Cryptozoology

The Southern Illinoisan:

"'I think it's pretty credible. I've talked to police officers in Alabama who found prints that matched those found by conservationists in Florida and game wardens in Illinois,' he said of a type of footprint that indicates a large side-attached big toe. 'Most people who put fake Bigfoot prints make it look like a giant human foot. All these people finding the same large footprint tells me there's something going on there that's beyond fakery.'

For those skeptical of cryptozoology, Coleman points to the many animal discoveries once rumored to be myth. Among these are mountain gorillas, the megamouth shark, the coelacanth (a six-foot-long, walking fish), and most recently, the ivory-billed woodpecker.

'In Brazil, they've found a new monkey every year during the last decade,' Coleman said. Once a discovery is made, traditional science takes over and cryptozoology moves on to the next mystery. Coleman believes about 80 percent of the reports he investigates are fraudulent or the result of human error or imagination."