Source : Perth Now news
Washington has been named the best place for potential Bigfoot sightings.
A new study has looked into reports of the fabled beast across North America and revealed the top 10 places where Squatchers are most likely to encounter the mythical beast with the forest-filled US state of Washington coming out on top.
The research by Canada Sports Betting looked at all 50 US states as well as 13 areas of Canada and focused on reported Bigfoot sightings as well as forest cover, state population and climate-related factors to determine where the creature is most likely to be living.
Washington came out on top after scoring a 4.61 per cent probability of sighting Bigfoot with 9.17 reported sightings per 100,000 people and West Virginia ranked second giving Squatchers a 3.79 per cent chance of having an encounter.
Oregon was third with 3.38 per cent following by Idaho in fourth with 2.78 per cent and Arkansas was fifth with 2.48 per cent.
The top 10 is rounded out by Montana , Maine, Yukon, British Columbia and Alabama.
The study also looked at metropolitan area where Bigfoot could potentially be seen and named the city of Grants Pass in Oregon as they most likely place for Bigfoot to be spotted.
Flagstaff, Arizona came in second place ahead of Glens Falls New York in third. Other cites named in the top 10 include Redding in California, Walla Walla in Washington and Huntington, West Virginia.
The news comes after another study suggested Bigfoot could be lurking on the edge of towns and cities instead of staying hidden in the wilderness.
Research by retired police officer and Bigfoot expert Bruce Champagne suggests creatures known as Sasquatch could getting closer to humans and may be starting to make incursions into more populated areas rather than remaining under cover in America’s rural areas and vast forests.
The study – titled The Urban Relict Hominoid: An Analysis of Incursions into Populated Areas – analysed 5,834 reports across 14 US states focusing on 25 accounts which Champagne claims offer potential proof that Bigfoot is coming closer than ever to American suburbs.
The study suggested the beasts could be creeping closer to populated areas because of changes to their habitat or food sources, reporting: “Comparisons with known primates and large mammals suggest several nonexclusive explanations for these reports, including food acquisition, dispersal, exploratory behavior, and responses to anthropogenic landscape change.
“Because the dataset is based mostly on archival witness reports rather than independently verified biological records, the findings should be interpreted cautiously.
“Even so, the patterning observed here suggests that urban incursions, while uncommon, are behaviorally structured events that merit further comparative and fieldbased investigation.”
The study added the most likely time for a Bigfoot to be lurking around a town or city is during winter and is more common at night with the patterns suggesting the creatures are capable of highly-evolved behaviour.
It claimed: “Movement through complex urban environments, often at night, across multiple kilometers, and with limited reported detection, may be consistent with the use of spatial memory, route familiarity, and sensitivity to human presence.”
