‘Survivorman’ and Bigfoot

Stroud will also share his adventures in the making of a two-part special for the Discovery Channel called “Survivorman Bigfoot” with an audience at the Museum of Clean event center Wednesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. The cost will be $7 for students with an ISU Bengal ID and $10 for the general public.

“He will be presenting his evidence of sasquatch,” Meldrum said about Stroud’s event at the Museum of Clean.

Prior to the engagement, Stroud will have a film crew capturing Meldrum’s thoughts about the evidence Stroud has collected during the process of doing a follow-up to his original Bigfoot exploration on the Discovery Channel.

“I’ll have an opportunity to comment on that evidence,” Meldrum said, adding he had no idea what Stroud has collected. “I don’t know what he’s bringing at this point.”

Meldrum’s office in the Gale Life Sciences Building on the ISU campus is filled with plaster of paris casts of Bigfoot prints and hair samples. The exploration of the existence of a relic hominoid such as sasquatch has been a major focus in Meldrum’s work for years. The professor maintains a website at www.isu.edu/rhi that explores the issue.

“My argument is “let’s do some science on the evidence we have,’” Meldrum said.

Stroud reportedly had his first encounter with an animal he couldn’t explain during a Survivorman Alaska adventure in 2009. On his Survivorman website, Stroud explains it this way:

“The strangest thing happened. … I was making my grass matt and all of a sudden a deep and very loud grunting noise about 50 yards away brought me to my feet and put the hairs up on the back of my neck. It repeated five times and I have to say it sounded … just like a large gorilla.”

Stroud didn’t share this story until 2011, but then went on to film the “Survivorman Bigfoot” series in Alberta, Canada.

Meldrum said he had discussions with Stroud before he did the 2014 shoot in Canada. And Stroud told him if he determined there was nothing to claims about encounters with Bigfoot made by Todd Standing, he would report the truth. Instead, Stroud decided to do additional research and his latest 2-part show will be examining the Bigfoot issue even more.

During an interview prior to his first Bigfoot show, Stroud said, “Every Bigfoot expert is considered a fraud. If it’s real, wow, let’s find out what it is.”

Stroud said he was open to exploring the possibility of the large creatures with “the benefit of the doubt.”

Meldrum said he met Stroud in Washington State and they talked about doing some collaboration after Stroud had visited different Bigfoot sighting areas around North America.

“Certainly, his (Stroud’s) notoriety adds to the awareness of the serious side of Bigfoot,” Meldrum said. “Survivorman has a genuine, credible reputation.”

Later this year, Meldrum will be participating in a World Conference on Relic Hominoids in South Africa at a safari resort called Zula Nyala.