Bigfoot is like a forest ninja, a Sasquatch field researcher said Thursday evening in a presentation in the WSU CUB Auditorium.

Cliff Barackman, an evidence analyst on Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” TV series, spoke to an audience of more than 100 students and local residents at the Student Entertainment Board’s “Do You Believe” speaker series.

SEB Director Jacob Farris said he was a fan of the TV series and was excited to have a Bigfoot-themed event at WSU. He said he believes the giant man-beast that allegedly stalks North American woods is very real.

Barackman presented evidence of the man-imal in the form of cultural accounts from Native American lore, frontier newspapers, foot castings, and sound and video recordings. Barackman explained that Bigfoots whistle, grunt and make strange gibbering noises, which he hypothesized as a rudimentary language. He also demonstrated a piercing Bigfoot call.

Other members of the audience related their own fleeting encounters with unidentified creatures in the forests.

Natasha McCrackin, a senior psychology major, said she saw something at a church camp retreat near Bremerton.

“I was at the back of a group hiking along a trail at night, and I had a weird sensation of being watched,” McCrackin said. “When I looked back, I saw something hairy with a huge hand duck behind a bush. I moved to the middle of the group after that.”

Barackman has been on “Finding Bigfoot” for three seasons, has written a book about the subject, and dedicated over twenty years of his life to squatching.

After reading about Bigfoot during college, including a book by the late WSU anthropology professor Grover Krantz, Barackman started devoting most of his outdoor excursions to looking for Bigfoot. He wrote songs about the animal, and he enjoys sharing his search for Bigfoot with others.

“I am a Bigfooter for life,” Barackman said. “They could be proven real today and I’d still be Bigfooting tomorrow.”