Schaller was the first person to get photos of snow leopards in the wild, and he was among the first to suggest that tigers in the wild are more social than was ever suspected.

He was awarded the Indianapolis Prize for 2008 in recognition of his lifelong dedication to conservation.

His open-mindedness about the possible existence of animals known only to folklore is one of the reasons for his discoveries. he’s absolutely right that an animal can’t be proven to exist without hard evidence.

If Bigfoot are out there, sooner or later irrefutable evidence will turn up.

Remember now this was in the 80s when I was in high school so alot of new species have been found since that time.

I wouldn’t allow it to cast too much of a smokescreen on what Schaller (who is quite clearly not a cryptozoologist) says about the sasquatch, though.

This (and I believe this really is something he said) is central: his opinion that scientists don’t bother with researching the subject before they “write it off as a hoax or myth. I don’t think that’s fair.”

And this does indeed come from the 2003 Denver Post article, which I’ve seen directly: “There have been so many sightings over the years … Even if you throw out 95 percent of them, there ought to be some explanation for the rest … I think a hard-eyed look is absolutely essential”.

Crypto or not, he feels the same way I do about this animal, and the way I think anyone should who has looked at – and evaluated objectively – as much evidence as either Schaller or I have.