Bigfoot in Britain?
Posted by: Nick Redfern on September 1st, 2012
Strange Bigfoot-like prints have been found in the UK. Yep, the UK.
Real, hoax, something else? Well, what I can say is that I have a new book coming out next year from Jon Downes’ Center for Fortean Zoology titled Wildman!, which is a study of the Bigfoot/wildman-of-the-woods controversy in the UK. In fact, in terms of word-count, it’s probably the longest book I have ever written; the reason being that there are far more reports of UK-based Bigfoot-type beasts than many even realize.
But, I can assure you this latest affair is not a part of some weird viral campaign to promote the book! I may have to get Jon to hold the presses, though, and make this new story a late addition to the book’s pages…
Whether it will appear in a stand-alone chapter, or in the one on hoaxes, remains to be seen. Right now, I’m betting the latter…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Its hard for me to believe that a giant unknown upright primate roams Great Britain without being discovered. The UK is heavily populated, and long ago removed its larger animals (exceptions being elk and Moose (called in Europe red deer and Elk, respectively). It is heavily agricultural, a lot of space has been taken up by man in Great Britain. Though there might be small animals there that have evaded detection (like the giant Crawfish or Giant Crawdad that was recently discovered in the American South), and although some big cats maybe on the loose, I doubt we will see a giant species of ape ever being found in Great Britain: there is just not enough room to hide. And although I do not put much faith in theory that Sasquatch and similar creatures are spirit or psychic monsters, in this case it could be warranted (though hoaxing is more likely the culprit here. Only a few hairy wildmen reports from the UK get my interest as possible psychic phenomena, such as the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui, and yes, I am sure I spelled that wrong).
The only bigfoots in the UK are Brits with big feet. The footprint probably belongs to someone on the UK Olympic basketball team.
It is a phony.
I’m not going to tell the characteristics that make it phony. There are far more qualified researchers who can tell you what they are. But as a fan of bigfoot–not a researcher–I know what they are. The purveyor of this obviously does not.
This footprint does NOT look right. I think it’s fabricated
You just can’t say there isn’t any large animals in Britain because there can’t be. IF the species were a sparsely-populated, long-ranging, nocturnal type It could very well live among humans without being detected. In fact, I’d say bigfoot -or its ilk- could only live in Britain if it WAS a sparsely-populated, long-ranging, nocturnal type. But even that is too limiting. Nature has a way of slapping us limiting types upside the head on occasion. You may not be able to reconcile bigfoot in Britain, but they can. Like a bumblebee, bigfoot can’t read the rules we set for them, so they just keep on truckin’.
@ Mik re, “You just can’t say there isn’t any large animals in Britain because there can’t be.”
Well, yes and no. Obviously, no one can say with 100% certainty that something like Bigfoot couldn’t possibly exist in Great Britain – by definition you can’t “prove” a negative – but when considering the LIKELIHOOD of a large apelike creature existing alongside man, undiscovered, in a largely populated/agricultural setting, I think we need to throw in the towel.
Yes, there are plenty of reports of Black Dogs, A.B.C.’s and even Wolves in GB, but they are all animals that are know to exist, elsewhere, and can – at least to some degree of plausibility – be explained by escaped/unlawfully released “pets.”
Bigfoot has not been “proven” to exist ANYWHERE (although its existence in the Pacific Northwest and Asia, given the remoteness of those areas, seems much more likely) and, to the best of my knowledge, there are no reported escapees from private zoos/collections to account for Bigfoot’s appearance in GB!
Consider this as well, Ice Age megafauna lived in GB up until approx 14,000 yrs ago. Suppose I, and others had reported seeing either Mammoths, Wooly Rhinoceri, or Cave Bears? Would you be willing to make the same case for either/any of them, given that any surviving individuals would have to be “sparsely-populated, long-ranging, nocturnal type(s)?” An absurd comparison, you say? Well at least there is a proven fossil history for the above creatures in GB!
While Bigfoot and its ilk may exist somewhere in the world, the reported sightings in GB – spirit and psychic occurrences notwithstanding – can pretty-much be attributed to made-up stories, hoaxes and mis-identifications.
Let me put it this way: if you gave me $500,000.00 to mount an expedition to find Bigfoot, I wouldn’t spend a dollar of it in Great Britain.
I do hope that whatever evidence there is for Bigfoot in Britain, it is better than that footprint shown.