A scientist who has been studying the mysterious creature known as Bigfoot for years is turning heads with his newest endeavor of looking for Bigfoot with a blimp.
Jeffrey Meldrum, an anatomy and anthropology professor at Idaho State University, recently received final approval to conduct an aerial search for Bigfoot, whose very existence has been questioned by scientists as being a figment of the public's imagination.
Currently, Meldrum is trying to privately raise $300,000 to build a remote controlled blimp that will be used to look for signs of the mysterious creature.
Meldrum is the author of "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," and explained that his efforts for this specific undertaking are part of a larger search for a creature that has been part of American folklore for generations, but has been largely denied by those within professional and scientific circles.
Meldrum is convinced that the creature known as Bigfoot actually descended from a species of ape that migrated from Asia over the Bering land bridge into North America, but other scientists maintain that no concrete evidence exists to prove this theory; Meldrum is hoping to change that.
"The challenge with any animal that is rare, solitary, nocturnal and far-ranging in habitat is to find them and observe them in the wild; this technology provides for that," Meldrum told Reuters.
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The aerial reconnaissance vehicle will be equipped with thermal imaging devices and other high resolution cameras that will be able to identify anything within its field of vision.
Most scholars believe that Bigfoot is not a real creature and state that the myth of the creature has been prolonged due to hoaxes and misidentification of real animals. Scientists maintain that proving a new species or creature exists requires not only sufficient evidence, but also evidence supporting such claims needs to be based in scientific principles, not on hearsay and eye-witness accounts.
One of the main reasons skeptics give to prove Bigfoot doesn't exists is that there are no fossils or other physical evidence that has ever been discovered to suggest otherwise.
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