Quebec woman claims to have spotted Bigfoot while berry picking

Maggie Cruikshank went out recently to pick berries with her cousin near Akulivik, a community in northern Quebec.

And while they were hoping to find big berries what they claim to have seen was definitely something much bigger.

Cruikshank was hoping to start heading home when she noticed her cousin start to get scared. She looked where her cousin was pointing and saw a large animal.

"Taller and larger than a man...It walks like us but not standing straight like us, it can jump and crawl," Cruikshank told the Nunatsiaq News.

She took some photos of the footprints and measured them out to show the size. She posted them to Facebook and has since received a lot of negative comments. At the same time she told the paper people are telling her stories of their encounters from decades ago that they never reported.

In the same area, a group of walrus hunters saw Bigfoot when returning with their catch, someone else saw it by the airport and some have reported odd collections of caribou bones outside town.

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To prove to people she did see the real thing, Cruikshank plans to release a video the pair shot. The problem is she doesn't want to scare the children with the footage.

This has been quite the past couple years for seeing elusive creatures. In August, a Scottish sailor claimed to have the best proof yet of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. And closer to home, a B.C. man shot a video last November, which he believes proves the existence of Ogopogo.

Yeti sightings are also up threefold in the past 20 years in an area of Siberia. One Russian scientist estimates there are several dozen living in one area and invited Canadian scientists on a hunt for the animals.

Here is why he believes they exist.

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"When homo sapiens started populating the world, it viciously exterminated its closest relative in the hominid family, homo neanderthalensis," says Dr. Igor Burstev, who heads the Moscow-based International Centre of Hominology, to The Voice of Russia.

"Some of the Neanderthals, however, may have survived to this day in some mountainous wooded habitats that are more or less off limits to their archfoes. No clothing on them, no tools in hands and no fire in the household. Only round-the-clock watchfulness for homo sapiens around."

But others believe people see what they want to see.

"There's a predisposition that once a creature has become part of our folklore, and I would argue that Bigfoot has become a myth in our culture, then a bear, particularly a bear standing upright, could look very much like Bigfoot," said Joe Nickell, an author who writes about why people claim to see these creatures, to the National Post. "People see Bigfoot because of the power of suggestion."

As for Cruikshank, she believes.

"I'm not telling you lies," she said to the Nunatsiaq News. "This is scary, it has affected my emotions."

(Photos by Maggie Cruikshank on Facebook)

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