Bigfoot: More Human Than Animal

Books about Bigfoot are a dime a dozen. I certainly have read my share over the years and I have a stack in my "to read" pile. Some Bigfoot books are great, some are terrible, and then there are plenty of so-so books. Having read a couple that fall into the mediocre category recently, I decided to reread a classic. So, I downloaded an e-book version of Ivan Sanderson’s Abominable Snowmen, Legend Come to Life. While reading the other night, something Sanderson wrote grabbed my attention—the idea that Bigfoot creatures are more human than animal.

ABSMs

In his book, Sanderson lumped Bigfoot into an overarching category called Abominable Snowmen or ABSM for short. Everyone knows ABSMs are elusive. Sanderson hinted at why:

It is simply that ABSMs are Hominids or, just as every benighted native has always asserted, human rather than animal, and thus are endowed in one degree or another with human attributes, and most notably their powers of survival, their adaptability, their toughness, and their acuteness.

Sanderson’s “more human than animal” comments brought to mind a newspaper article I read some time ago when looking at old Bigfoot sightings in West Virginia.

West Virginia Hairy Monsters

The article recapped strange incidents citizens reported to the department of Conservation. The piece mentioned "hairy monster" sightings in the Mountain State:

And there were the reports about hairy monsters. One Beckley resident summed that situation up this way in a letter to the Conservation Department:

“There have been too many reports of hairy monsters being seen to pass them off as nonsense.

“If there is any such thing, it is more human than animal, but it shouldn’t be shot just because it’s hairy.”

—Raleigh Register (Beckley, WV). “Bats in the Attic, Geese on a Tin Roof among 1956’s Outdoor Oddities.” January 1, 1957.

A Soviet Wildman

Legendary author and Fortean researcher John A. Keel recorded a “more human than animal” tale from the former Soviet Union in his book The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings. Keel recounted the following story from of Lieutenant Colonel V.S. Karapetyan of the Soviet Army Medical Service:

From October to December of 1941 our infantry battalion was stationed some thirty kilometers from the town of Buinaksk (in the Dagestan A.S.S.R.) One day the representatives of the local authorities asked me to examine a man caught in the surrounding mountains and brought to the district center. My medical advice was needed to establish whether or not this curious creature was a disguised spy.

I entered a shed with two members of the local authorities. When I asked why I had to examine the man in a cold shed and not in a warm room, I was told that the prisoner could not be kept in a warm room. He had sweated in the house so profusely that they had to keep him in the shed.

I can still see the creature as it stood before me, a male, naked and bare-footed. And it was doubtlessly a man, because its entire shape was human. The chest, back and shoulders, however, were covered with shaggy hair of a dark brown color. This fur of his was much like that of a bear, and two to three centimeters long. The fur was thinner and softer below the chest. His wrists were crude and sparsely covered with hair. The palms of his hands and the soles of his feet were free of hair. But the hair on his head reached to his shoulders, partly covering his forehead. The hair on his head, moreover, felt very rough to the hand. He had no beard or mustache, though his face was completely covered with a light growth of hair. The hair around his mouth was also short and sparse.

The man stood absolutely straight with his arms hanging and his height was above the average – about 180 centimeters [about 70 inches]. He stood before me like a giant, his mighty chest thrust forward. His fingers were thick, strong, and exceptionally large. On the whole, he was considerably bigger than any of the local inhabitants.

Neanderthal Sightings

I have read a number of reports over the years in which witnesses claimed seeing a creature that “looked like a Neanderthal.”  The now-defunct website Cryptozoology News reported two “Neanderthal sightings” in 2018. The first occurred in Portugal in 1939, and the other in Finland in December 2017. Cryptozoology News also published the following account from North Carolina:

“I was taking our dog for his daily ride,” said the 66-year-old retired man. “It was 6 p.m., we were approaching a small creek on the down grade of the road and I was looking at the 4-feet saplings where they had cut all the trees down.”

Tillman believes the unidentified being did not see him and his dog coming.

“There he stood, we must have surprised because he was just standing real still, the sun was setting between me and him,” he explained about the claimed 30-second encounter.

The North Carolina resident describe the creature as a 10-feet-tall humanoid walking on two legs.

“He was huge. He was massive in the back and chest. His hair looked black. From the side profile, his neck, his head, his nose and his lower jaw… he looked just like a Neanderthal.”

http://cryptozoologynews.com/man-spots-bigfoot-neanderthal-north-carolina/

I’ve often wondered if Bigfoot creatures might be some sort of archaic human. I have asked myself if there could be pockets of surviving archaic humans scattered around the globe. This might explain the old reports of “wild men.” Of course, this is quite a stretch and pushes the bounds of believability.

2016 Oklahoma Report

Circling back to Bigfoot being more human than animal, and setting aside speculation about archaic humans surviving into the present day, this report from Oklahoma warrants mention. A lady contacted me in 2016 and told me of a Bigfoot sighting near her home. This is her story:

I live on a lake about 12 miles from the nearest town....In July, this eight-foot-tall giant was seen very near my home by a member of my family walking my dogs. It was around 7pm CST when he noticed the dogs were behaving oddly looking into the woods between my home and the lake. Every 10 feet or so, my APBT would stop and pee right on the road. She had never done that before or since. He heard something crashing through the woods parallel to the road and assumed it was a deer coming from the lake after drinking. Then, after several minutes of this, a Bigfoot, Sasquatch, wood ape broke through the trees and underbrush and jumped down on the road 15 feet or so in front of him!

He said he had never been so taken aback and was shook to the very core. The dogs, even my pit bull, wanted nothing to do with this. My husband said it was more human not really ape but so massive he said it was hard to describe the size!

He said he didn’t really feel threatened. Its eyes were as green as the foliage. He said it kind of snorted at him and in two strides was across the road and gone before he could understand what happened.

When he finally got back, I noticed something was wrong. I really thought he was having another heart attack. After two nitro glycerin, his color started coming back and after about an hour he told me about it. He has not shared this with anyone else.

More Human Than Animal

She went on to tell me that nine people she knows in the area have had similar encounters with Bigfoot creatures. She made it a point to tell me the witnesses are trustworthy people. They hold good jobs and are active in their community. She said these witnesses also claimed the creatures seem much more human than animal.

My musings about Bigfoot are nothing new. Many before me have asked if Bigfoot is more human than animal. I think most who believe in the existence of Bigfoot would agree that it is. Otherwise, how does the creature manage to avoid detection? How can it be so elusive? And how does it remain an uncategorized species if it does not possess intelligence that rivals that of humans?

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