The creature known as Bigfoot, Sasquatch — or Se’sxac among the Coast Salish — is now covering a whole new territory; the Internet.
A Texas man, a self-styled Bigfoot researcher, has posted a video he claims to have taken near Tofino in July 2006.
Claims of the creature on Vancouver Island go back many years, and a Comox Valley man who has researched Bigfoot, John Bindernagel, claims to have found footprints in Strathcona Park near Mount Washington.
Bindernagel, a biologist, wrote North America’s Great Ape: The Sasquatch.
He is concerned that the ability to post videos by anyone claiming it to be a Sasquatch will damage efforts to do genuine scientific research into the phenomenon.
“For me the Internet is a mixed bag, it’s easier to report a sighting, but it’s not vetted very well.”
In 2005 Bindernagel told the Daily News that since 1850 there have been about 100 sightings on the Island. In the same time there have been about 400 sightings in B.C., a number he thinks is low due to fear of being mocked.
Though evidence has yet to surface proving Bindernagel’s claim the Sasquatch is real, he thinks that a scientific approach could prove its existence.
He is now working on a second book about the phenomenon to argue why scientists should give it serious consideration.
He said fuzzy films on the Internet do not help him making that argument.
“The evidence doesn’t get scrutinized objectively,” said Bindernagel. “We can’t bring the evidence to our colleagues because it’s perceived as tabloid.”
One Nanaimo man familiar with most native animals on the Island is Ron Heusen, a senior conservation officer.
He’s never seen anything but bear, elk, deer and similar wildlife.
“The Ministry of Environment through the provincial Wildlife Act does not regulate Bigfoot - it’s not in the Wildlife Act,” Heusen joked.
Though Heusen’s never had a call about such a creature, he said it would be easy to mistake a bear or other animal for a Sasquatch.
“It would be easy to make an honest mistake.”
Source: canada.com
