Monday, May 07, 2007

Is Bigfoot Endangered?

The more relevant question should be, “Does Bigfoot even exist?” But the lack of physical evidence verifying the existence of Bigfoot hasn’t stopped a petition from being introduced into Canada’s House of Commons seeking legislation protecting it as an endangered species.

The person behind the petition, Todd Standing, claims to have shot 12 seconds of “iffy looking” Bigfoot footage and has been interviewed by radio personality Art Bell. Does this scenario sound familiar; does it make you think Ivory-billed Woodpecker exploits of recent years in the U.S., perhaps?

Unlike Bigfoot, we know that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker once existed, and there is no evidence of outright fraud to perpetuate belief in the continued existence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. But the evidence presented to date to support the existence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the bottomland hardwood forests of the U.S. is certainly less than conclusive.

My hat goes off to Bill Pulliam for his detailed examination of the Luneau video (here and here), but where he sees field marks that convince him that the video shows an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, I see only blurry black and white blobs that I have to accept on faith represent a bird, much less a woodpecker of some sort. Maybe I'm in greater need of glasses than I realized!

Anyway, recent accounts of the Canadian Bigfoot episode can be found at Cryptomundo (even they express skepticism about Standing’s claims) and the BigCityLib Strikes Back blog.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Art Bell may be the greatest American alive today.

May 07, 2007 2:36 PM  
Blogger John L. Trapp said...

In reply to the comment left by Anonymous at 2:30 PM, I can only say, "To each his own," and "Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion." One can only hope that comment was left in jest.

May 07, 2007 3:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, I forgot to mention that if he took up birding as a hobby he wouldn't have any problem finding lots of Ivory-billeds.

He's that good. Just look what he did for UFOs.

May 07, 2007 4:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

...and if I was joking, Mr. Trapp, I would have put a "hahahahaha" behind my comment. The way they do on the internets.

May 07, 2007 4:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ivory Bill is alive and well! Just like bigfoot!

May 07, 2007 8:28 PM  
Blogger Bill Pulliam said...

Everybody keeps overstating my position...

My conclusion is that I find the video to be inconsistent with a PIWO in several critical points, and (as far as we know about the IBWO) consistent with an IBWO BUT we don't really know some fundamental things about the IBWO, such as how they actually fly/flew. I haven't argued that it is conclusively an IBWO; my major argument has been AGAINST the people who use those same smudges and smears to argue that it is definititly (or at least entirely consistent with) a PIWO. I have noticed an amusing tendency for people to have been very fond of those smears when they were being used to identify the bird as a PIWO, but to be much more dismissive of them if they are used to try to show that the bird might in fact not be a PIWO...

May 07, 2007 10:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's truly the trouble with Cornell's video. I see a large white and black bird, presumably a woodpecker. But I cannot see exactly where the black and white appears, and I don't think anyone can be certain. As you alluded to, in single still frames a person couldn't be sure it was even a bird!

Viewed through the prism of common sense, if it can be a Pileated rather than an Ivory-bill, it almost certainly is.

May 07, 2007 10:44 PM  
Blogger Bill Pulliam said...

Is Art Bell back on the radio? In my over-the-road trucking days he was always good for keeping me awake on the overnight runs. But then he stepped asside and that low-rent replacement version of him came on. Is the real deal back on the air? Never mind the fact that 99% of the guests on his show were spouting pure bunk, it was great entertainment.

May 07, 2007 11:02 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

 

The FatBirder's Nest
FatBirder Web Ring