Are legends like big foot real?

Answer 1

One cannot really speak for all legends with one answer like this. Some legends, like the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, are undoubtedly not true, while others may be. The duck-billed platypus, for example, was widely believed to be mythical due to its bizarre physical description -- until one was found alive.

As for Bigfoot, there is a very large contingency of amateur "cryptozoologists" who believe that there is some evidence for the existence of certain legendary creatures, and that the scientific community reflexively discredits them without cause -- and a very large contingency of scientists and average citizens who think the cryptozoologists are crazy.

The primary evidence cited by cryptozoologists for the existence of Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) usually consists of amateur video footage that allegedly shows a large primate walking across the screen, and photographs or casts of very large, ape-like footprints. Many of these have ended up being hoaxes, but cryptozoologists will argue that, since some have not, the burden of proof is on the skeptics to demonstrate why Bigfoot cannot exist.

Skeptics, on the other hand, would argue that the burden rather lies on the cryptozoologists to produce concrete evidence for the existence of a creature which, scientifically, has no reason to exist. The general view is that (a) all evidence supporting Bigfoot's existence is either falsified or misinterpreted, (b) the breeding population of an animal that size would have to be so large that the probability that a live specimen or a corpse had never been identified is astronomically low, and (c) the scientific community has better and more important things to worry about than the existence of an irrational North American ape.

So, depending on who you ask, the jury might still be out.