Written by Anthony Skeens, The Crescent City, California, Triplicate, February 18, 2011.<\/p>\n
Kirk Stewart, the owner of a residence on French Hill Road, is still waiting on detailed analysis of hair samples he collected after a night three years ago when he thinks Bigfoot broke through a wire fence, plucked about seven of his peacocks and then made off with them.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Stewart said he found a trampled fence and a piece of his peacock pen peeled off. He also noticed feathers on the ground and on a tree limb about 7 feet high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking it was a bear, up until I had seen how it opened the pen,\u201d said Stewart.<\/p>\n
As he assessed the damage, Stewart said he happened upon a clump of about 16 hairs attached to one of the barbs on his fence. They were about 7 inches long with a fine texture and a slight curl.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hairs are the smoking gun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stewart sent them to the North America Bigfoot Search. A preliminary analysis determined them to be from a primate, according to a book by the organization\u2019s director.<\/p>\n
A more detailed analysis is expected within six months, it said.<\/p>\n
\u2018One of the hottest places\u2019
\nNABS claims to use scientific methods to investigate possible incidents involving Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, a purportedly ape-like creature whose existence is discounted by a majority of scientists.<\/p>\n
NABS was created about six years ago by a group of private donors who wanted to find answers to their childhood curiosities about whether Bigfoot exists, said David Paulides, director of the organization based in Los Gatos, Calif.<\/p>\n
It has collected dozens of hair samples from around the country to genetically analyze them. Along with Stewart\u2019s samples, NABS has received hair samples from Hoopa, northern Humboldt County near Bluff Creek, and Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Del Norte) has to be one of the hottest places in the world\u201d for Bigfoot reports, said Paulides in a telephone interview with The Triplicate.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s especially interested in Stewart\u2019s property, where the resident said several other things have happened that seem Bigfoot-related.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been at his property several times,\u201d said Paulides. \u201c What\u2019s going on there is very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2007, Stewart was throwing a birthday party for his son, when he heard a loud yell coming from near his melon patch.<\/p>\n
When Stewart later went to the patch, he said he found a line of about 50 melons that had been pried open, he said.<\/p>\n
There were circular holes in the melons with fingernail indentations, he said, adding there was also a big indentation in one of the large tires that housed the melons.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Bigfoot used it as a resting place while gorging on melons, Stewart speculated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I ever had him over for dinner, I\u2019d cook peacocks and cut honeydew melons,\u201d joked Stewart as he walked around his property recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s what they call a Bigfoot,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not some long-haired hippie running around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said he has yet to sign a contract with NABS\u2008releasing his rights to the hair samples.<\/p>\n
He said he makes his living farming his property. He also has a lawsuit pending against Del Norte County seeking the cash value of marijuana plants confiscated from his land even though he had a valid medical marijuana caregiver license.<\/p>\n
The drug-related charges against Stewart were dismissed, but he\u2019s currently on probation for being a felon in possession of a firearm.<\/p>\n
\u2018In reality there\u2019s thousands (of Bigfoots)\u2019
\nBefore it started collecting hair samples, NABS set out to gather anecdotal evidence from people who claimed to have encountered Bigfoot.<\/p>\n
Through commonalities in the evidence gathered, Paulides said he was able to profile behavioral attributes of the creature.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe named food sources,\u201d said Paulides. \u201cBigfoot eats mushrooms. That\u2019s a food source people didn\u2019t really think about. Also, there\u2019s a series of green shrubs and ferns and water plants.\u201d<\/p>\n
NABS has also hypothesized Bigfoot is not going to be far from water.<\/p>\n
After gathering anecdotal information, NABS had a forensic artist draw sketches of Bigfoot that people who claimed to have seen it described.<\/p>\n
The facial features of Bigfoot are more humanlike than previously suggested and its hair color runs the color spectrum similar to human hair, said Paulides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe flew right into the face of old-time researchers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Paulides included anecdotal evidence and the forensic sketches in his book, \u201cTribal Bigfoot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart was featured in the book, as were several other people from Del Norte and Humboldt counties.<\/p>\n
While the book released in 2009 was being written, NABS was in the beginning stages of hair sample analysis.<\/p>\n
A letter about a preliminary laboratory analysis of Stewart\u2019s sample was published in the book.<\/p>\n
The letter states that an expert examined the hair and found it to be from an animal of primate origin.<\/p>\n
Since then, dozens more hair samples have been submitted for evaluation, and NABS hopes to have results soon, Paulides said.<\/p>\n
The research has taken longer than expected due to the complexity of genetically tracing the hairs, Paulides said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the reasons no one has tried to jump through the hurdles that we\u2019re jumping through,\u201d said Paulides. \u201cIt\u2019s much more complicated than anyone thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paulides anticipates having the analysis completed within the next six months.<\/p>\n
The work will be published in a report written by a group of scientists who will scrutinize the findings, Paulides said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you have any scientific acumen to you and you\u2019re an educated person then it\u2019s hard to ignore science,\u201d said Paulides. \u201cIn reality there\u2019s thousands of (Bigfoots). They\u2019re much more common than anyone realizes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forrest floor is so efficient at disposing of things,\u201d said Paulides, adding that he\u2019s spent thousands of hours in the woods, but has never seen a fully intact skeleton of a mountain lion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can prove theres a primate out there that\u2019s bipedal and it has been ignored by science for eternity and we can now show it exists,\u201d said Paulides, \u201cI don\u2019t care what kind of evolutionary belief system you have, I believe that will alter the course of science.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Anthony Skeens, The Crescent City, California, Triplicate, February 18, 2011. Kirk Stewart, the owner of a residence on French Hill Road, is still waiting on detailed analysis of hair samples he collected after a night three years ago when he thinks Bigfoot broke through a wire fence, plucked about seven of his peacocks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigfoot-lives.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}