Editing Patterson–Gimlin film (section)

====John Napier====
Prominent primate expert [[John R. Napier|John Napier]] (one-time director of the [[Smithsonian]]'s Primate Biology Program) was one of the few mainstream scientists not only to critique the Patterson–Gimlin film but also to study then-available Bigfoot evidence in a generally sympathetic manner, in his 1973 book, ''Bigfoot: The Sasquatch and Yeti in Myth and Reality''.

Napier conceded the likelihood of Bigfoot as a real creature, stating, "I am convinced that Sasquatch exists."<ref>Napier, 205 – 2nd printing</ref> But he argued against the film being genuine: "There is little doubt that the scientific evidence taken collectively points to a hoax of some kind. The creature shown in the film does not stand up well to functional analysis."<ref name="Napier, 95">Napier, 95</ref> Napier gives several reasons for his and others' [[Scientific skepticism|skepticism]]<ref>Napier, 90–94</ref> that are commonly raised, but apparently his main reasons are original with him. First, the length of "the footprints are totally at variance with its calculated height".<ref>Napier, 94</ref> Second, the footprints are of the "hourglass" type, which he is suspicious of.<ref>Napier, 126</ref> (In response, Barbara Wasson criticized Napier's logic at length.)<ref>Wasson, 72–76, 78–79</ref>

He adds, "I could not see the zipper; and I still can't. There I think we must leave the matter. Perhaps it was a man dressed up in a monkey-skin; if so it was a brilliantly executed hoax and the unknown perpetrator will take his place with the great hoaxers of the world. Perhaps it was the first film of a new type of hominid, quite unknown to science, in which case Roger Patterson deserves to rank with [[Eugène Dubois|Dubois]], the discoverer of ''[[Java Man|Pithecanthropus erectus]]'', or [[Raymond Dart]] of Johannesburg, the man who introduced the world to its immediate human ancestor, ''[[Australopithecus africanus]]''."<ref name="Napier, 95"/>

The skeptical views of Grieve and Napier are summarized favorably by Kenneth Wylie (and those of Bayanov and Donskoy negatively) in Appendix A of his 1980 book, ''Bigfoot: A Personal Inquiry into a Phenomenon''.<ref>Wylie, ''Bigfoot: A Personal Inquiry into a Phenomenon'', 237–42.</ref>