Bigfoot enthusiasts have something to cheer about! The first ever map that shows the places in US where suspected Bigfoot sightings have occurred has been developed.
Reported sightings of Bigfoot, a legendary apelike creature, have abounded for decades but no hard evidence of the creature's existence has been found.
Joshua Stevens, a doctoral candidate at Pennsylvania State University, used data compiled by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organisation (BFRO), which tries to document "the presence of an animal, probably a primate, that exists today in very low population densities," according to the group's website.
Stevens converted the BFRO data and, using geographic-information software, plotted 3,313 data points showing where people have claimed to see Bigfoot also known as Sasquatch, 'LiveScience' reported.
"Right away, you can see that sightings are not evenly distributed," Stevens said.
"There are distinct regions where sightings are incredibly common, despite a very sparse population. On the other hand, in some of the most densely populated areas, Sasquatch sightings are exceedingly rare. The terrain and habitat likely play a major role in the distribution of reports," Stevens said.
The map, which uses reports from 1921 to 2012, shows a plethora of supposed sightings in the Pacific Northwest, the Ohio River Valley, central Florida, the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the Mississippi River Valley.
Stevens' analysis also includes a chronological timeline showing a rise in reported sightings in the late 1970s. Another spike in reported Bigfoot sightings occurred between 2000 and 2009.
