First posted: Monday, May 9, 2011 4:06:36 EDT PM
Bigfoot was a big deal back in the day. Kids naturally grow more skeptical about everything with each passing month, but Bigfoot represented the final frontier.
Santa Claus was a nice dream, but merely a dream. Real or imagined, the Easter Bunny was kind of creepy. And there were serious doubts about the specific intentions of the Tooth Fairy, too.
Bigfoot? Now there's something into which an eight-year-old boy can sink his imagination.
One wouldn't think that anyone in 2011 would be fascinated by Bigfoot, what with all those technological distractions turning us into emotionally dead but quick-to-anger freaks.
Thus, the biggest surprise of the new two-hour Canadian-made special Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide - which debuts Sunday, May 15 on Discovery -- is that there are scientists and amateurs out there who remain dedicated to proving or disproving the existence of Bigfoot.
This, of course, is fuelled by the fact that there still are plenty of supposed sightings of Bigfoot, the ape-like creature of legend that lives in dense tree cover or at high altitudes. In 2009, there were 250 unexplained sightings in North America alone, and some claim the number would be far higher if fear of ridicule didn't factor into the human equation.
Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide claims to be the first project to look at Bigfoot from a global perspective, weeding out the obvious frauds and comparing descriptions and legends of supposedly linked creatures such as the North American Sasquatch, the Himalayan Yeti, the Florida Skunk Ape and the Sumatran Orang Pendek.
Five experts from different scientific disciplines go over the material, including that same old famous footage, shot by a man named Roger Patterson in 1967, that has intrigued both Bigfoot fanatics and conspiracy theorists for decades.
It's kind of amusing watching the five experts interact in Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide, because two of them clearly are prone to belief, one is on the fence, and two barely can keep a straight face at times.
Regardless of your thoughts on the possible existence of Bigfoot, the five experts agree on one very interesting point: Even today, in our world of out-of-control urban sprawl, it still is fairly easy for certain species of animals to evade human detection.
And not just little animals, either. Certainly while our day-to-day lives can be very crowded, did you ever ponder that when you're in an airplane flying over virtually any part of North America, the continent still looks pretty empty?
Nonetheless, our mere usage of the term "evade human detection" leads to one of the main discussion points in Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide.
It is suggested that if Bigfoot exists, is it possible we've been getting it wrong as we seek out some sort of ape-like creature, when Bigfoot may in fact be closer to a wild, hairy, near-human?
We know, we know. Many of you are rolling your eyes right now. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Bigfoot, they're all the same.
But hey, since vampires turned sexy, we have to be afraid of something, right?
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/05/09/discovery-special-reexamines-bigfoot
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