it (Nickell 2012b, 347).
COMPARISONS
A published compilation of 1,002 American and Canadian Sasquatch/Bigfoot reports from 1818 to November 1980 is instructive (Bord and Bord 2006, 215-310).
Analysis of the cases (which are presented as brief abstracts) reveals that not only general anatomy but also color variations, footprints, behavior, and
geographical distribution of Sasquatch/Bigfoot are often quite similar to those of bears.
"Anatomy". Bigfoot is typically described as a large, hairy man-beast. It is said to walk on two legs, to have long arms, large shoulders, and, often, no neck.
Although it is frequently likened to an ape, it has been reported many times to have claws (Bord and Bord 2006, 215-310; Wright 1962).
Like Bigfoot, bears can appear as large, big-shouldered, hairy, manlike beasts. Their anatomy is consistent with bipedal standing (hence the long "arms")
though much less so with walking--and, according to the Smithsonian expert John Napier (1973, 62), "At a distance a bear might be mistaken for a man when
standing still...." Consider this incident of a creature on the porch of a ranch house in western Washington State in 1933 (related at second hand,
years later, by the daughter of the woman who observed it):
It was moonlight outside, and at first she thought it was a bear on the porch, but this animal was standing on its back legs and was so large it was
bending over to look in the window. She said it appeared over 6 feet tall and it didn't look like a bear at all in the moonlight. She said in a few minutes
it walked over [no doubt only a couple of steps] and jumped off the porch and started around the house. She went into the kitchen so she could get a good
look and she said it looked just like an ape. (Lund 1969)
Ape, Bigfoot, bear? You decide, but remember, this was bear territory. And a standing black bear can be up to seven feet tall (Yosemite 2013).
During several days in April 2013 in New York State's massive Adirondack Park, where there are scattered Bigfoot encounters, I talked to hunters and others
who had witnessed standing bears. One man, at whose remote home I boarded for an evening, told me of once standing face to face with a black bear: it was
on its hind legs looking in the window at him!
Figure 1. Split-image illustration compares a standing bear (left) to the creature it is often mistaken for, Sasquatch/Bigfoot (right). Drawing by Joe Nickell.
The often-reported action of Bigfoot running on all fours is entirely consistent with a bear, as in a case of late April 1897. Near Sailor, Indiana, two
farmers witnessed a man-sized beast covered with hair walking on its hind legs, but it "afterwards dropped on its hands and disappeared with rabbit-like
bounds" (Bord and Bord 2006, 23, 221). No doubt the "hands" were really paws. Again, in 1970, a Manitoba man saw a seven-foot, dark Bigfoot "stand up" by
the roadside at night. And in 1972, at an Iowa state park, a seven-foot brown Bigfoot was shot at and "ran away on all fours" (Bord and Bord 2006, 260,
264; see also Green 1978, 246, 178).
One Bigfoot report was inspired when, in April 1978, a Maryland farmer saw a "bear" walking upright across a field, followed by two "smaller creatures on
all fours" (Bord and Bord 2006, 300). This is consistent with a mother bear in alert mode with cubs. Bears often stand on their hind legs to look and to
sniff the air, and black bears usually have a litter of two, born in January or early February ("Black Bears" 2013; Whitaker 1996, 703). And so,
apparently, a "stated" bear encounter was converted by enthusiasts into a sighting of "Bigfoot." Some months earlier, in the fall of 1977, two South
Dakota boys (ages twelve and nine) saw only "long hairy legs" in the bushes (Bord and Bord 2006, 294), and that likely bear became another "Bigfoot."
Reports of Bigfoot's gait as "peculiar" or the like (Bord and Bord 2006, 290, 291) could be consistent with the awkward gait of an upright bear.
"Coloration". Like descriptions of Sasquatch/Bigfoot, black bears can not only be black but also dark brown, brown, cinnamon, blond, off-white, and white (Herrero
2002, 131-34). The same is true of grizzly (brown) bears ("Ursus arctos"), which--just like a Bigfoot reported in northern California (Bord and Bord
2006, 246)--often has dark-brown, silver-tipped hair (Herrero 2002, 133; Whitaker 1996, 706).
"To confuse the novice further," states a noted authority, "there are also variations in color patterning on the coats of each species." This is due to
genetic factors and to molting. With most bears, a lightening in the color of the coat occurs between molts (Herrero 2002, 133, 134).
In nighttime sightings, color may go unreported, but the animal's eye-shine is frequently described. There are numerous reports of "gleaming eyes, large
glowing eyes, green shining eyes, glowing amber eyes," and the like, including occasionally "red eyes" (Bord and Bord 2006, 259-300). Generally, bear
eyeshine is reported as ranging "from yellow to yellowish orange, though some people report seeing red or green" ("Backpacker" 2013). The North American
Bear Center mentions a black bear with mismatched eyes, due to an injured eye that "shines red rather than yellow" ("Mating" 2013).
"Footprints". Bigfoot has been reported to leave tracks that had two to six toes and ranged in length up to twenty or more inches (Bord and Bord 2006, 215-310). Of
course, many large tracks--like the fourteen-inch ones of Patterson's "Bigsuit" creature--are hoaxed (Nickell 2011, 66-75; Daegling 2004, 157-87).
As to bears, Napier (1973, 150-51) observes that "The hindfoot of the bear is remarkably human-like," and that near the end of summer when worn down, the
claws "may not show up at all" in tracks. Also at moderate speeds the hindfoot and forefoot prints may superimpose to "give the appearance of a single
track made by a bipedal creature" (Napier 1973, 151).
Bears' five-toed hindprints range from about seven to nine inches long for the black bear to approximately ten to twelve for the grizzly (brown) bear,
although some can be more than sixteen inches, and "In soft mud, tracks may be larger" (Whitaker 1996, 704, 707). As bear expert Herrero cautions: "I don't
give measurements because track size varies so much depending on substratum. If a track seems very large, look at other track characteristics."
A bear's smallest toe (the innermost one, as opposed to that of humans) "may fail to register" (Whitaker 1996, 704), no doubt explaining many four-toed
"Bigfoot" tracks. As well, "In mud a black bear's toe separation may not show" (Herrero 2002, 178), possibly giving rise to the illusion that--depending on
just where there might be a slight separation--a "four"-toed track might appear to have been made with only two very broad toes, or even perhaps three.
Rare, six-toed tracks (unlikely for either Bigfoot or bear) were found in Iowa in 1980 after a witness saw a "strange creature on all fours eating [a]
carcass" (Bord and Bord 2006, 307). Except for the tracks (which were probably due to some anomaly like the overlapping of hind and fore feet), the
creature is consistent with a bear.
None of the tracks mentioned in the 1,002 abstracts under study, representing reports from 1818-1980 (Bord and Bord 2006, 215-310), were reported to have
dermal ridges (the friction ridges of, for instance, fingerprints). These are common to both apes and man, as well as, presumably, to an ape-man. (Although
in 1982, a U.S. Forest Service patrolman discovered such prints in Oregon's Blue Mountains, in the Mill Creek Watershed, noted Bigfoot skeptic Michael
Dennett [1989] turned up evidence that those tracks were part of an elaborate hoax.)
"Behavior". Bigfoot's reported actions are quite varied. Aside from such outlandish reports as of a Sasquatch treating an Indian for snakebite or kidnapping people,
numerous acts attributed to the fabled creature again have a ready explanation: bears. For example, Bigfoot often eats berries, fruit, grubs, vegetation
such as corn, fish, animal carcasses, and human rubbish. It may be seen day or night. It often visits campsites, like one raided by a "cinnamon-colored
Bigfoot" in Idaho in the summer of 1968 that left tooth marks on food containers. It also peers into homes and vehicles, and sometimes shows aggression
(Bord and Bord 2006, 215-310; Merrick 1933).
Similarly, bears share these and other aspects of behavior with Bigfoot. For example, bears feed on most nonpoisonous types of berries (which they eat by
moving their mouths along branches). As well, they tear open rotten logs for grubs, and they feed on fruit, corn, and other vegetation, fish, live or dead
mammals, and human rubbish (Herrero 2002, 183, 149-71, 47; Whitaker 1996, 708). Bears likewise are encountered both day and night (Herrero 2002, 170;
Whitaker 1996, 703-709). They visit homes, vehicles, and campsites looking for food, and they sometimes show aggression (Herrero 2002, 83-87; Whitaker
1996, 703-709). These and other parallels with Bigfoot are striking.
Then there are Bigfoot's vocalizations--many of which could well be those of bears. For example, Bigfoot often growls (Bord and Bord 2006, 237, 256, 268).
One "snarled and hissed" at witnesses (268), and another "chattered its teeth" (255), while others "screamed" when shot at (247, 252). Similarly, bears
growl and snort, and they make loud huffing or puffing noises (Herrero 2002, 15, 16, 115). Their most common defensive display is "blowing with clacking
teeth"; as well, they may bawl (from pain), moan (in fear), bellow (in combat), and make a deep-throated, pulsing noise (when seriously threatened). Cubs
"readily scream in distress" (Rogers 1992, 3-4).
"Distribution". The habitat of Bigfoot in the 1,002 abstracts we are studying--from 1818 to November 1980--is extensive. It includes most continental American states
(excepting Delaware, Rhode Island, and South Carolina) and eight of thirteen Canadian provinces. The greatest number of sightings were in Washington State
(110), followed by California (104), British Columbia (90), and Oregon (77)--that is, in the Pacific Northwest, the traditional domain of Sasquatch--followed
by Pennsylvania and Florida (42 each). It is reportedly seen in woods and fields, along streams, and so on (Bord and Bord 2006, 215-310; Nickell 2011,
225-29).
The distribution of black bears is strikingly similar, as shown by population maps provided by the Audubon Society (Whitaker 1996, 704) and elsewhere
(Herrero 2002, 80). America's grizzly population was once quite extensive and included the western states (Herrero 2002, 4); however, grizzlies are now
relegated mostly to Yellowstone Park (chiefly in northwest Wyoming) and its vicinity, and to portions of the northernmost areas of Washington, Idaho, and
Montana, as well as most of British Columbia, Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territory, and Alaska (Herrero 2002, 4; Whitaker 1996, 708). Like Bigfoot,
bears are also seen in woods and fields, along streams, and so on.
ASSESSMENT
Again and again come eyewitness reports of Bigfoot that sound like misreports of bears. In Washington State, for instance, in 1948, a man saw a "thin,
black-haired, 6-ft Bigfoot squatting on [a] lake shore." In September 1964 a Pennsylvania man spotted "Bigfoot peering in a window of his mother's home at
dusk," while a man sleeping in his car in northwest California was "woken by Bigfoot shaking it." In July 1966, a British Columbia woman saw "head and
shoulders of Bigfoot above 6-ft raspberry bushes at night." In June 1976, three Floridians saw a creature "6 ft tall, with long black hair, standing in a
clump of pine trees." In August 1980, two Pennsylvania men "Driving down a mountain, saw husky black hairy creature standing in road." And so on, and on
(Bord and Bord 2006, 230, 241, 244, 287, 309).
Let it be understood that I am in no way saying that all Sasquatch/Bigfoot sightings involve bears. After all, some are surely other misidentifications or
hoaxes involving people in furry suits (Nickell 2011, 72-73). As well, Venezuela's "Loy's Ape" of the 1920s was identified as a large spider monkey, and
two specimens of China's legendary Yeren, shot in 1980, proved to be the endangered golden monkey (Nickell 2011, 85-87, 96).
I am merely pointing out, what should now be obvious, that many of the best non-hoax encounters can be explained as misperceptions of bears. Of creatures
in North America, standing bears are the best lookalike for the bipedal, hairy man-beasts called Bigfoot. Bears also frequently behave like Bigfoot, and
they are found in regions common to the legendary creature--no certain trace of which, in the fossil record or otherwise, has ever been discovered.
References
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Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. 2006. "Bigfoot Casebook Updated: Sightings and Encounters from 1818 to 2004". N.p.: Pine Winds Press.
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