01x04 - sh**ting the Bigfoot

[bunniefuu]

foot prayer

you don't want to know what I've just

seen

it's Mountain devil

you've been having too much of this

moonshine I look like Fred they have

horns was it a boy or a girlfriend

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the animal fell into a ravine

its body was never recovered

the miners slept off the events of their

day

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you sh*t that Critter friend now they're

gonna k*ll us all

all BlackBerry

foreign

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fetched story men att*cked and even

injured by irate giant Apes in the USA

yet it was taken seriously reported on

the front page of The State newspaper

alongside the world news

could there really be a giant ape living

in North America

well since Beck's encounter Bigfoot has

grown to be big news but there's still

no body no skin and bones

and this is Bigfoot country

mode forests run all the way from Alaska

to California 55

000 square kilometers of incredibly

productive habitat

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you know I've never seen anywhere quite

so unspoiled and fertile not much goes

hungry here and it was once the Happy

Hunting Ground of the quagle Indians

they're named for bigfoot was book wuss

was not really mythical it's an actual

being that's taller than the man covered

in hair

and they talked when they used to live

out here about picking berries and

Abacus would be another side of the

berry patch picking too

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you don't see them very much but they're

out there

what do they live on how do they coexist

with deer Bears all of the other known

animals of this region they live on a

lot of plant life fruit and vegetables

Seafood clams and so forth but they are

known to harvest deer and harvest salmon

as well in the rivers

how often are they seen I've never seen

every year

I live out here six months to the year

every year for the last five or six

years and you're lucky to hear of a

story once every three or four years so

they're very rare but like our Legends

say they live an invisible house deep in

the forest that's why we can't find them

and they're also nocturnal they're out

at night harvesting their Foods

that is interesting no Nocturne Lakes

are yet known to science they haven't

got good enough night vision but for Tom

seaward here the legend is backed up by

an encounter

in 1983 I went into an Anchorage behind

my ancestral Village of my three crew

and just after dark we heard whistling

coming from the shore and we hit the

switch on a spotlight and there it was

male and a female and she automatically

dropped into a fetal position and the

male at the same time dropped down to

his knees and brought his arm up in

front of his face and you could see the

reflection of his eyes the green

Reflection from the spotlight

and they just stayed there for 15 or 20

minutes at the spotlight on them and

they froze they did not move

but what I saw on that beach at night

was there was no way it would have been

black or grizzly bear I've seen blacks

and grizzly stand no way could anyone

ever say this is a bear to me because I

knew what I saw it was definitely a book

West walking across the beach

Tom's animal is a potent symbol a rich

subject for a professional Storyteller

like him

and this culture stretches back hundreds

of years which is also strange because

here in North America there's no fossil

evidence for any ape species except man

book was Bigfoot doesn't have a history

so does it have a family a mate siblings

Offspring all species have to exist in

populations

what would such a population of Apes

need while taking mountain gorillas as

an example they need food and enough

space to harvest it these groups need

ranges of up to 30 square kilometers

there are around 600 mountain gorillas

they're critically endangered and live

in small Pockets high in the jungles

they were discovered Way Back In 1902

and these days we know every individual

so it seems that even the sharest the

most remote populations of Apes have

trouble hiding from science

how often do people come across Bigfoot

a fellow called John Green has logged

over 3 000 Encounters in the last 30

years

and one clearly the most remarkable

comes with a piece of film you may have

already seen it it was sh*t by the late

Roger Patterson and his mate Bob gimlin

in California in October of 1967.

and sitting here watching it with John

is pretty remarkable he knew these guys

this is the start of the role I think

eventually got the picture of the

creature eye now

that is trading their horses up the bed

of Bluff Creek is that usually a

will be seeing my government that just

hasn't been mostly sh**ting

film for some time was he much of a

cameraman

strictly amateur

that there's Bob now with Packers

by any standards it's a bit of a movie

but then we lost a minute left on the

film it changes dramatically

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so this was taken immediately after they

saw

okay

whatever your first impression of this

footage there's no in camera trickery

we've examined the original and

something really walked in front of

Patterson's camera and let's be clear

about one thing this footage either has

to be a hoax or the most important piece

of wildlife film ever

that's the footage here's the story that

goes with it it was around 1pm on

October the 20th 1967.

Patterson and gimlin were riding north

up Bluff Creek in California

they rounded a bend and saw the creature

Patterson pulled the cam of Miss

saddlebag and began filming

after about 11 seconds he began to run

closer and as he did Bob worked closer

still to within 20 meters of the

creature

he covered Roger with his r*fle until

the subject walked away

we got it

using the latest computer technology we

stabilized the film so it's easier to

see

now you might think it looks like a man

in a suit but so the legendary Bigfoot

the question is which is it

see the foe is pretty convincing it

flows correctly down the back and you

can apparently see muscles moving under

the skin but would any shy wild animal

react to the arrival of two strange

excited men on Horseback while just

strolling away with a single glance back

for me Its Behavior is definitely odd

footage is one thing the creature left

traces and to substantiate the film

there were Footprints in the Sand

incredibly they were deeper than the

ones left by Bob's horse each hoof would

put down a weight of 400 kilos but the

depth of these prints suggest the

creature was even heavier yet the

average weight for a six foot male

gorilla is only 180 kilos

[Music]

Roger reloaded his Kodak and filmed them

then they took plaster casts some

measured 37 centimeters long

this is one of them

so are these here the remainder of the

cast that he made because they're very

different and they they're obviously

made by the same animal in the same

place at the same time that's right this

probably represents the actual shape of

the foot fairly closely

but sometimes the action of the foot

makes a very different shape this is

another one that has a very strange

shape in fact it's just the way that

heels Rove in and then shifted the

weight up to the front

the impressions are good very natural

but their depth suggests the creature

was Far heavier than a gorilla the same

size

so could these critically corroborative

Footprints be fakes

the Patterson film is at the nub of the

whole Bigfoot phenomena it's kept it

alive for the last 30 years

and its strength lies in the fact that

it's real film and it's combined with

actual artifacts the footprints

problem is that you never see the

creature on the creature film make a

footprint

and the film of the footprints

disappeared immediately after it was

first shown

and that is a problem

so where can I find out more about

Bigfoot as an animal

where is there any biology to support

the legend

these forests stretch all the way down

the Pacific coast and John Green

investigated many stories here in the

60s and 70s

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now he pointed me towards Oregon to a

specific Ridge near a place called

estacarta

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it was here in the winter of 67 that

Glenn Thomas says he saw three Bigfoot

and they were doing something special

they were actually foraging

he watched them digging in the Rock

screen apparently hunting for

hibernating rodents

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but some of these rocks weigh 70

kilograms

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so would it be profitable to move all of

this through a mere snack of squirrels

it doesn't make any energetic sense at

all

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but the stories didn't stop in the 60s

detailed reports are still coming in

Mike McDonald is a bear hunter from

British Columbia

I came to this spot right here on this

Valley um

May of 1997 and I was watching the river

bottom and I put up my binoculars

and spotted a brown bear sitting except

exactly across from me on the other side

of the river it had its rear end to me

so I was feeding and I thought okay I've

got lots of time and I watched it for a

little bit with the binoculars

and I realized I could better get set up

here for a sh*t so I put brought my g*n

up put the crosshairs on its back end

and I continued to watch it through my

r*fle scope

when it did stand up I was absolutely

Blown Away it didn't have the shape of a

black bear anymore it's

looked uh more human or or even ape-like

and I still was sort of watching it to

see why this bear looked so strange and

it started pulling down some of the

branches around with its paws or hands

and eating the leaves off to the trees

just above it and from this distance

about 150 or 200 yards I wasn't

convinced of what it was but I was

convinced it wasn't a bear

the facial features were very human-like

um but at the same time different from

ours and I didn't know what to do I sat

here for about another fiber six maybe

seven minutes

watching and just in awe of this thing

and realized my camera was in the truck

and my truck was about 100 or 200 yards

up the hill from me

and sadly that's typical no photograph

with thousands of documented sightings

there's not a single snap of Bigfoot

Bigfoot event of all was recorded near

bosberg on the Canadian border

a total of 1089 Footprints were found

trodden into modern snow

they cross a 1.1 meter high fence

without a break in stride

the tracks appear to be of a very

long-legged creature but curiously also

a crippled one its right foot had

Twisted toes and displaced bones

something that would be unusual but at

the same time very natural

at Washington State University primate

anatomist and Bigfoot author Dr Grover

Krantz has studied the bone positions in

meticulous detail

the human foot expanded to this length

would have the bulges about here this

means the heel was relatively longer and

the forefoot relatively shorter which is

just exactly The Leverage required for a

walking biped of about eight feet or two

and a half meters tall

that's some quite complex aspects of

anatomy there do you think that any hoax

or anywhere would be up to reproducing

those

if any hoaxer were to do this sort of

trick he would have had to figure out

everything from zero whereas I saw the

tracks and figured it out he would have

had to know human anatomy foot Anatomy

very thoroughly he would have to know

the effects of absolute size on how the

strength increases but the weight

increases faster how The Leverage has to

change how a diseased foot would have to

bulge out to the side of the

corresponding parts in other words he

has to be a better anatomist and a more

clever inventive person than I am and I

don't think anybody like that has

existed since Leonardo da Vinci

in fact a proven Bigfoot hoaxer lives

very close to Boston

I can't explain all of these accounts

but they don't fuse into any framework

of biological possibility that Bigfoot

could exist as a real animal so what

about the crucial Patterson footage what

biology does it contain

John Green was the first to investigate

it he reconstructed the event just nine

months later

this is Jim McLaren six foot five tall

walking the same route as the Bigfoot

he'd been to Bluff Creek when the tracks

were still plainly to be seen so he knew

the loot it took

with a digital effects device we can

precisely match the two separate pieces

of film

and show that the creature was only a

bit taller than McLaren and a little

bulkier

but the footprint suggests that it was

at least four times as heavy

the movement has always been

controversial as well Grover Krantz

thinks the Gate of the creature is

definitely inhuman

the Patterson creature walks leaning

forward somewhat and bends its knees

most of the time so that when it takes a

step

it supports the leg with a bent knee and

keeps two feet on the ground for an

unusual length of time it also lifts the

foot very high behind each step

like so

in addition to all those things it also

swings the arms which is very difficult

to imitate like this

and this is something I can do only for

a short period of time but the Patterson

subject did it for at least 300 feet and

I don't think anyone could be trained to

do that

personally I'm not so sure Grover

himself just did his version of The Walk

for 30 feet with 10 times the practice

maybe someone could walk 10 times

further whatever everything Bigfoot

leads to Patterson and to Bluff Creek so

I decided to pay homage to the site

31 years later it's all steep valleys

Rocky Creek beds and certainly nothing

that looks like the area where the film

was sh*t

but in 1964 there's been a massive flood

and it ripped out all of the scrub and

deposited lots of sand bars here and for

once it had created a window of

opportunity for someone to see a

mysterious creature

or to pull off a fabulous hoax

if this was a hoax it was a good one

which means it would have to have been

well ex*cuted

so what are the options

well in option one both Roger and Bobo

innocent they were hoaxed by a separate

party in a suit

frankly it's unlikely how could the

hopes of be sure of meeting them out

there in the wilderness and also

guarantee not to get sh*t both men were

armed and remember only a body will ever

satisfy science

option two Roger and Bob could have set

the whole thing up themselves built the

suit the lot well Roger was a pretty

resourceful guy he could turn his hand

to quite a few things and so could Bob

but that suit is too good it's not an

amateur effort more likely the product

of a professional special effects

designer

option three has a third man involved

someone who employed Roger to film The

Creature use a part exposed role of film

and bring Bob along as an essential

second Witness

it would easily have been worth their

while after the film was shown a TV

company in Los Angeles offered Patterson

fifty thousand dollars a modern

equivalent would stand closer to a

quarter of a million

so this option has Roger leading on an

innocent Bob and Roger was firmly in

control they'd even conspicuously agreed

not to sh**t at the creature unless it

turned an att*cked

Bob gimlin doesn't talk Bigfoot anymore

these days but in 1992 he spoke on tape

to John Green

this particular day that that we got to

film footage

we are well starting out early in the

morning I left early in the morning and

of course Roger slept in and my horse

loosened his shoe up so I come back in

to to uh

to att*ck the shoe on tighter and Roger

was gone I got back and uh

after a while so watch on Bob we're

apart on the morning before the film was

made I had covered that morning and I

told him

he said well why don't we write up in

this area that we had written and then

Roger LED Bob right to the spot

it's a suspicious detail but Bob still

maintained that what he saw was an

animal

he hasn't spoken to the media for 13

years but he is the crucial eyewitness

[Music]

hi Bob this is Chris Packham and I work

for the BBC Natural History unit in

Bristol England at the moment

surprisingly Bob was quite approachable

happy to tell his story

when I first saw this thing I was just

like

the adrenaline flu you know I mean I was

I was shocked excited uh just like Ollie

then they do exist you know it was a

fascinating call but there was one big

question do you still think that what

you saw was an animal

I've thought about this many many times

over the years at one time in my life

right shortly after the film footage I

was totally convinced that no one could

fool me

and of course I'm an older man now and I

see a lot of things and I think there

could have been a possibility but it

would have had to have been really well

planned by Roger and I feel that they

would have had to have been very very

careful because I had a 30-06 loaded

with 180 grain b*ll*ts

and had that thing have turned and

rushed me I would have sh*t it

so I feel that if that was a hoax

somebody was taking an awful big chance

for their life

so maybe that's the answer to why the

creature just walked away maybe it was a

brilliant idea casting Bob as a

perfectly innocent eyewitness there's

one thing left to do look for the third

man

first stop that suit

in Burbank California optic nerd Studio

specialize in building Fantastical

animals around actors with astonishing

results

it's run by John vuelich

in my mind it's undoubtedly a suit

it just it has all the earmarks of being

a guy in a suit

generally what we would build is a two

layered suit we would have a muslature

underneath where the muscles are

actually separate pieces sewn together

so they can slide up against each other

the way muscles would on real person and

then on top of that the fursuit goes on

as a separate layer so we get some kind

of sliding in between the fur and the

and the muscles it does tend to look

more natural what about The Locomotion

you think it looks like a guy walking

along or is there something more to it

to my mind the movements of this

creature are nowhere near as

dramatically different as a man playing

a gorilla or chimpanzee if you're

talking about very very different body

language very different style and so if

a human being can master that type of

movement you can certainly Master this

that much easier and I think an amateur

would be able to achieve this kind of

locomotion very easily it's 1967. could

a suit of this quality have been made

then and if so by whom

um there's been rumors um

in the industry for years that John

Chambers who had built the suits for

Planet of the Apes and in fact was doing

Planet of the Apes at the time that this

footage was sh*t had built the suit none

of it's been substantiated but it's been

rumors that have been persistent for

years

so if the suit was off the Peg and the

movement's not so strange after all

let's get the camera Patterson used find

an amateur operator and recreate exactly

to the inch the action at Bluff Creek

this is our creature's starting point

all we've got to do is measure out 112

feet down here to where it's found on

the first prime

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action

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the first important revelation of this

precise reenactment is quite how close

Roger and Bob were to the creature they

were right on top of it Its Behavior

wasn't unnatural just walking away

unconcerned it was implausible

so did you get it yeah Irina did

secondly this is what we sh*t at this

distance with this lens you're certain

to get the creature in the frame unless

you artificially shake the camera even

so it's difficult to see much detail in

the suit

which is ideal

the whole thing the location the suit

the camera work all gel into a

beautifully crafted hole

there are loads of trendy wobbly camera

commercials in fashion now

but they always have an image that sells

the product like frame 352 the look back

I'm Bigfoot buy me

and millions of people have

like so many ex-creatures Bigfoot is a

fantastic Legend from one of the world's

last Frontiers

I don't know who or what part of those

rocks or what all those eyewitnesses saw

but here's my case for the non-existence

of Bigfoot as a real animal

there's a hell of a lot of space in

America

but it's trampled all over and in

biological terms there is absolutely no

chance at all that there's an unknown

species of giant Apes talking around

California or for that matter Canada

you see the Bigfoot phenomenon isn't

based on good science it rests upon one

thing

Patterson film and that is a hoax we've

shown you just how easily it could have

been done and now Bob gimlin has broken

his silence and confessed that he's not

entirely sure about what he saw in the

first place and to me that is incredibly

significant because it's his word that

has helped keep this hoax alive for more

than 30 years but now it's over Bigfoot

isn't dead because it was never alive

only in the minds of the dreamers and

the schemas but then good on them you

know if Roger Patterson were here today

I'd shake him by the hand I'm not saying

I'd load his camera

are shaken by the hand

more of today's highlights from the

Commonwealth Games on BBC 2 now but

coming up here on BBC One the woman

who's agreed to have her neck broken to

save her life a story of courage in

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