Newspaper article : The Bremerton (Washington State), January 7, 1994

BIOLOGIST ' OUT OF THE CLOSET ' AND ON BIGFOOT'S TRAIL

Victoria, B.C. (AP) -- Massive footprints found in the snow, a "whoo whoo whooop" call heard in the woods - must be a sasquatch!

At least, that's what a wildlife biologist on Vancouver Island believes. John Bindernagel, 52, of Courtenay, said he began his sasquatch hunt years afo, but kept it quiet for fear of being branded a crack-pot.

"I only sort of came out of the closet about a year ago and started talking to other people about it," Bindernagel said Thursday.

His evidence includes 16-inch, human-like footprints found in Strathcona provincial park while on a hiking trip in 1988.

"You have to see them to appreciate how massive they really are," he said.

In addition, Bindernagel said he heard a strange, apelike call at a friend's cabin near Comox Lake in 1992.

"The only thing which I have ever heard which is similar is a chimpanzee in Uganda," he said. "It was a sort of 'whoo whoo whooop.'"

He said his friend told him he had heard the cry often, always in spring, and always at dusk.

Bindernagel said he knows of no other creature in North America that makes such a call, and he believes it was a sasquatch trying to communicate with its own kind.

The mysterious ape-like creature - also known as Bigfoot - is said to inhabit remote regions of the Pacific Northwest.

Bindernagel, who has a doctorate in wildlife biology from the University of Geulph in Ontario, worked for 20 years conducting wildlife research for the United Nations around the world.

Bindernagel works now as a consultant.

Research Credit : The Bigfoot Research Project

From the files of Ben S. Roesch ; See Ben Roesch's Cryptozoology Pages

Posted to the BFRR web site by Matt M. (mmkr@cris.com)