Do Hidden Creatures Live in the Pacific Northwest?

His talk at the annual meeting of the Columbia Basin Badger Club — “Do hidden creatures live in the Pacific Northwest?” — attracted a sold-out crowd of 130 people, a record number for the club.

He’s taken a look at what he believes is the scientific DNA and forensic evidence gathered on Sasquatch in his book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.

But if Sasquatch exists, wouldn’t skeletal remains be found and wouldn’t the population be so small that it would go extinct, he was asked after he gave his presentation.

He estimated that Sasquatch might have a range of 1,000 square miles. Such beings, when reports are received around the globe, tend to live in areas with 16 to 18 inches of rainfall annually, he said.

That means there could be 60 to 100 in the state of Washington and 2,000 to 3,000 in all of North America. That’s enough for a sustainable population, he said.

The population of mountain gorillas in Africa dropped down to less than 200 and survived, he said.

It’s possible they have a social organization like the orangutan where the male patrols a large area. Evidence suggests they may forage individually, and when evidence of multiple Sasquatch are found, they are usually a female and offspring, he said.

They are apparently long-lived — maybe living to 50 or 60 years old — and are at the top of their food chain. When they die, it would likely be a natural death, and they would secrete themselves away, he said.

In the wet coniferous soils of the places they might live, any remains not chewed up by animals would disintegrate quickly in the soil.

How many of those in the room had ever found bones from creatures that were far more common, he asked. A bear skull? A wolverine skull? No hands went up.

Much of hist talk was devoted to comparing the footprints from possible Sasquatch and similar creatures, found in areas ranging from near Walla Walla to Asia.

He finds similarities in the oversize footprints — 17 1/2 inches long in one example — gathered on opposite sides of the globe from different researchers in different decades.

They include a horizontal line across the footprints that at first glance may look like a break across the cast. He interprets it to mean that the feet of Sasquatch flex, unlike the more rigid human foot.

Meldrum’s research extends to other hominoids, including the ebu gogo of Flores, Indonesia. Locals say small ape-like people lived there before they were hunted to extinction, with the last of them driven into a cave and suffocated within the last few hundred years.

Meldrum says he has a grant and is seeking permission to excavate the the cave.