Ape Island
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 30th, 2009
In the Pacific Northwest, a small island may hold the clue to unravelling the mystery of the legendary Sasquatch. Vancouver Island is a densely forested land mass located about seventy miles northwest of Seattle, Washington. The island is separated from Canada’s mainland by water and is a popular destination for hikers, hunters and possibly something frightening and mysterious. Natives told tales to their children of an ape-like beast to be feared that would steal them should they venture into the forest. More than just stories of a bogeyman, recent witnesses tell equally terrifying stories of a monster that attacks as they sleep and is seen devouring fish on the coastline. Now MonsterQuest’s expedition team follows up these reports, and explores recent scientific discoveries of swimming apes.
MonsterQuest : MYSTERIOUS APE ISLAND
Wednesday April 29th 2008 at 9PM eastern / 8PM central on HISTORY
What did you think of the program??
Thank you.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
oBoyOBoyOBoy… I’m stayin’ up late!
I was born in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, lived here all my life. We have the pleasure of having one of the greatest, unspoiled backyards in the world. I have read and heard the stories of large primates walking our woods. I have even spent time looking for them. I think its a little funny that MQ is calling our slice of paradise “Ape Island”, it conjures up images of King Kong… And to call it a small island in the Pac North West is a bit of a misnomer, here’s the facts:
Length from North to South: 460 kilometres (286 miles) – almost the length of Ireland.
Width from East to West: 50 – 80 kilometres (31 – 50 miles).
Area: 31,284 square kilometres (12,076 square miles).
Length of coastline: 3,440 kilometres (2,136 miles).
It would be great if the existence of Sasquatch was to be proven here on V.I. If that happened, laws would immediately be put in place to protect them.
Nope, it sure isn’t a small island. It’s actually the largest island on the Pacific coast of the Americas and has a population of about 750,000. But almost all of the people live on the southeasternmost tip (Victoria) or in a narrow line of smaller cities and towns extending up the eastern coast, which leaves quite a lot of serious wilderness just about everywhere else.
Very good episode…the witnesses were very credible, I thought.
I also have to agree that that is NOT a small island. Called small for dramatic effect, maybe???
Favorite one of the season so far is still “Sea Monsters.”
I enjoyed the episode, especially the eye-witness accounts. I don’t expect them to find anything on these very short expeditions, but I still enjoyed hearing the stories of those that have seen the animal and seeing the footprint casts and so forth.
I liked this episode, but can someone please answer a question for me.
I’ve been a hiker, camper, hunter pretty much my whole life and because of that I know the best way to NOT SEE any wildlife is to go tramping loudly through the brush with lights blazing and yelling back and forth at one another.
To wit: Why does MQ keep bringing in these Sasquatch “experts” who look like they’ve never been in the wilderness, much less a National Park, ever in their whole life?
Seriously, they do this every episode. They get some yahoos in Indiana Jones hats and Walmart Real-Tree camo who go crashing and chopping through the woods in the middle of the night and then we wonder why they never see anything. They’ve scared away all the wildlife in 1/2 mile radius, and if Sasquatch is even half as smart as some estimate (I personally think Sasquatch is probably smarter than Chipanzees) then they are long gone before any search even starts.
It just seems like a horrendous waste of time, and makes MQ, and the “experts” they get to do these “expeditions”, look like a bunch of amateur city-boys who’ve never spent a night in the woods.
I’m sure there are Sasquatch researchers who are experienced outdoorsmen, can we please get them in an Episode?
I enjoyed the episode, I thought that they portrayed the footprint as if it was absolutely the footprint of an unknown primate though. It might be a sasquatch print but I don’t think they should act like it’s absolutely that because there’s always the chance it might be something else. Pretty good episode overall though, I think that Canada is where the best chance of finding a Squatch is.
Pretty decent episode. The island does appear to be surreal and mysterious even more so with Sasquatch type creatures lurking about. And who knows what’s swimming in the waters nearby?
very interesting idea, but i’m a big fan of pics/video, not a big fan of footprint casts. the florida sea monster one was awesome just because of the video evidence
On the whole I liked it. Is anyone else often a bit bemused by the level of specialization these days? I’d never heard of a forensic podiatrist before.
I thought it was very well done and assembled. Its also exciting that in September I believe a Team from an Oklahoma based BF research group will spend a month on the Island. It will be interesting to see what is collected as well.
@ Andrew Minnesota
I think the Swamp Stalker episode showed some more quiet, stealthy researchers. In that episode we had TBRC folks working camera trap lines in hilly terrain on horseback and working swamps via kayak, both much more stealthy than the slash and stomp techniques we see in a lot of shows.
Of course, I may be a bit biased, being a Texan.
The only thing that got me in this episode was the boatload of people that watched the BF on the shore for over an hour. Not one camera on board? Furthermore, why would they not come back with camera’s in hand? Further still, I’d think that MQ would stake out this hot spot and anchor up off shore in the area.
Sometimes you have to wonder. However, chances are the obvious was entertained and something prohibited it form happening but it just wasn’t mentioned.