Get this job and you'll have big shoes to fill: Bigfoot researcher

Add Bigfoot research to the recession-proof industries. A website called All over Albany has alerted the Internet to a job opening on Craigslist that — for a primate-lover with an open mind and a (preferably) four-wheel-drive vehicle — could be the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Craigslist post, which seeks a research assistant, explains:

"Not for profit organization, located in Whitehall, NY is a high-energy, team-oriented research entity that is involved in the tracking, documenting, and study of cryptozoological creatures, with a deep interest in the study and search of bipedal primitive apes. We seek an experienced researcher with a deep understanding of cryptozoology, primatology, with a good background with scientific research and interest in great apes."

Some of the research assistant's responsibilities will be to "investigate, document and interview individuals with reported Bigfoot sitings (sic)," and an appropriate candidate must be prepared for "occasional travel to remote areas of Adirondacks including spending several nights in the wilderness, checking motion cameras, collecting hair and dung samples for laboratory analysis amongst other related activities."

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Though there is no objective scientific evidence supporting the idea that Bigfoot is real, more than a quarter of Americans believe that the woodland ape either definitely or probably exists. That proportion may be higher around White Hall, N.Y., where reports of potential Bigfoot-related activity are frequent, including one from a wildlife surveyor who heard a distinct knocking in the woods in November 2004, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

Compensation for the research assistant job, which is said to be grant funded, will be based on experience. And it won't be the first time real money has gone toward Sasquatch research.

A local Russian government has funded expeditions to spot that country's brand of snowy wildman, the Yeti.

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