Ozark Howler

These photos came through my Facebook feed recently, and they sort of peaked my interest.This was the statement posted above the images.

    Alleged Ozark Howler photos taken in Arkansas

Now, in all honesty, I can't say if these images are real, faked or plain out photo shopped as I wasn't there when they were taken or created. But, I can give you my opinion on them. But first,
Let's get some background on this cryptid.

The Ozark Howler, also known as the Ozark Black Howler, is a legendary creature that is purported to live in remote areas in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The Ozark Howler is typically described as being bear sized, with a thick body, stocky legs, black shaggy hair, and as having prominent horns. Its cry is often described as being a combination of a wolf's howl and an elk's bugle.

Cryptozoologists have speculated that the creature might be a misidentified or unrecognized big cat. Anthropologists have speculated that the creature might be a branching off of the dark dogs of death found in British folklore.

Chad Arment asserts in his book Cryptozoology that the Ozark Howler myth is a hoax. According to Arment, he and many other cryptozoologists received email messages that made wild claims about Ozark Howler evidence. These messages were tracked down to a university student who had made a bet that he could fool the cryptozoological research community.However, many witnesses to seeing it in person in the region, prior to this hoax, show that Chad Arment's assertion was only correct in the one case, but not in the many cases of those who either haven't a computer, have seen the Howler prior to the hoax or have seen it without hearing of the legend.

Most recently a sighting of the Ozark Howler was reported in Newton County, Arkansas in 2011.

The Ozark Howler is the name residents and hunters have applied to a strange creature 
some say roams the remote forests of the Ozark Mountains. The reports originate from 
a vast area that includes parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.
Some attribute the sightings to the presence of an escaped big cat in the mountains, but 
others say something more is behind them. Eyewitnesses have come forward claiming to 
have seen a mysterious cat-like monster in the Ozarks, a creature, unlike anything they 
had ever seen before.
The mysteries of the Ozarks are part of their charm. Folktales of ghosts, monsters and 
strange creatures in the region date back hundreds of years. Unlike the well-known 
Arkansas Wild Man of the 19th century and the Boggy Creek and White River monsters 
of the 20th, the Ozark Howler mystery is complicated because eyewitnesses vary 
widely in their descriptions of what they have seen.
Some who claim to have seen the creature describe it as a gigantic cat, bigger even than 
a cougar. Others describe something far more monstrous: a massive cat-like beast 
with glowing eyes and horns protruding from its head. Most agree that it is black or dark in 
color.Between 2005 and 2010, the Howler (also called the Black Howler or the Devil Cat) was spotted several times. A family living north of Van Buren in the Boston Mountains of Crawford County set out trail cams after spotting what they believed was a cougar. The images they supplied to a Fort Smith 
television station appeared to show a big cat similar to a cougar (mountain lion).
The problem is that wildlife officials maintain there is not a breeding population of cougars 
left in Arkansas. They do concede that it is possible there might be individual big cats 
living in the mountains, pointing out they likely were once held as pets but escaped or 
were turned loose by their owners.At roughly the same time as the Crawford 
County sightings, similar reports originated from across the border in eastern Oklahoma. 
Those sightings revolved around large dark cats seen moving through the mountains.
Other reports from near Dardanelle in the Arkansas River Valley described strange 
sounds in the night similar to the laugh or bark of a hyena. From higher elevations, 
witnesses reported seeing what they described as a large "stocky" cat.

OK, we can see that the top photos plainly don't match up with the stories on the Howler. And I am leaning toward a photoshop job on them. I can't prove that it is just my opinion. Now, I can tell you what I know...

I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that Bigfoot is real. With that being the case, what else is out there? I have stood in front of a creature that I was told didn't exist. ( This creature is not cute and cuddly, and he didn't send me any mental messages of peace on earth and go green.) It looked down at me as if to say I am the Apex here. And I could not have agreed more. My point is, once you have seen a true monster with your own eyes, where do you stop? How can you say anything doesn't exist? I feel that there are many many things out there that only move under the cover of darkness, and it's up to us to expose these creatures.So does the Ozark Howler exist? Some people claim to have seen it, so that is good enough for me. Maybe one day I will be fortunate enough to see it for myself.

Dogman the American Werewolf?

Now here is a topic that truly fascinates me, but unfortunately there just isn't that many written encounters of Dogman. Are they more elusive than their close cousin Bigfoot? Or are people just not reporting these encounters as was such twenty years ago before bigfoot become mainstream? Whichever is the case, I will be watching this cryptid closely in the near future.

The Michigan Dogman is a cryptozoological creature first reported in 1887 in Wexford County, Michigan. Sightings have been reported in several locations throughout Michigan, primarily in the northwestern quadrant of the Lower Peninsula. In 1987, the legend of the Michigan Dogman gained popularity when a disc jockey at WTCM-FM recorded a song about the creature and its reported sightings.

In 1987 (100 years after the first reported sighting of the creature), disc jockey Steve Cook at WTCM-FM in Traverse City, Michigan recorded a song titled "The Legend", which he initially played as an April Fool's Day joke. He based the songs on actual reports of the creature.

Cook recorded the song with a keyboard backing and credited it to Bob Farley. After he played the song, Cook received calls from listeners who said that they had encountered a similar creature. In the next weeks after Cook first played the song, it was the most-requested song on the station. He also sold cassettes of the songs for four dollars and donated proceeds from the single to an animal shelter. Over the years, Cook has received more than 100 reports of the creature's existence. In March 2010, the creature was featured in an episode of MonsterQuest.

Cook later added verses to the song in 1997 after hearing a report of an animal break-in by an unknown canine at a cabin in Luther, Michigan.He re-recorded it again in 2007, with a mandolin backing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKFCwpzk-4

The first known encounter of the Michigan Dogman occurred in 1887 in Wexford County when two lumberjacks saw a creature which they described as having a man's body and a dog's head.It has also been spotted many times in the Upper Peninsula by locals.

In 1938 in Paris, Michigan, Robert Fortney was attacked by five wild dogs and said that one of the five walked on two legs. Reports of similar creatures also came from Allegan County in the 1950s, and in Manistee and Cross Village in 1967.

The Gable Film
In 2007, a digital copy of an 8mm film surfaced on the internet. Dubbed "The Gable Film" because of a small paper tag attached to the box containing the film reel, it quickly attained viral status among cryptozoological enthusiasts. Many people believed it was the long-awaited conclusive evidence of the existence of the Michigan dogman. The entire film is 3.5 minutes long, and appears to have been shot in the mid to late 1960s, due to the clothing and hair styles by the persons in the film, which were most prominent during that time. Early scenes are typical home movie fare: children riding snowmobiles, a German shepherd, a person chopping wood, etc. Toward the end of the film, the photographer is shooting from inside a moving vehicle traveling along a dirt road, when he spots what appears to be a gorilla-like animal moving in a field on the passenger side of the vehicle. The photographer exits the vehicle and seems to pursue the creature for several seconds. Then it appears again, facing the photographer from a ridge about 150 feet away. After a few seconds the creature charges. Rapid movement of the camera suggests the photographer is fleeing the attack. In the last five seconds of the film, the camera drops to the ground, lying on its left side. A second film titled "The Gable Film Part 2" surfaced later on which seemingly shows a police investigation of the incident recorded in the first reel during which the officers investigating the scene examine a bifurcated corpse (presumably the body of the person recording the previous reel).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fDeT8H2CwQ

After years of analysis and debate, the film was finally revealed as a hoax in the finale episode of MonsterQuest on March 24, 2010. The Gable Film had been shot using vintage cameras, film, and period props by Mike Agrusa, a fan of "The Legend," song. The second video was likewise hoaxed. MonsterQuest claimed their investigative team uncovered irregularities in the film, and then forced the hoaxers to confess to werewolf expert Linda Godfrey. However the Hoaxers say that they told MonsterQuest from the beginning that the film was a fake and they fabricated the "investigation" to make a more interesting episode.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F65cy1FzIfw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Dogman

Encounters

Ok, I'm sharing this story in hopes of someone else having another one. And I then will have this one out in the open.
I was traveling Highway 10, from the west coast, to the south coast of Florida. I was with my 6 kids, and pulling a trailer with all of my belongings and 3 dogs in it. I was in a big S.U.V., and it was around 2am. The kids were all asleep, and my 13 year old daughter was in the passenger seat, to make sure I stayed awake.
So, after traveling Highway 10 for 3 days, I had decided since we reached Florida, we would cut through the state, to save some time. So, we got off Highway 10 on an off road, in hopes of getting gas and making up some time. It was along Route 27 (Apalachicola National Forest). We came to the first little gas station. It was closed. I was nervous, because we needed gas. So, we continued on. I told my daughter to keep an eye out for deer crossing the 2 lane, deserted highway. Because, hitting a deer could kill us all and turn us over, due to the trailer we were pulling. We were traveling around 45 miles per hour. I remember this so clearly, like it was yesterday. But it was three years ago. We had our brights on, because the road was dark and winding. A few houses were on that highway, but not many. As we came around a corner, in the headlights, on the road, there was a lot of blood. Fresh blood. And on the side of the road was this 6 or 7 foot tall creature. It was on its hind legs, hunched over a dead deer, eating it. It did not look up. Not even when my headlights hit it. It was using its arms like a human, eating the deer. It had a very muscular body, pointed ears and a long muzzle. If you ever saw a werewolf, this was it! It had a skinnier lower body, but used its arms and hands just like a human. If it looked up, I would have died! I looked over at my daughter. We were both seeing the same thing, at the same time. Tears came to my eyes instantly, and at the same time, we both said, "werewolf!" I sped up, because I was scared it would run and jump on the trailer and kill my dogs. As we got about a mile away, my heart was beating so hard! My daughter and I were so freaked out! It was a werewolf!
I have never been a believer in werewolves. I don't watch any werewolf movies or have any reason to make this up. And as a matter of fact, until today, I have only told a handful of people about this. There is a werewolf in Florida! Not sure of the exact town or road, but I wish I did know, so I could find out if we were the only ones to have seen this thing. I will live my life wondering. It was between Alabama to Florida, along the pan handle. I will never forget this night ever!
https://www.dogmanencounters.com/

Jan. 14, 2014

A couple nights ago, around 11/1130 pm, a local young lady, had a very scary sighting of a creature she described as "like a werewolf, only scarier."

The location is locally known here in Point Pleasant as "Cats Eye", on Madison Ave. Two nights ago, this young lady was sitting on her front porch, an enclosed patio with a few large windows. One window open in the front, beside the front door, smoking a cigarette. It was after 11pm and visibility was good, up to 100 feet because of street lights. She said before this sighting, she had heard strange noises and the local dogs had been going nuts off and on without an apparent reason.

As she was having a smoke, she noticed movement, thinking it was someone walking down the railroad tracks. She looked up and saw something that "blew her mind". It was, in her words, a thing that had a head of a dog, almost exactly like a German Shepard, and was walking like a person on two legs. She said she saw it's eyes ,and that's when she noticed it was staring at her. She said that she "became lost in its eyes". Any other description, she cannot recall clearly after seeing it look at her and then her seeing it's eyes. She did tell me that it was either dark colored and almost had the look of wearing an oversized black sweatshirt,(as in meaning it was rather large/bulky in the upper body. RFS) but she didn't think it was a sweatshirt, but hair or fur. I asked her to clarify this. She said that's really the only thing she noticed and can remember, other than the head and description. She said the height was in the neighborhood of six feet, maybe just a bit less. She stated several times how the eyes "drew her in". She said the creature took a couple steps towards her, and at that time she saw a flash of light. The creature looked towards the direction it was originally heading and in a very quick movement, spinned and took off the direction it came from. The brief flash of light, she soon found out, was her mothers headlights as she turned into the road. She repeatedly asked her mother if she seen anything near the railroad tracks when she was near home. She said no, nothing, however she was not paying much attention because she was late getting in and was tired.

What I consider very interesting about this is the government installation, located directly across from the witnesses home, has an array of cameras installed over the entire property. It's also patrolled by armed guards. It's too bad we will never be able to see it, but I'm almost certain that this creature was recorded on their cameras.

Robbie Shaw

http://dogmanresearch.blogspot.com/2014/02/west-virginia-sighting.html

Mother Nature can be Cruel

I posted a few days ago about the colored stones I had been using and the "interaction" I was getting.
Later that night as my husband Marty and I were out walking, we found some beautiful Owl feathers. (This owl comes just to the edge of our woods every evening hunting for his dinner. We love to sit and watch as he flies from one end of the trees to the other on his nightly hunting trips.) We took the three owl feathers and placed them on the board too with one small stone holding each feather in place. I was anxious to see what kind of response this got.

The night before last night we had a thunderstorm pass over. The wind and rain were intense. The high winds actually had me concerned about the windows in our sunroom. We are surrounded by such thick woods I am always afraid the wind will send a tree limb crashing through the windows.

My husband Marty went out yesterday to check for any damages. When he came back in he told me it looked like a tree limb had wiped out my small "gifting" area. I went out to see and sure enough a large branch had come down totally destroying my small tree structure along with the board and stones. I managed to find most of the small stones and I lined them back up on the board. Most of the small branches I had used for my tree structure were broken. The rocks I had placed up in the tree were still wedged in place, but I couldn't find any of the owl feathers. Marty drug the big limb out of the way. We did notice this limb had been twisted out of the tree and not just snapped off by the wind.We were both a bit confused by this as there were many smaller limbs that appeared to have just fallen. Marty drug the limb out of the way and I tried to set the stuff back as much as I could. It truly broke my heart as I have put many months into this and was getting small reactions. I was feeling really down and broken hearted, actually feeling like just giving up, when I looked down and saw an ear of corn. As Marty and I looked around we found four more ears of corn! I took each of these ears and lined them up in front of my board as a "gift". I am anxious to get back out there today and see if anything has changed.

Orang Pendek

Orang Pendek (Indonesian for "short person") is the most common name given to a cryptid, or cryptozoological animal, that reportedly inhabits remote, mountainous forests on the island of Sumatra.

The animal has allegedly been seen and documented for at least one hundred years by forest tribes, local villagers, Dutch colonists and Western scientists and travellers. Consensus among witnesses is that the animal is a ground-dwelling, bipedal primate that is covered in short fur and stands between 80 and 150 cm (30 and 60 in) tall.

hree possible explanations of Orang Pendek's identity are prominent: that all sightings can be explained as the mistaken identification of local animals; that witnesses of Orang Pendek are describing a previously undocumented species of primate; and that a species of early hominid still lives in the Sumatran jungle.

Mistaken identity
Many locals say Orang Pendek's feet look like those of a child, evidenced by foot prints they have found while walking through the forest. However, another local animal, the Sun Bear, is a possible source of these sightings. Bears in general are known for having feet that look quite human-like, and the size of a Sun Bear's are similar to those of a child. In addition, gibbons populate the forests in this area and are known to occasionally descend to the ground and walk for a few seconds at a time on two legs. Witnesses could possibly be seeing orangutans; however:
 1) this species has long been thought to have died out in all but the northern regions of Sumatra and
 2) witnesses almost never describe the animal as having orange fur.

Undocumented primate
Orang Pendek's reported physical characteristics differentiate it from any other species of animal known to inhabit the area. All witnesses describe it as an ape- or human-like animal. Its bipedality, fur coloring, and southerly location on the island make orangutans an unlikely explanation, and its bipedality, size, and other physical characteristics make gibbons, the only apes known to inhabit the area, unlikely as well. Many therefore propose that Orang Pendek could represent a new genus of primate or a new species or subspecies of orangutan or gibbon.

Surviving hominid
As far back as Mr. van Heerwarden's account of Orang Pendek, people have speculated that the animal may in fact be a hominid. In October 2004, scientists published claims of the discovery of skeletal remains of a new species of human (Homo floresiensis) in caves on Flores (another island in the Indonesian archipelago) dating from as recently as 12,000 years ago. The species was described as being roughly one meter tall. The recency of Homo floresiensis' continued existence and the similarities between its physical description and the accounts of Orang Pendek have led to renewed speculation in this respect.

Mothman

Mothman is a moth-like creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".

Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970,later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, was based on Keel's book.

On November 12, 1966, five men who were digging a grave at a cemetery near Clendenin, WV claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over their heads. This is often identified as the first known sighting of what became known as the Mothman.

Shortly thereafter, on November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a " large flying man with ten-foot wings following their car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.

During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.

There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings" but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers.

Claims of later sightings
Ufologist Jerome Clark writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times, " sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you. "

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue and told USA Today he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.

Lizard Man

The Lizard Man is generally described as being 7 feet (2.1 m) tall, bipedal, and bulky, covered in dark hair with scaly lizard-like skin on its hands, feet and face. It is said to have three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand. The creature has an incredible degree of strength, more than capable of ripping into a car. A few witnesses have reported seeing a tail, although in the majority of cases, a tail was not seen.

Davis sighting
The first reported sighting of the horrifying creature was made by Christopher Davis, a 17 year old local, who said he encountered the creature while driving home from work at 2 AM on June 29, 1988. According to his account, Davis stopped on a road bordering Scape Ore Swamp in order to change a tire which had blown out. When he was finishing up he reported having heard a thumping noise from behind him and having turned around to see the creature running towards him.

Davis said the creature tried to grab at the car and then jumped on its roof as he tried to escape, clinging on to it as Davis swerved from side to side in an effort to throw it off. After he returned home, Davis' side-view-mirror was found to be badly damaged, and scratch marks were found on the car's roof, though there was no other physical evidence of his encounter.

"I looked back and saw something running across the field towards me. It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran into the car and as I locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle. I could see him from the neck down – the three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry. I looked in my mirror and saw a blur of green running. I could see his toes and then he jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt and then I could see his fingers through the front windshield, where they curled around on the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the creature off."
Chris' father, prompted by a story that ran in the newspaper of a strange car mauling, brought his terrified son to the Lee County Sheriff's Office on July 16, 1988, at which time he told his story to Sheriff Liston Truesdale.

Kingstie

Kingstie was a cryptozoological hoax invented in 1934 as an echo of the 1904 Lake George Monster hoax. It was reported as "a strange creature with the head of a dragon and eyes of fire" in Lake Ontario near Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

It is explained in the book Mysteries of Toronto as follows: "As a prank, they had fabricated a semblance of the creature using a barrel filled with empty bottles for buoyancy and fitting it with a dragon-like head, rope and anchor to keep it in one place, and twine attached to the rope that ran underwater to the shore of Cartwright Bay to permit them to bob its barrel body and head up and down". (As quoted by Joe Nickel, writing for the Skeptical Inquirer.) On May 16th, 2004 two individuals from the Kingston area witnessed a large unexplained animal underneath the water while fishing for carp in Little Cataraqui Creek. This was later named Kingstie, for it was spotted in Kingston Creek, Ontario.

Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations. The common description is that of a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. It has been reported to move quickly and often is described as emitting a "blood-curdling scream.

The Lenape tribes called the area "Popuessing". meaning "place of the dragon". Swedish explorers later named it "Drake Kill" ("drake" being a word for dragon, and "kill" meaning channel or arm of the sea (river, stream, etc.) in Dutch).

A popular origin of the story is as follows: "It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after finding she was pregnant for the 13th time, stated that this one would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a goat's head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740, a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890."

"Mother Leeds" has been identified by some as Deborah Leeds,on grounds that Deborah Leeds' husband, Japhet Leeds, named twelve children in the will he wrote in 1736, which is compatible with the legend. Deborah and Japhet Leeds also lived in the Leeds Point section of what is now Atlantic County, New Jersey, which is commonly the location of the Jersey Devil story.

Strange Prints

These are some prints that we have recently found in our research area.

I have looked these up online and can't seem to find anything that compares to the size and shape.

I have shown these to a few avid hunters that can't tell me any more than "that is a big animal."

These prints measure 5 1/2 in length and 3 1/2 width.

Bear and cougar are not indigenous to our area.

Dogman

D - Dogman.
Dogman is said to be a canine that is around to be dark in color, six to eight feet tall and walks on two legs.It has been spotted in areas that are said to also have Bigfoot activity. It is assumed but unknown if these two travel together.There are many videos of these "creatures" on YouTube as well as eyewitnesses that claim to have seen them.

https://www.youtube.com/user/DogmanEncounters

Bigfoot

B-Bigfoot

I was searching for a way to explain exactly what a Bigfoot is, I came across this post online and I think it sums it up perfectly.

I claim no credit for this writing, it was borrowed in full or part from,
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/bigfoot1.htm

There have been numerous reported sightings, and sasquatch researchers have found hair, footprints and body prints, but there is still no conclusive evidence that such a creature exists.
When considering the sasquatch scientifically, the first question is whether or not such a creature could exist, given what we know about zoology. This is an easy one, because fossil evidence shows that such a creature did exist, 1 to 9 million years ago. This animal, which scientists call gigantopithecus, was native to what is now central and southeast Asia. On the evolutionary tree, gigantopithecus is most closely related to the orangutan, the only modern Asian ape (gorillas and chimpanzees live in Africa).
The most likely explanation of both yeti and sasquatch (if they do exist) is that they are direct descendants of gigantopithecus. There is no evidence of primates evolving in the Americas, so presumably, descendants of gigantopithecus got here the way many humans did: by crossing an ice bridge between northern Asia and northern North America.
We don't know much about gigantopithecus, except that it was larger than a gorilla and had teeth similar to a human's. It is compelling that the closest living relative of gigantopithecus, the orangutan, shares some of the characteristics that eyewitnesses attribute to sasquatch. Orangutans are covered in long, reddish-brown hair, are highly intelligent and exhibit a great deal of curiosity about human behavior. They are not particularly vocal, but will on occasion make loud, howling calls to alert other orangutans of their presence.Orangutans are remarkably different from other primates in how they live. While most apes and monkeys form tight-knit communities, orangutans are solitary creatures. After childhood, they gather with other orangutans only to reproduce. Orangutans are so widely dispersed in an area that they only rarely run across one another.
This sort of behavior might account for the rarity of sasquatch sightings, as well as the lack of skeletal remains. It makes sense that an intelligent animal that prefers to be alone would retreat into the deep woods (or up into the mo­untains) as human civilization encroached on its territory. And if it were smart enough, it could conceivably hide from humans for hundreds and hundreds of years. If the population were widely dispersed, as with orangutans, and the animal had a fairly long life span, as do orangutans and other apes, skeletal remains would show up only once in a while. Most bones decay in a relatively short period of time (as few as 5 to 10 years), so it is possible that scientists wouldn't come across them at all. Believers in sasquatch suggest that it is not only possible, but quite likely that the bones would go undiscovered, since there has never been a full-blown, scientific search for them.
The gigantopithecus-descendant theory is the most likely explanation of where sasquatches might come from. But to skeptics all over the world, there is a much more likely explanation: They say the sasquatch phenomenon is a product of hoaxes, misidentifications and basic human nature. In the next section, we'll look at some of the arguments for and against this hypothesis.