As I said in the previous post, I will break down each of our “suspects” in more detail. Here we will start with Suspect Number One: Bears. The other articles in the series are here:
The Likely Suspects for Sasquatch
Sasquatch Suspect #2: Undiscovered Primates
Sasquatch Suspect #3: Relict Humans
Sasquatch Suspect #4: Human Hoaxes
Habitat
The Pacific Northwest is home to both black and brown bear populations. Dense forests seem to be synonymous with Bigfoot. Even in other areas, black bears are almost always present in mountainous forested regions, and so are Bigfoot sightings.
MATCH
Diet
Bears are omnivores, but subsist mostly on plants and insects. They do eat fish in areas where fish are plentiful and easy to catch. Bigfoot reports show omnivorous behavior as well. There have been reports of seeing them eat berries for example. There are also a lot of reports, however, of them hunting or carrying large game such as deer. Black bears have also been reported to hunt deer.
MATCH
Behavior
Bears are territorial, but confrontation with humans is rare. Bears will avoid humans, but are not so uncomfortable that they won’t approach or defend their area. They are rarely seen running away from humans unless the humans presents themselves as a threat. Sasquatches seem to act in much the same way if some of the videos are proven to be real.
Bears communicate with grunts and clicks, Bigfoots are believed to communicate with howls, screams, and wood knocks.
Bears walk on all fours, occasionally ambulating on their hind legs only, albeit briefly and usually to reach something higher up. Nearly all Bigfoot reports have them walking bipedally for relatively longer distances.
NOT A MATCH
Appearance
Let’s start with the overall appearance. Both bears and sasquatch are large fur-covered animals. The reported colorations usually range in shades of brownish red to black.
When a bear stands on its hind legs there is a distinct difference from reported Bigfoot sightings. Bears do not have prominent shoulders while upright. Instead, they appear as sort of a bottle shape, with a smooth sloping from the neck to the body. Bigfoot reports tend to describe very broad and prominent shoulders.
Bears also have pointy ears that stand out on top of their head. Bigfoots’ ears are rarely even mentioned, leading one to believe they aren’t readily noticeable.
Bears have a snout. Their noses protrude from their faces very distinctly. Bigfoots are said to have either flat noses, resembling a gorilla, or in some cases a small nose that is something between a human and a great ape.
There are other obvious differences in reports. Most people describe Bigfoots as ape-like or human-like or a mixture of the two. It is hard to imagine anyone describing a bear in this manner.
NOT A MATCH
Conclusion
While habitat, diet, and some behavior matches, it seems highly unlikely that most sightings withing 100 yards of the animal could be a misidentified bear. The habitat is shared by other mammal predators as well, such as wolves, mountain lions, and coyotes. They all exhibit some of the same beahviors too, because this is what is necessary for survival.
However, there are enough behavioral and appearance differences that it seems bears can be ruled out for a lot of sightings, and can be ruled out as the explanation for the entire phenomenon.
Check out the full series:
The Likely Suspects for Sasquatch
