Discovered: Research predicts Bigfoot's distribution; state seeks claim

Huge, smelly and hairy, this mythical ape-man has vexed believers who say he exists. The California filmmakers of this famous 1967 image said this was the real thing, but doubters have said the creature looked to be holding a metal thing that looked suspiciously like a beer can. less Huge, smelly and hairy, this mythical ape-man has vexed believers who say he exists. The California filmmakers of this famous 1967 image said this was the real thing, but doubters have said the creature looked ... more Photo: Film By Roger Patterson And Bob Gimlin/Image Courtesy Rene Dahenden Photo: Film By Roger Patterson And Bob Gimlin/Image Courtesy Rene Dahenden Image 1 of / 62 Caption Close Discovered: Research predicts Bigfoot's distribution; state seeks claim 1 / 62 Back to Gallery

A bill introduced in February into the state Legislature seeks to claim Sasquatch as "the official cryptid or crypto-animal of Washington."* Hahaha, good luck. I don't know if a state's claim to the legendary hairy beast is contestable in court, but if it is, then Washington would have a fight on its hands.

While recently sipping, very tiny sips, a beer in a brewery in Missoula, Montana, I brought up the subject of Washington laying claim to Bigfoot to a few folks. A bona fide research ecologist straightened and said he knew of a 2009 research paper that documented the distribution of Sasquatch.** The next day, he sent it to me and boy, does it clear up a few things.

The main point of the paper published in the Journal of Biogeography titled "Predicting the distribution of Sasquatch in western North America: anything goes with ecological niche modelling [sic]," was that researchers needed to be careful with their data when creating ecological niche models (ENMs). Yeah, I thought the same thing.

"To demonstrate the potential for generating dubious yet visually convincing distributions from publicly available data we use ENMs to predict the range not of misidentified cryptic species, but of a crypto-zoological species – the North American Sasquatch, or Bigfoot," the researchers state.

BUT THE MUCH MORE INTERESTING POINT is the distribution of BIGFOOT!

The researchers collected and refined data from The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization — "The BFRO web site was built and launched in 1995. It was the first web site to provide a collection of bigfoot/sasquatch sighting reports." — to generate the distribution of the best sightings in the West.

Judging by the hundreds of sightings spread pretty evenly throughout the West, either there's a few very fast and very active members of this species running around or there are simply a heck of a lot of them.

Now, Washington state has a lot of sightings, but Oregon and especially California do too. So, you know, those states have a claim to the big cryptid, as well.

To my point, the researchers state:

"In general, the ENM shows that Bigfoot should be broadly distributed in western North America, with a range comprising western North American mountain ranges such as the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Cascades, the Blue Mountains, the southern Selkirk Mountains, and the Coastal Range of the Pacific Northwest."

Oh and even though our current government doesn't believe in climate change, the researchers did explore where Sasquatch's territory might drift:

As expected for montane organisms, the model predicts Bigfoot to abandon lower altitudes and also to lose habitat in coastal regions. However, this loss of habitat should be compensated by a large potential gain in the northern part of the Sasquatch range and in several other montane areas (e.g. Arizona, Nevada, Utah), should such areas remain undisturbed by human activity in the near future.

"Thus, given our model and available data, we might expect Bigfoot sightings to increase in frequency in northern latitudes and at higher elevations over the coming years."

Which spells even more trouble for Washington's claims to making this beast of legend the state's official cryptid.

* The bill's sponsor, Washington state Sen. Ann Rivers, said a kid suggested the idea; she "couldn't resist what she views as a teaching moment." Her news release adds:

"Washington's Legislature has adopted more than 20 state symbols, from a state tree to a state folk song and, most recently, a state oyster and a state waterfall. But the state doesn't have a designated "cryptid," or cryptozoological creature – meaning an animal not proven to exist, such as Scotland's Loch Ness Monster. Nor does state law make a single mention of Sasquatch, also commonly referred to as Bigfoot and sometimes Forest Yeti..."

** Spoiler alert: He added right off that the distribution of sightings of Bigfoot pretty much matches up with the distribution of black bears, and we got a laugh out of that. But don't read this caveat before reading the rest of the above story! Here's what the researchers said about black bears and Bigfoot: "... the two 'species' do not demonstrate significant niche differentiation with respect to the selected bioclimatic variables. Although it is possible that Sasquatch and U. americanus share such remarkably similar bioclimatic requirements, we nonetheless suspect that many Bigfoot sightings are, in fact, of black bears."

Jake Ellison can be reached at jakeellisonjournalism@gmail.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.