Bigfoot's Lesser-Known Cousins

When it comes to the subject of Cryptozoology, there's no crypto quite as famous as Bigfoot - or Sasquatch, as he's known by some people. Sure, there's the Loch Ness Monster, the Mothman had his own movie and there's a whole team named after the Jersey Devil, but Bigfoot has a way of standing out from the crowd. Maybe it's the down-to-earth nature of the beast; a bipedal, manlike ape walking around the North American forests, hidden for all these years. Maybe it's the name recognition, or maybe it's even the famed Patterson footage. However, there's something about the urban legend of Bigfoot that refuses to leave our minds, whether we believe in it or not.

On the other hand, what's slightly less well known than Bigfoot is his cousins, cryptids of a very similar nature. This article is here to demonstrate some of these "cousins," excluding the more popular Yetis of the Himalayas. Whether the reader chooses to believe in the legends or not is entirely up to their own discretion. I'm a skeptic myself but even I can't help but find cryptozoology to be a truly fascinating study, nonetheless.

First off, we have the Skunk Ape. Generally dwelling in the Florida Everglades, the Skunk Ape is described as being a large, bipedal, ape-like creature-sounds familiar, doesn't it? What separates the Skunk Ape from its more popular cousin, though, is also the reason for its namesake; no, it isn't a black and white fur pattern as one might expect but instead, the fact that all sightings report the Skunk Ape as being extraordinarily, even offensively foul-smelling.

However, that's still staying in the United States and Bigfoot's cousins are far more widespread than that. For instance, one merely has to take a look at the Yowie, all the way in Australia. The Yowie is hardly a new crypto, as legends of its existence are common among Australian Aboriginal tribes. Today, there are still claims that various pet mutilations are the result of Yowie attacks.

Over in China, they have the Yeren, also known as the Chinese Wildman or the Man-Monkey. Usually described as being about six to eight feet tall, Yeren are covered in reddish-brown hair that has led some to believe that the Yeren may be a new species of orangutan. While most scientists dismiss all evidence of the Chinese Wildman, there was a team in 1980 that claimed to have discovered a dozen Yeren nests.

Finally, we come to the Am Fear Liath Mòr, a hominid of a more supernatural nature. Also known as the Greyman, the Fear Liath haunts Ben Macdui, the second highest peak in Britain. The Greyman is said to cause sinister, uncontrollable feelings of panic and terror by its very presence. Descriptions of this creature differ immensely from descriptions of Bigfoot, Yetis or even Yeren; instead of the traditional man-sized, bipedal gorilla, the Greyman is covered with thick, short, gray hair and has a disproportionately large head with pointy ears. In addition, the Greyman is of an enormous stature, sometimes reported as being even as much as twenty feet tall. While there's the plausible explanation that the feelings of uneasiness reported in Fear Liath encounters are simply the result of exhaustion and isolation (or even just a reaction the legend itself), there's still a variety of famous mountain climbers that swear to its existence.

Of course, there's dozens of other creatures and this list could go on for quite some time. Perhaps the reader has even had his own sighting of something that's not quite a Bigfoot, not quite a Skunk Ape and definitely not a Greyman. If so, maybe it's time to reveal it to the world.