I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, with a keen interest in the natural world and a particular fascination with our closest kin, the great apes. I was there when the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was aired in Spokane, Washington. That now iconic image was my first encounter with Bigfoot. I was captivated. In the pre-Internet age, finding books, articles, and newsletters to satisfy my curiosity about Bigfoot/sasquatch was in itself a challenge, and I eagerly consumed what few titles were available. Even today, the few serious treatments of the subject by scholarly objective authors stand out among the plethora of skeptical or self-published amateur books.
This book was my encyclopedic introduction to the question of legendary man-like species existing around the world in the present day.
I was in my early teens the first time I read this book, returning again and again. I found inspiration in Sanderson as an unconventional scholar-adventurer who explored the planet and fostered my fascination with exotic and elusive species on the fringes and my appreciation of world biogeography. He was a founding figure of cryptozoology, the search for hidden animals. Through his synthesis, the legendary became zoology.
In college, I eventually found a tagline for my intellectual preoccupation–physical anthropology. I was especially captivated by the pattern and process of the evolution of human bipedalism–the adaptations for walking on two feet. As a physical anthropologist himself, Krantz was a kindred spirit and approached the mystery of Bigfoot from that mutual perspective.
His central focus on the footprint evidence for sasquatch aligned with my interests in hominin bipedalism. After brief opportunities for collaboration, upon his passing, his data and collections were bequeathed to my laboratory.
From an Amazon review: Well-written scientific treatment of the sasquatch phenomen[on]. Dr. Grover Krantz has the distinction of being one of the few scientists who accepts the existence of the legendary "bigfoot". With a doctoral degree in physical anthropology from the University of Minnesota and additional training from U.C. Berkeley, he was uniquely qualified to investigate a sighting reported to him by a member of the public in 1968. As a result of his analysis of this sighting, and subsequent analysis of other sasquatch material, he came to the controversial conclusion that the "mythical" creature was in fact real- a…
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John Green combines the spirited curiosity of an investigative reporter with the incisive logic of the argument of a rhetorician and the articulation of a wordsmith.
I found that he skillfully painted the historical and anecdotal context for this intriguing mystery as an adept journalist, drawing me into the very scene, to become part of the actual experience. He also went to lengths to make the evidentiary case for the scientists to acknowledge and seriously consider the proposition. With that determination, he promoted and sponsored the launch of a venue to provide a platform for the dissemination of scholarly publications exploring the question of relict hominoids, with me as the editor-in-chief.
John Bindernagel’s book persuasively demonstrated that rather than being an enigmatic monster, sasquatch anatomies and behaviors, as reported by hundreds of independent eyewitnesses, were remarkably parallel to those of known great apes. Rather than an inexplicable anomaly, sasquatch constitutes another species of hominoid ape.
As I pursue Bindernagel’s thesis, I have discovered further that some anatomies and behaviors attributed to sasquatch actually anticipated those of great apes only recently recognized or appreciated.
“In the past thirty years numerous books have been published about reported observations of giant, hairy bipeds in the forests of North America, but none by a scientist qualified to assess whether what the witnesses described added up to a believable animal. John Bindernagel, with a Ph.D in wildlife biology and extensive field experience in more than one part of the world, has now supplied that need. North America's Great Ape: The Sasquatch could prove to be the most important book yet written on this fascinating subject.” —John Green, author, The Sasquatch File, On the Track…
We all want peace. We all want a life of joy and meaning. We want to feel blissfully comfortable in our own skin, moving through the world with grace and ease. But how many of us are actively taking the steps to create such a life?
The discovery of the diminutive hominin Homo floresiensis, a.k.a. the “Hobbit,” was a sensation in paleoanthropology–one that was anticipated by the fieldwork of cultural anthropologist Gregory Forth. Stories of creatures of similar attributes were taken as descriptions of real encounters with an “empirical” entity rather than merely figures of folklore.
This book has been a case study in the realization of a paradigm shift in how human evolution is envisioned–one branch of a bushy family tree, accompanied by multiple parallel branches, i.e., relict hominoids.
A remarkable investigation into the hominoids of Flores Island, their place on the evolutionary spectrum-and whether or not they still survive.
While doing fieldwork on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, anthropologist Gregory Forth came across people talking about half-apelike, half-humanlike creatures that once lived in a cave on the slopes of a nearby volcano. Over the years he continued to record what locals had to say about these mystery hominoids while searching for ways to explain them as imaginary symbols of the wild or other cultural representations.
Then along came the 'hobbit'. In 2003, several skeletons of a small-statured…
A must-read to begin your journey to explore one of today’s most fascinating natural history questions – is there a biological species behind the legend of sasquatch? I am an academic scientist with nearly three decades of first-hand experience evaluating the diverse evidence on this topic. Numerous scientific experts join me to review the long history of this mystery and explain the scientific data, including footprints, photographs, vocalizations, etc., in a clear and accessible style, amplified by over 150 illustrations.
“Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science brings a much-needed level of scientific analysis to the Sasquatch–or Bigfoot–debate. Does Sasquatch exist? I have an open mind.” ―Dr. Jane Goodall.
Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks…
What were America's first prisons like? How did penal reformers, prison administrators, and politicians deal with the challenges of confining human beings in long-term captivity as punishment--what they saw as a humane intervention?
The Deviant Prison centers on one early prison: Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in Philadelphia, one of the…
