Why we love Nessie and Bigfoot

Whether they're deep in a lake, or high in the Rockies,
mythical creatures fascinate us, reports Bruce Ward.
Why are humans so taken with tales of strange and elusive animals?

The answer is as blurry as the infamous 1967 Patterson film footage -- 952 frames of 16-millimetre film which purportedly shows a surprised female Bigfoot fleeing in the Bluff Creek Valley of Northern California.

The film has been debunked as a hoax, but people continue to believe in legendary animals such as Bigfoot, or the Sasquatch, and in aquatic oddities such as the Loch Ness monster.

The Sasquatch and Nessie are probably the best-known creatures. Among the more unusual ones are the "monkey-man" who terrorized people in India two summers ago.

Robert Pyle, an ecologist and author, says many cultures have human-like giants in their folklore.

In his book, Where Bigfoot Walks, Mr. Pyle says creatures such as Bigfoot fill a human need for something to believe in, and a need for wilderness in our lives.

"We have this need for some larger-than-life creature."

But Mr. Pyle acknowledges that some Bigfoot believers are just ... plain ... nuts.

"Some Bigfoot people are like Elvis people," says Mr. Pyle. "It's not a matter of them not having both oars in the water. They don't even have a boat."

Mr. Pyle once attended "Sasquatch Daze," the annual gathering in the British Columbia town of Harrison Hot springs.

"Those guys didn't want to find Bigfoot," he says. "They wanted to be Bigfoot."

Some believers think Bigfoot descended from the extinct gigantopithecus, the largest ape that ever lived. Reports of large, roaming, hairy bipeds have circulated in British Columbia and northern California for at least 100 years.

The consensus among believers is that Bigfoot is a nomadic, nocturnal, foul-smelling, ape-like creature at least six-feet tall yet non-aggressive -- a lot like Deadheads, really.

But for most people, Bigfoot is merely an entry in the paranormal catalogue, which includes UFO abductions, crop circles, the Loch Ness monster, and weeping statues.

Faced with skeptics, members of the International Society of Cryptozoology, which studies reports of unverified animals, like to cite the mountain gorilla. It is the largest known primate in the world, but it was thought to be a myth until the early 1900s.

The Loch Ness Monster came to worldwide attention in 1933 when a couple returning to London saw it cross the road with an animal in its mouth before it submerged in the lake.

Since then, Nessie has become a top tourist attraction -- although numerous "sightings" over the years have proved to be inconclusive.

In 2001, there were reports of a "monkey man" that attacked people sleeping on roofs in New Delhi, India.

Police blamed mass hysteria over the creature for three deaths -- one victim leaped screaming from a roof, the others were trampled by a stampede of terrified people fleeing their homes.

Sightings stopped as suddenly as they began and police concluded that the eyewitness accounts were a hoax.

In Mr. Pyle's view, many people love a mystery and creatures like Bigfoot give shape to their lives.

And although he doubts Bigfoot exists, he hasn't ruled it out.

"This could be a case where biology and mythology correspond."

© Copyright 2002 The Ottawa Citizen
Article courtesy Lucius Farish via Warren Thompson and the Bay Area Group