Sasquatch Nests eDNA Study

Go to the Indiegogo site for more details. There are some perks for those who want to participate on a more substantial level to insure this important scientific study is carried out to its conclusion. Be a citizen scientist.

New methods of surveying all DNA to be found in a soil sample (eDNA) may assist in the search for sasquatch. Soil samples taken from ground nest sites, attributed to sasquatch on the basis of construction and hair samples, are ideal candidates for eDNA analysis. Samples have been collected from nests at a site in the Olympic Peninsula, WA and await analysis. Cost is approximately $1000 per sample.

A vexing obstacle in the search for sasquatch has been the inability to successfully extract and sequence DNA from hair samples attributed to sasquatch on the basis of their distinctive morphology. Recent headlines have expounded the discovery of DNA of the enigmatic Denisovan hominins using environmental DNA (eDNA) survey methods, despite the lack of any physical or trace evidence of Denisovans occupying the cave. The potential for application of eDNA methods to the sasquatch question is obvious.The key to successful results is identifying the appropriate sample site. Recently, members of the Olympic Project, a group of citizen scientist investigators in Washington state, became aware of multiple ground nests of distinctive construction, yielding hairs of an unknown hominoid. Expert opinion is that these unusual nest were not made by bears. This seemed to be an ideal situation for an eDNA survey.

My name is Dr. Jeff Meldrum. I am a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University and have considered the question of sasquatch from various angles for over two decades. I was invited by Derek Randles, of the Olympic Project, to visit the site and examine the nests, their location, concentration, and construction. I was stunned. The nests were typically underlain with a foundation of medium diameter sticks overlain with huckleberry boughs that had been apparently manually pulled off the ends of the surrounding bushes that formed and effective 7-foot screen. The boughs were jammed in stem first and plaited into the marginal ring. Soil samples were collected under sterile conditions and await eDNA analysis.

My colleague Dr. Todd Disotell, a molecular anthropologist at New York University, has remained open-minded about the possible existence of sasquatch and has analyzed tissue samples of interest in the past. Dr. Disotell, who first suggested to me the prospects of eDNA as a tool to get at this perplexing objective, has agreed to conduct the surveys this Fall once funding is secured. The cost to carry out the analysis is approximately $1000 per sample.