Monsterquest Bigfoot

MonsterQuest (sometimes written as Monsterquest or Monster Quest) is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the program deals with the search for various monsters of interest to the cryptozoology subculture and paranormal entities reportedly witnessed around the world. A spin-off show, MysteryQuest, which focuses on unsolved mysteries, premiered on September 16, 2009.

In July 2006, Whitewolf Entertainment announced plans to create a television series on cryptozoology that would feature the cryptozoologist and Bigfoot researcher Matt Moneymaker. The series, to be called MonsterQuest, would investigate reported sightings of various mysterious animals across America and around the world. "We built an incredible team of researchers in every branch of cryptozoology—geologists, palaeontologists and zoologists." said Program Director. We worked with them to identify the most credible evidence that their field had produced and then searched for them.

According to Tim Suddard, vice president of development and production at Discovery Channel and executive producer of MonsterQuest, "Cryptozoology is the study of creatures whose existence has not yet been proven scientifically…but there are credible witnesses who say they have seen them. Our goal is to tell those stories."  The show was considered a breakout hit for the History channel and achieved a 3.0 average rating for its premiere series.

Like…giant rats in Ecuador, a turtle with a 30-foot shell in Indonesia, or a mysterious fish that drifts through the ice fields of Antarctica. As history proves, people believe in things they can't explain. And there is always an element of truth behind them. That's what we're trying to prove here. We're not just looking for famous monsters or mythical creatures we already know about, but for those that have yet to attract the interest of science. And while monster hunters like cryptozoologists are good at finding some of these animals, none has yet had the ability to definitively prove their existence or even produce sufficient evidence. The show is based on real people, real animals, and real sightings. No one is going to be able to say we're trying to create monsters here. As a cryptozoologist, I will go where the evidence takes me. I'll base my search around whatever story came across my desk first, but I won't discount anything until there's tangible proof." said Moneymaker.

In mid-October 2007, it was announced that the first season would premiere on the History channel sometime later that year. MonsterQuest has been very successful in that the show has brought astounding results. It began audience participation, where viewers submitted their own stories and evidence of cryptozoological sightings. The show also brought greater awareness to the public that there are creatures other than those that exist on earth. It covered subjects like the Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine, the Yowie in Australia, and Bigfoot.

In February 2008, MonsterQuest filmed an episode at Fort Hood, Texas, investigating sightings of werewolf-like creatures allegedly sighted by soldiers. In a series of interviews conducted for the show by film journalist Scott Corrales, several soldiers claimed to have seen werewolf-like creatures known as "black dogs." A retired soldier on active duty during the Persian Gulf War claimed to have been thrown down by a "black dog" that was trying to enter a tent occupied by his comrades while others described them as "evil" or "demonic" and said they had glowing red eyes.

The program's Web site contains a database of sightings and case studies that have been covered on the program, including photographs, maps and detailed information about each case. Although some of these encounters have been researched in greater detail by investigators such as the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), this is believed to be an unprecedented amount of data from a mainstream media source and gives credit to many accounts which would otherwise be disregarded by science.