Animal Planet's FINDING BIGFOOT Returns 1/1

For centuries, eyewitness accounts and colorful stories have fueled rumor that large, furry, human-like animals have roamed the forests in North America and other continents. These legendary creatures have come to be known as bigfoot or sasquatch. The folklore around Bigfoot has many doubters and many true believers, and passionate groups like the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO) have formed to investigate stories, analyze evidence and strengthen their hypotheses of these elusive beings.

Over the course of 10 hour-long episodes, Animal Planet's FINDING BIGFOOT returns for a brand-new season on Sunday, January 1, 2012, at 10 PM (ET/PT) for further expeditions to investigate reports of the mysterious bigfoot. From small towns in the South to remote areas of the mountain West and dense forest of the Northeast and into Canada, four passionate, driven researchers and adventurers embark on one single-minded mission - to find this beast.

BFRO members Matt Moneymaker and James "Bobo" Fay, professional educator Cliff Barackman and skeptical biologist Ranae Holland engage in the ultimate quest in search of proof that Bigfoot really does exist - and that he or she is alive and abundant in North America. By examining photos and videos of the creature, speaking to local witnesses, using new technology and luring the mysterious beast with the team's squatch calls, the group uncovers startling proof of the legendary and highly intelligent enigma that has eluded capture for centuries and fascinated man for just as long.

During the series premiere, called "Baby Bigfoot," the quartet of investigators head to the Catskills in New York near Poughkeepsie to provide in-depth analysis of 15-year-old video footage from 1997 that indicates a juvenile or baby sasquatch could have been in the area at the time.

"Even though this area of the Hudson River Valley is fairly populated and not terribly far from the urban New York City, there is still a lot of forest here," explains Moneymaker, "and a lot of vegetation to support something like a sasquatch."

"It is definitely a primate," adds Bobo. "I think we're looking at a juvenile sasquatch, which is quite amazing because [seeing] a baby is incredibly rare."

Splitting up into teams of two and using infrared technology, the intrepid sleuths embark on a night mission that eerily is similar to "The Blair Witch Project," poking around abandoned cabins and remote orchards to capture a sighting of bigfoot. They also talk to many locals and conduct deep detailed re-creations of sightings, all culminating with an evening adventure where they employ a baboon (borrowed from the local zoo) to assist with their investigation. But what do they find?

Throughout the new season of FINDING BIGFOOT, the team scours North America to follow up on compelling evidence, new and old, including visiting such popular outdoor destinations as Moose Lake in Minnesota; the Catskills Mountains in New York; Salt Fork State Park in Ohio; and Dunes State Park and Morgan Monroe State Park in Indiana. They also head to rural regions of Rhode Island, New Mexico, Kentucky, Virginia and Alberta, Canada.

"What I like most about the series is we all have our differing opinions, and I love that we get to go in the field, recreate to scale and determine if what we saw was real," explains Holland.

Ranking among the network's top three series and delivering 1.2M P2+ viewers, the initial season of FINDING BIGFOOT this past summer found a sizeable audience among viewers, whether they believe in or question the existence of sasquatch.

FINDING BIGFOOT is a produced for Animal Planet by Ping Pong Productions. Brad Kuhlman and Casey Brumels are the executive producers for Ping Pong, and Keith Hoffman is the executive producer for Animal Planet. More information about FINDING BIGFOOT is available at www.animalplanet.com/findingbigfoot.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.

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