Monsters are Real

[From “The Facts”. 2006.]

With a travel agent for a mom, Ken Gerrard came to love out-of-the-way places and strange creatures early in life.

Now a cryptozoologist, meaning a scientist who looks for animals whose existence is still unproven, Gerrard travels in search of the creatures that legends are made of.

When I was growing up in the late 1970s, there was a TV show called In Search Of, that talked about Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, Gerrard said. I remember being really fascinated.

His mother, Rose Marie, was a travel agent in Lake Jackson, so the family went on a lot of trips other kids Gerrard’s age wouldn’t have been able to. When he was 9 or 10, he and his mother and sister spent some time at a camp in the Peruvian Amazon, with the Yagua tribe.

We had a Polaroid camera, he remembers. They (the Indians) had never really seen a photograph develop right before their eyes. Gerrard himself had all kinds of fun chasing snakes and spiders.

In 1982, at age 15, Gerrard took a Super-8 movie camera to the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland to try and find the Loch Ness Monster for himself.

Since getting serious about cryptozoology a few years ago, he’s gone Bigfoot hunting in several states, as well as traveling to Belize to look for their version of Bigfoot. In all, he’s traveled to more than 25 countries on six continents and has visited 44 states. He now lives in San Antonio.

Gerrard hasn’t seen any of the creatures he pursues for himself, but he had a close encounter three years ago at Little Cottonwood Lake near the Texas/Oklahoma border on a Bigfoot expedition.

We were investigating reports of a Bigfoot that had been chasing off campers, he said. As the sun was going down, we all heard this nerve-wracking sound, like a large primate animal laughing or grunting or panting all at the same time. Another investigator on the expedition who was very familiar with the area confirmed the sound wasn’t made by any animal he recognized. Gerrard had a video camera running at the time. Its pretty dark, but you can hear the sound, he said. Of course, we tried to go into that thicket, but it was pretty impenetrable. The next morning when we got in, we found some tracks on the beach. That experience gave Gerrard the greatest confirmation I’ve had of Bigfoot’s existence.

He also found unusual tracks in Belize. I found two human-like, barefoot tracks in a very remote area in the mountains, Gerrard said. Because of the snakes and scorpions in the area, people don’t go barefoot. They wear boots. The prints were small, and Gerrard estimated the animal that made them would be about three feet tall.

Its nothing conclusive, but its gotten a lot of interest, he said.

Gerrard investigates reports of unknown animals closer to home as well. I felt a responsibility, since I live in Texas, to research in Texas, he explained. He just finished writing about South Texas legendary Big Bird.

Its very famous in the Rio Grande Valley, he said.

He’s also looked for the Lake Worth Monster. It’s very similar to Bigfoot, but people call it the goat man, which is kind of an urban legend in North America, Gerrard said. In July 1969 there were several sightings at the lake northwest of Fort Worth. There were 30 or 40 witnesses one night that year, Gerrard said, including police officers. He said the animal was described as large, hairy, human-like but bestial also.

We didn’t find too much, but we found a strange formation of branches, Gerrard said. Most people would not think too much about it. But in Bigfoot research, it could be something.

He’s even come across a single report of a Bigfoot sighting in Lake Jackson, in the 1970s. Growing up in Lake Jackson, around Oyster Creek, I can see how they could live in that swampy area, he said. But don’t rush out expecting to find one for yourself.

Bigfoot is nomadic, Gerrard explains. If it was there in 1977, that doesn’t mean its still there. It was probably passing through at the time.

His work has gotten him some attention from TV producers. He recently appeared on a show for Canada’s travel channel. There’s no air date for that show in the United States yet, but he is slated to appear on a show for The History Channel called Legend Meets Science in early 2007.

Doing TV work was fun, Gerrard said, but it made it hard to get much research done.

The director from Canada was like; you think you could go ahead and find some tracks. That would be great, Gerrard said.

Gerrard gets in touch with people who’ve had encounters with unknown animals through people who know he’s a cryptozoologist.

The best part of my job is when an eyewitness tells me their experience, he said. In a way, I think it’s therapeutic to them, to be taken seriously. There’s an extreme ridicule factor in these situations, so a lot of people have never told about their experience.

Another part of the job he enjoys is opening people’s minds to the possibility that animals like Bigfoot exist. The number of Bigfoot sightings is now in the thousands, Gerrard said.

People are still reporting it all over the country and the world. There are so many similarities among the reports. If you build up enough eyewitness testimony, you have to think there’s something there.

Gerrard is an active field investigator with the American Primate Conservation Alliance, the Centre for Fortean Zoology, based in England, and the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization, which investigates reports of the animal from Florida to Texas.

He enjoys the freedom to look for things conventional scientists shy away from.

The difference between cryptozoology and regular zoology is we have the freedom to look into more legendary animals, Gerrard said. It takes more eccentric scientists like me. Regular zoologists tend to stay away from that kind of research. It has repercussions for their jobs.

Still, the point of field research is to find proof of an animal’s existence.

I would love to find the naturally produced remains of some type of animal that’s unknown to modern science, he said.

Gerrard says there’s too much work to do to spend time worrying about what critics say.

For people who are skeptical, that’s fine, I can respect that, he said. But its generally skepticism because of a lack of knowledge.

I think anyone who read all the books that are out there on the subject would have a hard time not believing.

WCSRO, 2006.