Jane Goodall Still Finds Bigfoot Fascinating
Posted by: Guy Edwards on October 31st, 2012
British primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall
To bigfooters, it is no secret that Dr. Jane Goodall has shared her certainty that Bigfoot exist. celebrity Joe Rogan credits Goodall for his interest in Bigfoot. Sometimes she has been more careful about her certainty, like a recent Huffington Post article:
“I’m not going to flat-out deny its existence,” Goodall said during an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post before a benefit dinner in La Jolla, Calif. “I’m fascinated and would actually love them to exist.Jane Goodall
In the past she has been more explicit in a 2002 interview with Ira Flatow:
“Well now, you’ll be amazed when I tell you that I’m sure that they exist.”Jane Goodall
She has even written a great review for Dr. Jeff Meldrum’s book, “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science:
“Jeff Meldrum’s book ‘Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science’ brings a much needed level of scientific analysis to the Sasquatch – or Bigfoot – debate. Does Sasquatch exist? There are countless people – especially indigenous people – in different parts of America who claim to have seen such a creature. And in many parts of the world I meet those who, in a matter-of-fact way, tell me of their encounters with large, bipedal, tail-less hominids. I think I have read every article and every book about these creatures, and while most scientists are not satisfied with existing evidence, I have an open mind.”
–Dr. Jane Goodall
DBE UN Messenger of Peace
Founder – the Jane Goodall Institute
Visit Bigfoot Lunch Club to see the most recent Huffington Post Interview. As an added bonus we also have the 2002 Interview with Science Friday host Ira Flatow, when she claimed, “Well now, you’ll be amazed when I tell you that I’m sure that they exist.”
About Guy Edwards
Psychology reduces to biology, all biology to chemistry, chemistry to physics, and finally physics to mathematical logic.
Guy Edwards is host of the Portland, OR event HopsSquatch.com.
What am I missing? This is a recycling of the 10/02/2012 David Moye interview that was posted here at the beginning of the month on 10/02/2012.
Well, Loren, you may be right. But we should take every opportunity to talk about it when mainstream figures express on this topic. There’s always something to say.
It’s pretty obvious to me that “believing in Bigfoot,” the numnutz meme of the news media, is an allegation with a deservedly negative connotation that people interested in their credibility try hard to avoid. It stems from the media’s ignorance and the scientists’ discomfort (and frequently, ignorance). In this case, ignorance isn’t the problem. But explaining the compelling nature of the sasquatch evidence isn’t a sound bite. Shoot, I’ve been explaining it here since the Lincoln Administration and people still don’t get it.
Scientists aren’t High Priests of the Real. They’re more like auto mechanics. Most of them only have significant competence in their narrow specialty, e.g., tarsier genetic mutation. They trade on their credibility, however, as scientists, and feel the need to be experts on everything when the media, who for some reason expect this of them, press them on certain topics. And of course need a sound bite, because of their own limited competency and attention span and need to Sell The News. It never occurs to someone asking a primatologist a question – even about an alleged primate – that one’s degree doesn’t necessarily mean one knows anything about the particular primate under discussion. And when the primate isn’t even supposed to exist…
Dealing with this requires an advanced ability to deal with nuance and ambiguity; a sure hand in discussing the use and interpretation of evidence; and a gift for clearly delineating how compelling evidence doesn’t always amount to proof, and how an animal seen by many people is thought by almost no one to be seen by much of anyone.
I feel sorry for Jane Goodall. If I had any more interest in what she thought about Bigfoot than the average bonobo does, I’d try to let the topic develop some, and not just slide it in as the one question in an interview about everything but that question.
@DWA Agreed…But like Loren said….We did talk about it….A month ago….Here….
Shmargin:
Agreed, but I didn’t post this then.
And, as I noted at the top of my post, the difficult-to-comprehend attitude of the mainstream toward the topic is a never-ending source of wonder.
Thank you Dr. Goodall, for your intellectual honesty and the example of what true science should, and could be. It bears repeating, often.
And still, why do I get the sense that she still feels the need to pull the punch? Oh, I get the reasons why, for sure. We all do, or should. Still, with every “real” scientist who comes out of the closet, so to speak, momentum builds for accepting the need to do “real” research on this subject…with funding, with peer review, with true academic support from institutions of higher learning, and with all the indices of a serious intellectual endeavor. Mainly though, it is remarkable that it still takes more courage than should be required for a scientist of her reputation and experience to just come right out and say, “I’d like to know more about it.” How strange a world.