Bigfoot Pictures, Montauk Monster Pictures, Chupucabra Video: The Visually Unexplained

Searching For Bigfoot, Inc. announced August 13 that it had proof of the existence of the elusive Sasquatch, the legendary Bigfoot, that it had been found dead in the north Georgia woods, and that a press conference complete with DNA findings and photos of the Bigfoot's remains would be held in Palo Alto, California on August 15. SearchingforBigfoot.com posted a picture of the alleged dead Georgia Bigfoot looking rather cramped at the bottom of a freezer. That it looked more like a shrunken and matted ape-man costume more than a once living creature is arguable, but it is the "evidence" presented thus far in a bizarre series of cryptid sightings and findings that have been preserved in a visual format (i.e. a photo or video).

To clarify, a cryptid is the term used in cryptozoology, the study of animals or beings that fall outside the known zoological listings, to denote any animal or being that is reported to exist but which has as yet been unproven to exist. The Bigfoot, Montauk Monster, and chupucabra all fall under the cryptid umbrella, taking their places alongside such notables as the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, and the unicorn.

But cryptids have been rather active of late and people have been capturing visual evidence of the creatures and, sometimes, the creatures themselves.

What began the current run of visual evidence were the pictures of the Montauk Monster first shown on Gawker.com that spread along the internet like a raging firestorm. Speculation as to what the bizarre dog-like beast that washed ashore in New York actually might be was rampant. Was it a new beast, something concocted in the highly secured lab's of the government run facilities on nearby Plum Island? Was it just some animal heretofore never seen before? Or was it something more mundane, like a sea turtle sans its shell? Or even a water-logged and decomposing dog?

The pictures, with the curving snout and vicious teeth, were intriguing and the story ran hot for several weeks, with others coming forward with photos of their own and bizarre beach stories of coming across a Montauk Monster. One guy even proclaimed to have a video of the creature and produced a bag of bones to show a local television crew. Several sets of people took to arguing over the stories of each other, denouncing the validity of each in their turn. The furor died down when several leading wildlife experts, including Jeff Cowin of Animal Planet Network, announced that the Montauk Monster was nothing more than a sea-ravaged raccoon. But some still persist in believing that it is something exotic...

On August 12, a video shot from the dashcam of Dewitt County (Texas) Deputy Brandon Riedel went public. Stating that he "knew it wasn't a coyote," the deputy filmed a dog-like creature running up a dirt lane outside Cuero, Texas. Several seconds into the video, the creature turns its head to the left, revealing an enormously elongated snout, giving rise to the idea that the deputy may have actually captured a living chupucabra on video.

Cuero, Texas has been the center of many chupucabra sightings of late. Back in 2007, the Assocaited Press and Fox News ran the story and pictures of a chupucabra killed by Phylis Canion of Cuero. Canion said she killed the creature after it had killed dozens of her chickens. The chupucabra, a Spanish word that means "goatsucker," resembles a hairless dog, with a flat nose and vicious-looking teeth.

But the latest story comes from two men who run a Bigfoot expedition service in Georgia called Bigfoot Tracker Atlanta. Matthew Whitton, a Clayton County (Georgia) police officer, and Rick Dyer, a former corrections officer, told a radio talk show host that they had found the remains of Bigfoot monster in the mountains of north Georgia. They claimed to have placed its remains in a freezer and would let nobody see it except Tom Biscardi, a vetern Bigfoot tracker, to examine the body. Biscardi was notified and this past weekend satisfied himself that the body was a legitimate find. The group then ordered DNA samples and have scientists examining the body. They posted an announcement on the Searching For Bigfoot, Inc. website (operated by Tom Biscardi) that they had discovered the body of a genuine Bigfoot and would produce the DNA evidence along with photographic evidence at an upcoming press conference on August 15. The body would remain at an undisclosed location.

Debunkers and skeptics have already taken to calling the found Bigfoot the "Georgia Gorilla." More pictures and the DNA results should help explain what the two men found. Otherwise, the public may be left again with either ambiguous and unexplained "evidence" or a well promoted hoax for publicity purposes.

But there does seem to be a lot of "unexplained" sightings of late, not to mention quite a bit of visual documentation. The ubiquitousness of cameras -- in cell phones, on vehicles, mounted on buildings, and simply carried around -- has seemed to produce a ton of sighting "evidence" lately, some of it more than a little intriguing. Although the Montauk Monster pictures seem to have led at least one photoshopped (doctored) phto and to a simple explanation (it was a raccoon), the legend of the chupucabra still remains strong after pictures and a video have been produced. On August 15, the public might possibly see the "unexplained" Georgia Bigfoot explained, albeit with more pictorial evidence.

Pictures are said to be worth a thousand words. With that many words, some clarity should be found. But in the case of some cryptids, such as the chupucabra and the Georgia Bigfoot, those thousand words only lend themselves to the puzzle of the unexplaned.

Sources:

SearchingforBigfoot.com

Newsday.com

Associated Press

CNN.com

Wikipedia.org