Bigfoot Files Episode 3 Summary
Posted by: The Discerning Man's Squatch on November 4th, 2013
The following post is shared with permission from The Discerning Man’s Squatch Facebook page. The summary is contributed by Cryptomundian Nescio, Lesley Cox from the UK.
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Bigfoot Files Episode 3 Summary
Part 3 Bryan Sykes UK documentary about the Russian Almasti. Once again Lesley from the UK has agreed to recap the play by play as it airs.
Bigfoot Files part three.
Main introduction to the programme pretty much standard – as in the other two. They are going to Russia this time to discuss the Russian Almasti (Wild Man). And looking at the descendents of Zana.
Programme discusses Russia – its size and the fact that it’s the largest country on the planet. 6,000 miles E to W. They talk about the fact that the Russians theorize that the Almasti is a surviving human-like ancestor – maybe even Neanderthal. There have been thousands of sightings across Russia. The Almasti is described as human-like, 5-7 feet hight 200-400lbs in weight and hairy with coloration from red to beige, from brown to black.
Quote from Brian Sykes – “No serious scientists has looked into this field for the last 50 years.”
Mark Evens goes into Russia to meet the people who have donated the hairs and to test some human subjects. He goes to Moscow to meet the scientists who are researching this in the Relict Hominid Society in the Darwin Museum of Evolution.
His first stop in in a place called Abkhasia in the Caucusus to investigate the story of Zana. He has some difficulty getting across the border for political reasons but eventually is let through.
The story goes that two men chased a half man, half ape-like creature through the woods, catch it, beat it into submission, tie it up and take it to the local land owner.
He visits Dimitry Perkulov who has been researching this story. Zana was captured in the mid 1800s in an area rich in Neanderthal artifacts. They Think that is where she was imprisoned for 20 years. During that time she bore 4 children – most probably as a result of rape. Her ‘owner’ used to hold drunken parties where Zana was offered up for sex. During that time she had the children; 2 boys and 2 girls. The area has been politically unstable which maybe explains why such goings-on were able to happen. There are people living today who have heard first hand descriptions of her. She was described very big, very strong, covered in hair with a short neck a protruding jaw and very wild. The question is, who was she; what was she?
Mark Evans looks at a copy of her family tree so that her descendents can be tracked down and tested. They interview Rodion Kadjaya who is her great, great grandson and very proud of his heritage and take saliva samples and also a sample from Zana’s great, great, great grand daughter. If Zana was Neanderthal, as suspected then the Mitochondrial DNA should show a much higher percentage of Neanderthal DNA than the 2-4% which is carried by most Europeans and Asians. Mark Evans also examines the skull of Kvit – her son and Sykes is examining a molar from his skull for DNA testing.
Next visit is to Western Siberia where they meet and talk with Bersev who sent in some hair samples and meet a family who found some unusual tracks and collected hair samples which were sent to Sykes for testing. Mark also meets Nikolai Valuev a Russian actor, politician and ex-boxer who stands 7 feet tall and weighs 20 stone. He’s a famous Russian and also an Almasti (yeti)hunter. They examine a piece of film taken by three boys in January 2013 which is very compelling. (on Youtube???).
Results of the hair samples were as expected really. Horse, cow, brown bear.
Saliva samples showed that Zana must have been 100% sub Saharan African. The question of Zana is, in my view (personal, not programme) still open. Was she a slave that was living wild in the area? She certainly didn’t look like one and her son’s skull was very unusual. Whatever she was, she wasn’t Neanderthal, since Kvit’s DNA has the same percentage Neanderthal DNA as the rest of us. So what was she? In the last part of the programme, Sykes postulates that she might have been the result of some sort of migration out of Africa which had nothing to do with slavery and that Zana might have been a member of some sort of unknown hominid group. Is so, then the Russians are right and the Almasti might well be an unknown hominid living, undetected in the wilds of Russia.
Whew!
About The Discerning Man's Squatch
Gordon Ambrose from Golden, Colorado is an enthusiast of things that go bump in the night. The strange, the unexplained and the manufactured imaginings of the human species. Believing that the human monster can be the scariest of them all, Gordon likes to tackle these questions with a philosophical slant that digs deep into the human psyche.
“There are reasons we tell tales of the creepy kind Gordon believes, and they come from not only the darkness under our beds, but in the recesses of our minds, especially when the sun goes down and we are left with only our unprotected, naked selves.” Specifically for Gordon, Bigfoot is a fascinating and profound subject, and has the distinct possibility of being one of many real boogeymen that we have been warned about in myth and legend. “That is why it has captured almost everyone’s imagination, he says, both believer and skeptic.”
Gordon considers himself a skeptic, but warns that does not mean he doubts anything for doubts sake. Both sides have blinders on Gordon thinks, as skeptics can use the same faulty logic to come to conclusions as those who see our planet teeming with Bigfoots, UFOs, Sea Monsters and Ghosts. Critical thinking is our friend and the best tool in our tool box and always our justly prerogative.
One question Gordon gets asked a lot is, “Do you think Bigfoot exists”? His answer is not a straight forward one, because he, like most of us, has not had a personal encounter. He believes it is a possibility and even a likely one though. “Unfortunately we sometimes share this hobby, with those who use very little critical thinking and I am not a fan of that, he says. We have made leaps and bounds since the Dark Ages and I for one don’t feel the need to go back there in my search for an answer. The truth is out there and it resides in the real world. The place I like to hang my hat”.
Gordon has a Facebook fan page named “The Discerning Man’s Squatch” where he first began to ponder and speculate not only the existence of Sasquatch, but what it means to us and how it relates, to our understanding of ourselves. “These are the questions that many don’t ask and I feel compelled to ask them” he says.
Majoring in both History and Philosophy, he has a unique perspective that those subjects have brought to him and likes to remind himself of the phrases “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it” and” I think therefore I am”. “We do have an inherent need for a boogeyman” he states. The need arises from our persistence to survive and keeps us from being careless when there are real dangers out there. Colorful stories keep those things close to our breast and help us to remind future generations to look before you leap, because there are real things out there with sharp teeth.” “That being said, he reminds us, that does not mean the colorful stories do not represent the real deal on occasions and in the case of Bigfoot, the deal has gotten a little more real for me, by doing some deep exploring into the topic.”
“I am lucky to live in the mountains of Colorado. An area where I can look out my window and see miles of thick trees that cover the hills. There have been sightings not far from my home and I absolutely love that! There is almost nothing more exciting to me, to think that the big guy with big feet could be lurking in my very own backyard. However it also has the secondary consequence of making me a little more jittery when I go camping solo with just my dog.”
