YEAR: 1995

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 18

PROVINCE: Alberta

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: About 8 km east of Highway 22 on 532; one mile north of 532, about 1/3 of a mile past the end of Gardner's land on the Spruce Grazing Co-op

NEAREST TOWN: Longview

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 532

OBSERVED: I had spotted two mule deer does from across the valley. They were making there way across the side of the west hill thru the trees. I told my dad that I was going up after them and he stayed and waited for our other hunting buddy and watched me as I went up thru the trees. It took me about 15 minutes to get up to the deer. I came from the south end towards them and they worked there way north across the hill. I got within about 200 yds down wind from the deer thru the trees. They started to get spooked and I tried a shot before they went out of range. I missed and he deer bolted through a gully and around the trees I ran after trying to get another shot. I never saw the deer again, and came out above the feild which was bout 200 yds x 800 yds. I sat down on a log and scoped the valley and surrounding area with my binoculars (10 x 50). I saw a bunch of trees at the end of the feild shaking and was looking thru my binoculars when something came out I thought it was a man dressed up and trying to scare away the animals as it ran down the hill with its arms swaying back and forth over its head. Thinking this I went back down to where my dad and buddy were waiting. I told them about what I saw and we all agreed as to what happened. The next Saturday we went back to try our luck my incident bothered me all week so I made a point of going up to see the area. I have been hunting in the same area for about 10 years and what I saw just didn't add up in my head. The trees that were shaking are aspens about 6-9 inches in diameter and about 25 ft tall. The field that it ran down in about 10 seconds was so steep and snow covered (about 1.5 -2 ft deep) that it took me about 5 minutes to go down the 200 yds.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me hunting.

OTHER STORIES: No.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 2 pm in the afternoon sunny, cold, ground was snow covered visibility was excellent

ENVIRONMENT: On the side of the west hill 3/4 the way up the hill. It's a pine spruce aspen forest with large open fields in splotches.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kevin Withers:

At the time of the sighting, the witness was a thirty-seven year old employee of the City of Calgary.

The three hunters parked about two miles from where the sighting took place. The witness and his father went one direction, and their buddy went another. The plan was for them to meet later at an agreed upon time and location.

The witness was carrying binoculars and a 30-06 rifle with a variable power scope (2.5X - 10X). His attention was caught by a group of about seven or eight poplar trees shaking, at about 400 yards away. Thinking that a bull elk or bull moose was about to emerge from the trees, he lowered his binoculars and raised his rifle to try to get a shot. He then watched, for about ten seconds at ten power magnification, as a black, humanoid figure came out of the trees and ran upright on two legs down the hill, waving its arms over its head in the manner of a person flagging down a car. Thinking it to be a human, he put down his rifle, picked up his binoculars, and viewed the figure for another five seconds as it ran down the hill through the snow, waving its arms overhead as if to scare something off, or to draw attention to itself. The witness described the figure as moving very quickly, running "at the speed of a deer or elk."

Because of the distance to the figure, the rapid movement of it, and the short duration of the sighting, the witness did not see much detail. No facial features were seen, possible hair covering was not noticed, and a height estimate for the figure was difficult to make, although the witness stated that "it had to be over six feet tall." During the sighting, no sounds or odors were noticed coming from the figure.

At the time of the sighting, the witness assumed that it was a man dressed in black, trying to scare the deer away - possibly an environmentalist or an anti-hunting activist. Although neither the witness' father nor the hunting buddy saw the figure, after discussing the incident they all came to the conclusion that it must have been someone trying to disrupt the hunt.

This conclusion did not set well with the witness, and a week later he revisited the site and discovered that it would have been impossible for a man to have shaken so many trees at one time, and to have run with such speed through the deep snow.

I was curious as to how the witness remembered the exact date of his sighting. He said that Saturday is the day he normally hunts on, and he hunts only in November during the few week long hunting season in that area, so he was able to determine the date by looking back at a calendar for that year.

The witness erred in his description of the location - 532 is west of Highway 22, which he acknowledged when I spoke to him.

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