In Search of Aliens (2014) s01e05 Episode Script
Searching for Bigfoot
I'm on my way to Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, which is one of the world's most active areas for Bigfoot sightings.
According to the ancient astronaut theory, extraterrestrials came to Earth in the remote past and modified our DNA to make us what we are today.
There are depictions throughout the ancient world of strange hybrid beings like some of the gods in ancient Egypt and the Chimera in Greece.
And there are also numerous stories of giants and hairy wild men.
So, could alien visitors have done other genetic experiments? Ones that resulted in a race of beasts that have survived virtually undetected for thousands of years? Or could there be another and even more incredible connection? I'm on a mission to find out if Bigfoot really exists and if it isn't just a giant hairy beast, but living proof that extraterrestrials not only were here, but maybe they are still living in our midst.
My name is Giorgio Tsoukalos.
I explore the world that exists between reality and speculation, the known and the unknown.
What we've been taught by mainstream scholars is not the whole picture.
But I'm convinced that every day we are one step closer to the truth.
In 1958, a bulldozer operator in Bluff Creek, California discovered 16-inch human-like footprints near his equipment.
When he told his story to a local newspaper, he said that the footprints must've been made by an animal with a really big foot and the legend of Bigfoot was born.
But tales of mysterious hairy beasts can be found in cultures throughout the world dating back to ancient times.
In the Himalayas, they have stories of the Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman.
In Australia, they talk of a giant ape man known as Yowie.
In Mongolia, they have the Yeren.
And although the stories come from different parts of the world, the accounts are surprisingly similar.
Most describe a tall massive creature walking on two legs and looking very much like some sort of a giant ape.
But nowhere are the stories more prolific than America's Pacific Northwest, where thousands of people claim to have seen or encountered the mysterious Bigfoot.
You're about to see the people of the Olympic Project.
They are Bigfoot researchers and apparently they have all sorts of scientific equipment and they have dedicated their lives to investigating the mystery of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the big hairy monster.
This is in the middle of nowhere and it is God's country, it is absolutely gorgeous.
By the way, I have no idea what to expect.
All right.
This has to be the place.
Gentlemen.
Hey.
Hey.
How you doing? Look, I found him.
He's right there.
You can stop your search.
I mean, what are you guys doing? Game over.
He's right here.
Yeah, right? How long have you been doing this and what are you doing? I mean, this is, I love the pots and pans.
The Olympic Project is about six years old.
And it's pretty much, it started out as a comprehensive camera trap program where we would camera trap predatory travel routes.
We're basically taking this core area right here and we're documenting every single thing that happens in hopes of getting pictures of Sasquatch.
(Giorgio) The team of two dozen researchers includes experts in everything from wildlife habitats to high tech audio and video recording.
To date, the group has spent thousands of hours monitoring the Olympic Forest, looking for evidence of Bigfoot.
Leading the team is long-time Bigfoot researcher, Derek Randles.
He has invited both myself and Dr.
Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, to join the team on an overnight expedition on the Olympic Peninsula.
I explore the ancient mysteries of the world and so the whole idea of Bigfoot to me is interesting because all throughout history, there are bizarre stories of these half man, half beast creatures that are found, not just in this part of the world, but all around the globe.
Given my background, I'm always a little more reticent.
I'm a little more critical initially, so I'm down here and then as I investigate things and ask for the questions and look for correlations and corroborations, then that level of acceptance may increase.
What can you tell me about the area, and, you know, are there any local legends that talk about this amazing creature here? (Derek) The Olympic Mountain Range has been, for many years, a serious hot spot in Bigfoot activity.
(Giorgio) Curiously, the Olympic Mountain Range is also a hot spot for UFO activity.
Over the years, there have been hundreds of reported sightings of strange objects appearing and then quickly disappearing in the sky.
In June 2011, two people even claimed they witnessed a cigar-shaped object hovering in the sky for nearly 15 minutes.
There have also been reports of people who saw strange lights following a Bigfoot encounter.
And there are even some reports of Bigfoot being seen coming out of a disc-shaped craft.
I started actually investigating the Olympic Mountain Range in 1985 when I had my own encounter.
And it forever changed my life.
You had your own encounter? Mm-hmm.
So you've seen Bigfoot? Yes.
Yes.
Back in the early '80s, I would get together with a couple hiking partners of mine and we would go up on the trail system.
There's a very elaborate trail system throughout the Olympic National Park.
So, at that time, we started to take our backpacks off and pull our tents out and ready to get situated for the evening.
And we heard a very loud crash.
And here comes a rock.
And it's arcing.
And it comes down and lands about 10 feet to the left of us.
And we didn't even say anything, we didn't even move, we just stood there.
And then another one.
Boom, and it landed about 10 feet to the left of us.
And then we panicked.
And we just started gathering our stuff up off the ground and then another rock hit.
Didn't even take the time to put our backpacks on.
We just grabbed them up and starting running down the ridge.
And I just happened to look back before I turned around.
(Bigfoot roaring) And there it was.
It had kind of stepped out of the timberline and there was no mistaking of what it was.
(Bigfoot growling) My world just came to a screeching halt right there.
Right.
And the next day, pretty much, I went into Bigfoot research and I've been doing it ever since.
(Giorgio) Derek's account seemed very genuine.
But then I have to ask myself, with all these Bigfoot encounters, why do we still not have concrete evidence of the creature's existence? Perhaps the Olympic Project will be able to find that evidence during our expedition.
So, what are we looking at here? It's very colorful.
What we're looking at is a spectrogram of an audio file.
What I like to do is set up a recorder in an area that has promise and record all night long.
And then review the audio file to see if I can find anything of interest.
Okay.
What I've got here is an isolated signature within a loop of five different vocalizations that are suspicious.
Those lines, are those the vocalizations? They are.
Okay.
So, now, this is just a loop of this specific vocal.
Okay.
[Shrieking.]
It's like a guy yodeling.
It's very interesting.
Yes, we can't say specifically that it's a Sasquatch, but that's what interests people that are analyzing the audio.
What do you say to someone that might suggest, "Well, what we just heard is nothing else but a wolf howling.
" It's possible, but since we're looking at it in a spectrogram, we can compare it to a wolf spectrogram.
(Giorgio) David Ellis has collected dozens of animal sounds recorded in the Olympic Forest.
And each new sound collected is compared to documented animal sounds by using spectrogram analysis.
With it, he can eliminate sounds that match with known animals.
For example, a wolf howl.
[Howling.]
[Shrieking.]
According to Ellis, the sound we are listening to now does not match up with anything else on record.
That is very interesting.
The team arms themselves for the hunt with an arsenal of super sophisticated equipment.
Their so-called "secret weapon" is the FLIR camera, which stands for "Forward Looking Infrared.
" Often used by law enforcement and the military, FLIR is the top of the line in thermal heat-sensing technology.
They also bring along an audio dish for amplifying sounds coming out of the forest and motion detector still cameras, all in an effort to find concrete evidence of the legendary creature known as Bigfoot.
All of this is great, but as you all know, the real research takes place out in the field, so I would love to take all these gadgets and all our gear out in the open and let's see what happens.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
All right.
I'm in Washington State's Olympic Peninsula about to set out into the forest with the Olympic Project.
I'm here to find out if Bigfoot actually exists, and if so, could there be an extraterrestrial connection? (Giorgio) So, Derek, where are we headed right now? (Derek) We're going to actually go up on this bench up here on the side of Muller.
(Giorgio) The team often conducts their Bigfoot expeditions at Mount Muller, where numerous sightings have been reported.
(Giorgio) So, we're doing this on foot, not with a helicopter? (Derek) We are going on foot.
(Giorgio) All right.
Let's do it.
(Derek) Isn't this beautiful through here? (Giorgio) The scenery is absolutely beyond anything I've ever seen.
This area, there are apparently over 200 reports of sightings by different people.
And whenever I hear stuff like that, I'm interested because, you know, you can't suggest that all these 200 reports are from crazy people.
So, what if something really is going on here? And so, I'm very excited to be out here.
And maybe we'll get some clues to explore this mystery even further.
Ready for a break? Let's just take a break here.
(Giorgio) On every expedition he goes on, Dr.
Meldrum carries footprint cast samples with him for comparison in the event they find a fresh one.
And many have recently been discovered in this particular forest.
So, Dr.
Meldrum, you know, you have to tell me, to you what is the most compelling reasons that you think that Bigfoot might be real? Well, from my point of view it's the footprint evidence.
I mean, clearly that's my area of expertise, and so it has the greatest significance to me.
Let me show you a couple of examples here.
Oh, wow, you brought a cast.
I did.
A pair of them, in fact.
If you'll hold that one for a second.
Oh, wow.
These are amazing.
Now, these are some good examples of some very classic Sasquatch tracks.
This is probably a large male, measures between 16, 17 inches in length.
That's quite broad, nearly seven inches across the forefoot here.
And in contrast, the female, this one which measures between about 14 and 15 inches, maybe five inches across the forefoot here.
And so, I mean, clearly these are not just simply someone with a big foot walking around barefoot.
(Giorgio) Check this out.
Wow.
Dr.
Meldrum has over 200 examples of footprint casts that indicate that the anatomy of the creature could be similar to that of a large bipedal ape.
With a foot measuring some 16 inches in length, it would stand somewhere between eight and ten feet tall and would weigh in excess of 1,000 pounds.
But rather than an arched foot as in the case of humans, the creature's footprints indicate that its weight is distributed much more evenly, giving it flat but still very flexible feet.
So, Dr.
Meldrum you're of the conviction that these prints are real.
I am.
I am.
Some unknown creature has been leaving these footprints.
(Giorgio) After hiking for several hours, the team sets up camp.
Everyone works together to get organized quickly before the light fades.
Then we head out into the woods with thermal cameras and audio equipment to search for Bigfoot.
(James) So, this is what we're going to be using.
(Giorgio) How long do you leave a camera out like this? (James) Batteries usually last for three to six months, depending on how many pictures they're taking.
(Giorgio) And it only picks up when there is movement.
Movement, for sure.
Okay.
(Giorgio) All right, so now we've set up the infrared camera.
(James) Looks good.
(Giorgio) Let's go back.
In addition to the motion control cameras, David Ellis places audio recording equipment near game trails to capture any unusual vocalizations.
(David) This is a parabolic dish and it is designed to amplify sound from a specific direction and usually I'll have somebody off in the distance and we'll do sound checks, so I get an idea of how close something is to the dish.
So, would you be so kind as to do a sound check for me? Are you saying you want me to be Bigfoot? Is that what you're saying? Fine, I'll do it.
So, just into the distance right here? All right.
(David) That's probably far enough.
All right, now, give me a whisper.
[Whispers.]
Can you hear me? Perfect.
So, you could hear me whisper, like, 75 feet away? I can.
Yes.
I mean, clear as a bell, right? Yes.
So I'm good.
All right.
In the end, all of this is about the unknown.
Derek Randles is one of the founders of the Olympic Project.
I wanted to spend some time with him and tap into his expertise about what he thinks this creature is and is not.
So, in your opinion, why do you think Bigfoot is so elusive? I think that there's very few, there are very few, they're very smart.
They are expert woodsmen.
To just go out and find a Sasquatch, you're going to win the lottery first.
They are far and away our superior out here in the woods.
I find it interesting that every member of the Olympic Project talks about Bigfoot as being this very large but also intelligent creature.
When I hear this, I'm reminded of the story of "The Watchers" from The Book of Enoch.
This Apocryphal text, which was edited out of the traditional Christian Bible, tells of a group of angels called "The Watchers," who descended to Earth from Heaven shortly after the time of Creation.
According to The Book of Enoch, the Watchers mated with early humans and bred a race of giants called the Nephilim.
Might otherworldly visitors have come here and engaged in some sort of genetic manipulation? And could one of these genetic experiments still be living among us right here on Earth? I want to talk to you about sound.
I've also been told that people clapping or to make their presence known, and then there is a return clap or something like this? What's that all about? You're probably referring to wood knocks.
Okay.
We do wood knocks to try to solicit a response.
I actually got a knocker if you want to pull it out of my backpack.
Yeah.
Is that that thing right here? I can show you what I'm talking about.
And here I thought you were a barkeep.
All right.
So, normally we just try to find a tree like this that's not too thick because then the sound will carry better.
So this is kind of perfect right here.
I'll show you what I'm talking about.
And then generally after you do that, you just listen to see if there's going to be a return knock.
And believe it or not, it does happen.
You want to try it? Of course, yes, absolutely.
Maybe something will happen.
[Chuckles.]
Silence.
Silence.
This is great.
Can I keep this while we walk through the woods? Keep it.
I need protection.
The modern day phenomenon of Bigfoot isn't something that has just sprung up recently, but there are, in fact, legends from ancient times from all around the world.
For example, in the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh in what is present day Iraq Sumerian tablets dating as far back as 1800 B.
C.
Tell the story of King Gilgamesh and his companion named Enkidu.
Enkidu is described as a large, hairy wild man living outside human society.
But the most fascinating part of the story is that Enkidu was supposedly created by powerful beings called the Anunnaki, which, when translated, means "those who from the heavens came.
" So, could the story of the Anunnaki and Enkidu be connected to the similar stories about the Watchers in The Book of Enoch? And if Bigfoot really exists, could it be the product of extraterrestrial engineering? (Giorgio) Let's go find Bigfoot.
(James) Let's do it.
(Giorgio) As the light fades, James and I set off with the mobile FLIR camera to look for any signs of Bigfoot.
So, James, is this what you do? You drive around all night with the machine on and you scope a 360-degree view? (James) Absolutely.
We'll go find a place that's got great visual, and then we'll set up and sit there and watch for a while.
We'll just keep following the roads and see what we see.
Pretty impressive technology.
(Giorgio) I mean, this looks pretty cool.
I mean, this is a thermal camera, and we'll see things that are emitting heat.
So, you know, we can point the camera all the way to the sky.
Potentially see some UFOs.
Who knows? Suddenly, something appears on the monitor.
Look, look, look at this over here.
Where are you pointing? I mean, this thing, it's glowing.
It's some kind of body part.
(Giorgio) In the fading light, all we can see are trees, but the thermal camera has hit on something which appears to be a warm-blooded animal.
I'm going to actually see if we can make it move.
[Horn honks.]
(Giorgio) Now he's moving.
See its head? Can you see it? Oh, wow.
See how it's down right now? [Horns honks.]
(Giorgio) Whoa.
(James) That's a deer.
I've been a hunter for years and I cannot pick that deer out of the brush right there.
This technology is quite amazing.
(Giorgio) In 1980, investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe discovered a connection between Bigfoot and the unexplained phenomenon of animal mutilations.
Linda had received a letter from a man in Snohomish, Washington, just 90 miles from where we are now.
He reported seeing a silver disk in the sky that shot a beam of light down to the earth.
In the beam of light, he saw what he described as a tall, shaggy creature, which walked off into the woods as the craft disappeared.
Over the next few days, there were reports in the area of livestock found dead with missing organs and body parts.
But all looked as if they had been removed with surgical precision.
If a connection can be made between Bigfoot and these strange animal mutilations, I think it's safe to suggest that we may very well be dealing with something of an extraterrestrial origin.
Dr.
Meldrum, there's one personal question that I would like to ask you, and that is, have you ever had an encounter? Well, I've had a variety of experiences ranging from, you know, vocalizations, bumps in the night, finding footprints on a number of occasions.
I've even seen a fleeting silhouette that could very well have been a Sasquatch.
But I'm still waiting for that vivid, conclusive, definitive encounter in broad daylight.
All of this stuff today, it really got me thinking in correlation to the ancient stories that I'm familiar with of these hairy beasts in ancient times that are described all around the world in different cultures.
So, what if what we have here is something rather similar? The investigations have to continue, but I'm tired, and so tomorrow is another day, and I'm going to turn off the lights and go to sleep.
The next day, Dr.
Meldrum and the Olympic Project team informed me that they had decided to continue their expedition for two more days, but unfortunately I needed to move on.
That way, right? Yes.
Yeah.
Straight back.
Before I leave the Pacific Northwest, I'd like to meet up with Richard Germeau, a former police officer.
He claims to have seen Bigfoot not once, but twice.
So I'm really stoked to hear his take on the whole Bigfoot phenomenon.
I've been told that you've actually had an encounter with Bigfoot twice.
I mean, that's like hitting the lottery.
So, tell me more about this.
Well, I did have an encounter back in 2000.
I was a police officer in La Push, Washington at that time.
And La Push is an Indian reservation on the coast.
(Giorgio) Many Native American cultures share traditional ancient legends which refer to large hair-covered man-beasts whom they believe inhabit the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest.
Even today, the Quinault Indians of the Olympic Peninsula report sightings of a huge ape-like hominid they call C'iatqo.
In fact, the existence of these tall, shaggy creatures, also known as Sasquatch, is simply taken for granted by many Native American tribes.
I was driving down the road, it was about 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening, but it was still plenty light.
And I was coming around this corner and the beach was off to my left.
And just this dark figure that was really tall and big.
Stepped out of the brush on one side onto the roadway and it commenced to take about four steps before it cleared the road and it went into the brush and just kept going.
So, from what you saw during that first encounter, how big was that creature? The chest to the back looked massive.
I mean, I don't know how deep it was, but it was thick and I was only about a mile and a half away from my office that I worked in at that point, so I drove right there.
And at that time, there was a deputy from the county sheriff's office that was there and two of my co-workers and I told them what happened right away.
Wow.
They ridiculed me and laughed at me like people normally would.
Richard's experience affected him so strongly that despite the ridicule he received from his colleagues in the police department, he went on to co-found the Olympic Project with Derek Randles.
In 2010, Richard set up a number of motion-controlled cameras in an area believed to be a Bigfoot lair.
I had a really bad feeling, even when I got there.
Everything was really quiet and it was kind of drizzly.
It was just an eerie day.
So I hear twigs break, but there's nothing over there.
Not more than a few seconds after that, I hear a like an exhale.
And I started to look up and I could see something was standing about 20 yards in front of me.
And then, in one motion, it shot through this opening.
And I said, if I don't leave now, I'm going to die.
So I turned and I ran the other way.
It was really close.
And it was huge and I'm a little shaken up just right now, talking about it.
You were shaking just recounting the story.
It was a traumatic event.
(Giorgio) Although legends concerning large hairy creatures have been told and retold for centuries, what turned Bigfoot into a household name was the notorious Patterson-Gimlin film.
Even though some have judged the footage as a hoax, there are many who believe that it offers convincing evidence that Bigfoot really does exist.
So, what do you think that creature actually is? In the beginning when I got into it, I kind of looked at it as it must be a relic hominid of some type, you know, North American ape.
And that certainly is a possibility.
But when you look at the Native American history, that's much more supernatural, even to some aspects, of a shape-shifter, interdimensional type being.
(Giorgio) A shape-shifter? An interdimensional being? Now, when I hear things like that, my mind goes to stories of shape-shifting beings that appear in many ancient cultures, including the Greek tale of Zeus, who transformed King Lycaon into a wolf.
Many Native American myths include legends of creatures known as "skinwalkers.
" Humans who can change their shape at will and often take the form of large hairy beasts.
I'm not saying that I necessarily believe along those lines But those stories exist.
They do exist and there must be a reason for it.
That's a verbal history of those people.
And all tribes tend to have the same type of stories about these beings.
Well, Rich, thank you very much for allowing me to come out here and to hear your stories.
The second encounter, the way you described that, that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
After hearing Rich Germeau's incredible firsthand account, I've decided to reach out to my good friend Dr.
Jonathan Young, an expert in mythology and the founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives.
So, thanks very much for seeing me on such short notice, but I recently met this former detective, Rich Germeau, and he thinks that Bigfoot, or whatever it is he saw, was some sort of a shape-shifter or a skinwalker.
And so I know that that is right up your alley.
Whatever is happening, it's significant.
So we have Yeti in the Himalaya areas, we have giants in Africa, we have all the reports in the Pacific Northwest, which have been the Bigfoot sightings.
The fact that they keep happening suggests that there's something to it.
I want to show you some things.
Come with me.
All right.
I was thinking, Giorgio, about this wild man image, how it shows up in some really popular forms.
A very familiar form from Western culture is Merlin.
Merlin, he's a shamanistic magician.
He lives in a cave.
So you've got the cave diver tradition there, the troglodytes, all the way back to the Greek historians.
(Giorgio) Now, this is a truly fascinating connection to me because many historians believe that the wizard Merlin is actually based on a legendary Welsh figure named Myrddin Wyllt, who is described as a hairy madman who wandered in the company of beasts.
Now, in the ancient Greek myths, the troglodytes are these large, hairy, beastly-looking creatures that lived underground and could be extremely terrifying.
But they were also depicted as being very wise, and according to the ancient legends, the troglodytes descended from the sky and were hiding out in caves and tunnels because they wanted to keep their presence a secret.
There have been stories about magical animals and humans turning into animals, animals turning into humans from, well, pretty much as long as we've had recorded history.
So, take the werewolf.
Those characters transcend our moral code.
They do what they want.
They are like beasts in that regard.
And then they become people again.
Is the Bigfoot a shape-shifter? Is it something else part of the time? Is that why we don't see it all the time? (Giorgio) Man, the idea that Bigfoot could be some sort of a shape-shifter, like a werewolf, is incredible.
Because, if true, it could explain why Bigfoot has been so elusive.
It is able to hide among us in human form.
I've always been fascinated by the idea of the hybrids.
These half-man, half-animal creatures that permeate all of history.
In your opinion, what are we looking at there? Yeah, it's just very, very interesting, the way they show up in so many variations.
I've got an image here of a half-horse, half-man.
This is very close to the image of Pan.
And it is a very powerful crossing between the known and the unknown.
(Giorgio) All around the world we can find carvings or statues of what are called "hybrid beings.
" In India we have the Naga, which is a half-man, half-snake.
In Greece, there is the Medusa, who has snakes for hair.
In Egypt, there's an entire god pantheon of half-man, half-animal deities like Anubis, a creature that has the head of a jackal and the body of a human being.
Various hybrid images that show up from time to time all through history and a recent present-day manifestation is Bigfoot.
Yeti.
Do they have the kind of impact that these hybrid gods had? Are they showing us the way to something metaphysical? Something transcendent? That's what gets me excited about these sightings.
Life is strange, and there's a lot to know that we do not know, and it's important to study the margins.
To study the things that we don't understand yet.
Bigfoot and I will cross paths.
Jonathan, this was great.
Thank you very much for your time.
It was marvelous.
I've learned a lot.
Now, we know that scientists are always discovering new organisms all the time, so it isn't so hard for me to believe or speculate that there really could be a creature, even one as large as Bigfoot, that has so far evaded detection or even capture.
But the big difference between believing something and knowing it, is the difference between faith and science.
And because scientists are the hardest people to convince, I've made a trip to the Museum of Man in San Diego to ask biological anthropologist Dr.
Tori Randall if she thinks that a creature like Bigfoot could actually be real.
One of the main attractions here is a model of Lucy, a hominid whose skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974.
It is considered by scientists to be what many have claimed Bigfoot could be, a missing link between apes and humans.
All right, there she is.
(Tori) This is Lucy.
She's an Australopithecus afarensis.
An early hominid that lived about two to four million years ago.
She stood about three-and-a-half feet tall and she has some ape-like and some more human-like traits.
She's bipedal, which is one of the things that we attribute to humans.
(Giorgio) Right.
Although Lucy is far too small to suggest that she may have a direct connection to Bigfoot, there were, in fact, a number of very large primates that walked the earth as far back as 100,000 years ago.
One of these, known as Gigantopithecus, stood an incredible 10 to 12 feet tall.
And if Bigfoot really exists, could it be a direct descendant of this giant prehistoric creature? Who are these two friends right here? So, we have a couple of reconstructions of different hominins here.
This one is an australopithecine, which is an earlier form of hominin.
Probably about two to four million years ago.
This one is a Homo habilis, which is the first member of the Homo genus, which is what we are, as Homo sapiens.
So, a little bit more modern if you're comparing these two.
So, Tori, in your opinion, do you think it is at all possible that a subspecies, for example Bigfoot, could exist under the radar and it hasn't yet been discovered? Is such a thing possible? Having a subspecies that's existing in isolation somewhere that definitely is possible.
This has been an incredible opportunity to explore something that I've been interested in for a long time, the development of animals and humans on our planet.
Did we descend from apes over millions of years, or was there some extraterrestrial intervention? It raises many questions involving science and the unknown.
But what I find myself blown away by is that a biological anthropologist like Dr.
Tori Randall believes it's possible that a large hairy creature like Bigfoot could, in fact, exist.
If one were to subscribe to the idea that a species like Bigfoot exists, what would have to have occurred for such a thing to even happen? An organism can be isolated.
There can be interbreeding, where two different populations can come together and a brand new trait will show up.
Or there can be a mutation where there's a brand new random trait that no one's ever seen in that organism before.
(Giorgio) Dr.
Randall's notion that Bigfoot may possibly exist but also may have been able to escape capture due to centuries of evolution is really interesting to me.
Perhaps centuries ago they were hunted by early man, but by now only the smartest and most elusive ones have survived.
So, what are the primary gene differences between apes and humans? Our DNA, in general, is very similar.
We share 99.
8 percent of our DNA with a chimpanzee.
But there are particular genes that distinguish humans from other apes, for instance, the DUF1220 gene.
(Giorgio) Scientists have discovered that a protein called DUF1220 may, in fact, be the so-called missing link in human brain evolution.
Six million years ago, as humans began to diverge from the ape family, there was also a noticeable increase in DUF1220.
(Tori) If we're talking about brain size, modern humans have a cranial capacity of about 1,200 to 1,300 cubic centimeters.
In this gorilla it's about 400 to 450, and the same thing in this australopithecine is about 400 to 450.
So, this is looking in one of our earliest ancestors.
And they had a brain size about the size of a modern-day ape.
This is really interesting because not even scientists can sufficiently explain why early humans suddenly featured an increase in genetic coding such as DUF1220, which is part of the so-called "secret sauce" that makes us who we are today.
Now, was it simply evolution? A random mutation? Or was it extraterrestrial intervention? Some people have proposed that Bigfoot might be the missing link between humans and apes.
What do you think about that? People find a brand new species that's alive all the time that, you know, something in the rain forest that no one's ever seen before and someone comes across it.
So, I certainly would be open to the possibility that a fossil's going to be found that we've never seen before.
And to hear you say this is very exciting to me that, you know, to me, science is always to be open-minded and not to be closed off to the possibility of asking a question, "What if?" And so, to thank you for your time, I wanted to give you this right here as a token of my appreciation, which is an ancient pre-Columbian funerary object that has been found in multiple tombs and Thank you.
Keep me up to date if anything new happens in the development of finding the various missing links.
I would like to hear from you.
I will.
I will.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Tori.
Until next time, bye-bye.
After connecting all the dots, I'm more and more convinced that if Bigfoot exists, it isn't likely the product of extraterrestrial gene manipulation because we are.
In fact, what if Bigfoot is what humans would be if aliens had not intervened on this planet? Possibly the last survivors of mankind's genetic ancestors before we received the so-called "secret sauce" that made us the creatures we are today before we shed our fur for hair or learned to speak.
And before some of us began traveling the world in search of aliens.
According to the ancient astronaut theory, extraterrestrials came to Earth in the remote past and modified our DNA to make us what we are today.
There are depictions throughout the ancient world of strange hybrid beings like some of the gods in ancient Egypt and the Chimera in Greece.
And there are also numerous stories of giants and hairy wild men.
So, could alien visitors have done other genetic experiments? Ones that resulted in a race of beasts that have survived virtually undetected for thousands of years? Or could there be another and even more incredible connection? I'm on a mission to find out if Bigfoot really exists and if it isn't just a giant hairy beast, but living proof that extraterrestrials not only were here, but maybe they are still living in our midst.
My name is Giorgio Tsoukalos.
I explore the world that exists between reality and speculation, the known and the unknown.
What we've been taught by mainstream scholars is not the whole picture.
But I'm convinced that every day we are one step closer to the truth.
In 1958, a bulldozer operator in Bluff Creek, California discovered 16-inch human-like footprints near his equipment.
When he told his story to a local newspaper, he said that the footprints must've been made by an animal with a really big foot and the legend of Bigfoot was born.
But tales of mysterious hairy beasts can be found in cultures throughout the world dating back to ancient times.
In the Himalayas, they have stories of the Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman.
In Australia, they talk of a giant ape man known as Yowie.
In Mongolia, they have the Yeren.
And although the stories come from different parts of the world, the accounts are surprisingly similar.
Most describe a tall massive creature walking on two legs and looking very much like some sort of a giant ape.
But nowhere are the stories more prolific than America's Pacific Northwest, where thousands of people claim to have seen or encountered the mysterious Bigfoot.
You're about to see the people of the Olympic Project.
They are Bigfoot researchers and apparently they have all sorts of scientific equipment and they have dedicated their lives to investigating the mystery of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the big hairy monster.
This is in the middle of nowhere and it is God's country, it is absolutely gorgeous.
By the way, I have no idea what to expect.
All right.
This has to be the place.
Gentlemen.
Hey.
Hey.
How you doing? Look, I found him.
He's right there.
You can stop your search.
I mean, what are you guys doing? Game over.
He's right here.
Yeah, right? How long have you been doing this and what are you doing? I mean, this is, I love the pots and pans.
The Olympic Project is about six years old.
And it's pretty much, it started out as a comprehensive camera trap program where we would camera trap predatory travel routes.
We're basically taking this core area right here and we're documenting every single thing that happens in hopes of getting pictures of Sasquatch.
(Giorgio) The team of two dozen researchers includes experts in everything from wildlife habitats to high tech audio and video recording.
To date, the group has spent thousands of hours monitoring the Olympic Forest, looking for evidence of Bigfoot.
Leading the team is long-time Bigfoot researcher, Derek Randles.
He has invited both myself and Dr.
Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, to join the team on an overnight expedition on the Olympic Peninsula.
I explore the ancient mysteries of the world and so the whole idea of Bigfoot to me is interesting because all throughout history, there are bizarre stories of these half man, half beast creatures that are found, not just in this part of the world, but all around the globe.
Given my background, I'm always a little more reticent.
I'm a little more critical initially, so I'm down here and then as I investigate things and ask for the questions and look for correlations and corroborations, then that level of acceptance may increase.
What can you tell me about the area, and, you know, are there any local legends that talk about this amazing creature here? (Derek) The Olympic Mountain Range has been, for many years, a serious hot spot in Bigfoot activity.
(Giorgio) Curiously, the Olympic Mountain Range is also a hot spot for UFO activity.
Over the years, there have been hundreds of reported sightings of strange objects appearing and then quickly disappearing in the sky.
In June 2011, two people even claimed they witnessed a cigar-shaped object hovering in the sky for nearly 15 minutes.
There have also been reports of people who saw strange lights following a Bigfoot encounter.
And there are even some reports of Bigfoot being seen coming out of a disc-shaped craft.
I started actually investigating the Olympic Mountain Range in 1985 when I had my own encounter.
And it forever changed my life.
You had your own encounter? Mm-hmm.
So you've seen Bigfoot? Yes.
Yes.
Back in the early '80s, I would get together with a couple hiking partners of mine and we would go up on the trail system.
There's a very elaborate trail system throughout the Olympic National Park.
So, at that time, we started to take our backpacks off and pull our tents out and ready to get situated for the evening.
And we heard a very loud crash.
And here comes a rock.
And it's arcing.
And it comes down and lands about 10 feet to the left of us.
And we didn't even say anything, we didn't even move, we just stood there.
And then another one.
Boom, and it landed about 10 feet to the left of us.
And then we panicked.
And we just started gathering our stuff up off the ground and then another rock hit.
Didn't even take the time to put our backpacks on.
We just grabbed them up and starting running down the ridge.
And I just happened to look back before I turned around.
(Bigfoot roaring) And there it was.
It had kind of stepped out of the timberline and there was no mistaking of what it was.
(Bigfoot growling) My world just came to a screeching halt right there.
Right.
And the next day, pretty much, I went into Bigfoot research and I've been doing it ever since.
(Giorgio) Derek's account seemed very genuine.
But then I have to ask myself, with all these Bigfoot encounters, why do we still not have concrete evidence of the creature's existence? Perhaps the Olympic Project will be able to find that evidence during our expedition.
So, what are we looking at here? It's very colorful.
What we're looking at is a spectrogram of an audio file.
What I like to do is set up a recorder in an area that has promise and record all night long.
And then review the audio file to see if I can find anything of interest.
Okay.
What I've got here is an isolated signature within a loop of five different vocalizations that are suspicious.
Those lines, are those the vocalizations? They are.
Okay.
So, now, this is just a loop of this specific vocal.
Okay.
[Shrieking.]
It's like a guy yodeling.
It's very interesting.
Yes, we can't say specifically that it's a Sasquatch, but that's what interests people that are analyzing the audio.
What do you say to someone that might suggest, "Well, what we just heard is nothing else but a wolf howling.
" It's possible, but since we're looking at it in a spectrogram, we can compare it to a wolf spectrogram.
(Giorgio) David Ellis has collected dozens of animal sounds recorded in the Olympic Forest.
And each new sound collected is compared to documented animal sounds by using spectrogram analysis.
With it, he can eliminate sounds that match with known animals.
For example, a wolf howl.
[Howling.]
[Shrieking.]
According to Ellis, the sound we are listening to now does not match up with anything else on record.
That is very interesting.
The team arms themselves for the hunt with an arsenal of super sophisticated equipment.
Their so-called "secret weapon" is the FLIR camera, which stands for "Forward Looking Infrared.
" Often used by law enforcement and the military, FLIR is the top of the line in thermal heat-sensing technology.
They also bring along an audio dish for amplifying sounds coming out of the forest and motion detector still cameras, all in an effort to find concrete evidence of the legendary creature known as Bigfoot.
All of this is great, but as you all know, the real research takes place out in the field, so I would love to take all these gadgets and all our gear out in the open and let's see what happens.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
All right.
I'm in Washington State's Olympic Peninsula about to set out into the forest with the Olympic Project.
I'm here to find out if Bigfoot actually exists, and if so, could there be an extraterrestrial connection? (Giorgio) So, Derek, where are we headed right now? (Derek) We're going to actually go up on this bench up here on the side of Muller.
(Giorgio) The team often conducts their Bigfoot expeditions at Mount Muller, where numerous sightings have been reported.
(Giorgio) So, we're doing this on foot, not with a helicopter? (Derek) We are going on foot.
(Giorgio) All right.
Let's do it.
(Derek) Isn't this beautiful through here? (Giorgio) The scenery is absolutely beyond anything I've ever seen.
This area, there are apparently over 200 reports of sightings by different people.
And whenever I hear stuff like that, I'm interested because, you know, you can't suggest that all these 200 reports are from crazy people.
So, what if something really is going on here? And so, I'm very excited to be out here.
And maybe we'll get some clues to explore this mystery even further.
Ready for a break? Let's just take a break here.
(Giorgio) On every expedition he goes on, Dr.
Meldrum carries footprint cast samples with him for comparison in the event they find a fresh one.
And many have recently been discovered in this particular forest.
So, Dr.
Meldrum, you know, you have to tell me, to you what is the most compelling reasons that you think that Bigfoot might be real? Well, from my point of view it's the footprint evidence.
I mean, clearly that's my area of expertise, and so it has the greatest significance to me.
Let me show you a couple of examples here.
Oh, wow, you brought a cast.
I did.
A pair of them, in fact.
If you'll hold that one for a second.
Oh, wow.
These are amazing.
Now, these are some good examples of some very classic Sasquatch tracks.
This is probably a large male, measures between 16, 17 inches in length.
That's quite broad, nearly seven inches across the forefoot here.
And in contrast, the female, this one which measures between about 14 and 15 inches, maybe five inches across the forefoot here.
And so, I mean, clearly these are not just simply someone with a big foot walking around barefoot.
(Giorgio) Check this out.
Wow.
Dr.
Meldrum has over 200 examples of footprint casts that indicate that the anatomy of the creature could be similar to that of a large bipedal ape.
With a foot measuring some 16 inches in length, it would stand somewhere between eight and ten feet tall and would weigh in excess of 1,000 pounds.
But rather than an arched foot as in the case of humans, the creature's footprints indicate that its weight is distributed much more evenly, giving it flat but still very flexible feet.
So, Dr.
Meldrum you're of the conviction that these prints are real.
I am.
I am.
Some unknown creature has been leaving these footprints.
(Giorgio) After hiking for several hours, the team sets up camp.
Everyone works together to get organized quickly before the light fades.
Then we head out into the woods with thermal cameras and audio equipment to search for Bigfoot.
(James) So, this is what we're going to be using.
(Giorgio) How long do you leave a camera out like this? (James) Batteries usually last for three to six months, depending on how many pictures they're taking.
(Giorgio) And it only picks up when there is movement.
Movement, for sure.
Okay.
(Giorgio) All right, so now we've set up the infrared camera.
(James) Looks good.
(Giorgio) Let's go back.
In addition to the motion control cameras, David Ellis places audio recording equipment near game trails to capture any unusual vocalizations.
(David) This is a parabolic dish and it is designed to amplify sound from a specific direction and usually I'll have somebody off in the distance and we'll do sound checks, so I get an idea of how close something is to the dish.
So, would you be so kind as to do a sound check for me? Are you saying you want me to be Bigfoot? Is that what you're saying? Fine, I'll do it.
So, just into the distance right here? All right.
(David) That's probably far enough.
All right, now, give me a whisper.
[Whispers.]
Can you hear me? Perfect.
So, you could hear me whisper, like, 75 feet away? I can.
Yes.
I mean, clear as a bell, right? Yes.
So I'm good.
All right.
In the end, all of this is about the unknown.
Derek Randles is one of the founders of the Olympic Project.
I wanted to spend some time with him and tap into his expertise about what he thinks this creature is and is not.
So, in your opinion, why do you think Bigfoot is so elusive? I think that there's very few, there are very few, they're very smart.
They are expert woodsmen.
To just go out and find a Sasquatch, you're going to win the lottery first.
They are far and away our superior out here in the woods.
I find it interesting that every member of the Olympic Project talks about Bigfoot as being this very large but also intelligent creature.
When I hear this, I'm reminded of the story of "The Watchers" from The Book of Enoch.
This Apocryphal text, which was edited out of the traditional Christian Bible, tells of a group of angels called "The Watchers," who descended to Earth from Heaven shortly after the time of Creation.
According to The Book of Enoch, the Watchers mated with early humans and bred a race of giants called the Nephilim.
Might otherworldly visitors have come here and engaged in some sort of genetic manipulation? And could one of these genetic experiments still be living among us right here on Earth? I want to talk to you about sound.
I've also been told that people clapping or to make their presence known, and then there is a return clap or something like this? What's that all about? You're probably referring to wood knocks.
Okay.
We do wood knocks to try to solicit a response.
I actually got a knocker if you want to pull it out of my backpack.
Yeah.
Is that that thing right here? I can show you what I'm talking about.
And here I thought you were a barkeep.
All right.
So, normally we just try to find a tree like this that's not too thick because then the sound will carry better.
So this is kind of perfect right here.
I'll show you what I'm talking about.
And then generally after you do that, you just listen to see if there's going to be a return knock.
And believe it or not, it does happen.
You want to try it? Of course, yes, absolutely.
Maybe something will happen.
[Chuckles.]
Silence.
Silence.
This is great.
Can I keep this while we walk through the woods? Keep it.
I need protection.
The modern day phenomenon of Bigfoot isn't something that has just sprung up recently, but there are, in fact, legends from ancient times from all around the world.
For example, in the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh in what is present day Iraq Sumerian tablets dating as far back as 1800 B.
C.
Tell the story of King Gilgamesh and his companion named Enkidu.
Enkidu is described as a large, hairy wild man living outside human society.
But the most fascinating part of the story is that Enkidu was supposedly created by powerful beings called the Anunnaki, which, when translated, means "those who from the heavens came.
" So, could the story of the Anunnaki and Enkidu be connected to the similar stories about the Watchers in The Book of Enoch? And if Bigfoot really exists, could it be the product of extraterrestrial engineering? (Giorgio) Let's go find Bigfoot.
(James) Let's do it.
(Giorgio) As the light fades, James and I set off with the mobile FLIR camera to look for any signs of Bigfoot.
So, James, is this what you do? You drive around all night with the machine on and you scope a 360-degree view? (James) Absolutely.
We'll go find a place that's got great visual, and then we'll set up and sit there and watch for a while.
We'll just keep following the roads and see what we see.
Pretty impressive technology.
(Giorgio) I mean, this looks pretty cool.
I mean, this is a thermal camera, and we'll see things that are emitting heat.
So, you know, we can point the camera all the way to the sky.
Potentially see some UFOs.
Who knows? Suddenly, something appears on the monitor.
Look, look, look at this over here.
Where are you pointing? I mean, this thing, it's glowing.
It's some kind of body part.
(Giorgio) In the fading light, all we can see are trees, but the thermal camera has hit on something which appears to be a warm-blooded animal.
I'm going to actually see if we can make it move.
[Horn honks.]
(Giorgio) Now he's moving.
See its head? Can you see it? Oh, wow.
See how it's down right now? [Horns honks.]
(Giorgio) Whoa.
(James) That's a deer.
I've been a hunter for years and I cannot pick that deer out of the brush right there.
This technology is quite amazing.
(Giorgio) In 1980, investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe discovered a connection between Bigfoot and the unexplained phenomenon of animal mutilations.
Linda had received a letter from a man in Snohomish, Washington, just 90 miles from where we are now.
He reported seeing a silver disk in the sky that shot a beam of light down to the earth.
In the beam of light, he saw what he described as a tall, shaggy creature, which walked off into the woods as the craft disappeared.
Over the next few days, there were reports in the area of livestock found dead with missing organs and body parts.
But all looked as if they had been removed with surgical precision.
If a connection can be made between Bigfoot and these strange animal mutilations, I think it's safe to suggest that we may very well be dealing with something of an extraterrestrial origin.
Dr.
Meldrum, there's one personal question that I would like to ask you, and that is, have you ever had an encounter? Well, I've had a variety of experiences ranging from, you know, vocalizations, bumps in the night, finding footprints on a number of occasions.
I've even seen a fleeting silhouette that could very well have been a Sasquatch.
But I'm still waiting for that vivid, conclusive, definitive encounter in broad daylight.
All of this stuff today, it really got me thinking in correlation to the ancient stories that I'm familiar with of these hairy beasts in ancient times that are described all around the world in different cultures.
So, what if what we have here is something rather similar? The investigations have to continue, but I'm tired, and so tomorrow is another day, and I'm going to turn off the lights and go to sleep.
The next day, Dr.
Meldrum and the Olympic Project team informed me that they had decided to continue their expedition for two more days, but unfortunately I needed to move on.
That way, right? Yes.
Yeah.
Straight back.
Before I leave the Pacific Northwest, I'd like to meet up with Richard Germeau, a former police officer.
He claims to have seen Bigfoot not once, but twice.
So I'm really stoked to hear his take on the whole Bigfoot phenomenon.
I've been told that you've actually had an encounter with Bigfoot twice.
I mean, that's like hitting the lottery.
So, tell me more about this.
Well, I did have an encounter back in 2000.
I was a police officer in La Push, Washington at that time.
And La Push is an Indian reservation on the coast.
(Giorgio) Many Native American cultures share traditional ancient legends which refer to large hair-covered man-beasts whom they believe inhabit the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest.
Even today, the Quinault Indians of the Olympic Peninsula report sightings of a huge ape-like hominid they call C'iatqo.
In fact, the existence of these tall, shaggy creatures, also known as Sasquatch, is simply taken for granted by many Native American tribes.
I was driving down the road, it was about 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening, but it was still plenty light.
And I was coming around this corner and the beach was off to my left.
And just this dark figure that was really tall and big.
Stepped out of the brush on one side onto the roadway and it commenced to take about four steps before it cleared the road and it went into the brush and just kept going.
So, from what you saw during that first encounter, how big was that creature? The chest to the back looked massive.
I mean, I don't know how deep it was, but it was thick and I was only about a mile and a half away from my office that I worked in at that point, so I drove right there.
And at that time, there was a deputy from the county sheriff's office that was there and two of my co-workers and I told them what happened right away.
Wow.
They ridiculed me and laughed at me like people normally would.
Richard's experience affected him so strongly that despite the ridicule he received from his colleagues in the police department, he went on to co-found the Olympic Project with Derek Randles.
In 2010, Richard set up a number of motion-controlled cameras in an area believed to be a Bigfoot lair.
I had a really bad feeling, even when I got there.
Everything was really quiet and it was kind of drizzly.
It was just an eerie day.
So I hear twigs break, but there's nothing over there.
Not more than a few seconds after that, I hear a like an exhale.
And I started to look up and I could see something was standing about 20 yards in front of me.
And then, in one motion, it shot through this opening.
And I said, if I don't leave now, I'm going to die.
So I turned and I ran the other way.
It was really close.
And it was huge and I'm a little shaken up just right now, talking about it.
You were shaking just recounting the story.
It was a traumatic event.
(Giorgio) Although legends concerning large hairy creatures have been told and retold for centuries, what turned Bigfoot into a household name was the notorious Patterson-Gimlin film.
Even though some have judged the footage as a hoax, there are many who believe that it offers convincing evidence that Bigfoot really does exist.
So, what do you think that creature actually is? In the beginning when I got into it, I kind of looked at it as it must be a relic hominid of some type, you know, North American ape.
And that certainly is a possibility.
But when you look at the Native American history, that's much more supernatural, even to some aspects, of a shape-shifter, interdimensional type being.
(Giorgio) A shape-shifter? An interdimensional being? Now, when I hear things like that, my mind goes to stories of shape-shifting beings that appear in many ancient cultures, including the Greek tale of Zeus, who transformed King Lycaon into a wolf.
Many Native American myths include legends of creatures known as "skinwalkers.
" Humans who can change their shape at will and often take the form of large hairy beasts.
I'm not saying that I necessarily believe along those lines But those stories exist.
They do exist and there must be a reason for it.
That's a verbal history of those people.
And all tribes tend to have the same type of stories about these beings.
Well, Rich, thank you very much for allowing me to come out here and to hear your stories.
The second encounter, the way you described that, that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
After hearing Rich Germeau's incredible firsthand account, I've decided to reach out to my good friend Dr.
Jonathan Young, an expert in mythology and the founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives.
So, thanks very much for seeing me on such short notice, but I recently met this former detective, Rich Germeau, and he thinks that Bigfoot, or whatever it is he saw, was some sort of a shape-shifter or a skinwalker.
And so I know that that is right up your alley.
Whatever is happening, it's significant.
So we have Yeti in the Himalaya areas, we have giants in Africa, we have all the reports in the Pacific Northwest, which have been the Bigfoot sightings.
The fact that they keep happening suggests that there's something to it.
I want to show you some things.
Come with me.
All right.
I was thinking, Giorgio, about this wild man image, how it shows up in some really popular forms.
A very familiar form from Western culture is Merlin.
Merlin, he's a shamanistic magician.
He lives in a cave.
So you've got the cave diver tradition there, the troglodytes, all the way back to the Greek historians.
(Giorgio) Now, this is a truly fascinating connection to me because many historians believe that the wizard Merlin is actually based on a legendary Welsh figure named Myrddin Wyllt, who is described as a hairy madman who wandered in the company of beasts.
Now, in the ancient Greek myths, the troglodytes are these large, hairy, beastly-looking creatures that lived underground and could be extremely terrifying.
But they were also depicted as being very wise, and according to the ancient legends, the troglodytes descended from the sky and were hiding out in caves and tunnels because they wanted to keep their presence a secret.
There have been stories about magical animals and humans turning into animals, animals turning into humans from, well, pretty much as long as we've had recorded history.
So, take the werewolf.
Those characters transcend our moral code.
They do what they want.
They are like beasts in that regard.
And then they become people again.
Is the Bigfoot a shape-shifter? Is it something else part of the time? Is that why we don't see it all the time? (Giorgio) Man, the idea that Bigfoot could be some sort of a shape-shifter, like a werewolf, is incredible.
Because, if true, it could explain why Bigfoot has been so elusive.
It is able to hide among us in human form.
I've always been fascinated by the idea of the hybrids.
These half-man, half-animal creatures that permeate all of history.
In your opinion, what are we looking at there? Yeah, it's just very, very interesting, the way they show up in so many variations.
I've got an image here of a half-horse, half-man.
This is very close to the image of Pan.
And it is a very powerful crossing between the known and the unknown.
(Giorgio) All around the world we can find carvings or statues of what are called "hybrid beings.
" In India we have the Naga, which is a half-man, half-snake.
In Greece, there is the Medusa, who has snakes for hair.
In Egypt, there's an entire god pantheon of half-man, half-animal deities like Anubis, a creature that has the head of a jackal and the body of a human being.
Various hybrid images that show up from time to time all through history and a recent present-day manifestation is Bigfoot.
Yeti.
Do they have the kind of impact that these hybrid gods had? Are they showing us the way to something metaphysical? Something transcendent? That's what gets me excited about these sightings.
Life is strange, and there's a lot to know that we do not know, and it's important to study the margins.
To study the things that we don't understand yet.
Bigfoot and I will cross paths.
Jonathan, this was great.
Thank you very much for your time.
It was marvelous.
I've learned a lot.
Now, we know that scientists are always discovering new organisms all the time, so it isn't so hard for me to believe or speculate that there really could be a creature, even one as large as Bigfoot, that has so far evaded detection or even capture.
But the big difference between believing something and knowing it, is the difference between faith and science.
And because scientists are the hardest people to convince, I've made a trip to the Museum of Man in San Diego to ask biological anthropologist Dr.
Tori Randall if she thinks that a creature like Bigfoot could actually be real.
One of the main attractions here is a model of Lucy, a hominid whose skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974.
It is considered by scientists to be what many have claimed Bigfoot could be, a missing link between apes and humans.
All right, there she is.
(Tori) This is Lucy.
She's an Australopithecus afarensis.
An early hominid that lived about two to four million years ago.
She stood about three-and-a-half feet tall and she has some ape-like and some more human-like traits.
She's bipedal, which is one of the things that we attribute to humans.
(Giorgio) Right.
Although Lucy is far too small to suggest that she may have a direct connection to Bigfoot, there were, in fact, a number of very large primates that walked the earth as far back as 100,000 years ago.
One of these, known as Gigantopithecus, stood an incredible 10 to 12 feet tall.
And if Bigfoot really exists, could it be a direct descendant of this giant prehistoric creature? Who are these two friends right here? So, we have a couple of reconstructions of different hominins here.
This one is an australopithecine, which is an earlier form of hominin.
Probably about two to four million years ago.
This one is a Homo habilis, which is the first member of the Homo genus, which is what we are, as Homo sapiens.
So, a little bit more modern if you're comparing these two.
So, Tori, in your opinion, do you think it is at all possible that a subspecies, for example Bigfoot, could exist under the radar and it hasn't yet been discovered? Is such a thing possible? Having a subspecies that's existing in isolation somewhere that definitely is possible.
This has been an incredible opportunity to explore something that I've been interested in for a long time, the development of animals and humans on our planet.
Did we descend from apes over millions of years, or was there some extraterrestrial intervention? It raises many questions involving science and the unknown.
But what I find myself blown away by is that a biological anthropologist like Dr.
Tori Randall believes it's possible that a large hairy creature like Bigfoot could, in fact, exist.
If one were to subscribe to the idea that a species like Bigfoot exists, what would have to have occurred for such a thing to even happen? An organism can be isolated.
There can be interbreeding, where two different populations can come together and a brand new trait will show up.
Or there can be a mutation where there's a brand new random trait that no one's ever seen in that organism before.
(Giorgio) Dr.
Randall's notion that Bigfoot may possibly exist but also may have been able to escape capture due to centuries of evolution is really interesting to me.
Perhaps centuries ago they were hunted by early man, but by now only the smartest and most elusive ones have survived.
So, what are the primary gene differences between apes and humans? Our DNA, in general, is very similar.
We share 99.
8 percent of our DNA with a chimpanzee.
But there are particular genes that distinguish humans from other apes, for instance, the DUF1220 gene.
(Giorgio) Scientists have discovered that a protein called DUF1220 may, in fact, be the so-called missing link in human brain evolution.
Six million years ago, as humans began to diverge from the ape family, there was also a noticeable increase in DUF1220.
(Tori) If we're talking about brain size, modern humans have a cranial capacity of about 1,200 to 1,300 cubic centimeters.
In this gorilla it's about 400 to 450, and the same thing in this australopithecine is about 400 to 450.
So, this is looking in one of our earliest ancestors.
And they had a brain size about the size of a modern-day ape.
This is really interesting because not even scientists can sufficiently explain why early humans suddenly featured an increase in genetic coding such as DUF1220, which is part of the so-called "secret sauce" that makes us who we are today.
Now, was it simply evolution? A random mutation? Or was it extraterrestrial intervention? Some people have proposed that Bigfoot might be the missing link between humans and apes.
What do you think about that? People find a brand new species that's alive all the time that, you know, something in the rain forest that no one's ever seen before and someone comes across it.
So, I certainly would be open to the possibility that a fossil's going to be found that we've never seen before.
And to hear you say this is very exciting to me that, you know, to me, science is always to be open-minded and not to be closed off to the possibility of asking a question, "What if?" And so, to thank you for your time, I wanted to give you this right here as a token of my appreciation, which is an ancient pre-Columbian funerary object that has been found in multiple tombs and Thank you.
Keep me up to date if anything new happens in the development of finding the various missing links.
I would like to hear from you.
I will.
I will.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Tori.
Until next time, bye-bye.
After connecting all the dots, I'm more and more convinced that if Bigfoot exists, it isn't likely the product of extraterrestrial gene manipulation because we are.
In fact, what if Bigfoot is what humans would be if aliens had not intervened on this planet? Possibly the last survivors of mankind's genetic ancestors before we received the so-called "secret sauce" that made us the creatures we are today before we shed our fur for hair or learned to speak.
And before some of us began traveling the world in search of aliens.