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Bigfoot is also featured in television, notably as a subject of reality and paranormal television series, with notable examples being Finding Bigfoot (2011), Mountain Monsters (2013), 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty (2014), Expedition Bigfoot (2019), and Alaskan Killer Bigfoot (2021).
- Overview
- The FBI Analyzes Bigfoot Hairs
- The FBI Offers No Confirmation of Bigfoot's Existence
- HISTORY Vault: Ancient Mysteries
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In 2019, the FBI released its four-decade-old file on Bigfoot including an analysis conducted on hair that allegedly belonged to the sasquatch. The results? Deer hair.
Legends of large, ape-like beasts can be found all over the world. Since the 1950s, the U.S. version has been “Bigfoot,” a tall, hairy humanlike creature believed by some people to dwell in forests of the American Northwest. Sightings and even pictures have emerged, prompting research and raising questions about whether the creature, also known as Sasquatch, was real.
Hair samples sent into the FBI for testing, believed to be from Bigfoot.
That year, Director Peter Byrne of the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition in The Dalles, Oregon, sent the FBI “about 15 hairs attached to a tiny piece of skin.” Byrne wrote that his organization couldn’t identify what kind of animal it came from, and was hoping the FBI might analyze it. He also wanted to know if the FBI had analyzed suspected Bigfoot hair before; and if so, what the bureau’s conclusion was.
At the time, “Byrne was one of the more prominent Bigfoot researchers,” says Benjamin Radford, deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. “In 2019, a lot of people think of Bigfoot as being sort of silly and a joke, or whatever else. But in the 1970s, Bigfoot was really, really popular. That was when The Six Million Dollar Man had a cameo by Bigfoot.”
This was also after Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin released their famous video footage in 1967 supposedly showing Bigfoot in Northern California. It’s worth noting that the original “evidence” that launched the Bigfoot craze—a trail of oversized footprints discovered in the same region in 1958—was revealed to be a prank by logger Ray L. Wallace in 2002. Many people believe the “Bigfoot” creature in the Patterson-Gimlin film was a costumed prankster as well. Byrne has always believed the footage is real.
Jay Cochran, Jr., assistant director of the FBI’s scientific and technical services division, wrote back to Byrne that he couldn’t find any evidence of the FBI analyzing suspected Bigfoot hair, and that the FBI usually only examined physical evidence related to criminal investigations. Still, it sometimes made exceptions “in the interest of research and scientific inquiry,” and Cochran said he’d make such an exception for Byrne.
Unsurprisingly, Cochran found that the hair didn’t belong to Bigfoot. In early 1977, he sent the hair back to Byrne along with his scientific conclusion: “The hairs are of deer family origin.” Four decades later, the bureau declassified its “Bigfoot file” about this analysis.
To be clear, this is not evidence that the FBI endorsed the existence of Bigfoot, any more than the U.S. military’s decades-long investigation of unexplained aerial phenomena, popularly known as UFOs, is an endorsement of the existence of aliens.
“All it means is the FBI did a favor to a Bigfoot researcher,” Radford says. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for de facto government endorsement of the reality of Bigfoot.”
Even so, Bigfoot believers may be tempted to spin it that way. “They love the idea that there’s a smoking gun in the FBI files—‘See, look, Bigfoot must be real, otherwise the FBI wouldn’t have taken it seriously,’” he continues. “Well, the FBI didn’t send out a team of investigators to look for Bigfoot, they agreed to run an analysis of 15 hairs."
To add more layers to what is already an unusual case, 93-year-old Byrne doesn’t seem to remember receiving the FBI’s response that the “Bigfoot hair” was actually deer hair.
From the Lost Ark to the quest for the Holy Grail, explore videos about ancient mysteries.
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In 1976, a Bigfoot researcher sent the FBI some hair samples for testing. The FBI concluded that the hair was of deer family origin and declassified its file in 2019.
- Becky Little
- 6 min
Oct 23, 2003 · A professor of anatomy and anthropology claims to have examined forensic evidence of a creature that is yet to be identified. He and other Bigfoot advocates face skepticism from most scientists who doubt the existence of the legendary primate.
3 days ago · Sasquatch is also known as Bigfoot, and it appears to represent the North American counterpart of the Himalayan region’s mythical monster, the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti. Where is Sasquatch said to live?
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Sasquatch is a large hairy humanoid that some believe to live in the northwestern United States and western Canada. The name comes from Salish se’s...
- Sasquatch is said to live in the northwestern United States and western Canada. Sightings have been claimed in forested areas.
- Sasquatch is normally described as a bipedal primate that is anywhere from 6 to 15 feet (2 to 4.5 metres) tall. It is often said to give off a foul...
- Some people credit the British explorer David Thompson with the first discovery of Sasquatch footprints, in 1811. Since then, several photographers...
- Since the first alleged finding of Sasquatch footprints, in 1811, several people have claimed to have found such footprints or to have seen Sasquat...
Jul 21, 2022 · This remote valley 130km east of Vancouver conjures an ancient land filled with mystery and possibility, and some believe it's home to the world's most famous cryptid – Sasquatch, Canada's...
- Lisa Kadane
Nov 16, 2022 · Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, is a large ape-like creature some people believe inhabits North America but there's no hard evidence it actually exists.
Jan 31, 2023 · A data scientist argues that most Bigfoot or Sasquatch reports in the US and Canada are actually misidentified black bears on their hind legs. He compares black bear populations and human populations with Bigfoot sightings and finds a high correlation.
