In pitiful news for fans of urban folklore , Bigfoot could actually be several hundred black bears , a new analysis suggest . It seems people across North America may have been misidentify the American smutty bear ( Ursus americanus ) for everyone ’s favoritegiant hairy ape - like creatureall these old age .
The analysis , poetically titled “ If it ’s there , could it be a bear ? ” and yet to be peer - reviewed , assay to use statistics to try and explain the enduring myth , coming to the conclusion that “ if Sasquatch is there , it may be many bears . ”
How many incisively ? For every 900 dark bear in a given state or state , one Bigfoot sighting is expected , indite study author and data scientist Floe Foxon .
Bigfoot , also refer to as Sasquatch , is the supposed bipedal emulator chance swan , it is rumour , in the forests of North America . The caption spans back to the 1800s and in the centuries that have followed , there have been uncounted allege sightings and even some “ discoveries ” ( some morequestionablethan others ) claiming to have figure out the myth .
The American calamitous bear has been suggested as a potential prospect – after all they are sufficiently large , hairy , and known to occasionally walk on their hind legs – and has antecedently been the bailiwick of studies base in the Pacific Northwest purpose to explain the sightings .
Foxon ’s psychoanalysis extended this mountain chain to the entire US and Canada , using statistical methods to identify a link between Bigfoot sightings ( as per the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization ) and fatal bear populations .
“ After adjusting for human population and land area , one sasquatch sighting is expected for every few hundred bears in a given United States Department of State or province , ” Foxon write , tot up that the association was statistically significant .
“ The most likely explanation is therefore that many Bigfoot sightings are really sighting of the black bear , which prepare sense because bear do occasionally walk bipedally with their hind legs , so they can bet a bit like jumbo apes , ” he toldThe Telegraph . “ The bear account for Bigfoot is very likely . ”
It ’s been quite the month for Foxon ’s mythical monster revelations : recently he prove thatNessie believably is n’t a giant eel . So while our Bigfoot hope might be dart , the Loch Ness fable lives on . Although the luck of finding either is “ vanishingly improbable ” , Foxon told the Telegraph , it “ would be arrogant to say there is no chance ” .
The preprint is available atbioRxiv .
