Over at Earthfiles Linda Moulton Howe has an interesting interview with Idaho State "Bigfoot professor" Jeff Meldrum, who has had a new book out since September; Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. In it he discusses many of the reasons why he is involved in research of this kind, and even takes the infamous "skeleton" question head on:

WHY DO YOU THINK WE DON’T HAVE A BODY OR A SKELETON?

It still is perplexing that we haven’t, that someone hasn’t stumbled on something. But we’re making discoveries all the time. In paleontology, new species are found. If this is a large body omnivorous primate, it probably has no natural predators. It would be at the top of its food chain. If it’s a large ape, it probably has a very long life expectancy of 40 to 60 years perhaps. It reproduces rarely, if we can extrapolate from the great apes. Births are rare and infrequent and widely spaced. An adult female orangutan may give birth to only 4 individuals in her entire lifetime with anywhere from 4 to 8 years between births.

So, given a very rare population with long life expectancy, with infrequent reproduction and no natural predators – when death occurs, it’s a rare event. Two, it’s going to be a natural event. Therefore, animals that die natural deaths as they become old and decrepit and ill, they secret themselves off and once they pass away, insects and other predators eat the remains and the skeletons are carried off by scavengers, by porcupines and rodents.

People don’t realize that a porcupine can make in very short order gnaw a large bone to nothing. I’ve found elk bones which have been chewed by porcupines and there is just not much left even to identify which particular bone it is. They are just chewed down to almost nothing.

Anyway, the second factor then is the physical environment. That is where these Bigfoot animals are most reported are wet, coniferous forests. Particularly in the Pacific Northwest, these are soils that are largely volcanic-derived that are notoriously acidic. Acidic soils and conditions are not conducive to preserving bones. So, what scavengers haven’t eaten, the physical environment quickly deteriorates and decomposes. In a short time, there is not much left.

If you stop and think that every year, literally thousands of deer die of winter kill from predators and succumbing to the rigors of winter. Yet, when you go out for a hike in the springtime, you don’t find the floor of the forest littered with deer carcasses. The carcasses are very efficiently recycled.

Be sure to check the entire interview out right here.