Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center

Many newspapers printed stories of "bear encounters" that today have been thrown out as exaggerated or hoaxed just
simply because it is completely at odds with bear behavior. But maybe the stories are neither. Case in point, I will provide
an example.

CITIZENS OF OAK GROVE, ARKANSAS, were undoubtedly shocked when
they read their local paper in the first week of January 1878—but not as
shocked as John Ferguson had been. Ferguson’s “little daughter,” probably
playing in the recent snow, had been snatched up by what locals described
as a “huge bear.” The black bear “carried her off and, as strange
as it may seem “not a single member of
the family went to her relief.” The next day, following a sorrowful night
for the Ferguson family, “neighbors took [the bear’s] trail in the snow
and followed him to his den and found the little girl unhurt, and she
seemed well satisfied with her new home
Arkansas Daily Gazette (Little Rock), January 11, 1878, p. 3

While its easy to believe stories like this are made up due to it not being consistent with bear behavior, it is
as it turns out consistent with primate behavior. Mother apes and monkeys that have lost an infant will often
try to steal other primate infants, even those of other species. This is very well documented. Sadly it often doesn't
end well.

others describe bears moving like a human
If you replace the word bear with bigfoot then they seem to make a lot more sense. The behavior in all three cases has
been reported in bigfoot encounters, but not by bears. Perhaps the stories were not exaggerations.