Bigfoot
hunter searches Arizona reservation
THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX
-- Reports of Bigfoot on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona
have drawn a controversial hunter of the legendary creature.
C.
Thomas Biscardi of Menlo Park, Calif., visited the reservation over the weekend
for the second time this year to interview witnesses and organize a search.
In
recent months, police officers have reported being chased by the creature, campers
have said they spotted it and locals have said they caught it peeking in their
windows.
"We're
here for the white Bigfoot, the monkey-type creature with a tail, the one that
was throwing rocks at people here," Biscardi said during a broadcast Saturday
on the tribe's radio station. "I've got to tell you, people, it's here."
By
day's end, at least half a dozen tribal members had told of seeing a strange beast,
hearing blood-curdling screams in the night or other experiences. Several offered
to join Biscardi's Searching for Bigfoot Inc. team on mini-expeditions.
While
most backed out, 18-year-old Laramie Smith came forward to lead the team to a
cave he found that he said could be the beast's lair.
The
searchers had infrared and thermal-imaging devices, a Taser, a tranquilizer gun
and a net-shooting cannon but found no cave or Bigfoot home. One team member picked
up a stick and began beating on a log while another whooped to lure the beast.
"If
they did not respond to the whooping and tree knocking, and there's no signs,
then there's nothing here," Biscardi said.
Biscardi
believes there are at least 3,500 Bigfoots nationwide, a number he derived by
counting up one year of reported encounters, then subtracting suspected hoaxes
and mistakes.
He
has been trying to capture a specimen for 33 years, and his team has visited nearly
every state in that quest.
Academic
researchers are generally skeptical on the subject of Bigfoot. An Associated Press
article last week quoted faculty at Idaho State University as they they are embarrassed
by Jeffrey Meldrum, a colleague who believes in Bigfoot.
Stan
Lindstedt, a regents professor of biology at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff,
said it is unfathomable that a huge subhuman creature would remain concealed over
wide sections of the country.
"I
put that in the category of mythology that can certainly make our culture interesting,
but has nothing to do with science," he said.
