Bigfoot

Megan Erickson
Philosophy 1000
April 28, 2016

If you live in North America, and even if you do not, you have probably
heard of bigfoot. Bigfoot, also commonly known as sasquatch, is a tall ape
like creature who is said to inhabit the forests of North America. Some even
claim to have seen bigfoot in the swamps of America, mainly Florida, and it is
here he is known as the skunk ape. All reports of bigfoot claim he is taller
than the average human, with reports usually indicating he is around seven
feet tall. He has an ape like appearance, yet walks on two legs like a human.
Bigfoot is also said to have a strong, unpleasant smell that accompanies his
presence, and leaves behind large footprints, with footprint measurements
usually indicating the print to be twenty-four inches long and eight inches
wide.
Bigfoot, sasquatch, and the skunk ape have all reportedly been caught
on camera, with the most famous bigfoot video having been captured in
1967 by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin. The footage was captured
alongside Bluff Creek, in Orleans California. The film shows a large hairy ape
like creature, presumably bigfoot, walking along at a leisurely pace. In the
video, bigfoot turns his head and glances at the two men filming the video
before continuing on. Fast forward to modern times, and there are tons of
videos of bigfoot, thanks to cell phones and other portable cameras. There is

even a TV show produced by Animal Planet called Finding Bigfoot. In this TV

show, a team of expert bigfoot researchers go out to places where people
have seen bigfoot, and try to find bigfoot. They never seem to capture him
on film, but do however, hear several bigfoot calls recorded on camera.
So with all this supposed documentation of the mythical bigfoot, one
might come to the conclusion he is real. However, all of these claims and
reports of bigfoot are not provable. The argument for bigfoot existing relies
on hypotheses that cannot be tested. In order for a hypothesis to be true,
you first have to test that hypothesis. This follows the scientific method,
which is to first ask a question. The question in this case is; Is bigfoot real?
The next step in the scientific method is to do background research. So you
do some research on bigfoot, and watch a few videos of bigfoot. Say you
are convinced by this research that bigfoot does indeed exist, so your
hypothesis becomes bigfoot is real, and does exist.
Next, you must test your hypothesis that bigfoot does exist by doing
an experiment. Here is where your hypothesis falls apart. You cannot conduct
an experiment to see if bigfoot exists, because no one can prove he exists.
There is no absolute physical evidence bigfoot exists. There is no DNA, no
proof that footprints found of bigfoot are actually prints of bigfoot. In fact,
many of the videos of bigfoot have been proven to be tampered with, and
many are just of apes or people wearing a bigfoot suit. All witness accounts
of bigfoot never result in any physical evidence; they just bring more stories
to add to the legend of bigfoot.

Science classifies bigfoot as a cryptid. A cryptid is an animal or plant

whose existence has been suggested but has not been discovered or
documented by the scientific community or by direct evidence.1 Donald R.
Prothero, a scientist who works for National Geographic, explains why
cryptids cannot actually exist. The first thing, of course, is that a cryptid
can't be a single animal. If there's one of them, there's got to be many of
them. You can talk about their population density; the size of range they
should have based on their estimated body size. All of that tends to weigh
against them being real because they should have had huge ranges, and
they should have been spotted a long time ago if they really did exist. So
bigfoot cannot just be singular, there would have to be a sustainable
population of bigfoots. With a sustainable population would come discovery
by humans, like a dead bigfoot.
As you can see, the scientific method does not back up the hypothesis of
bigfoot existing. The hypothesis fails, because there is no way to test the
existence of bigfoot, no hard physical evidence bigfoot exists. Scientists
know this, as evidenced by the above paragraph, and classify bigfoot as a
cryptid. Without actual physical evidence bigfoot, he will remain a mythical
being.

1 Cryptid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptid

Bibliography
Prothero, D. R., Shea, R. H., & Loxton, D. (n.d.). The Science Behind Bigfoot
and Other Monsters. Retrieved April 28, 2016, from
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130907-cryptidcrytozoology-bigfoot-loch-yeti-monster-abominable-science/
Steps of the Scientific Method. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2016, from
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fairprojects/project_scientific_method.shtml
PattersonGimlin film. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2016, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PattersonGimlin_film
Cryptid. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2016, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptid