Bigfoot Captured on Drone Video in Idaho?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 8th, 2016
A still shot of the figure in the video. This photo was provided by the videographer. (Submitted Photo)
Was Bigfoot captured on video south of Pocatello?
By Idaho State Journal Staff
An online video of an alleged Bigfoot sighting in Southeast Idaho has been creating quite a stir over the past few days.
The 2-minute, 24-second video, entitled “Possible bigfoot in Idaho!! Flying the drone around and ran across this,” was posted on YouTube on June 2.
The duration of the video consists of drone footage over a field near the Hawkins Reservoir west of Downey in Southeast Idaho. The reservoir is located approximately 35 miles south of Pocatello.
A mysterious hairy figure, seemingly running on two legs, becomes visible at approximately the 25-second mark. It then runs across a field and into a wooded area as the drone flies over the area.
The videographer, who wishes to remain anonymous due to fears of public ridicule, said he initially thought the figure he captured was just an animal. However, he noticed the figure seemed to be running upright, which grabbed his attention.
“I said, ‘wait a minute, that’s not right,’” he said.
A still shot from the footage, which was provided by the videographer, indicates the figure is hairy and light brown in color.
However, since the YouTube footage was shared to Idaho State Journal’s Facebook page late Sunday evening, numerous commentators on the page noted how difficult it is to actually see the running figure in the video. Even the YouTube video description recommends viewing the video on a large computer monitor.
The drone is quite high in the sky, and by the time the camera starts to zoom in on the figure, it has disappeared in the wooded area. Because of the difficulty of getting a clear shot of the running figure, Idaho State University professor and noted Bigfoot expert Dr. Jeff Meldrum said the identity of the figure is inconclusive.
“I had to expand the size of the video to clearly see it on my 22-inch computer monitor, and those screens for drone cameras are usually no bigger than a cell phone screen,” he said. “How could he have picked up that little speck, and then zoom in and fly directly to the point when it entered the forest?”
Meldrum also said that from his studies of Sasquatch, he said its unusual for them to be found in the immediate habitat surrounding Hawkins Reservoir.
“I can imagine them crossing areas that aren’t their prime habitat to get to one place to another or find another member of their species,” he said. “But I can’t imagine they would do that in broad daylight.”
The videographer, who said he has lived in Southeast Idaho for over 30 years, said he isn’t sure what the figure in the video is exactly. However, he said his footage has piqued his interest so much that he has invested around $400 in specialized Adobe video software so he can get the clearest, zoomed-in footage of the mysterious figure possible.
The footage was taken approximately a week and a half ago, according to the videographer, who says he commonly uses his drone to take wilderness and wildlife shots from the air.
“I fly my drone everywhere, and I get video of elk, deer, rivers, all kind of things,” he said. “Usually pretty views nobody else can see.”
This is a possible bigfoot running towards the trees then vanishing in them. 25 seconds into the video you can see it running on 2 legs. I wish I were closer to get a better video. You need to watch this on a computer monitor, if you use your phone it is too small to see.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
If the drone pilot can give us the location, or the distance the guy traveled in those first 53 seconds of footage, we’ll know how fast he was going. I did a guestimate using a screen grab and pixel counts, and it comes out to well over 40 mph. Very interested in getting the exact distance. Even Ben Johnson packed full of the latest steroids would be lucky to hit 20 mph in that grass. Anything faster than that, especially if it’s over 25 mph would prove it’s not human. Fastest human speed in a controlled environment is just over 27 mph.
The thing to do here is always the thing to do: go on the ground there and look for more evidence. One might think a thorough search – by qualified people, there’s the kicker – would turn up something. Were I Meldrum, I should be interested in doing that.
This actually isn’t the hardest thing to fake. But why get waaaaaay up there to have a guy do a long-distance run in a gorilla suit (in which, gotta say, this guy appears to be making way good time, and yeah it looks like a gorilla suit if that’s a person)? Were even ambiguous leads more frequent than they in fact are, I’d understand reluctance and even lack of interest on Meldrum’s part. Well, Jeff…?
“I had to expand the size of the video to clearly see it on my 22-inch computer monitor, and those screens for drone cameras are usually no bigger than a cell phone screen,” he said. “How could he have picked up that little speck, and then zoom in and fly directly to the point when it entered the forest?”
OK, gotta ask here. Could this guy not have put this on his computer; zoomed in to see if he could see animals…and found this? I found it. I’m asking. I don’t know anything about drone cameras but does this sound impossible? Not to me.
Meldrum also said that from his studies of Sasquatch, he said its unusual for them to be found in the immediate habitat surrounding Hawkins Reservoir.
“I can imagine them crossing areas that aren’t their prime habitat to get to one place to another or find another member of their species,” he said. “But I can’t imagine they would do that in broad daylight.”
Well, Jeff: given how much you’ve been able to find so far…is it not possible this is worth a look? I’m not the most impressed at someone who hasn’t exactly found proof of his case yet telling me he “can’t imagine” something that maybe he might want to imagine.
Hi deadfoot, you and the Professor are correct. It’s inconclusive but the path the figure takes across the road and to the woods is one that a specimen would take. There was a specimen in TX clocked at roughly 30 mph on a road leading down to a stream that flows into the Houston Canal. Another specimen was observed running up a horse ranch track at a speed between these two so the speed is not out of the question.
I hope we see more videos like these as drones become more prevalent and perhaps one of them will have some really high resolution images. My best,
I was thinking similarly, deadfoot. The figure was running over uneven terrain at a steady pace. As high up as it was, it seems like it was really moving. I have doubts about whether a human in a suit could run that fluidly for that long.
I also got to wondering about judging the height of the figure by getting on the ground and measuring the height of trees and things it ran by. Gauging the length of the shadows of stationary objects, then comparing that to the length of the shadow of the figure. Get the exact time of day and you can replicate the experiment with a human trying the same thing and see how tall their shadow is and how fast they can cover the same distance.
Either that or the entire thing is fabricated, but at this point I think the footage is impressive.
And as DWA said–get on the ground and go scout the area.
Man, that thing was a speck so I’d be curious how the drone operator saw it while flying. It’s so small it’s hard to determine anything. Would be awesome if it was verifiable.
I’m going with CGI here. That grass looks to be almost a foot tall but there is no evidence of grass movement or grass trampling. Absolutely no sign of any track left in the grass after it passes through. Fake.
my take? seems to be moving too fast for a 500-900 lb animal.
way too fast.
i don’t believe a bigfoot can even run.
if you take PG film as being real… this moves nothing like that one.
so theres my red flag that this isn’t a bigfoot.
but its a real cool drone video… crazy how sharp the video was when he started going down….
I can see how someone might be able to catch some good footage using them in the daytime…
Thanks for the replies but I have to apologize. In my haste to figure out the mph I was off by a decimal point. The estimate is 4.5 mph, which of course not really impressive and puts it back into the human in a suit realm. Though the estimate is probably on the low side – even a man in a suit can do better than that I think. We just need the exact distance, and then we’ll know for sure. The height could be calculated very closely as well if we knew the coordinates and exact date/time, and some reference measurement (nearby bush, tree, etc.)
There are some things that detract from the credibility of the video:
1-Music track (though I like this particular one, it’s always a BAD idea)
2-The drone pilot seems to lock onto this guy a little too conveniently.
3-Why didn’t he lower the drone to see if there were any footprints?
4-Drone pilot doesn’t appear to have walked the grounds immediately after – why NOT?! Get measurements, look for footprints!
There are more concerns. I was hopeful and now am much less so. Again, apologies folks, don’t let the excitement cloud your thinking like it did for me.
OK, some interesting input. Let’s do this.
my take? seems to be moving too fast for a 500-900 lb animal. way too fast. i don’t believe a bigfoot can even run. if you take PG film as being real… this moves nothing like that one.
Oh, they can run, fast, and no human could keep up, not even an Olympic sprinter on a track. One of the most consistent elements of the eyewitness reportage is the incredible speed and quickness of the animal seen, something that clearly set it apart from any human. (On the order of, say, wild gorillas and chimpanzees, who exhibit the same when the spirit moves them.) I’d say this figure is moving suspiciously *slowly* based on my pretty thorough read of the encounter literature. But that doesn’t rule out anything. Patty’s departure is the kind of thing I have seen from all kinds of animal, and I’ve seen all kinds of departures from pretty much every kind of animal I’ve seen. Much depends on the circumstances and the individual; Patty was in no hurry because she didn’t particularly feel she needed to be. And she’s far from unique; there are many such departures in the encounter literature. Anyone who’s seen a bear – or a bison, or a chimp, or a gorilla – who didn’t particularly feel up to running at the moment would have no idea how fast they can go when they want to. Again: it’s how SLOW this animal’s going that raises a yellow flag for me. But yellow flags are just cautionary; one doesn’t dismiss anything on a yellow. Although, another yellow flag here, that gait looks to me a LOT like what I might expect from a man in a suit.
The estimate is 4.5 mph, which of course not really impressive and puts it back into the human in a suit realm. Though the estimate is probably on the low side – even a man in a suit can do better than that I think.
Yeah, makes me wonder too. And I do think that if that’s a guy he’s in a suit: uniform color no clear clothing breaks. One just isn’t too likely to just happen on a guy, in a field, looking like that…who runs that kind of distance from a drone. (And who isn’t a terrorist in the Middle East.) The question is what a suit can do to speed; and if that’s a guy in a suit I think he’s doing pretty well, although I’d have to consider it well within the range of human athletic ability.
We just need the exact distance, and then we’ll know for sure. The height could be calculated very closely as well if we knew the coordinates and exact date/time, and some reference measurement (nearby bush, tree, etc.)
Simple stuff, that, until it’s done, no one has an opinion that really counts for that much. Anyone remember Cliff Barackman’s analysis of the Brown thermal? That’s the gold standard, and it’s achievable here. Maybe Cliff needs to grab this one, eh, Cliff?
And let’s do this one too:
1-Music track (though I like this particular one, it’s always a BAD idea)
2-The drone pilot seems to lock onto this guy a little too conveniently.
3-Why didn’t he lower the drone to see if there were any footprints?
4-Drone pilot doesn’t appear to have walked the grounds immediately after – why NOT?! Get measurements, look for footprints!
1 – introduces stuff you just don’t wanna. I don’t like it for video of known animals; but here it just screams “paranormal BS presentation here.”
2 – I’d agree…unless, and I consider this possible, the guy put this on his computer and zoomed it up to scan the open for wildlife. The size of this figure – adult human at the least – is clear enough indicator to me that one would have to do this to make out animals, which is a legitimate something for drone guy to do to see everything he captured. The movement was faint, but blown up, quite noticeable enough to me, Locator Rectangle not really needed.
3 – THAT might be a red flag to me. I don’t think he’d have reason to do that…unless he knew there were tracks to scan, which he wouldn’t unless he put them there. Remember: until he uploads, he can’t see squat, including the running figure.
4 – More than one – more than several – have not looked for additional evidence. Wha wha? I SAW A BIGFOOT, who needs more than that? has been related by more than one (chagrined) witness later.
He’s moving a lot faster than 4.5 miles per hour. When I hike, without running, on even ground I cover 3.3 miles an hour. The test is to put a human on the same course and time it. Someone could measure the distance between the tracks of the top picture to get an idea how big he is. Those two easy things would tell all.
I signed up just to post the lat and long from google maps 42.4967352,-112.3728128m I typed it incase the link don’t work because I’m new here.
Drive south on I-15 from Pocatello, turn west at Virginia onto E. Virginia rd go west it turns into E. Hawkins rd. then turn south on Sheep Creek rd. right before Hawkins reservoir continue to where Hermitsville rd. intersects, stop, look south.
I hope this info helps with speeds and stuff.
Also, I R/C and have flown through fpv goggles and you can see a lot!
DWA – You are no longer in charge of math calculations. 4.5 mph is old man jogging pace. And this thing/person is clearly running much faster than that. It kind of reminds me of the Memorial Day footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB0Ix_UWMak
We need more background. Why was drone dude filming? What time is it? My guess in sunrise or sunset from the long shadows. Which is interesting because the figure is casting a pretty decent shadow.
I agree with #’s 1 and 2. Music is cheesy, and the first adjustment to the drone’s flight path is directly towards where the figure is eventually seen. HOW CONVENIENT.
#3 Meh. If drone dude isn’t a bigfooter he’s not thinking of plaster casts and hair samples. His take is more likely “holy crap, what was that!” or “This is gonna get a million hits on my YouTube channel!”
#4 Ditto.
How about #5 Why didn’t the drone pilot follow the path of the figure to see if it exits the stand of trees on the the other side?
#6 Orange gorilla suit? The only ones I could find online were dark brown or white (for a abominable snowman).
But who cares! It’s a video! Am I the only one who’s been dying for some new footage?!
TheDing you are The Man! Google maps distance says it’s ~370 feet between that starting bush at 00:00 and the treeline at 00:53. My pixel measurement was only off by ~22 feet (good to know for the future). The real numbers say he was going 4.75 mph for that stretch. I also measured from the road (which is about 7.5 feet across) at 00:37 and the treeline at 00:53, ~87 feet, and he’s actually slower there, about 3.7 mph. That kind of surprised me.
Having watched it a few more times, it looks more and more to me like a guy running. Not that I’ve seen a Bigfoot ever, but the stride is always described as a gliding motion. This guy seems to be bobbing up and down. Per the numbers, he started struggling in the last half of that run, and if it was a guy in a suit, having the suit on didn’t help. If hoaxed, they may have done multiple runs to get it to look right, which would have made him even more winded. And crossing a ~8 foot road in 2 steps is easy for anyone over 5 foot something in a run.
Here’s another perspective – that run is not much more than the old hundred yard dash (dating myself), and also not much longer than the 100 meter dash. My best time in junior high, as a punk 5′ 6″ kid, for the 100 yard dash was 12.2 seconds. Even if I ran it 3 times slow, I still would have run faster than that guy.
The other thing that bothers me is the area itself. On google maps, if you zoom out, I don’t see as much tree cover as I would think they would like. Maybe some folks here like DWA can comment on that.
@mandors – I take full responsibility for the math, that’s all my doing. Don’t blame DWA 😀 You can see the latest numbers posted, and I’d appreciate it if you can double-check them now that we have the google maps coordinates.
Yeah really, guys, read stuff. I haven’t done a single calc here other than the eyeball that says: if that’s not a person, prove it to me. Looks like one runs like one; and reports of these guys on the move are uniform on one thing: you stop thinking it’s a person when you see it move. It’s like a, you know, wild animal that way.
As to cover: animals routinely use patchy cover like this to move. Not to hang out for weeks on end, but to get from one place to another. Many eyewitness accounts appear to be describing this. The location alone is no reason to rule this out; but I have a feeling that calculations are starting to, and further ones likely would.
i just don’t see that sized animal, if its real, running that fast… based on what they supposedly look like, PG…. i think the speed could be more due to the size of the strides vs a normal sized person vs this thing being able to run for speed like say a football player…. you’re looking at something 2-6x the weight of a normal human and 30-40% taller… agility is one thing but speed i think is another…. are we confusing the two in our conversation? i would think this thing if its real would be extremely agile as are most primates…. but walking upright and running fast? thats harder to take in.
Well hell. I would have been willing to swear that thing was really moving fast–guess that’s a good lesson in perspective.
Now, if we can gauge shadows and height we’re probably going to find out that the figure is less than six feet tall.
I’m still hopeful that drones are going to start picking up legitimate footage soon. With eyes in the skies, it’s going to just be a matter of time before catching the big guy crossing a road or open terrain. I would guess that it’s going to take a while for our friend to realize what drones are and that they represent eyes from above.
Since the “creature” is so dadburn hard to pick up, I instead got fascinated by that large symmetrical indentation in the ground.
Anyone else notice that? It doesn’t look natural, and there doesn’t appear to be any water in it, so if it’s supposed to be a pond, what gives?
@Goodfoot I noticed them as well when I was trying to find the location on Google maps. If you look about 100ft north of where the “creature” goes into the trees you will see a dilapidated building possibly an old farm house. Zoom out even further and you will see a large active farm to the west. I think that the marks on the ground are possibly old holding ponds for irrigation before the Hawkins Reservoir was made. They are conveniently spaced about 100 feet apart. You can follow them to the top of the nearby hill. They also could be old sheep corrals, given the name of the nearby rd is named Sheep Creek rd.
All the things I have learned about Bigfoots preferred habitat, the only way that this could be Bigfoot in the video is someone captured him, tied him up and drove him to this location and set him free again only to get this unimpressive(after review) video. LOL
“Since the “creature” is so dadburn hard to pick up, I instead got fascinated by that large symmetrical indentation in the ground.
Anyone else notice that? It doesn’t look natural, and there doesn’t appear to be any water in it, so if it’s supposed to be a pond, what gives?”
That’s where the flying saucer that dropped him off earlier landed . . .
LOL…. what makes you guys think its a bigfoot and not a person?
I’m dying to hear the replies.
The video is so small you can’t really see any detail. I’m on a 27 inch monitor full screen and can’t tell.
The BIG problem is you guys are working this the entirely wrong way, in a way that shows massive bias. You are working from the assumption this is a bigfoot which is completely wrong and makes zero sense. (only makes sense if you’re biased)
start with the assumption its a person first because thats the most logical explanation.
then work backwards from there.
disprove its a person FIRST.
Then you can move onto what else it could be.
Thats the right way to do this and the most logical.
however i doubt anyone here is able to disprove thats a person… let alone prove its a bigfoot.
LOL…. you guys realize it was a hoax video.