Thursday, December 10, 2009

Bigfoot !!! ... Or maybe not...

Whether or not you pay attention to Bigfoot related topics in Minnesota, you have probably stumbled across the latest purported image of a Bigfoot taken by a trail cam near Remer Lake, MN.




This image (courtesy of Bemidji Pioneer) shows what some Minnesota Bigfoot Researchers believe is a bigfoot.  I honestly have no idea how these researchers could come to such a conclusion but here is a quote from The Dickinson Press, "When Sherman saw the image the Kedrowskis sent him, Tim said the researcher responded that he believes it is a picture of a Bigfoot. Sherman went with the Kedrowskis to the photo site and measured the height of the creature in comparison to the sapling next to it. He determined the animal is about 7 feet tall."

The article in it's entirety can be found here.  The Dickinson Press

The photo in question is an absurd attempt at a prank or hoax. I am truly amazed that some people actually went to the location to investigate this photo of a person in a suit.


These types of photos or videos are common place throughout various internet venues, i.e. youtube, photobucket and the lot of media sharing sites.  99.9% of them are clearly fakes to anyone using common sense in evaluating them. This particular situation veers from the norm when people who call themselves researchers take an opportunity to exploit such a photo.

Based upon the article it would seem that that owner of the photo contacted the researchers first and then the media outlet was informed of the photo. Since it's clear to me that at least one of the researchers has had prior contact with the paper, I would then conclude that the researchers went to the paper with this photo. That leads us to the actual article, which in it the researchers seem willing to speculate that this might be a photo of a Sasquatch.

Now, my initial thoughts when first viewing the photo were that I thought this was clearly a cheap monkey suit. This hasn't changed for I can draw no other conclusions based on what I'm looking at.

I feel when researchers go public heralding junk data like this, claiming that trail cam photos of monkey suits may be evidence of Bigfoot, it only facilitates more of the same from certain researchers and pranksters.


It's hard to blame certain media outlets for running the article however, for they are looking for a story and probably have no idea how to evaluate such a photo, but the researchers investigating this should know better. Instead they seem more than willing to play along with this and in turn they make a mockery of BF Research, whether they know it or not.

This is nothing more than a poor attempt at perpetrating a prank. 

If you are looking to hit the jackpot with your "guy in a suit" trail cam pic, send that baby over to The Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team, it seems you'll get your 15 minutes over there. 

TC @ Squatch Inc.



8 comments:

  1. I respect your opinions, but what I'm missing here is your specifics why you believe this to be a fake. Give details about what you see in the photo: why you think this photo is faked. (It very well may be faked, but I'm looking for the details of your discernment to help us be more accurate as a "public consumer" of these types of photos).

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  2. What else do you need to see? The gait the creature is walking looks fake, not to mention the obvious vinyl-hair monkey suit. Look at the legs... The suit wears more like pants than the body of a hairy creature. With the lighting as it is, you should be able to see the outline of muscles or other natural features. (Ie: Patterson Gimlin Footage at Bluff Creek) It shouldn't look stiff and unnatural if it isn't real.

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  3. Thank you for the comment mawihi. In this particular case I am also a "public consumer" due to the fact that I am drawing conclusions based upon the same information the general public has access to. The only difference might be that I have looked at literally hundreds of fakes (people in monkey suits) on the aforementioned media venues. Gooseneck sums it up quite well with his observation. It looks very much like a cheap monkey suit. No special image enhancing software needed here. Everything about the photo points to a suit.

    If the owners of the trail cam would have contacted me about this I would only have two things to say to them. Either somebody has played a prank on you, or you are perpetrating a hoax. In either case we would have not dispatched investigators to the area based on their story or the photo. Reason being the subject very much resembles that of a person in a monkey suit.

    I do find it interesting however that of all the media reports I can not find one that entertains the idea of a monkey suit. They mention a hunting suit, a snowmobile suit and some have even thrown out that it's possibly a bear. lol

    I feel extremely confident in saying this is not a picture of an actual Bigfoot animal or Sasquatch.

    This type of scenario happens, and it happens much more frequently than we would like. Here is a link to an article where such a hoaxer was nabbed by police.
    http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/cop.htm

    TC @ Squatch Inc.

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  4. Very nice articulate points, TC. Not only is nobody mentioning a gorilla suit, but why isn't there any talk of footprints or any other physical evidence? Surely the soft wet ground (it was rainy) would perpetuate an imprint if indeed this was a 7 foot creature.

    The BFRO (bfro.net)has finally dispelled this as a hoax. I was surprised at first not to see any mention of it on their site, but then I figured they didn't want to mess with such an obvious fake. I just returned there, and they have a big article about it.

    I like Squatch Inc, TC... I threw a little love your way on my most recent post. Keep fighting the good fight!

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  5. It doesn't take a scientist to see that it's fake. I showed the picture to my 9 year old nephew and he said "oh my gosh, that is so fake". It's sad to see so called "investigators"
    go a long with such an apparent hoax.

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  6. Thanks goose, we appreciate the kind words. Thanks for commenting on the blog...you make very valid points as well.
    It's too bad there is not more accountability in this research. Science may pay closer attention if we started ditching the creeps and publicity hounds who call themselves researchers.

    TC @ Squatch Inc.

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  7. Greetings, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and New Year!

    I thank you for your responses. I was perhaps ambiguous and I did not intent to suggest this was real. It does appear fake to me, but before I allowed that, I wanted your input because something in me says this thing is real and I have a lot of reason why, but I have yet to see any photo over the past few years of occasionally researching online, any photo that doesn't seem "ambiguous".

    When flying to Alaska from the Twin Cities for the Air Force Reserve, sat in the cockpit and just "awed" at the hours of flying over "nothing", ad infinitum... I had heard of planes that crashed and were never found. How could that be, after all, they found the Titanic! But I know see!

    Fly over northern MN, Canada and more, especially Alaska and you will realize how truly small and insignificant we really are. We flew at 500 MPH at 39,000 feet for over 6 hours and I barely saw ANY human "footprint", period!

    I regularly spend time in Northern MN and can see how there are areas that may have not see man's footstep in all eternity, yet! And, I do fundraising for schools and just recently working with a school teacher in the Twin Ports area said he bought a cabin in the woods he's making into his home. I joked saying "you are in Bigfoot country" and he said: "I know some people who have seriously seen him around there!" Further conversation with him assured me he was not joking. Then my son had a temp job with a guy from McKinley on the Iron Range and my son asked him one day, and he said without hesitation, that he never would admit this, but he saw BF in the edge of some woods, staring at him for a bit, then turned and walked away and was so frightening he was just "blown away" and does not like to talk about it.

    Friend of ours has a snowmobile video business and went to Montana to live and work, and has an associate who did "chainsaw" snowmobiling, chain sawing trails through thick, high mountain woods (Montana) in areas where "no man" has been. He ended up lost in a clearing, way high in the mountains surrounded by high trees and he saw footprints, heard noises and the hair stood on his back; he was so frightened, he later realized it was "BF", in his heart of hearts, he knew it, but not immediately.

    Incidentally, I am the one that only a few years ago, sent Joe on AM 1500 sometings about this, the afternoon was talking about people calling in saying about the animal noises in the Centerville, Lino Lakes, St. Croix, etc. being heard and no one could identify it. Further a zoologist (I think) heard them and could not identify, and there were at the same time, strange things in the Taylors Falls area. I was doing just some "ad hoc" BF online research and I sent Joe some of this I found including info from Jeff Meldrum. The next day, Joe mentioned my name and got Jeff from U of Idaho on the horn and that started me and my sons real fascination with this and we felt "good" having facilitated AM 1500 being interested in this. (if they weren't already).

    So, I am on the "same page" if you will, and we have family or friends all over central and Norther MN. I've begun to ask a lot of people about this I otherwise would have never said it to, and while only a few - but still astonishing - people said "oh, yea, it's up here!". And when you hear this from not just an internet site or a media interview, but people you really know and trust, it's sobering!

    All the best wishes for the holidays and blessings!

    mawihi

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  8. Please forgive me, in the above I state "something tells me this is real"...I did not mean the Remer "suit", but meant BF in general!

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