Bigfoot, Mapinguari (the Amazon), Sasquatch, or Yeti (Asia)

An apelike creature reportedly sighted hundreds of times in the U.S. and Canada (most often in the Pacific Northwest) since the mid-19th cent. Similar to Asia's Yeti or Abominable Snowman, Bigfoot is variously described as standing 7-10 ft (2-3 m) tall and weighing over 500 lb (227 kg), with footprints 17 in. (43 cm) long. Most scientists discount the existence of such a creature.

David Oren, an ornithologist, is currently (January 1995) having examined some 22 pounds of feces as well as some clumps of hair believed to have emanated from Mapinguari, the Amazon's version of Bigfoot. Oren speculates that the monster with a giant bear's body and a monkey's face, is a giant ground sloth believed to have been extinct for 8,500 years. Mapinguari is described as having dark red fur, a thunderous roaring voice and a disabling stench. Despite the fact that Oren has heard many eyewitness accounts over the past nine years from rubber tappers and Indians, he has yet to see the six-foot, 600 pound creature himself.

further reading

-----.The Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch II, edited by Roderick Sprague and Grover S. Krantz, revised edition (Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1979).

Eberhart, George M. Monsters, a Guide to Information on Unaccounted for Creatures, Including Bigfoot, Many Water Monsters, and Other Irregular Animals (New York: Garland Pub., 1983).

Napier, John Russell. Bigfoot: the Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality (New York: Dutton, 1973).

Perez, Danny. Big Footnotes : a Comprehensive Bibliography Concerning Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowmen, and Related Beings (Norwalk, Calif.: D. Perez Pub. 1988).

Prose, Francine. Bigfoot Dreams (New York: Pantheon Books, 1986).

Sharp, Henry S. The Transformation of Bigfoot : Maleness, Power, and Belief Among the Chipewyan (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988).