Chris Lau is Toronto’s only accredited Bigfoot researcher, intent on tracking down the hairy beast.
One decade ago, Christopher Lau was eating dinner when his father asked the 22-year-old to help him track down Sasquatch.
A month later, the Toronto native found himself camping in remote British Columbia when Lau began to hear rustling in the woods.
“We had started to brew some coffee, when I began to hear some monkey-like grunts,” he says. “Somewhere out there was something watching us closely.”
Pressing record on his camcorder, he captured three seconds worth of what he could only describe as a gorilla grunting.
“After that morning, I knew something was out there for sure.”
Now with several years of exploration behind him, Lau is one of Toronto’s only accredited researchers with the international Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. (The terms Sasquatch and Bigfoot are interchangeable.)
Armed with a bachelor of arts in anthropology from York University, Lau — now a Markham resident — continues his pursuit of the legendary creature throughout the GTA and across the entire country.
Lau’s most recent major expedition occurred in 2011, when he visited North Bay and other locales scattered along Lake Superior. These tours are called “exhibitions,” weeklong conferences where upwards of 30 researchers convene to followup with witnesses, map possible track directions and measure step lengths.
Searching for Bigfoot is called “squatching.” The practice is guided by “the Flats,” a BFRO database that logs visual and audio sightings that are publicly submitted to the agency.
An important portion of Lau’s work involves screening these reports from locations as close to the GTA as Wasaga Beach, Lindsay and Muskoka.
Assessing the validity of each report is vital, because a majority of sightings quickly turn out to be false.
“People easily misidentify Bigfoot with animals, like if a bear was to stand on its hind legs,” Lau says. “The mind can play tricks on you.
“Other times, we’ll receive reports from armchair researchers who is likely some hillbilly who wants a Bigfoot show to set up in his backyard and interview him.”
When visiting the location of a potential sighting, Bigfoot trackers use a variety of tools and methodology to determine a report’s legitimacy.
Trail cameras are attached to tree trunks and small, two-toned percussion instruments called wood blocks are played, in an effort to mimic what the researchers believe are Bigfoot warning signals.
“Sasquatch like to tree knock,” Lau says. “It is a non-verbal method of communication used to tell one another that an intruder may be near.
“But then again, it could just be a woodpecker.”
Despite the notable lack of modern day evidence, the 32-year-old points to the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film as proof the Sasquatch exists.
The film contains the infamous and widely circulated image of a tall, black and hairy subject that the filmmakers, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, claimed was not human.
“People consider it a hoax but it isn’t,” he says, acknowledging the grainy image is losing its relevance in an age of high-definition smartphone cameras. “So far, it is the only visual evidence of a Sasquatch.”
Still, he has questions that remain unanswered.
“You can never really know for certain,” Lau says. “It could be a mythical creature, sure.
“But for me, I’m set on Sasquatch being something . . . the last survivors of a great ape species, a true missing link.”