Original subtitles

Tonight, the most elusive beast in North America.

Bigfoot might be the most widely spotted cryptid in history.

LYNNE MCNEILL: This is not something that's limited

to just one region, or even just one continent.

This is something that is reported all over the world.

Despite thousands of sightings, this mysterious animal

remains unidentified.

FORREST BURGESS: Top scientists are at a loss.

They can't find any match to any known species.

Now, we explore the top theories

surrounding this cryptic creature.

RYAN GOLEMBESKE: How did these two cowboys

pull off the greatest thing in creature feature history?

CHRISTOPHER BADER: It is possible

that some of these could be wild humans.

LYNNE: There was a creature that was thought to have gone extinct

that did match this description.

LAURENCE: Does Bigfoot exist?

And if so, what is it, and where is it?

[music]

September 1958, Humboldt County, California,

lumber worker Jerry Crew is operating a bulldozer

when he spots something strange in the woods.

Maybe 20 feet away from where

he's working, he sees these

large human-like footprints pressed deep into the mud.

And he mentions it to his supervisor,

a man named Wilbur Shorty Wallace.

LAURENCE: Upon closer examination,

the prints are 16 inches across,

much too big to be human.

It's unlike anything he's ever seen before.

Could it be an animal print? Sure.

But if it is, it's strangely human,

but much larger.

LAURENCE: Initially, Jerry suspects a coworker

is playing a prank on him.

RYAN: Let's be real, you're working in a remote area

with a bunch of guys, it's a brotherhood.

We play pranks on each other, it's just what we do.

Shorty Wallace's brother Ray Wallace

is a complete prankster.

So, when Jerry sees these prints,

he's assuming that the guys are pulling his leg.

LAURENCE: But soon, other strange accounts surface.

LYNNE: At a job site the year before,

a 450-pound fuel drum

went missing.

It was found nearby in a gully,

but it had these giant human-like footprints nearby.

This is not something that an average-sized human being

could move on their own at all.

People also see a 700-pound tire

is magically moved over to a ditch.

And what is around it? Tracks.

LAURENCE: Given the size of the footprints,

the loggers come up with a nickname for the creature--

Bigfoot.

FORREST: There are lots of logging operations in the area,

and workers on other sites catch wind of this Bigfoot.

For many of them, this strikes a chord.

LYNNE: A number of them who have been working

out in these woods have reported the sensation

of feeling like they've been watched,

that there is some sort of intelligence

that is observing them as they work.

LAURENCE: It's not long before these accounts

attract local media attention.

FORREST: The story of Bigfoot makes its way

to the Humboldt Times newspaper in the form of a letter

that lands on the desk of writer Andrew Genzoli.

Like Jerry Crew, Genzoli assumes at first

that the letter is from some crackpot.

But on September 21st, 1958, he has a column to finish,

so he mentions it towards the end

just as a bit of a joke, like, "Hey, guess what,

"Humboldt County has its very own abominable snowman.

They call it Bigfoot."

Once people see this story, it catches on like wildfire.

People are intrigued by this.

It ties in with their own experiences.

They've heard rumors that fall right into line

with what's being reported.

It only makes sense at this point

that Genzoli is going to follow up.

So, he sets out to follow up with Crew

to talk to the other lumberjacks

to find out what's going on here.

What Genzoli ultimately found out

when he did some more research

is that the idea of Bigfoot itself,

of a large creature with large footprints,

was not new, and in fact, was part of the folklore

of Native American tribes for some time.

There are reports of unusual footprints

and sightings here dating back throughout the 1800s.

RYAN: In 1850, a prospector was mining

on the side of Mount Shasta,

and he had what could be said as one of the first interactions

with Bigfoot, when a large hairy hominid

came out of the woods and smashed his sluice,

and then went back in the woods, as if to say,

"Get the hell off my mountain."

Because of all of the stories coming in,

all of the engagement from readership,

the Humboldt Times ends up publishing an entire series

of stories about this creature called Bigfoot.

This causes a huge stir, and this story goes national.

LAURENCE: Within weeks, the name "Bigfoot"

is known across America.

RYAN: With all this attention,

there is a mad rush to investigate.

And so, the L.A. Times, the New York Times,

they all show up because they want a piece of Bigfoot.

The whole country is buzzing about this.

We see an immediate divide between believers

and non-believers, and skeptics and die-hards.

Everyone has an opinion.

A popular TV show offers a $1,000 prize

to anyone who will come forward

and admit to perpetrating this hoax.

And no one steps up to claim the money.

LAURENCE: In fact, new evidence emerges.

RYAN: So, on October 17th, 1958,

a gentleman named George Smith

is driving through Humboldt County,

and he has to slam on his brakes as this large hairy beast

crosses the road in front of him.

JEFF MELDRUM: He described it as being

at least eight feet in height.

It stood upright and walked,

and it appeared shaggy

like it was wearing a bearskin coat.

FORREST: Could this be the same beast

that's been leaving behind all these footprints?

Or is Smith just making this story up

to get his 15 minutes of fame?

Despite the fact that we don't end up with any proof

either way, Bigfoot becomes engrained

in our nation's collective psyche.

People are actually making trips,

making pilgrimages-- what folklorists

would call legend trips to Humboldt County

to look for Bigfoot themselves.

For years, unsubstantiated reports of sightings

continue pretty regularly.

More oversized Bigfoot tracks are found,

some trails stretching on for several miles.

LYNNE: This is not something that's limited

to just one region or even just one continent.

This is something that is reported

in firsthand and secondhand accounts

all over the world.

But as time goes on, the mystery begins to take on

a slightly different tone.

LAURENCE: Tales of Bigfoot encounters

grow more outlandish and increasingly suspicious.

CHRISTOPHER: People started to claim everything

from Bigfoot kidnapped them,

to they've seen Bigfoot reading a newspaper

on a flying saucer.

They saw Bigfoot at 7-Eleven.

FORREST: The vast majority of these later Bigfoot stories

are clearly made up.

Bigfoot almost becomes a joke.

People do not take this seriously.

This is not treated as a scientific finding.

It's something that's largely considered to be untrue.

It's a shame, really, because there are people

who really saw something, and they really want answers.

There are proven scientific methods

that could possibly find those answers.

Once everybody thinks Bigfoot is made up though,

they stop taking the search seriously.

Still, it's worth pointing out, as silly as things get,

that original Humboldt Times story from 1958

is never officially debunked.

LAURENCE: That is, until 2002.

In November of 2002,

Jerry Crew's coworker Ray Wallace passed away.

Soon after his death, Wallace's children come forward

to reveal their father orchestrated the whole thing

back in the 1950s and kept quiet about it

all these years.

LAURENCE: On his deathbed, Wallace has told his children

the whole story.

Ray Wallace comes up with the idea,

and he enlists the help of his brother Shorty, obviously.

And then they also get their nephew

Mack McKinley in on it as well.

CHRISTOPHER: He and his brother and his nephew

would strap essentially wooden flip flops

onto their feet and walk around,

creating these large footprints.

Wallace's kids even have a pair of the shoes

their dad used to make the famous footprints.

CHRISTOPHER: Wallace was a prankster,

and according to his children, his original goal

was simply to scare his friend Jerry.

FORREST: But when the story blows up,

rather than enjoying his "gotcha" moment,

he decides to double down

and keep the ruse going for decades.

LAURENCE: Wallace's efforts aren't limited

to fake footprints.

On his property, Ray Wallace keeps a number of bison,

and he uses their fur and their droppings

to custom craft hair and stool samples

that he leaves in the woods for Bigfoot hunters to find.

Based on Wallace's hoax confirmation,

for a lot of people, that's it.

It should be case closed, we figured it out,

this guy made something up.

LAURENCE: But what about the other sightings?

It is impossible for Ray, and Shorty, and Mack

to be responsible for all Bigfoot sightings,

experiences, interactions in the entire world.

And Wallace never dressed up as an eight-foot-tall creature

and walked around at night.

What does that say for people who actually spotted an animal,

and not just footprints or hair?

And what about the many sightings

that take place before Wallace is ever born?

Has there been a century-long series of hoaxers,

or are people really seeing something out there?

CHRISTOPHER: While Wallace clearly played an important role

in the gestation of the Bigfoot myth,

he is certainly not the cause of it

or the entire explanation for it.

RYAN: There have been over 5,000 documented sightings.

There's no way one guy

could be responsible for all of that.

FORREST: I believe Ray Wallace accidentally shined a light

onto a legend of a very real creature.

The irony is that Ray Wallace's fake footprints

may ultimately lead us to the truth.

LAURENCE: 1967, Bluff Creek, California,

11 years after news spreads nationwide

of a creature called Bigfoot,

two outdoorsmen head off to hunt the beast

along the Klamath River.

FORREST: In the summer of 1967,

Roger Patterson, who's become fascinated

with the legend of Bigfoot, is filming

a sort of pseudo-documentary

on the subject, when he bumps

into his old friend Bob Gimlin

at a gas station.

He tells Gimlin about his film,

and that he's heading to check out

some unidentified footprints

found in the Northern California area.

Gimlin agrees to go with him.

LYNNE: So, Patterson and Gimlin

are about halfway through their journey

when they're approaching a river,

and something spooks

Patterson's horse.

He ends up falling off the horse,

but when he sees what it was that his horse saw,

he pulls out his camera and begins filming.

The filmed encounter lasts 59 1/2 seconds.

To Patterson and Gimlin, it feels like an hour.

Something emerges from the brush--

an enormous animal Patterson and Gimlin

have never seen before.

They think it might be Bigfoot.

CHRISTOPHER: Once they surprise the creature, it starts walking

quickly away from them,

and they manage to follow it for quite some time

before they lost sight of it in the woods.

Patterson and Gimlin then hurry back to their campsite

to grab some plaster.

They know they're going to need as much proof as possible,

so they take casts of the prints left behind by the beast.

LAURENCE: That night, the 16-millimeter film

is developed.

LYNNE: What the film shows us

is a massive bipedal creature.

It's maybe six and a half, seven feet tall.

It's covered head to toe

in this sort of silvery brown fur

that reflects the sunlight, and it's walking

with this loping sort of gait through the landscape.

FORREST: Compared to previous descriptions,

it's slightly smaller, with wider hips

and a rounder silhouette.

It also appears to have mammary glands.

Gimlin and Patterson theorize

that they're looking at a female Bigfoot.

They nickname her Patty, after Roger Patterson.

LAURENCE: Though the pair are convinced by what they saw,

many dismiss the film as a hoax.

RYAN: The Patterson-Gimlin footage has been scrutinized

since it came out.

Everyone's had a chance to look at it,

try to break it down, try to explain

why it would be fake or not, and to this day, you know,

you have people on both sides,

real or fake, but nobody

can disprove it. Nobody.

FORREST: 1967 is the same year

that the movie "Planet of the Apes"

is released.

This is the height of big-budget

Hollywood special effects back then.

If anything, the Patterson-Gimlin footage

looks more realistic

than the ape suits we see in that movie.

RYAN: You're talking about, you know,

two guys in the backwoods of Humboldt.

They didn't have deep pockets to build something like this.

So, how did these two cowboys

pull off the greatest thing in creature feature history?

And the thing is, is they didn't.

FORREST: There are no visible seams,

no zippers, no buttons.

It's not baggy.

You can actually see the creature's musculature

moving under its skin.

Even special effects experts can't explain that.

LAURENCE: But if this film of Bigfoot is real,

what type of creature might it be?

There have been several attempts to classify the animal

seen in Patterson and Gimlin's film.

It's analyzed by Stanford scientists Jessica Rose

and James Gamble in 1994,

and they're experts in physiology and movement.

They analyze the creature's gait,

and can't find any match to known species.

LYNNE: They concluded that this is not a gait

or a movement that could be replicated

by a person in a costume.

The relationship of bones, to musculature,

to skin and hair, is a unique thing

for different animals, and it really wouldn't be possible

for a human being to fake this type of difference

in gait and movement.

RYAN: In 1999, a pair of professors

from the University of Florida's anthropology department

also analyzed the film.

And in 2009, the film is broken down

frame by frame by an anthropologist

from the New York Museum of Natural History.

FORREST: As for what type of animal this is,

they have no idea.

These top scientists are at a loss.

It's possible that Patterson and Gimlin

have discovered an entirely new species.

CHRISTOPHER: There are many examples of creatures

that at first seemed mythical,

or their description seemed hard to believe,

such as the Komodo dragon,

a giant lizard that would eat sheep whole.

The narwhal, a whale with a horn on its head

like a unicorn.

LYNNE: The pelican-- an incredibly common bird

in contemporary life, was at one time

thought to be a mythological creature

back in the Middle Ages.

How about this? The giant squid.

For millennia, since at least the days of Aristotle

in the fourth century B.C., sailors would swear up and down

that they saw these massive 20-foot-long-plus squid

while out at sea.

There are thousands of depictions and stories

of people who claim to have seen the giant squid,

and yet still, it was considered a mythological creature.

It's another in a long line of fanciful tales

of make-believe sea monsters like the Kraken.

Squids just don't get that big. There's no evidence.

LAURENCE: Until one day, there is.

FORREST: Throughout the 19th century,

small pieces and remains of giant squid

would periodically wash up on the world's beaches.

And these would convince some scientists

of the giant squid's existence, but others kept on denying it.

They'd say that until we find a living one,

it's simply not proven.

It wasn't until a fishing trawler caught one

in 2004 that we realize that squids

of this size actually exist.

FORREST: They catch a nearly 30-foot-long giant squid

that's later named Archie.

It's been preserved by London's Natural History Museum,

and can still be viewed today-- proof positive of a giant squid.

So, hopefully one day Bigfoot can join the giant squid

as a proven animal, but it could be tough.

RYAN: A lot of people like to believe

that all of life has been discovered,

when it's quite the opposite.

Over 80% of life on this planet is undiscovered.

So, absolutely, a Bigfoot species

could be out there.

LAURENCE: Ever since large mysterious footprints

were first reported in Oregon in the 1950s,

there has been no shortage of Bigfoot sightings.

Institutions like the Bigfoot

Field Researchers Organization

have been cataloging accounts

since the 1990s.

Even today, they're reporting sightings

at a rate of four or more per month

across the U.S. and Canada.

LAURENCE: But in 2007, one in particular

makes headlines.

RYAN: In the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania,

there is a new piece

of information that comes out

that's very intriguing.

FORREST: We get what could be the most compelling set

of Bigfoot images we've seen in 40 years.

CHRISTOPHER: One evening at about 10:02 p.m.

a motion-activated trail camera

captured several bear cubs

foraging for food.

RYAN: After that, you have another picture

that really, like, catch your attention.

Something else comes into frame

and is actually standing--

I like to call it downward-facing dog position.

And the way that it is smelling the ground

is exactly how primates do it.

And this comes to be known as the Jacobs Bigfoot,

after the camera's owner who set it up in the woods

to help him track deer.

It seems that the situation provides a pretty stark contrast

between what are clearly bears and what is clearly not.

It's fairly obvious when you compare the first photo

of the Jacobs Bigfoot with one of the bear cubs

taken in the same spot.

They're in the same pose, but their anatomy

is completely different.

LAURENCE: The following week,

the state of Pennsylvania's Game Commission

offers an explanation.

Sorry for all the Bigfooters out there, believers,

but the Game Commission come out to check out the area,

and their response is that it is simply a bear with mange.

Scientists love to cite Occam's Razor--

the concept that the simplest solution

to a problem is often the best and most likely.

If you're in Texas and you hear hoofbeats,

you should probably think horses and not zebras,

because horses are the more common animal.

Well, bears are super common.

LYNNE: Let's consider Ursus Americanus--

the American black bear.

What we know about this bear

lines up really well with the reported characteristics

of Bigfoot-- its size, its shape, its coloring.

It seems like a very likely explanation

for the Bigfoot legend.

CHRISTOPHER: When they stand on their hind legs,

black bears can reach up to six or seven feet in height,

which is similar in height to many reported Bigfoot sightings.

LYNNE: Seen from far away, from the right angle,

at the right moment, when it's standing up,

when it's moving bipedally,

it would be easy to mistake a black bear for Bigfoot.

LAURENCE: The vast range of black bears

could also support this.

FORREST: Black bears live in the Pacific Northwest,

the Northern Midwest, and the Rocky Mountain region,

Alaska, and the northeast from Maine

all the way down to Georgia.

All of these places have had Bigfoot sightings.

LYNNE: If we add in other species of bears

besides Ursus Americanus, we have the potential

for Bigfoot or bear sightings all over the United States.

LAURENCE: In 2014, Oxford University

genetics professor Bryan Sykes further tests this theory.

What Dr. Sykes did which was unique,

was instead of simply looking at sightings reports,

or photos, or tapes of Bigfoot, of vocalizations,

Sykes actually as a genetics professor

wanted to look at DNA samples,

and he requested Bigfoot investigators

from all across the world to send him their best examples

of Bigfoot DNA.

FORREST: Sykes collects 30 samples

of purported Bigfoot hair,

sent in from a wide variety of sources,

from hardcore cryptozoologists, to amateur Bigfoot hunters,

to roadside oddity museums.

And what he finds is really telling.

Almost all of them come from known animals.

They come from bears, they come from horses,

some of them even come from humans.

But there's one sample that isn't accounted for.

FORREST: Remember the theory that Bigfoot

is an unknown species?

Well, incredibly, Sykes' DNA analysis

of one sample actually does reveal the existence

of a previously unknown species.

But it's not an unknown ape, it's an unknown bear.

LYNNE: What we see is a hybrid between a brown bear

and a distant cousin of the polar bear

that was thought to have gone extinct a long time ago.

LAURENCE: While Sykes believes this bear species

may have given rise to the Bigfoot legend,

some other scientists aren't convinced.

Remember, Sykes' sample pool is just 30 specimens.

Are all the Bigfoots out there

just ordinary run-of-the-mill creatures?

We've still got a long way to go to figure that out.

Despite many long years of searching for proof it exists,

the legendary creature known as Bigfoot

remains more myth than fact.

Then, a chance encounter in 1974

convinces one man that he's finally solved the mystery.

LYNNE: It is undeniable that the real heart

of Bigfoot sightings have been in the Pacific Northwest

of the United States.

So, that's California, Oregon,

Washington-- that's where

the highest percentage

of sightings have been reported.

LAURENCE: But there have been alleged sightings

of a creature like Bigfoot in other places,

most notably Southern Florida.

RYAN: In 1974, Dave Shealy is 10 years old,

and him and his brother are walking

across the Everglades,

and they have an encounter.

FORREST: Dave is too short to see over the grass,

so his brother picks him up,

lifts him over his head,

and there he sees it

100 yards away.

LYNNE: And what he ends up seeing

is a creature that he describes as large, hulking,

walking on two legs, and hairy--

exactly how we see Bigfoot being described in other regions.

LAURENCE: But Shealy knows it by a different name.

This is something that he's heard stories about

his entire life.

He knows that what he's seeing in front of him

is the Florida skunk ape.

We already know that Bigfoot has been given

multiple names in multiple places.

Sasquatch is probably its second most famous moniker.

Some call it a yeti.

In regions prone to winter weather,

it's been called the abominable snowman.

But fewer people have heard of the skunk ape,

which is particular to this one unique swampy area.

CHRISTOPHER: The skunk ape is described in a way very similar

to your common Bigfoot sighting.

It's supposed to be about seven

to eight feet tall, although it's more common

for the skunk ape to be slightly smaller.

DANIEL PEREZ: Perhaps it might be a subspecies of Bigfoot.

The coloring of the hair is different.

Some of the behavioral characteristics are different.

LAURENCE: But there is one key difference

that gives the creature its name.

FORREST: The skunk ape has a distinct unpleasant odor.

It's been compared to a wide array of foul smells--

wet dog, hot garbage, boiled cabbage, rotten eggs--

hence the name skunk ape.

Maybe it's the heat,

maybe it's the muggy wet conditions,

or maybe nobody anywhere else

has gotten close enough to Bigfoot to actually smell it.

Maybe they all smell this way.

LAURENCE: Stories of a human-like beast

with an unmistakable stench

have long been part of local lore.

LYNNE: The native peoples of Florida,

the Seminole, the Miccosukee people

have stories of a creature described very similar

to what is now called the skunk ape.

RYAN: These legends of the skunk ape

go back to the times of Spanish colonization.

You know, we're talking 16th century.

FORREST: Then, throughout the early 20th century,

we get isolated reports from hunters and hikers

about strange hairy two-legged creatures

spotted in the Everglades.

Surprisingly, not much research is done at that time.

LYNNE: And the story really takes off

in the 1970s in Florida,

and we start to see many more encounters.

LAURENCE: More intriguing, these alleged sightings

increasingly come from larger groups

sharing the same story.

FORREST: In fact, in 1997, an entire tour bus of 40 people

all see the strange creature simultaneously

on the side of the road in broad daylight.

LYNNE: Before long, we start hearing reports

of encounters in the highly populated Broward County--

things like skunk apes breaking into people's homes,

or even stalking pedestrians on the street.

LAURENCE: Accounts become so frequent,

the state government takes action.

FORREST: In 1977, the Florida legislature

introduces a bill to try and protect

the skunk ape and the public.

LYNNE: The bill includes specific language,

making it illegal to take, possess, harm,

or molest any sort of humanoid or anthropoid creature.

FORREST: The bill doesn't pass,

but it does add a certain legitimacy to the idea

that skunk apes are real.

LAURENCE: One man who doesn't need convincing--

Dave Shealy.

FORREST: In 1994, Shealy opens

the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters

in Ochopee, Florida.

CHRISTOPHER: The Skunk Ape Research Headquarters

might at first appear like a tourist attraction.

It has a gift shop.

But in fact, Shealy claims that those sales

help subsidize serious research into the creature.

FORREST: Primarily, it's a hub

for legitimate paranormal investigators

to share information and gather resources,

and it's helped spawn some major breakthroughs,

including by Shealy himself.

LAURENCE: After a lengthy stakeout in 2000,

Shealy manages to capture video

of what he claims is a skunk ape in the wild.

LYNNE: We can see the creature moving through tall grass,

walking in what seems to be maybe ankle-deep water,

until it notices that it's being filmed,

and suddenly takes off.

RYAN: The thing with David's video,

is you take the still-frame shot of it,

people think, yeah, you're looking

at maybe a teenager Bigfoot,

or what we call in Florida a skunk ape.

But then, you watch the actual live video,

and for some of us, it kinda looks

like you could have thrown someone in a suit

and just had them run through the grass.

LAURENCE: In 2014, a Smithsonian Magazine journalist

named Joseph Stromberg

decides to get to the bottom of this.

CHRISTOPHER: Shealy told the journalist

that he believes skunk apes are drawn

to the particular area that they were investigating

because of the calls of other primates.

LYNNE: He had been following two skunk ape tracks,

and they led him straight to this barbed-wire fence

in the middle of nowhere that he described

as being some sort of secretive or mysterious

primate breeding ground

right there in the middle of Florida.

CHRISTOPHER: Stromberg was skeptical about this story,

but in fact confirmed that such a company did exist.

LYNNE: Is in fact a company

called Primate Products Incorporated

located in Immokalee, Florida,

where primates are bred.

LAURENCE: This leads Stromberg to speculate

that perhaps some of these animals got loose.

CHRISTOPHER: When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992,

there was extensive damage to Primate Products,

and they believe over 6,000 primates

may have escaped into the wild.

LYNNE: In addition, Stromberg turns up other reports

of people acquiring exotic pets

and then releasing them into the wild

once they are too strong or too powerful

to be cute anymore.

So, chimpanzees as pets are a common animal

that gets released in this way

and adds to that population of very unexpected primates

living in Florida.

LAURENCE: A report from the Sarasota Sheriff's Department

may offer further proof.

DANIEL: In 2000, a person who had claimed

that there was disturbances around their property

by an unknown critter

eventually get a picture of it,

and they wrote a letter as to what happened.

And they send it to law enforcement.

LAURENCE: Two experts examine the photo

and make a surprising discovery.

They determine that based on the creature's appearance,

the scale of its features,

the distance between different parts of its body,

that it is, in fact, an orangutan.

Not a creature that we would expect to see

in a Florida backyard, but not a skunk ape.

CHRISTOPHER: Stromberg concluded that people

who report the skunk ape are sincere,

but may not be seeing what Shealy claims they are.

Certainly, some people who see Bigfoot

are in fact misidentifying a monkey

that someone has released.

LAURENCE: Since the 1950s, most Bigfoot eyewitnesses

describe the creature as a hybrid

between an ape and a human.

CHRISTOPHER: There's a debate in the Bigfoot community

about what Bigfoot actually is.

Some believe that Bigfoot is more of a stray animal.

I think the ideal answer would be

that there's probably an unknown primate there.

CHRISTOPHER: But scientists are very skeptical

about the possibility that the United States

could support an undiscovered species of ape.

But it is possible that some of these

could be wild humans.

LYNNE: There have been reports

throughout history of wild men,

human beings, but who are living in a feral state--

not in cities, not in any sort of civilized way--

living like an animal.

RYAN: So, in South Central Texas in the 1830s

we have the story of the Wild Man of Navidad.

People were seeing what they were describing

as something that was Bigfoot-like,

covered in fur head to toe,

acting like an animal,

but with human qualities,

and that sparked everyone's interest.

LAURENCE: The descriptions line up perfectly

with later sightings of Bigfoot.

In some ways, this is almost the first Bigfoot legend,

but just going by a different name.

CHRISTOPHER: The Wild Man of Navidad was stealing piglets

and chickens, was leaving footprints all over the area,

was breaking into homes but only stealing food,

never valuables.

LAURENCE: For over a decade, the Wild Man of the Navidad

remains at large.

At one point, people looking for the wild man

even found a shelter in the woods

and conducted a stakeout.

But if that was where the creature lived,

it never returned.

RYAN: It was something nobody could get near,

and it had people interested and also worried.

So, in 1850, they ended up getting a posse together

to try and round up this wild man.

CHRISTOPHER: And upon investigating,

they found out that it wasn't a creature,

but it was in fact a person.

This particular wild man was an African slave

brought over that escaped immediately

and ran into the woods,

and was able on his wit and abilities alone

to survive for like 15 years before being captured.

LAURENCE: Could such wild humans

account for more supposed Bigfoot encounters?

One story about a purported feral human

came out of Arkansas in 1892,

when there were stories of what appeared to be a boy

running with a pack of wolves.

RYAN: I mean, this is Mowgli from "The Jungle Book,"

taken in by wolves and then raised,

and survived long enough in the wild as a wolf cub

before finally being captured by humans

and brought back to be rehabilitated.

Stories of feral humans have a lot of similarities

to stories of Bigfoot.

The creatures are usually reported as hairy,

living in the woods, leaving footprints,

stealing items.

LYNNE: The main difference is that in these cases,

the culprit, the wild person, is discovered.

LAURENCE: Is it possible that modern Bigfoot sightings

could also be of humans rather than of animals?

In the 1970s and 1980s,

there's a dramatic rise in homelessness

in the Pacific Northwest,

especially among veterans.

And around this time, there's also a noticeable uptick

of possible Bigfoot sightings around Washington state,

and a theory begins to emerge.

We have returning veterans from the Vietnam War,

many of whom were struggling with PTSD

and other societal issues, choosing to isolate themselves,

or being forced into homelessness,

living on the edges of society,

and perhaps appearing as these wild men.

To me, the story that epitomizes humans mistaken for Bigfoot

happens in Western North Carolina in 2017.

A self-identified shaman

is conducting some rituals in the woods

while wearing his ceremonial garb,

which is made of fur covering his entire body

from head to toe, including his face.

LYNNE: As a result of this,

the Greenville Police Department

started getting report after report

of people saying that they saw a creature

covered head to toe in fur moving about in the woods.

The police had to take this seriously.

CHRISTOPHER: One concern that law enforcement has had

across the country, is if people are out

hunting for Bigfoot, it is possible

they will mistake a human for a Bigfoot, and take a shot.

This brings us back to that idea of Occam's Razor.

What is the simplest explanation for all of these sightings?

We do have an incredibly common bipedal hominid

walking around all over the place,

and that's us-- people.

LAURENCE: Bigfoot has been compared

with many modern animals over the years,

most notably various species of primates.

It looks very much like an orangutan

or something of that nature.

RYAN: Some of the things these people are seeing in the woods

are legitimately

a silverback gorilla or a chimpanzee.

Then on top of that, you have wealthy people

that buy these pets,

and they just kinda lackadaisically keep 'em,

and they escape.

LAURENCE: But many experts believe

this doesn't fully explain Bigfoot.

Escaped monkeys typically don't grow

as large as Bigfoot

is purported to be.

LYNNE: There is no modern-day species

that really matches with the description of Bigfoot.

But scientists are quick

to point out that

in the not-so-distant past,

there was a creature

thought to be extinct that did match this description.

RYAN: Remains have been discovered of a creature

that most resembles Bigfoot,

and that is the species called Gigantopithecus.

LYNNE: Gigantopithecus is a primate

from the Pleistocene Era.

It was believed to have gone extinct

about 300,000 years ago.

LAURENCE: An ancestor of modern-day orangutans,

Gigantopithecus is thought to be the largest primate

to ever live on Earth.

JEFF: Gigantopithecus was enormous.

Its teeth were of such proportion

that we estimate its body mass

to be on the order of, oh, 800 to 1,200 pounds.

RYAN: We're talking about a 10-foot animal.

And when people describe seeing Bigfoot,

the sheer mass and size of it leads some people

to believe that Gigantopithecus,

or a relic version of it is Bigfoot.

Maybe it's evolved to be a little bit smaller,

a little bit more nimble,

or we're just not seeing the big boys,

and all we're seeing are the females.

FORREST: In the early 1980s,

American anthropologist Grover Krantz

becomes one of the biggest proponents

of the theory that Gigantopithecus

could perhaps be a candidate

for Bigfoot.

LYNNE: Considering this theory,

two problems stand out immediately.

One is that Gigantopithecus was thought

to be almost entirely exclusive to Asia.

And the second problem, of course, is that it's extinct.

RYAN: As far as where Gigantopithecus lives,

Krantz believes that a land bridge

formed across the Bering Strait that allowed Gigantopithecus

to cross over to the North American continent

during the Ice Age in search of better food

and warmer climates.

LAURENCE: As for their extinction,

he believes it never happened.

Scientists believe that given the vastness

of the ocean and the wilderness,

that there are numerous other seemingly extinct species

that we may find in fact still exist.

RYAN: Let's take the pygmy tarsier

and the Kashmir musk deer.

These are two animals that were supposedly extinct

that we have found are not.

LYNNE: What's amazing is that there was a giant fish,

a coelacanth that existed 60 million years ago

and was thought to be long extinct,

until we caught one in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.

And there's not just one of them.

A whole community of them was found to still exist.

So, clearly, our best understandings

of just how extinct an extinct creature might be

can be wrong.

LAURENCE: Gigantopithecus may not be the only extinct primate

that could fit the bill.

CHRISTOPHER: Bigfoot researcher John Napier

actually believed that Bigfoot

might be a different form of seemingly extinct ape

called Paranthropus.

RYAN: They're large, really big heads, big frames,

and really fit the look

of when people describe their experiences with Bigfoot,

what Bigfoot looks like.

See, with Gigantopithecus,

it was so massive, we really can't be sure

that it even walked on two legs.

But Paranthropus did strut its stuff.

LYNNE: This theory, the idea that a species

assumed to be extinct is not in fact extinct

is now the favorite explanation

of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

It is possible perhaps that at some point,

one or more of these species

came over the land bridge to North America

where their descendants have remained undetected,

but occasionally sighted.

FORREST: Bigfoot might be the most widely spotted cryptid

in history.

Hopefully, someday we'll finally get close enough to identify it.

And when we do, the scientific community

may be in for quite a shock.

Currently, there are more than

20 Bigfoot research associations

in the U.S. alone,

and dozens more worldwide.

Perhaps one day, we'll finally be able

to identify this elusive creature.

Until then, many Bigfoot hunters are only too willing to search.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."