# Could Bigfoot be real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 31, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680 "2014-05-31T02:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/141 "2014-06-20T20:26:56Z")
Reminds me of the self-proclaimed geneticists a year or two back who claimed to have sequenced the Bigfoot genome. They published their results in a real-life peer-reviewed journal, even! That, uh, they founded. And which published a grand total of one paper. Oh, and their published genome sequences were clearly a mixture of human, bear, and known non-human primates. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/142 "2014-06-20T20:33:46Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > This brings up an interesting question (probably better for another thread, but…) If some guy is running around in the woods during hunting season wearing a furry costume and gets shot and killed by a hunter, would the hunter get charged with murder? [In Texas he would need a license](http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/2014/02/texas-parks-and-wildlife-says-bigfoot-hunting-legal) and there might be a bag limit. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/143 "2014-06-20T21:13:25Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > From the Article > > Scientists who talk to the press before the journals always make me a bit skeptical. I did a search for papers by Sykes B\* with the key words Yeti, Bear and Ursa and came up empty so it sounds like he still hasn’t published. But OTOH, "The claim is being made by _Oxford University_’s Bryan Sykes, already well-known for his research on human ancestry. Sykes says his findings suggest that sightings of the legendary Yeti may actually represent observations of a previously unknown creature in the Himalayas — perhaps a hybrid of polar bears and brown bears. Sykes told NBC News that his aim is to bring the Yeti out of the realm of myth and fantasy. “All my colleagues think I’m taking a risk in doing this, but I’m curious, and I am in a position to actually do something to answer the questions,” he said. \*Outside experts didn’t reject Sykes’ conclusion out of hand. Tom Gilbert, professor of paleogenomics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told The Associated Press that Sykes’ research provided a “reasonable explanation” for past Yeti sightings. \*" Not too much woo coming from the hard scientists at Oxford. In fact “unknown or mis-idenified bear” has been the legit mainstream scientist\* possible explanation\* for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/144 "2014-06-21T04:34:57Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I was told there would be no math. Well hold on to your hat, because I’m going to present some more multivariate work. That’s stat-speak for “More than 2 explanatory variables”. We looked at bigfoot sightings above and saw they were related to population. Then we looked at the [scatterplot](http://wm40.inbox.com/thumbs/7e_130b40_7a31e5_oP.png.thumb). Washington State was a big outlier and we think we know what was going on: that’s where Mr. Foot’s legend began. That outlier is going to exert a big effect on measuring the _other_ variables’ effect on bigfoot sightings. So let’s take it out. In fact, let’s take at all states in the Pacific Northwest. That will tell us where Bigfoot prefers to go on vacation, a well defined problem. I could simply drop them from a sample, but if I construct a variable for each NW state -Washington, Oregon and California- we’ll be able to see the effects of each. So let’s do that: ```auto . reg bigfoot pop percap area Washington Oregon California Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 50 -------------+------------------------------ F( 6, 43) = 55.68 Model | 533279.453 6 88879.9089 Prob > F = 0.0000 Residual | 68641.1267 43 1596.30527 R-squared = 0.8860 -------------+------------------------------ Adj R-squared = 0.8701 Total | 601920.58 49 12284.0935 Root MSE = 39.954 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ bigfoot | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] -------------+---------------------------------------------------------------- pop | .0000114 1.24e-06 9.22 0.000 8.92e-06 .0000139 percap | -.0037421 .0011204 -3.34 0.002 -.0060016 -.0014825 area | 7.91e-06 .0000657 0.12 0.905 -.0001246 .0001405 Washington | 513.566 40.54832 12.67 0.000 431.7925 595.3395 Oregon | 179.8493 40.4818 4.44 0.000 98.20997 261.4886 California | 38.62057 54.10497 0.71 0.479 -70.49249 147.7336 _cons | 148.6066 40.74161 3.65 0.001 66.4433 230.7699 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ``` There’s a lot of gobbledygook above, but I want the reader to focus on the P\>|t| column: if it’s less than .05, that means the variable is statistically significant (at the 5% level). Population matters a lot. Washington State is a huge outlier and Oregon is pretty big as well. California, not so much - insignificant. But the more interesting variable in per capita income - states outside of the NW with higher income per person (after controlling for state population) tend to have fewer bigfoot sightings. The coefficient (size of the effect) is negative and the t-stat/P-value indicate statistical significance. Mr Foot is a man of the people! Now I can present a little mischievousness. I know that Red States tend to be poorer than blue states on average. So it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a (spurious) relationship between the Romney share of the vote and bigfoot sightings, after controlling for population. And sure enough, there is: ```auto . reg bigfoot pop romney area Washington Oregon California Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 50 -------------+------------------------------ F( 6, 43) = 49.87 Model | 526290.819 6 87715.1366 Prob > F = 0.0000 Residual | 75629.7606 43 1758.83164 R-squared = 0.8744 -------------+------------------------------ Adj R-squared = 0.8568 Total | 601920.58 49 12284.0935 Root MSE = 41.938 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ bigfoot | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] -------------+---------------------------------------------------------------- pop | .0000112 1.30e-06 8.63 0.000 8.56e-06 .0000138 romney | 158.3455 63.8499 2.48 0.017 29.5799 287.1111 area | -.0000256 .0000716 -0.36 0.722 -.00017 .0001188 Washington | 515.5367 42.76579 12.05 0.000 429.2913 601.7821 Oregon | 199.0281 42.92973 4.64 0.000 112.452 285.6041 California | 49.75546 56.87845 0.87 0.387 -64.95087 164.4618 _cons | -63.10261 33.59612 -1.88 0.067 -130.8556 4.650425 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ``` Note that I removed out per capita income and replaced it with Romney vote. What’s happening is that the red state effect is confounded by the poorer state effect. Or maybe Bigfoot loves Romney! To sort out this pressing issue, we need to include _all_ the relevant variables: otherwise we will have what’s known as _omitted variable bias_. Let’s correct the problem by including Romney _and_ per capita income: ```auto . reg bigfoot pop percap romney area Washington Oregon California Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 50 -------------+------------------------------ F( 7, 42) = 47.88 Model | 534890.426 7 76412.918 Prob > F = 0.0000 Residual | 67030.1538 42 1595.95604 R-squared = 0.8886 -------------+------------------------------ Adj R-squared = 0.8701 Total | 601920.58 49 12284.0935 Root MSE = 39.949 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ bigfoot | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] -------------+---------------------------------------------------------------- pop | .0000115 1.24e-06 9.27 0.000 9.02e-06 .000014 percap | -.0030513 .0013145 -2.32 0.025 -.005704 -.0003986 romney | 71.69758 71.36263 1.00 0.321 -72.31803 215.7132 area | -.0000114 .0000685 -0.17 0.869 -.0001496 .0001268 Washington | 517.6563 40.74777 12.70 0.000 435.4239 599.8886 Oregon | 187.5284 41.19269 4.55 0.000 104.3982 270.6586 California | 42.84906 54.26251 0.79 0.434 -66.65712 152.3552 _cons | 88.21014 72.61709 1.21 0.231 -58.33708 234.7574 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ``` Per person income and population remain statistically significant. Share of Romney vote drops to insignificance - though it’s still positive, possibly reflecting the bucolic nature of reddish states. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/145 "2014-06-21T12:44:38Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/146 "2014-06-22T11:16:22Z")
Looks like he’s real, [and from Mars](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php). ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/147 "2014-06-25T15:33:11Z")
So all these years Bigfoot has just been campaigning? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/148 "2014-06-25T15:49:47Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > So all these years Bigfoot has just been campaigning? Like Pat Paulson. ---
**Author:** ![common\_good](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@common\_good](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/common_good)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/149 "2014-06-28T18:04:51Z")
I miss The Smothers Brothers. They satirized political lunacy so well. Way ahead of their time. Jon Stewart and Colbert are their modern incarnation. Both wickedly funny. Anybody else notice how un-funny conservatives are ? Republicans have no one close to these guys. And don’t tell me Bill O’rielly’s sidekick, what’s his name, is even close. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/150 "2014-07-02T01:55:24Z")
Peer reviewed article tests Bigfoot hair samples and matches them to bears, wolves and cows. Also coyotes, raccoon, sheep, porcupine, horse, deer, and even human. Two hair samples from the Himalayas matched with ancient specie of polar bear. Yeah, the article was written by Syckes. Secondary source: > **[Scientists DNA tested "Bigfoot" hair](https://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5861270/dna-testing-of-bigfoot-hairs-shows-they-come-from-bears-wolves-and)** > > Alas, there's still no evidence that the Bigfoot is real. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/151 "2014-07-02T02:37:08Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Peer reviewed article tests Bigfoot hair samples and matches them to bears, wolves and cows. Also coyotes, raccoon, sheep, porcupine, horse, deer, and even human. Two hair samples from the Himalayas matched with ancient specie of polar bear. Yeah, the article was written by Syckes. “Species” is singular. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/152 "2017-10-22T13:38:07Z")
The Army has the remaining Bigfoots on a secret reservation so they can study their amazing gift of stealth. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/153 "2017-10-22T14:34:19Z")
I am [del] Spartacus[/del] Bigfoot! ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/154 "2017-10-22T17:34:41Z")
Too old for the original jokes to be continuedand the new jokes are not funny. Not a Great Debate. Closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680.md?page=7)