(Hoax) The dead bigfoot photo

Karl Shuker wrote:

The infamous 'dead bigfoot photo' (origin unknown)

On 21 November 2006, after having received it from a reader with the user name 'captiannemo', Craig Woolheater posted on Cryptomundo the very intriguing photograph opening this present ShukerNature blog article, and which has since become popularly referred to as the 'dead bigfoot photo', together with a request for any information available concerning it.

In view of its very striking, tantalising image, the photo attracted much interest, and was subsequently reposted twice by Loren Coleman on Cryptomundo (16 and 22 April 2009) with further requests for information. It has also been featured on many other websites. Yet although numerous opinions have been aired as to what it depicts (a shot bigfoot, bear, gorilla?) and whether or not it is authentic or photo-manipulated, no conclusive evidence as to its true nature has ever been obtained and presented - until now!

Earlier today, Facebook cryptozoological colleague Tony Nichol brought the following vintage picture postcard to my attention:

Vintage picture postcard depicting a hunter and shot Alaskan grizzly bear (purchased on ebay and now owned by Dr Karl Shuker – all rights reserved)

With an example of it available for purchase on ebay's USA site, it depicted a shot grizzly bear, photographed in Seward, Alaska, and dating from the time period 1904-1918 - and as could instantly be seen, this was unquestionably the original image from which the bigfoot version had been created by photo-manipulation. After almost a decade, and as revealed here in this ShukerNature world-exclusive, the mystery of the 'dead bigfoot photo' is finally solved - except of course for discovering the identity of whoever created it from the vintage bear image.

To ensure that the latter does not become another 'missing thunderbird photo', however, I have actually now purchased the example of it available on ebay, and should be receiving it in the post shortly. Incidentally, the ebay wording present on the image of it contained in its ebay auction and shown above is naturally not on the actual postcard photograph itself, so once I have the postcard I'll include it in a more detailed documentation of the 'dead bigfoot photo' that I am currently preparing.

Perhaps I should also begin scanning ebay for the missing thunderbird photo ?!

Meanwhile, my sincere thanks go to Tony Nichol for kindly bringing the bear postcard to my attention, and, in so doing, enabling me to bring the lengthy reign of yet another cryptozoological pretender to its richly-deserved end.

The original bear photograph alongside the derived, photo-manipulated 'dead bigfoot photo' (bear photo owned by Dr Karl Shuker – all rights reserved)

UPDATE: 15 April 2015

Yesterday (14 April 2015) on Cryptomundo, Craig Woolheater announced that following my above revelation of the bear photograph that had served as the source from which the infamous 'dead bigfoot photo' had been created by photo-manipulation (a revelation that I had simultaneously posted on Cryptomundo), he had contacted 'captiannemo', the Cryptomundo user who had sent him the 'dead bigfoot photo' back in 2006, and had asked him whether he had created the latter image. In reply, 'captiannemo' confessed that he had indeed created it, and that the copy of the above bear photograph that he had used for this purpose had appeared in an article on grizzly bear hunting published in an issue of Field and Stream from the early 20th Century.

So now, not only the source photograph from which the 'dead bigfoot photo' had been created but also a confession regarding its creation by its creator have been obtained and made public at last. Congratulations to Craig for extracting the confession - click here to read this historic account on Cryptomundo.