October 26, 2007

The “Jacobs Creature” Makes Mainstream News

Elk County deer hunter sets off Internet firestorm with shots of creature

“We were just looking for a nice buck,” said Rick Jacobs, the Elk County deer hunter whose stationary tree camera caught images of an unknown creature, setting off an Internet firestorm of speculation.

“We have some funny pictures,” he said. “They’re in the hands of some experts.”

The pictures, taken by an automatic camera mounted on a tree on a game trail in the Allegheny National Forest Sept. 16, show what appears to be a dark, furry creature walking on four legs. But what is it? Jacobs admits he doesn’t know, and doubts anyone is more skeptical about the whole situation than he is.

“We hung on to them for a whole week before we did anything with them,” he said of the pictures. “We couldn’t figure out what they were. I’ve been hunting for years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

So he and his family decided to seek some help.

According to Paul Mateja, network administrator for the Buffalo, N.Y., Roman Catholic Diocese — and field researcher for the Bigfoot Research Organization — Jacobs’ daughter talked him into sending the pictures to their organization for an opinion.

Anthropologists and primate experts were contacted by the organization. So far, preliminary results from the experts are saying it’s a primate of some sort, said Matt Moneymaker, head of the research organization.

As it appears from the multiple Internet sites and forums where discussions on the “Jacobs creature” are being held daily, some people say it is a skinny bear; many say they just don’t know.

Majeta said he’s investigated, and believes he has some answers.

“My impression is that it is not a bear,” he said. “I’ve met with the gentleman who took the photos and I’ve been to the site. I’ve done some analysis.

“It appears to be a primate-like animal,” he said. “In my opinion, it appears to be a juvenile Sasquatch.”

A what?

“Our contention is it is a Bigfoot.”

In Northwest Pennsylvania. Neither members of the research organization nor the photographer himself have revealed the exact placement of the camera, wanting to avoid sending crowds flocking to — or away from — the site.

Mateja says that if the creature in the picture is what he believes it to be — a member of the legendary Bigfoot family — there’s nothing to be afraid of.

“If you treat them with benevolence, they will respond to that,” he said.

What about all the skeptics? What would Mateja say to them? First of all, it’s not a bear, he said.

He referred to characteristics of the creature in the picture such as the apparent lack of a tail and the length and shape of the legs, saying they are inconsistent with bruins.

“We have two people who are expert biologists. They want to do more analysis. They say it’s not a bear.

“We’ve all gotten into this because we believe,” Mateja said.

Why don’t others believe, even when confronted with a picture not easily explained, asks The Era.

“Some religious belief perhaps?” responds Mateja. “I work for the Catholic church. If it’s a flesh and blood creature, it’s one of God’s creatures.”

Skeptics say they’ve never seen a dead one and never found bones of one. “These are rare creatures. You don’t find bear carcasses in the woods. These are more rare than bears.”

Maybe it’s just fear of the unknown that makes people doubt that the creature in Jacobs’ pictures could be something as-yet-unaccounted-for in widely accepted science, Mateja speculated.

“They don’t believe there could be such big creatures living in our woods without people seeing them. People do see them. They are just written off as crackpots.

“In anything, you do have skeptics.”Marcie Schellhammer
Era Reporter

For more on the “Jacobs Creature”, see the following here on Cryptomundo:

Photos of a Juvenile Sasquatch?

More on the Juvenile Bigfoot Photos

When A Mangy Bear Is Just A Mangy Bear

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Breaking News, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Photos, Sasquatch