Interview with a Bigfoot Hunter

by Daniel Perez
from Fate Magazine, February 1998
John Green looks back at 40 years on the track of Sasquatch
In the annals of Bigfoot research and investigation, few people remain as steadfast in the pursuit as John Green, one of the true pioneers in the field. Green has been tracking Bigfoot for 40 years. In 1961, the late Ivan T. Sanderson described him as indefatigable, and Green, who turns 71 this month, shows no sign of letting up. The British Columbia native has written such classics as On The Track of The Sasquatch (1968), Year of The Sasquatch (1970), The Sasquatch File (1973), and the definitive Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us (1978). The six-foot-plus, slender Green has been at the scene of the classic Bigfoot events: the Patterson-Gimlin film, the Glen Thomas incidents, the Ruby Creek sighting, and the Albert Ostman abduction. One of his major career findings is that Bigfoot reports occur in areas where there is more than 20 inches of rain per year. Lately Green has been involved in computerizing his massive files, and he recently returned from a research trip to Russia. Bigfoot hunters hope his completed database will provide important clues about Bigfoot's existence.

Fate: Forty years ago "Bigfoot" had not yet been heard of, even in California, and "Sasquatch" was a British Columbia phenomenon. What was it presumed to be?
Green: The picture presented to the non-Indian community was of giant Indians wearing breech clouts, hairy only in that they had long hair on their heads; a wild tribe who had a language, lived in villages, and communicated with signal fires. The Indians knew what they really looked like, but did consider them to be human.
Fate: When you began investigating, what did you learn?
Green: It very quickly became clear that first-person descriptions didn't match the popular concept. Witnesses told of creatures completely covered with short hair and looking more like erect apes than people. There was no mention of clothing, fire, or villages. Observations of behavior accumulated more slowly, but were equally consistent. The added up to a creature that depended on physical abilities, not mental ones: They used no tools, had no language and no home, didn't form groups, and generally lived the same lives as bears.
Fate: What do you think is up and coming in the field of Sasquatch research?
Green: I hope DNA techniques will soon be able to establish if hair is from an unknown higher primate, and with camcorders so common someone should get a good video of a Sasquatch before long. But for a decisive conclusion someone has to get a Sasquatch, or part of one, which almost certainly depends on chance. A Sasquatch should have been collected by now. I have no explanation why that hasn't happened.
Fate: What might humans learn by collecting a Sasquatch?
Green: The study of another higher primate that has adapted to bipedal locomotion is bound to add a lot to human knowledge. It should also be useful to research the reasons our branch of the primate family was so insistent that this other branch must not exist.
Fate: Would you shoot one?
Green: I don't know, I don't hunt anything...But there is no hope of protecting their habitat without first proving that they exist, and science has made it very clear that only physical remains will do that.
Fate: What is your computer study telling you?
Green: I don't think any computer study will enable anyone to make an appointment with a Sasquatch, as some claim. What my work does is give a quick access to the massive amount of information in my files so that I can answer questions and check theories against what has actually been reported. For example, the average height estimate is slightly more than seven and a half feet. Average footprint size is 16 inches long and seven inches wide. There are no patterns indicating that Sasquatch migrate. A powerful smell is reported in only about one third of close encounters, indicating that Sasquatch either control emission of the odor, or, like silverback gorillas, only emit it under stress.
Fate: How many reports do you have on file?
Green: More than 3,000, counting both sightings and footprints. More than half are from eastern North America, and for most of those I have little specific information.
Fate: What might be a reasonable guesstimate as to how many Sasquatches are on the North American continent?
Green: For Sasquatches to be reported as widely throughout North America as they are, a reasonable estimate of their numbers has to be in the thousands, probably tens of thousands.
Fate: How do you explain the lack of fossil evidence?
Green: I don't consider the lack of fossils at all unlikely. Many fossil finds are of large creatures not previously known to exist, and I am told that there is as yet no fossil ancestor for gorillas.
Fate: What do Sasquatches live on?
Green: They have been reported eating many types of vegetation, including leaves, but also killing other animals, presumably for food. Evidence is mounting that they are major predators, easily able to catch and kill deer.
Fate: How do they survive in winter?
Green: Since there are no patterns in the accumulated information to suggest that they migrate, it seems probable that they hibernate. As predators they could obtain food in winter, but the scarcity of tracks in snow indicates that they aren't active.
Fate: Are they an endangered species?
Green: How could they be? There is no confirmed record of any being killed by humans, and they are reported almost everywhere in the world. North America, particularly, must have a thriving population, but some are suffering habitat destruction in places where wild areas are being cleared and subdivided.
Fate: Aren't they sometimes seen in groups?
Green: Very rarely. More than 90 percent of reports involve a single individual, and only 2 percent involve more than three.
Fate: What about mothers and young?
Green: Very few reports involved identifiable females, and there are almost none of females carrying small ones. Since higher primates can't travel on their own for years, it seems that females must be careful to avoid places where they might be seen.
Fate: If I pressed you for a definite yes or no with regard to the famous 1924 abduction of Albert Ostman by a family of Sasquatches in British Columbia, which way would you go?
Green: Given only that choice I have to say yes, but with no great assurance. I would reject a story like that today, because the information to fake it is now in circulation, but I came to know Albert Ostman well and heard him questioned by experts in ape anatomy and in cross-examination. I don't think he was lying.
Fate: What's your feeling about Forest Service patrolman Paul Freeman's 1982 sighting in Oregon, which resulted in Newsweek coverage and Freeman quitting his job, and the reported footprints with dermal ridges?
Green: I would have little reason to question Paul Freeman's story of his original sighting had he not followed it up with an unbelievable number of further claims. As to the dermal ridge evidence, I find it interesting but not conclusive.
Fate: Do you think hoaxers are a lot more sophisticated today?
Green: The most sophisticated hoaxes I know of took place about 20 years ago, but there may well have been better ones since which have not been exposed.
Fate: The 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film was the red-letter event of Bigfoot studies, What's been your best case, minus that one?
Green: There may be a better "best case" than Patterson-Gimlin, namely Glen Thomas' story of Sasquatches digging out and eating hibernating rodents in a rock pile near Estacada, Oregon (in 1967). A great range of behavior was observed with three very different individuals, and hard evidence-a pit in the rocks that neither bear nor human could duplicate-is still there.
Fate: There is now a new generation of scientists who grew up knowing about the Sasquatch question. Might this group be more successful in obtaining funding than past generations?
Green: The negative peer reaction toward scientists doing Sasquatch research has eased a lot in recent years. I think some of them may well be able to get funding soon. Fate: So, do you think the search for the Sasquatch will be wrapped up within your lifetime?
Green: Probably not. I don't have another 40 years.
Fate: Well, if you knew in 1957 the Sasquatch mystery would not be resolved in 1998, would you have gotten involved?
Green: Do I regret becoming involved? No, I don't.