Some people say a big, hairy creature called Bigfoot lives in forests in the northwest of North America. It is said to walk on two feet, to be taller than a grown-up and to be covered in long, dark hair. Another name for it is Sasquatch. That word comes from a Salish word that means "wild men." Footprints said to be Bigfoot's are very large, up to about 20 to 24 inches long. What would it take to show that such a creature exists?
In 1958 a worker in California found huge footprints near a road being built. The prints were nearly 16 inches long. A California newspaper, the Humboldt Times, started calling the maker of the footprints "Bigfoot." In 2002, after Ray Wallace died, his family said he had made the 1958 footprints with carved wooden feet. No body or bones of Bigfoot have ever been found. Some scientists think people who report Bigfoot may be seeing bears, which can stand up on two legs.
The most famous film said to show Bigfoot was shot in 1967 near Bluff Creek, California. No one has verified it as showing an unknown animal. Hairs are another kind of clue. Scientists tested hairs said to come from Bigfoot and similar creatures. Almost all came from known animals such as bears, horses, cows, raccoons and sheep. You may have heard that hair tests found a new ape. In fact, almost all the hairs came from known animals.
Scientists do sometimes find a large animal that was not known before. The saola, a large forest animal, was found by scientists in 1992 in Vietnam, near the Laos border. The giant squid was once known only from sea-monster stories, but it is a living animal of the deep ocean. Scientists use camera traps to see shy animals. A camera trap is a camera with a motion sensor that takes pictures by itself.
Loch Ness is a very big lake in Scotland. It holds more water than any other lake in Britain. Some people believe a big animal lives there. They call it Nessie. People who report Nessie often describe a long neck, or humps that stick up out of the water. The modern Nessie story began in 1933, after a new road along Loch Ness gave people a clear view of the water.
In 1934 a photo seemed to show a long neck rising out of Loch Ness. It was called the Surgeon's Photograph. You may have heard that it proves Nessie lives in the lake. In fact it was shown to be a hoax in 1994, about sixty years after it was taken. A famous photo of Nessie was a trick. The "monster" was a model head on a toy submarine. Most photos said to show Nessie turned out to be fakes, or to show other animals or objects.
Many sightings at Loch Ness could be waves, boat wakes, logs, birds, seals, otters or swimming deer. In 1933 footprints found at Loch Ness were sent to the Natural History Museum in London. Experts there said they were made with a hippo-foot umbrella stand or ashtray. A plesiosaur was a sea reptile that died out about 65 million years ago. Some people thought Nessie might be one. Scientists tested the water in Loch Ness. They found lots of fish and eels.
Animals and plants leave bits of DNA in the water around them, from shed cells and waste. Scientists can collect it and read it. In 2018 scientists from New Zealand took more than 250 water samples from Loch Ness to find out what lives there. The survey found no plesiosaur DNA in Loch Ness, and no sturgeon either. Scientists and TV teams also swept Loch Ness with sonar, which uses sound to find things under water. Searches in 1987 and 2003 found no monster.
Words to know
- Sasquatch: Bigfoot's other name
- hoax: a trick
- sonar: sound finder
- DNA: body code
- plesiosaur: sea reptile
