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Tonight, the most elusive beast in North America.

Bigfoot might be the most widely spotted cryptid in history.

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.

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.

How did these two cowboys pull off the greatest thing in creature feature

history? It is possible that some of these could be wild humans.

There was a creature that was thought to have gone extinct that did match this.

Description. Does Bigfoot exist? And if so, what is it?

And where is it?

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.

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.

Initially, Jerry suspects a co -worker is playing a prank on him.

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.

But soon, other strange accounts surfaced.

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.

Given the size of the footprints,

the loggers come up with a nickname for the creature.

Bigfoot.

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.

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.

It's not long.

before these accounts attract local media attention.

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 Gonzoli.

Like Jerry Krug, Gonzoli assumes at first that the letter is from some

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 Gonzales 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 Gonzales 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

It, 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.

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

hominid came out of the woods and smashed his sluice and then went back in

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.

Within weeks, the name Bigfoot is known across America.

With all this attention, there is a mad rush to investigate. So the L .A. Times,

New York Times, they all show up because they want to pee a Bigfoot.

The whole country is buzzing about this. We see an immediate divide between

believers and nonbelievers and skeptics and diehards.

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.

In fact, new evidence emerges.

So on October 17, 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. He described it as being at least eight

in height. It stood upright and walked, and it appeared shaggy like it was

wearing a bearskin coat.

Could this be the same beast that's been leaving behind all these footprints?

Or is Smith just making the story up to get his 15 minutes of fame?

Despite the fact that we don't end up with any proof either way, Bigfoot

ingrained 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.

This is not something that's limited to just one region or even just one

continent. This is something that is reported in first -hand and second -hand

accounts all over the world.

But as time goes on, the mystery begins to take on a slightly different tone.

Tales of Bigfoot encounters grow more outlandish and increasingly suspicious.

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.

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

Humboldt time story from 1958 is never officially debunked.

That is.

Until 2002.

In November of 2002, Jerry Crews' co -worker, 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.

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

as well.

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. Wallace was a prankster, and according to his children, his original

goal was simply to scare his friend Jerry.

But when the story blows up, rather than enjoying his gotcha moment, he decides

to double down and keep the ruse going for decades.

Wallace's efforts aren't limited to fake footprints.

On his property, Ray Wallace keeps a number of bison, and he uses their fur

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

be case closed. We figured it out. This guy made something up.

But what about the other sightings?

It is impossible for Ray and Shorty and Mac to be responsible for all

Bigfoot sightings, experiences, interactions in the entire world.

And Wallace never dressed up as an 8 -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 was ever born?

Has there been a century -long series of hoaxers?

Or are people really seeing something out there?

While Wallace clearly played an important role in the gestation of the

myth, he is certainly not the cause of it or the entire explanation for it.

There have been over 5 ,000 documented sightings. There's no way one guy could

be responsible for all of that.

I believe Ray Wallace accidentally shined a light onto a legend of a very

creature. The irony is that Ray Wallace's fake footprints may ultimately

to the truth.

1967,

Bluff Creek, California.

Eleven years after news spreads nationwide...

of a creature called Bigfoot.

Two outdoorsmen head off to hunt the beast along the Klamath River.

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. And Gimlin

to go with him.

So Patterson and Gimlin are about halfway through their journey when

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 and a half seconds.

To Patterson and Gimlin, it feels like an hour.

Something emerges from the brush, an enormous animal Patterson and Gimlin

never seen before.

They think it might be Bigfoot.

Once they surprise the creature, it starts walking quickly away from them,

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 prince left behind by the beast.

That night, the 16mm film is developed.

What the film shows us is a massive bipedal creature, 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.

Compared to previous descriptions, it's slightly smaller with wider hips and a

rounder silhouette.

It also appears to have mammary glands.

Gimlin Patterson theorized that they're looking at a female Bigfoot.

They nicknamed her Patty after Roger Patterson.

Though the pair are convinced by what they saw, many dismiss the film as a

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 have people on both sides, real

fake, but nobody can disprove it.

Nobody.

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.

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

cowboys pull off the greatest thing in creature feature history?

And the thing is, is they didn't. There are no visible seams, no zippers, no

buttons. It's not baggy. You can actually see the creature's musculature

under its skin.

Even special effects experts can't explain that.

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

Gimlin's film.

It's analyzed by Stanford scientists Jessica Rose and James Gamble in 1994.

They're experts in physiology and movement.

They analyzed the creature's gait and can't find any match to known species.

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

this type of difference in gait and movement.

In 1999, a pair of professors from the University of Florida's Anthropology

Department also analyzed the film. And in 2009, the film was broken down frame

by frame by an anthropologist from the New York Museum of Natural History.

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.

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.

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 4th century BC,

sailors would swear up and down that they saw these massive 20 -foot -long

squid while 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.

Until one day, there is.

Throughout the 19th century, small pieces and remains of giant squid would

periodically wash up on the world's beaches.

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

proven. It wasn't until a fishing trawler caught one in 2004 that we

that squids of this size actually exist.

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.

A lot of people like to believe that all 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.

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.

But in 2007, one in particular makes headlines.

In the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, there is a new piece of

information that comes out that's very intriguing.

We get what could be the most compelling set of Bigfoot images we've seen in 40

years.

One evening at about 10 .02 p .m., a motion -activated trail camera captured

several bear cubs foraging for food.

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 Jacob's Bigfoot, after the camera's

set it up in the woods to help him track deer.

It seems that this 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 Jacob's Bigfoot with

the one of the bear cubs taken in the same spot. They're in the same pose, but

their anatomy is completely different.

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

me.

Scientists love to cite Occam's razor, the concept that the simplest solution

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

the more common animal. Well, bears are super common.

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.

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. Seen from

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 a Bigfoot.

The vast range of black bears could also support this.

Black bears live in the Pacific Northwest, the northern Midwest, and the

Mountain region.

Alaska and the northeast from Maine all the way down to Georgia, all of these

places have had Bigfoot sightings.

If we add in other species of bears besides Ursus americana, we

have the potential for Bigfoot or bear sightings all over the United States.

In 2014, Oxford University genetics professor Brian Sykes further tests

this theory.

What Dr. Sykes did, which was unique, was instead of simply looking at

reports or photos or tapes of Bigfoot 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.

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

museums. And what he finds is really telling.

Almost all of them come from known animals. They come from bears. They come

horses. Some of them even come from humans.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

But there have been alleged sightings of a creature like Bigfoot in other

places. Most notably...

Southern Florida.

In 1974, Dave Sheely is 10 years old, and him and his brother are walking

the Everglades, and they have an encounter.

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.

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.

But Sheely knows it by a different name.

This is something that he's heard stories about his entire life. He knows

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.

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

common for the skunk ape to be slightly smaller.

Perhaps it might be a subspecies of Bigfoot. The coloring of the hair is

different. Some of the behavioral characteristics are different.

But there is one key difference that gives the creature its name.

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.

Stories of a human -like beast.

with an unmistakable stench, have long been part of local lore.

The native peoples of Florida, the Seminole, the Miccosukee people, have

of a creature described very similar to what is now called the skunk ape.

These legends of the skunk ape go back to the times of Spanish colonization.

know, we're talking 16th century.

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.

And the story really takes off in the 1970s in Florida, and we start to see

more encounters.

More intriguing.

These alleged sightings increasingly come from larger groups sharing the same

story. 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.

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 streets.

Accounts become so frequent, the state government takes action.

In 1977, the Florida legislature introduces a bill to try and protect the

ape and the public.

The bill includes specific language, making it illegal to take, possess,

harm, or molest any sort of humanoid or anthropoid creature.

The bill doesn't pass, but it does add a certain legitimacy to the idea that

skunk apes are real.

One man who doesn't need convincing.

Dave Shealy.

In 1994, Shealy opens the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Echopee,

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

subsidize serious research into the creature.

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

After a lengthy stakeout in 2000, Shealy manages to capture video of what he

claims is a skunk ape in the wild.

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.

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 kind of looked like you could have thrown

someone in a suit and just had them run through the grass.

In 2014, a Smithsonian Magazine journalist named Joseph Strongberg

get to the bottom of this.

Sheely told the journalist that he believed skunk apes are drawn to the

particular area that they were investigating because of the calls of

primates. He had been following two skunk ape tracks, and they led him

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.

Stromberg was skeptical about this story, but in fact confirmed that such a

company did exist.

There is in fact a company called Primate Products Incorporated located in

Immokalee, Florida, where primates are bred.

This leads Stromberg to speculate that perhaps some of these animals got loose.

When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, there was extensive damage to

products. And they believe over 6 ,000 primates may have escaped into the wild.

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.

A report from the Sarasota Sheriff's Department may offer further proof.

In 2000, a person who had claimed that there were disturbances around their

property by an unknown critter eventually get a picture of it, and they

letter as to what happened, and they send it to law enforcement.

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.

Cromberg concluded that people who report the skunk ape are sincere, but

be seeing what Shealy claims they are. Certainly, some people who see Bigfoot

are, in fact, misidentifying a monkey that someone has released.

Since the 1950s, most Bigfoot eyewitnesses describe the creature as a

between an ape...

and a human.

There's a debate in the Bigfoot community about what Bigfoot actually

Some believe that Bigfoot is more of a straight animal.

I think the ideal answer would be that there's probably an unknown primate

there. 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.

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.

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 life.

covered in fur, made to toe, acting like an animal but with human qualities, and

that sparked everyone's interest.

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.

The wild man of Navidad was stealing piglets and chickens, was leaving

footprints all over the area, was breaking into homes but only stealing

never valuables.

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

and conducted a stakeout. But if that was where the creature lived, it never

returned.

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

this wild man.

And upon investigating, they found out that it wasn't a creature.

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

to survive for like 15 years before being captured.

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.

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.

The main difference is that in these cases, the culprit, the wild person, is

discovered.

Is it possible that modern Bigfoot sightings could also be of humans rather

of animals?

In the 1970s and 1980s, There's a dramatic rise in homelessness in the

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

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

toe, including his face.

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.

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

us, people.

Bigfoot has been compared with many modern animals over the years, most

various species of primates.

It looks very much like an orangutan or something of that nature.

Some of the things these people are seeing in the woods are legitimately a

silverback gorilla or a chimpanzee. And on top of that, you have wealthy people

that buy these pets and they just kind of lackadaisically keep them and they

escape. But many experts believe this doesn't fully explain Bigfoot.

Escape monkeys typically don't grow as large as Bigfoot is purported to be.

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

be extinct that did match this description.

Remains have been discovered of a creature that most resembles Bigfoot,

is the species called Gigantopithecus.

Gigantopithecus is a primate from the Pleistocene era. It was believed to have

gone extinct about 300 ,000 years ago.

An ancestor of modern -day orangutans, Gigantopithecus is thought to be the

largest primate to ever live on Earth.

Gigantopithecus was enormous.

Its teeth were...

of such proportion that we estimate its body mass to be on the order of 800 to 1

,200 pounds.

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 Giganopithecus,

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.

In the early 1980s, American anthropologist Grover Krantz becomes one

biggest proponents of the theory that Gigantopithecus could perhaps be a

candidate for Bigfoot.

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.

As far as where Gigantopithecus lived, Krantz believes that a land bridge

across the Bering Strait.

that allowed Gigantopithecus to cross over the North American continent during

the Ice Age in search of better food and warmer climates. As for their

extinction, he believes it never happened.

Scientists believe that given the vastness of the ocean and the

there are numerous other seemingly extinct species that we may find in fact

still exist.

Let's take the pygmy tarsier and the cashmere musk deer. These are two

that were supposedly extinct that we have found are not.

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

exist. So clearly, our best understandings of just how extinct an

creature might be can be wrong.

Gigantopithecus may not be the only extinct primate that could fit the bill.

Bigfoot researcher John Napier actually believed that Bigfoot might be a

different form of seemingly extinct ape called Paranthropus.

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.

The Wajiganopithecus, it was so massive, we really can't be sure that it even

walked on two legs. But Paranthropus did strut its stuff.

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

remained undetected but occasionally sighted.

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

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 Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries.