Bigfoot

Excerpt from Sasquatch sighting by Nunavik berry pickers
Two women in Nunavik had an unusual encounter while berry picking on Saturday.

Maggie Cruikshank Qingalik, who is from Akulivik, Que., said her friend saw some kind of creature out in the wilderness.

Qingalik said at first, they thought it was another person picking berries. Then they noticed it was covered in long, dark hair.

She said it was walking upright along the side of a hill, and was taking long strides. They said it would also sometimes crawl.

“We weren't sure what it was first. It is not a human being, it was really tall, and kept coming towards our direction and we could tell it was not a human,” she said.

Qingalik said the creature was 10 to 15 feet tall. Pictures posted on Facebook show the alleged footprints are 40 centimetres long.

The women said the creature didn’t appear vicious, nor did it appear interested in them.

Understandably for such a sighting, the women got scared, hopped on their ATV, and headed back to the community to warn people about what they saw.

Loren Coleman, the director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, has been studying sasquatch and Bigfoot sightings in North America for more than 50 years.

“It sounds like a traditional kind of sighting. I think the only thing I would wonder about would be the height of 10 feet with a footprint as large as you said. But that happens people exaggerate,” he said.

Coleman said Bigfoot or sasquatch tend to be six and a half to eight feet tall. He said they have been spotted throughout the U.S. and Canada since the 1800s.

Since the region has become more populated, Coleman said the sightings have been relegated to the wilderness.

He said he hopes someone took measurements and some good photographs of this most recent sighting.

“If someone could go back there and take some plaster casts, that might be quite helpful in terms of comparing it to the database of other footprints in Canada,” he said.

In Nunavik or Nunavut, Coleman suggests sasquatch may hole up in caves to protect themselves from the elements.

He added they may sustain themselves on a diet similar to caribou. However, he said the omnivores are opportunistic and could eat a range of food including salmon or road kill.

Coleman said he is skeptical when he investigates these sightings. He said he wants to make sure it is not just a common animal, or people trying to make a buck.

Excerpt(s) from Wikipedia article on Bigfoot
Description

Bigfoot is described in reports as a large hairy ape-like creature, in a range of 6–10 feet (2–3 m) tall, weighing in excess of 500 pounds (230 kg), and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair.[5] [9] Self-styled witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla. Bigfoot is commonly reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell by those who claim to have encountered it.[10] The enormous footprints for which it is named have been as large as 24 inches (60 cm) long and 8 inches (20 cm) wide.[9] While most casts have five toes — like all known apes — some casts of alleged Bigfoot tracks have had numbers ranging from two to six.[11] Some have also contained claw marks, making it likely that a portion came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws.[12] [13] Some proponents have claimed that Bigfoot is omnivorous and mainly nocturnal.[14]

...

In 1951, Eric Shipton had photographed what he described as a Yeti footprint.[22] This photograph generated considerable attention and the story of the Yeti entered into popular consciousness. The notoriety of ape-men grew over the decade, culminating in 1958 when large footprints were found in Del Norte County, California, by bulldozer operator Gerald Crew. Sets of large tracks appeared multiple times around a road-construction site in Bluff Creek. After not being taken seriously about what he was seeing, Crew brought in his friend, Bob Titmus, to cast the prints in plaster. The story was published in the Humboldt Times along with a photo of Crew holding one of the casts.[12] Locals had been calling the unseen track-maker "Big Foot" since the late summer, which Humboldt Times columnist Andrew Genzoli shortened to "Bigfoot" in his article.[24] Bigfoot gained international attention when the story was picked up by the Associated Press.[12] [25] Following the death of Ray Wallace – a local logger – his family attributed the creation of the footprints to him.[5] The wife of Scoop Beal, the editor of the Humboldt Standard, which later combined with the Humboldt Times, in which Genzoli's story had appeared,[26] has stated that her husband was in on the hoax with Wallace.[27]

1958 was a watershed year not just for the Bigfoot story itself but also for the culture that surrounds it. The first Bigfoot hunters began following the discovery of footprints at Bluff Creek, California. Within a year, Tom Slick, who had funded searches for Yeti in the Himalayas earlier in the decade, organized searches for Bigfoot in the area around Bluff Creek.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27">[28]

As Bigfoot has become better known and a phenomenon in popular culture, sightings have spread throughout North America. In addition to the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region and the Southeastern United States have had many reports of Bigfoot sightings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28">[29]

Resources
Sasquatch Legend True (Youtube)

Wikipedia article on Bigfoot

CBC News article: Sasquatch sighting by Nunavik berry pickers