MonsterQuest Examined Violent Bigfoot
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 26th, 2009
Whitewolf Productions’ MonsterQuest looked at violent Bigfoot cases on March 25, 2009.
MonsterQuest : MONSTER CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
Wednesday March 25th 2008 at 9PM easterm / 8PM central on HISTORY
The most compelling evidence for the creature known as Bigfoot may be the increasing close encounters that are frightening witnesses in rural America. Historic stories have told of violent interactions that range from objects being thrown to frightening abductions by hairy beasts. As extraordinary as these stories sound, people continue to recount physical interactions with creatures that they cannot explain. Witnesses from Minnesota and Washington State have all had frightening run-ins with the monsters while driving; another witness in rural Indiana talks with terror of the night that he was grabbed by something very powerful out in a forest. MonsterQuest will investigate whether witness are seeing known animal or the same Bigfoot creature that has been spoken of throughout history. MonsterQuest employs polygraph examinations, DNA analysis and bite force tests to discover what monster is turning up its aggression.
A look at the more violent eastern Bigfoot cases is detailed in Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America, in the chapter “Sex and the Single Sasquatch.”
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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.
Good Episode. I was hoping to see the “Cowman of Copalis Beach” story. I can only guess is that the story is a third person account with no eye witnesses to verify the encounter. Still it would have made a good story to retell on the show with the other stories. I look forward to more episodes.
We’ve had a few reports of violent “Skunk Ape” encounters here in Florida. What’s more common, however, is the creepy encounters that people report of something in the woods stalking and harassing them. Whatever is out there also seems to be fond of killing family pets.
I have to admit, I get annoyed sometimes when cryptozoologists try to make every report of a hominid cryptid into “Bigfoot”, no matter how much of a leap that requires. Last night you were the first I remember hearing making a credible case, though – the idea that the “Lizard Man” might be a Bigfoot covered in algae.
Good morning Cryptos…
Happy Birthday Craig…
Anyone who has seen these magnificent creatures, knows if they wished to harm us, they easily could.
I’m astonished how respectful they are toward us…despite our continual efforts to harass and disrespect them.
I forecast in 25 years folks will be respectfully observing and interacting with “Squatch” in their environment…free from our troublesome behavior.
live and let live…
ole bub and the dawgs
Rob 008,
I’ve read that “Cowman” account before, and that is one of the best stories around. That could easily be made into a fictional movie.
I think true violence has to be considered only physical contact. Bindernagel in his book reports a few cases of people being grabbed and even thrown by bigfoot, but all the cases of stalking or intimidation behavior as far as rock throwing, tree shaking, vocalizing are more about moving a person out of a territory, rather than purpose to hurt.
Have you noticed that in the myriad reports of rocks being thrown at people, the person never seems to be hit, even though the rock is large and comes from so far away that the person involved can’t see the thrower? That to me speaks of not only extreme accuracy, but also the desire to scare rather than injure. Like a person shooting over someone’s head with a gun to say “Get out, or there will be future trouble.”
And killing dogs in particular does seem like something bigfoot creatures do often. In some reports dog packs chase bigfoot creatures, so you could understand why they would be upset in that case. But besides that, the dogs often alert otherwise unaware humans to the presence of a bigfoot. I think that is sometimes why a bigfoot “takes out” the resident dog. It’s a stealth issue.
Dogs might also be seen by the predatory Bigfoot as convenient meals.
osiris investigator:
What violent encounters are you talking about? I also live in Florida and this is the first I heard of this. Most witnesses, I’ve talked to, either see it and it departs or they hear it at night. I haven’t been told of any rock throwing or attacks on humans/animals. I don’t doubt you, I just haven’t heard any of the stories of violence. If you know any please let me know as well as the location. Polk City seems to be the hot bed for sightings right now.
This episode was really intriguing. Imagine if you woke up and your car looked like that! And an appearance by Loren Coleman didn’t hurt 😉
I can’t imagine what it was that inflicted all that damage to that woman’s car. The game warden said it was more likely a dog. Yeah right! Good episode though and it was nice to see Loren back on tv.
I can’t see why we wouldn’t expect to see some violent encounters. It shouldn’t be too surprising that if these creatures exist, that they should show this sort of behavior at times. Even if Bigfoot are largely benevolent and gentle creatures, there are other factors to take into account that could be behind bouts of aggressive behavior.
For instance, there could be personal differences between individuals. This can be seen in other primates and most other animals, including domestic ones such as dogs, as well as of course us humans. For whatever reasons, there are going to be some individuals that are just simply more aggressive and short tempered than others. Especially with a creature as seemingly intelligent as sasquatch, there could be a wide range of psychological factors at work. Why must ALL Bigfoot be gentle giants? If one is to look at all other creatures even somewhat similar to Bigfoot, indeed animals in general, the idea that every single one of these creatures would be peaceful and calm is a more outlandish notion than the idea that some are going to be more violent than others.
There are other factors that could be at work as well. For instance, many animals become more aggressive during mating season, as I think anyone who has had run-ins with moose, hippos, or even deer during these times can attest. Unprovoked sasquatch attacks could also be due to a mother (or father) protecting its young. If they saw a perceived threat to their offspring, I could very easily imagine a sasquatch doing what it could to deal with that threat. This is common in many animals, it would not be a surprising reaction at all. Sasquatch attacks could even possibly stem from the creatures being surprised or caught off guard. Creatures of the forest attuned to their surroundings they may be, but many such animals will become defensive or even downright vicious if they are surprised somehow.
I tend to think that the sasquatch are in general as has been described above, gentle, and not particularly interested in harming us. However, considering all of the myriad possible reasons for aggressive behavior, I think we should not be surprised that such reports are going to pop up from time to time.
One of the finer episodes in this series.
Loren, you are affiliated with the MQ folks. So here is my question.
There was an encounter of a girl that hit a ‘biped’ with her car. After the ‘biped’ was hit, and ran off towards the woods, her boyfriend and his buddy came out of the house and shot the ‘biped’.
Were the police notified?
If the ‘biped’ was a human, why weren’t the police involved? If the biped was a sasquatch, then why won’t the police admit that it was a sasquatch?
In my mind, a ‘biped’ was struck with a car and then shot with a gun. If it happened to be a human, then this would have been a ‘hit and run’ as well as attempted murder. Where is the evidence that it wasn’t a human? Why wasn’t it investigated by the police?
But HEY, didn’t Loren look suave? I think the car damage was more of an insurance scam than anything. The van full of cat hair was an angry ex-girlfriend with a baseball bat.
While I think MQ makes for good TV and I enjoy the topics, I think a program on BF attacking people is a leap.
How bout proving it exists first!
Loren, did you make a statement to the effect that BF would kill someone within the next 25 years or did I misunderstand?
Or did you mean , it would be proven to exist, within the next 25 years.
Rob08 –
There are some cases in the BFRO and GCBRO files (available online) of Bigfoot encounters where objects were thrown, animals were attacked, etc.
Also, in the appendix of the book “Florida’s Unexpected Wildlife”, there are several reports of people being attacked (a few in their cars).
Finally, there was a case out near Apopka years ago of one allegedly ripping the screen door off of a house and chasing the resident into the woods, a case in Belleview I believe of a hitchhiker being attacked, and another of a security guard being attacked.
Whoa, zytebac, hey mate, in the scheme of things, there is a great distance from being interviewed by a program in which I am lending some historical insights to knowing what the producers had in mind in their editing and the exact police-authority facts regarding a case I did not investigate. I have no answers to your five questions, but I encourage you to attempt to find the answers by studying the case file, during your own investigations.
Well, swnoel, you may think that “a program on BF attacking people is a leap,” but you don’t know your television documentary history if you truly feel that.
“In Search Of” in the 1970s did one of their best episodes on Bigfoot attacks, if you will recall, on the Mt. St. Helens 1924 miners-being-stoned-by-Bigfoot story. How about the Teddy Roosevelt tale that has been retold numerous times? Other programs have done likewise. Bigfoot attacks as the subject matter of programs are hardly a leap, but actually more a regular part of the menu.
My quotation, of course, was edited and extracted out of a longer discussion I was having about the speculative evolution of human-primate interactions and the possible nature of more violence as evidenced and experienced by humans in the Eastern USA, especially based upon dog killings and what people testify as having happened. Also, therefore, it had to do with the increased intensive content of violence in the Bigfoot community reportage. Testimony, story-telling, and speculation are not necessarily tied to actual facts, of course. Almost everything written and said about Bigfoot, needless to say, is speculative, viewed through the human lense, and reflective of the cultural environment in which the alleged events take place.
My ability to make predictions, 25 years out, about what kinds of stories we will be hearing (as opposed to what actually takes place) is thus based upon my sociological and psychological sense of the humans, as much as my knowledge of what a Bigfoot might do (which is much more difficult to foresee). I have never denied that I speak first and foremost from the human point of view, not from that of the Sasquatch’s. 🙂
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that another reason for aggressive behavior in Bigfoot may be that in some cases it could be a bluffing behavior similar to what can be seen in gorillas. Smashing things, throwing stones, howling, and whatnot may not be directly aimed at maiming humans, but rather as a bluff to frighten them off.
This sort of behavior is common not only with large primates, but with other mystery hominids such as the Yowie as well. In some cases, they could very well have easily killed or severely injured the person in question (and the person may have felt their life was in grave danger), but they did not. This suggests to me that in some cases of seemingly violent behavior, there may not be as much earnest aggression there as it may seem. The fact that some victims of Bigfoot violence have even lived to tell the tale says something.
I also wanted to mention that if sasquatch are out there, these sort of encounters are likely to become more common as human development encroaches on the creature’s habitat and increases the chances for contact. The more human settlements push into sasquatch territory, the more we can probably expect to see aggressive incidents and friction between our species. This sort of trend has happened time and time again with many wild animals.
osiris_investigators:
You were right and I was wrong. I own that book and I forgot about some of the olders sightings/encounters. As far a BFRO goes, I don’t believe all their reports. For example, a lady in Okeechobee reported a small bigfoot crossing the road (Route 441). I found out that this lady is known for making up things like UFO’s and Bigfoot. Nobody in town took the her sighting serious except BFRO. not to mention that the location she reported was a huge open field, right next to the state prison. Don’t get me wrong I do believe that there are legit sightings in Florida, but when it comes to BFRO I look at them a little more closely and I find out that their boggus.
Maybe there should be an investigation of unsolved homicides in Bigfoot-occupied areas?
Not being able to get the Monsterquest channel I do not know the angle the show presented on the topic. However I have thought about this topic over time and wonder what impact any aggressive behaviour taken by people (men) towards Sasquatch has had on them over time!
The men in Ape Canyon had taken shots at the large, hairy man-like creatures they saw before their cabin was stoned and attacked. Loren’s earlier postings of articles from the 1930’s and 1940’s told of the Sasquatch hurling rocks at people in the B.C. interior. Early European pioneers and prospectors throughout B.C., Yukon, Alaska etc. were always carrying their firearms and I wonder how many of them shot at and possibly wounded any of these large hominids simply out of fear or sadly for fun.
Undoubtedly any such behaviour from humans like these would give humans in general a ‘black mark’ in the minds of Sasquatch drawing violent (stone-throwing) behaviour in response and even against people who had no intent to harm them. Violent reactions from Sasquatch might then be area specific depending on the historical actions by humans travelling through their territories and with a possibility of passing on this reactionary behaviour towards humans to their progeny.
How does today’s scarring of the environment by vast swaths of clear cutting forest, huge open pit mining operations and the pollution made by these industries have on Sasquatch conciousness and their response to human beings? Would they become saddened like Harry (and the Hendersons) and retreat to less populated areas or would they make a stand and fend off any human incursions?
I do find it funny that the most violent species ever to inhabit this planet thinks that there is any such thing as a “violent” sasquatch.
I’m not sure I have ever heard of a less-violent animal than the sasquatch, including most protozoa. (Actually, there may not be ANY animal less violent than the sasquatch, all protozoa included.) The forbearance shown by bears toward our species – which should no less than embarrass us – is far more than overshadowed by that of the sasquatch.
I’ve read more reports than just about anybody, I think, and I’ve never read of a violent encounter. (By which I mean: someone got injured or killed, without having done anything that could be construed as provocation.) I’m more than suspicious of any that have been reported.
That said, mystery_man is right. Some bears give bears a bad name. And I firmly believe that animals are individual personalities, and your luck with one depends on which one you meet.
Which makes the total absence of violence from the sasquatch encounter reports I have read even more remarkable.
Loren, point well taken.
You’re affiliation with the MQ show is as a consulting expert. And I give you high marks in that capacity.
I did, however do more investigating on the incident involving the girl that supposedly hit a biped with her car and it getting shot with a gun by her boyfriend.
From what I found out, the local authorities did interview the girl and her boyfriend. After being questioned, the girl’s story fell apart and the boyfriend admitted that it was all a hoax they cooked up. He shot into the trees to make the story plausible. I’m not sure if they cooked it up because they knew MQ was coming into their area, or if it was for other reasons.
In any case, it’s sad. Sad because MQ believed and trusted their story. Sad because this is the kind of thing that makes Bigfoot look like an aggressive creature, And sad, because people like myself believe in bigfoot and would like others to take it seriously.
We should remember the behavior of other great apes: Chimpanzees engage in warfare and cannibalism. Bononos might. There is a very credible report of a rape of a woman by an orangutan male (that was brought up with humans and probably didn’t make a species distinction).
We don’t need any Rousseauian myths to cloud our reasoning.
Even herbivores can be extremely dangerous. I’ve worked with elk (wapiti), and they are very high-strung, trembling even as you feed them. They are always in flight-or-fight around humans (or were at this particular farm), and that can go either way in an instant.
If Napes exist, this doesn’t make them ‘evil’, but when we haven’t exactly got a rigorous database on their behavior, we should be cautious. We ought not assume that they are a replacement for native Americans and polynesians as Rousseau’s “noble savage.” That could get people killed.