The group wants to determine if the Sasquatch spotted near Tofino is a genus distantly related to those thought to inhabit Mount Washington.
The shaky video, entitled “Strange Humanoid Encounter”, has had nearly 500,000 visits since it was first posted at www.youtube.com in March. The video’s producer allows that the creature he saw could very well have been a bear, but insists it was at least seven feet tall.
“This is NOT a hoax. The quality is bad, but my original copy is clear,” writes the person who posted the video on Youtube.
The poor quality of the video underscores the Search for Sasquatch Society’s proposal: to install remote sensing cameras in areas where the creatures have been spotted in the past, in the hopes of finally recording decent video.
A project using remote sensing cameras was done in Wyoming in 2006, except those cameras were set up to track the habits of female grizzly bears and their cubs through thick brush.
The society hopes that if successful, the cameras will enable biologists to track sasquatch and finally get an accurate population count.
There have been more than 100 sasquatch sightings on Vancouver Island since the mid-1800s.
FIELD NOTES… Due to the popularity of the sasquatch video on Youtube, the Search for Sasquatch Society is putting on a sasquatch calling course. It is the society’s hope that someone taking this calling course will be able to attract the creature within range of the heat-seeking cameras so someone can finally take a decent photo of one.
That would put to rest for good rumours that Bigfoot is just an urban legend, a society spokesperson said.
The Sasquatch Calling Course will be an online program. Further details to follow in future issues of The Marmot.