Mystery behind footage that first introduced world to legend of Bigfoot

Today marks the anniversary of when the most famous piece of alleged Bigfoot footage was captured on October 20, 1967.

Filmmakers Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin recorded the short clip at Bluff Creek in California, US.

In it, what is alleged to be a female Sasquatch is seen marching across a rocky clearing, arms swinging low, before turning to look down the lens of the camera without breaking stride.

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Frame 352 of the Patterson-Gimlin film remains the most iconic Bigfoot photo to this day.

Although several experts have analysed the footage and concluded that it must be a bloke in a costume, but others have been unable to come to the same conclusion.

Now 55 years on, it is yet to be officially debunked or ruled a hoax.

Speaking to CBC's As It Happens, Gimlin recalled the moment he first laid eyes on the creature.

He said: "I'll never ever forget that. It was a sunshiney day, a beautiful October 20 sunshiney day. It was just nice and warm. The moment I saw her I just said: 'Oh my god, they really do exist.' To see is to believe with me.

"I didn't have time to be scared. It was something surprising. I've been an outdoorsman all my life. Big bull elk have jumped up in front of me, and big buck deer, and bear, and cougar. There was no time. This was all happening dramatically fast."

Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, is confident that the filmmakers really did stumble across something extraordinary.

He told OPB: "At this point, I’m as confident as I can be short of standing on the sandbar with Roger and Bob, and witnessed it myself."

Meldrum uses the footage of Patty – the nickname given to the creature – in his anatomy classes and has students point out key features.

He continued: "They start at the head and they can see the trapezius, they can see the deltoid… the erector spine down the back, shoulder blades moving under the skin… the quads contract when they’re supposed to contract.

"None of which ever show up in a cheap, off-the-shelf costume."

There are of course those who dismiss the footage.

Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, dubbed the "father of cryptozoology" (the study of animals with disputed existence), objected to the way Patty's hair flows and the position of her buttocks.

Prominent primate expert John Napier, who was gone on record saying "I am convinced that Sasquatch exists", also reckons it's a hoax.

However, others point to the tracks left by Patty and subsequently cast as the most convincing piece of evidence from Patterson and Gimlin.

"One of [the footprints] showed a very distinctive pressure ridge. A push-off that comes about as a result of the very flexible mid-foot," Meldrum said.

Bigfoot researcher Cliff Barackman, best known as a co-host Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot, has also noted how Patty "shows a great flexibility in the foot" in the clip.

Over half a century on, the Patterson-Gimlin film is still heralded by Bigfoot believers as the only evidence they need.

And if Patty really is just one of Patterson or Gimlin's mates in a gorilla suit, it must go down as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time.

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