Bigfoot sighting in North Carolina was just me dressed in animal skins, says shaman

Members of a Bigfoot spotting club said they spotted the creature of legend in a western part of North Carolina last Friday.

But after the sighting was reported, local shaman Gawain MacGregor said he felt obliged as an “honest citizen” to come forward and identify himself as the creature that was spotted.

Gawain MacGregor, 36, was performing a ‘shamanic’ ritual in the woods when a group mistook him for ‘Bigfoot’ Gawain MacGregor

The 36-year-old was dressed in a suit made from raccoon skins performing a shamanic ritual when he was mistaken for the creature.

Members of Bigfoot 911, a Facebook group with more than 5,700 members, spotted the beast in the woods of Pisgah.

Mr MacGregor said he was taking part in a “sacrament” of “wearing of hair-covered animal skins and wandering in the forest.”

However, members of Bigfoot 911 insist they really did see the creature, and not Mr MacGregor.

John Bruner, of Bigfoot 911, said he and eight others were in the woods spreading glow sticks when they spotted the 8ft tall beast but claimed the creature they spotted “moved with speed unmatched by any human.”

Mr Bruner wrote in a Facebook post that: “I turned on my headlamp and saw a large bi-pedal animal covered in hair.” He described the creature as having a smooth, solid black face and shaggy hair.

He noted he chased the creature and had a “stare down” with it, before it disappeared deeper into the woods.

Mr MacGregor writes on his blog about his personal belief in Bigfoot, or “the divine nature of sasquatch”.

He claims to have seen the sasquash and believes that by dressing in sewn animal skins, and by reciting a “sasquatch prayer”, he’d be more likely to experience another encounter with the animal.

“It feels like it brings me closer to nature,” he told the BBC.

Grenville Police Department later posted a tongue-in-cheek warning about sighting the creature.