Giant footprints found in Bua Tuesday March 07, 2006
Residents of Nabouwalu in Bua say they have discovered giant footprints that belong to a large human-like creature from the sea.
An Indian talkback show on Radio Fiji received numerous calls this morning from people claiming to have seen the footprints.
"It does look like a human footprint but bigger. Where ever the footprints are; the grass in that area are dead," said Nabouwalu resident Suresh Chand.
"He came out from the sea and went to a nearby house which belonged to a Fijian family.
"We have more Fijians in the area and nearly everyone made an effort to go and have a look. We don't know what it is. This has never happened in Bua."
Attempts to obtain verification from police in Nabouwalu regarding the footprints proved futile.
IT is disappointing to see that while international Bigfoot researchers have already provided evidence that the alleged footprint is nothing but two overlapping prints, there are still those who insist that footprints "proving" the existence of Bigfoot were destroyed.
An investigation by the Asia Paranormal Investigators, a group based in Singapore with counterparts around Asia, has produced a report, The Malaysian Bigfoot Enigma
It extensively covers the alleged sightings, a local effort as the API's Malaysian Chapter was doing the investigations, via interviews with Orang Asli eye witnesses.
As the local media failed to see this report, which received international recognition and applause, the local scene is rife with all kinds of claims and allegations. Do we really believe that a creature as huge as Bigfoot could really stay undiscovered all this while?
Why can't we call it a day? When the news first came, it was interesting. The increasingly ridiculous claims undermine our own intelligence.
That?s Vance Winsor?s take on Bigfoot as he recently began research on Bigfoot sightings in Clarion County .
Winsor, a former machine operator from Connecticut , now resides in Clarion with his wife and daughter.
?I?ve had an interest in Bigfoot for about the past 10 years or so,? explained Winsor. ?I had a series of strokes and was left unable to work because of some of the damage to my body and that?s when I really started to look into researching Bigfoot.?
Winsor met some people at a New York retreat who are affiliated with Chapel on the Hill Church near Emlenton. That meeting led Winsor to move his family to Clarion where the cost of living is lower than it is in Connecticut .
Moving to Clarion County didn?t diminish Winsor?s interest in Bigfoot and his discovery on the Internet of Bigfoot sightings in Clarion County prompted the 44-year-old Winsor to run an advertisement in the Clarion News and The Derrick seeking information from anyone who believes they might have seen a Bigfoot in the area.
?I haven?t heard from anyone so far,? said Winsor. ?Not anyone who believes they saw something. My website got a lot of hits, though.?
Winsor has formed the Clarion County Bigfoot Research Organization and maintains a website at www.geocities.com/ozmtnmall.
According to the website, ?The Clarion County Bigfoot Research Organization conducts year round expeditions and investigations on Bigfoot sightings in ClarionCounty.
?We are a non-kill group and collect field data and evidence through means of audio, video and photography,? Winsor states on the website.
Winsor?s website lists three Clarion County Bigfoot sightings:
4February 1999 near the ClarionRiver: While fishing a man claims he witnesses a Bigfoot sitting on a rock eating a rabbit.
Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society members investigated and found no evidence to support the sighting.
4July 7, 2002, in BradyTownship: The temperature was 60 degrees. ?Witnesses were camping near State Route 68 east when they heard loud screams like someone was being murdered.?
One of the witnesses only caught a glimpse of the creature running past the tent and the fire. No odor was detected.
4Early 1972 near an unidentified location near the ClarionRiver: ?A 14-year-old boy was hunting squirrels. He was sitting on a rock when he heard a sound behind him. When he turned to look, he saw a big hairy animal approximately 6 to 7 foot tall, walking upright. The witness watched it walk about 200 yards till it was out of sight.?
Winsor?s website also links to the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization?s website which lists a Clarion County Bigfoot sighting.
That listing states a Bigfoot was sighted around 2:30 p.m.one day in July of 2001 at an unspecified location in the county.
The person reporting the sighting said he or she was bicycling in a wooded area and observed something ?at least six feet tall, standing bipedal and leaning against a tree. Seemed to be resting or waiting. Was colored a mottled gray and brown similar to salt and pepper hair. Overall, the creature was rather blob shaped, with little definition other than the four limbs. Walked hurriedly and bipedally away into the woods, with much confidence of the terrain.?
The person reporting the sighting continued, ?In the 70s, my uncle is said to have encountered a Bigfoot behind his mother's house, about a half mile away from this area and in an adjoining woods. He never speaks of the details of this encounter and is still frightened enough to not venture into the woods there. This year, not too distant neighbors have reported seeing a gray-brown creature crouching in their yards and fields behind their homes that then quickly vanish.?
Winsor said he knows most people are skeptical of Bigfoot.
?That?s no big deal,? said Winsor. ?I don?t care if people make fun of me. I?m not out to convince people Bigfoot exists. I just want to know what people saw. I know there are hoaxers out there.
?There are people out there who think Bigfoot lands in UFOs. I don?t believe that. I believe in unidentified flying objects, but I don?t believe in little green space aliens or that Bigfoot lands in a UFO.?
Winsor said he believes if there is a Bigfoot in Clarion County , his time here is part of his nomadic wanderings.
?I think he?s probably just walking his territory,? said Winsor. ?When researching Bigfoot, you?ll see most people only find his tracks. I?m hoping people will visit my website and tell me what they?ve found or what they?ve seen or what they?re heard.
?Like I said, I?m not out to prove he exists, I just want to put the information out there and let people decide for themselves.?
CLARION -- ?Some people say Bigfoot doesn?t exist and maybe he doesn?t, but all of these people have seen something and they can?t all be making it up.?
What better muse could an artist have than a cross between Lou Ferrigno, Forrest Gump and Kato Kaelin? That's how Graham Roumieu describes Bigfoot, the furry subject of two books by the Toronto artist.
The first is In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot (Manic D Press, $12.95), a cheeky look at the trials and tribulations the infamous Sasquatch faces in modern society. The follow-up, called Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir (Plume/Penguin, $21), is in bookstores today.
It addresses similar themes as the first novel but elaborates on other topics -- from Bigfoot's imaginary friends to using steroids -- and even includes an introduction from Mr. Loch Ness Monster.
"It was really a total stroke of luck that I came up with this idea and character," says Roumieu, whose illustrations have landed on the pages of such publications as Harper's, Toro and Paper magazines, the Wall Street Journal and the National Post. He also co-wrote a book with Graham Taylor called A Really Super Book About Squirrels (Andrews McMeel, $8.95).
The sassy Sasquatch was born when Roumeiu was a student at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont.
"It was this assignment, sort of like Harper's Index, where we had to focus on stupid random facts, like people who have accidentally bought a sewer rat at a pet store thinking it was a puppy or something. So we did the number of women in the U.S. to have claimed to be impregnated by Bigfoot. One of my sketches was what turned out to be the cover of the first book."
Roumieu says he was shocked at how well the sales from In Me Own Words were, and felt its success was reason enough to revisit the mythical woodland beast.
"It's turned into a bit of a cult classic," he says of Bigfoot's literary debut. "Well, I don't know if three years of OK sales denotes a cult classic, but I think some people notice me on the street."
Roumieu explains that, while the first book was more centred on Bigfoot's upbringing -- namely his failed film career, multiple divorces and other sources of inner turmoil -- Me Write Book takes his character further.
"I had no intentions with the second one. I just figured, 'I can milk this for a bit more material' and it actually took off and then evolved a little," says Roumieu. "It's essentially the same concept, but the content is entirely different and there's a bit more character growth. As crude as Bigfoot is, he's gotten more sophisticated."
The Wildlife Department plans to catch the Malaysian "Bigfoot" on camera.
The department's Biodiversity Conservation Division director, Siti Hawa Yatim, said the Johor Wildlife Department would be directed to install cameras in selected areas in the jungle after it had compiled the accounts of those who had reportedly seen the creature or had evidence of its existence.
Siti Hawa said the department would also survey areas where the sightings were reported.
Interest in the Bigfoot was triggered when three workers claimed they saw two huge creatures and a young one as they were building a fish pond in Kampung Mawai, Kota Tinggi, last month.
The workers returned to the area and saw several footprints, some large and others small, including one 45cm long.
A member of the Johor branch of the Malaysian Nature Society, who was carrying out a fish survey nearby, took photographs of the footprints.
His investigations indicated that the creatures were about three metres tall, based on the height of a tree branch that was broken off at the site.
From hair reeking of body odour recovered in the area, it is believed the creatures are covered with brown hair.
Johor MNS adviser Vincent Chow welcomed the willingness of the Federal and State Governments to look into the possible existence of Bigfoot in Johor's jungles, as this could spur ecotourism in the State.
He said such a study would attract the large international community of Bigfoot researchers, in particular cryptozoologists from America and Australia..
Cryptozoologists are those who study animal phenomena like Bigfoot in a very serious way.
"We are sitting on a wonderful opportunity by way of the Bigfoot research to spur ecotourism in Johor, taking the cue of Loch Ness in Scotland," Chow said.
He said the Bigfoot of Endau-Rompin could be promoted like the Loch Ness monster, which brings in millions of tourism dollars for Scotland through tours and souvenirs.
"Malaysia, in particular Endau-Rompin, came into the cryptozoologists' view after the publicising of researcher Harold Stephens' find of large footprints on the lower Endau River in the 1960s," he said.
"Sightings in Malaysia are not often reported for fear of ridicule. Occasionally, curiosity seems to be overwhelming and reports have trickled into the pages of the nation's Press."
Chow said such news was picked up in Western countries where Bigfoot is popular, especially in America where the "Sasquatch" has a large following with clubs, organisations and merchandising that brings in millions.
