Jeff Meldrum fan fest

Fans of Jeff Meldrum might have noticed that there's a DVD accompanying his book, "Sasquatch: Legend meets Science". You might also have noticed that the DVD is pretty boring. I have the solution: watch this History Channel documentary instead, "Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide".

It's dominated by Meldrum, who is one of the few mainline scientists to take Bigfoot seriously. Most of the arguments will be familiar to readers of his book: Bigfoot reports go back to pre-Columbian times, there are sufficient food resources in the Pacific Northwest for a large primate to thrive, Bigfoot behaviour is compatible with ape behaviour, the Patterson-Gimlin film is authentic, and so on. The documentary is positive to other Bigfoot-type creatures, too: the Russian Almasti, the Chinese Wildman, the Himalayan Yeti, etc. Rare footage of the Bili ape (a previosuly unknown type of chimpanzee) is shown.

The last part of the program is the most speculative, claiming that Bigfoot might be a relict population of Homo heidelbergensis, the gigantic ancestor of the Neanderthals. This would explain why some Bigfoot reports describe the creature as human-like rather than ape-like. However, Meldrum doesn't like this angle, sticking to the ape theory. While sceptical arguments have been included, "Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide" is mostly a flesh-and-blood cryptozoology extravaganza. Perhaps too long for the hard line sceptic, but a real feast for the rest of us.

Four stars. One star off for the absurd shamanic stuff at the end.