INTERVIEW: ‘Finding Bigfoot’ team searches for Sasquatch with Turtleman

Finding Bigfoot, the hit Animal Planet series that follows a team of researchers on the hunt for Sasquatch, returns Sunday, June 8 with a special cross-over episode that includes Turtleman from Call of the Wildman. Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Cliff Barackman from the world-famous Bigfoot show (read our story on the show’s last season here).

Can you tell me about the adventures of the new season? Were you and the team able to find convincing evidence?

The new season will have some very interesting evidence featured in various episodes, including never-before-seen photographs of possible sasquatches, footprint casts, and vocalizations captured by the team during night investigations. These highlights, along with special guests and new locations, make the new season probably the best we’ve done so far.

How was it working with Turtleman?

Turtleman and his buddy Neal were great to work with. It was a pleasure hearing Ernie’s bigfoot encounter straight from him. It clearly has affected him, and the emotion of the encounter is still with him all these decades later.​

In your opinion, is there enough evidence to positively prove the existence of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch?

No, there currently is not enough evidence to prove the existence of sasquatches. However, there is more than enough evidence to warrant a serious scientific investigation into the subject. Unfortunately, very few academics are aware that such evidence exists. The scientists that do know about the evidence are often reluctant to publicly show interest for fear of the social pressures that exist in academia. This attitude is slowly changing, but we’re a long ways away from where we need to be on this issue.

Recently Discovery Channel aired a special about the possibility of a Russian Yeti. Do you believe the bipedal primate theory, the so-called missing link, appears in wild areas throughout the globe? Or is it just North America?

​Bipedal hominoids are part of the cultural landscape on every continent except Antarctica. Having personally investigated the subject on four continents, I am confident that there is a biological basis for these stories​. Sasquatches, or something similar, seem to inhabit many corners of the globe.

How do you address skeptics who don’t want to have their minds changed?

If someone isn’t open to learning about the evidence, there is little I can do to change their minds. I don’t find it constructive to try to change other people’s opinions anyway. There are still people in the world today that think the Earth is flat, and I don’t bother trying to change their minds.

In your opinion, what is the most impressive piece of evidence ever found about Sasquatch? The Roger Patterson film?

​While the Patterson/Gimlin Film is an impressive clip that (contrary to popular opinion) has never been shown to be a hoax, I feel the strongest evidence for the sasquatch is the congruency of all the available evidence. Sighting reports from the 1800’s detail the same physical and behavioral characteristics that are described by modern witnesses. Some of these behaviors reported are now known to be common ape behaviors, though were unheard of at the time they were published. Some eyewitnesses observe anatomical features that can be found in the footprint evidence, such as an elongated heel segment or even flexibility in the mid part of the foot. These features were only adequately explained by anatomists in the 1990’s, even though evidence of them was present in footprint casts from the 1950’s. These same features can be clearly seen in the PG Film as the creature walks across the sandbar. Instead of an inconsistent amalgam of features as would be expected in a purely folkloric or imaginary creature, we find a consistency in the descriptions that would be most easily explained by a biological reality.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Finding Bigfoot airs new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. Click here for more information.