Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, as rendered on "MonsterQuest"
Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, as rendered on "MonsterQuest" - © History Channel
Whereabouts
The most famous sightings of Sasquatch have been reported in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. Reports of Bigfoot have also come from the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
Vital Stats
Witnesses describe Sasquatch as a bipedal creature standing seven feet to 10 feet tall (about the size of a Kodiak bear) and weighing around 1,000 pounds. Bigfoot has enormous feet, long arms, and a powerfully built frame covered in reddish-brown or dark brown hair.
Behavior
After numerous attacks were reported against an isolated fishing cabin near Snelgrove Lake in Ontario, research in the area identified plentiful food sources for a large primate, including lichen, ferns and berries.
History
Rumored sightings of large, hairy bipedal creatures in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada date back some 200 years. In the 1920s, the term Sasquatch was coined by a reporter, J.W. Burns, who combined the names sokqueatl and soss-q'tal from the Chehalis Native American language.
Recent Sightings
In August 2006, researchers investigating reports of a violent creature at an isolated fishing cabin near Snelgrove Lake, some 250 miles north of Ottawa, had rocks thrown at them and found a 17-inch footprint nearby. Another attack was reported on a fishing party at the same cabin in 2007.
Relatives
Some theories link Sasquatch to the long-extinct gigantopithecus, native to Asia and known to be the largest ape that ever lived. Others tie Bigfoot much more closely to humans than to apes.