As is normal when I'm trying to relax and catch up on old and new events involving Sasquatch, sea creatures and UFOs (oh come on -I was investigating them from 1973-2003), not to mention ghosts, I started trawling You Tube.
There really is so much abysmal crap on it with the usual fakers/hoaxers that really need to be given mental health care workers. Then again, maybe I'm being to grumpy? I don't mind the people who want to have a laugh or openly label their videos as "mockumentary" -I can skip past those.
Its the ones who claim it is all real and lack any imagination -guy in a monkey suit trying to walk like the creature in the Patterson-Gimlin footage (but no one ever gets it even close) or have no imagination so its "oh, duude, let's do a quatch Blair Witch film!" I actually fell into a coma watching two of those yesterday but luckily I fought back to life (my sister claims I was actually sleeping -but she aint no professional duude).
Which videos would I recommend?
Well, unless you want to waste time avoid Big Foot Hunters. I am sorry but I always had a lot of faith in the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organisation (BFRO) until I saw these episodes. Firstly, yeah, I know "Bigfeet" and "Quatch" or "Quatchie" is very annoying. I do need to point out, though, that Ivan T. Sanderson (one of my heroes) did write "Bigfeet" in Abominable Snowman -Legend Come To Life. I use "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch" for plural, too.
I got side-tracked somewhat there. Right, first, the old documentaries which give you the basics. In Search Of was narrated by non-other than Leonard Nimoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z0S2zPNP6s
Then you have Peter Graves (Yes, Peter frickin' Graves!) in his Bigfoot quest, though it does skip out at one point to take a quick look at the Loch Ness creature) in Mysterious Monsters (1976) and there is a full movie version available!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjVIX98wFN8
More modern times and I'd go for two Monster Quest episodes.
Sasquatch Attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iTYP2mqkVM
and a later follow up inventively titled sasquatch Attack II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYkxHm5o-k4
Monster Quest Critical Evidence is quite interesting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8csreQ5qYbo
There are other episodes and documentaries but I think there is a great of "playing up" for the camera in some and even worse one-liners that make you cringe: "I've a feeling tonight we're gonna get our Bigfoot/evidence" and "We stand a better chance than anyone before" and "Let's lock n load!" anyone shouting that out while dressed in cammo "hunting" an elusive primate in the dark loses credibility.
As for analyses of the Patterson-Gimlin "Patty" footage...well, there are lab tests using high tech to see whether a tall athletic person can emulate its movements (fails), analyses of the footage which with todays technology (remember the footage was shot in October 1967 when even Hollywood had trouble creating realistic looking ape suits) reveals things that were not originally seen in the shaky footage but if P & G faked this suit then they were both genius level effects men. For instance the "leg bump":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR_6GE3whF8&feature=related
We also have Bill Munns excellent analysis of the footage and no one has ever gone into this amount of in-depth checking before. The sceptics could always respond "Its a man in a gorilla suit" and you ask "Why didn't the sceptics use all this tech stuff to explain the footage away?" Oh, they are -but they are using Munns' footage to 'prove' points and failing. Seriously, I was always sceptical on the P-G footage and I have tried to view the portions of footage the sceptics put forward but it is so far inane and not far off name-calling. I love the "Look -its a loose bit of suit cloth and THEY say its a leaf stuck to the sole of its foot!" uh, well, it's been established that there was no such material until the mid 1980s and, though I look hard and pause a lot I can't see much other than what might be a leaf -it is walking in softish earth in..uh, a forest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKUwdHex1Zs&feature=related
And I found a link to an interview with John Bindernagel who has to be one of the most thorough and respected Sasquatch researchers on how he got involved in the matter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6cA4avGLYg
Now, Jane Goodall was a very famous naturalist and though I had read that she accepted Sasquatch as a reality I had never heard her say so in her own words so there was always the thought of misquote at the back of my mind. Now I have a recording of her speaking on the subject:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NmCmfdFAhQ
Now, I don't want to get all Sasquatch obsessive so...
As some people will know -either through talking to me or reading my book Some Things Strange & Sinister and Some More Things Strange & Sinister I have a very keen interest in "mystery" sea creatures. I have absolutely no doubt that there are many undiscovered creatures in the depths of our seas and oceans. I do get fed up of seeing seals or wakes in water called "mysterious sea monster" though. So, what has You Tube to offer on this?
Again, I go back to two Monster Quest editions that look at the subject of giant squid and octopus:
Season 1 episode 3: Giant Squid Found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zCCv2jp0M&feature=related
And a follow-up of sorts looking for giant octopus season 2 episode 11: Boneless Horror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzw3DQ3lWYc
Series 3 episode 7: Mega Jaws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybxskJkFqaQ&feature=related
I think that the best comments, applicable also to Bigfoot and other creature research comes at the end of "Boneless Horror".
After looking at camera footage, diver Dale Pearson says:"I'd like to leave it (camera) down there a few more days"
Diver and marine researcher Scott Cassell then responds with: "I'd like to leave it down there for a year."
And that is the key. For over thirty years I was a wildlife advisor to UK police forces specialising in exotic cats and, sometimes, mustelids and canids (canids see my book:The Red Caper:Canids). Farmers, experienced hunters and others would go to an area where there was cat (leopard or puma) activity and set up cameras and lie in wait. Nothing. They leave and the next day the cat turns up.
You can cammo-up as much as you want but, whether large cats or hairy hominids, they will both smell and sense you. It's incredible how they do it but they do -its how they survive. Spray as much "anti-scent" on yourself as you like but even if it did work these creatures have eyes and ears...they also note how other animals and birds react and that tells them "somethings not right".
Trail-cams need to be set up and left for as long as possible. Some wildlife researchers set up cameras that send back photographs to a base via satellite-link.
Snellgrove, featured in the Sasquatch Attack episodes would be a perfect location for such a long term camera study. We have so much technology today from audio-recording devices, infra red/heat cameras and night vision that evidence can be gathered BUT it will take time. Tv companies want in-and-out with a few days/week because of schedule and cost. After the stone-throwing incident at Snellgrove what else might have been recorded had the team stayed on a few more days or weeks?
Now, before I go on to other work that is waiting for me, I need to mention The Paranormal Report. Its a podcast taking the next step up from those old American radio shows that took weekly looks at the odd and weird. The main host is Jim Harold and its a fun show worth checking out:
http://jimharold.com/guests/
and you can watch episodes on you tube.
Hope this has not been all boring?!
The Red Paper:Canids
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-red-papercanines-vol1/18605332?productTrackingContext=author_spotlight_338105_
Some Things Strange & Sinister
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/some-things-strange-sinister/14958906?productTrackingContext=author_spotlight_338105_
Some More Things Strange & Sinister
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/some-more-things-strange-sinister/14847371?productTrackingContext=author_spotlight_338105_
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