The She-Squatchers Prove Women Can Hunt For Bigfoot, Too

The Midwestern group believes females have a higher chance of finding the legendary cryptid.

By Alanna Weissman   

Hunting for Bigfoot is a predominantly male sport. These women are trying to change that. (Photo: Niilo Isotalo)

For most of her life, Jen Kruse hadn't given Bigfoot much thought.

It wasn’t until 2015 when she interviewed cryptozoologist Loren Coleman on-air at a paranormal convention that she began giving the fabled beast serious consideration. Coleman speculated that women would have more success finding Bigfoot than men, and Kruse, tickled by this notion, volunteered on the spot to join in the search.

The self-described psychic medium, animal communicator, and holistic healer grew up in Minnesota and claims she’s used her abilities to help locate missing people and animals.  Trying to find the infamous cryptid seemed like a logical next step. From there, She-Squatchers was born.

She-Squatchers is the first all-female Bigfoot research team in the Midwest — and possibly the rest of the country, too. In addition to team leader Kruse, 45, it currently has four other members — Marlo Jane, 37, Nikki Jourdain, 37, Jena Grover, 44, and newest addition Tammy Treichel, 44 — each of whom were drawn to the group for different reasons.

Jane’s husband is a big fan of Bigfoot culture, but the artist and stay-at-home mom never gave Sasquatches much thought until joining the group. Homemaker Grover joined the group “mostly for camaraderie and exercise,” and readily admits that she is skeptical of the cryptid’s existence. In fact, all of the women were skeptics at first — and Grover still is — but the others changed their minds after the group’s first outing in August 2016, a daylong camping trip in a wooded area near a boat launch in Minnesota.

Big footprints like these have been spotted by the She-Squatchers on their searches. (SheSquatchers)

“We didn’t come prepared because we didn’t really expect to find anything that first time,” Kruse told OK Whatever, explaining why they hadn’t thought to bring tools, such as casting material and a tape measure.

But they did find something. While hiking, they discovered a series of huge footprints in the gravel. They placed a dollar bill next to one of them for scale and photographed it. Kruse, who is relatively tall at 5-foot-9-inches, says the footprints were so far apart she couldn’t imagine what had made them. Even if she had been running or leaping, she couldn’t have replicated their wide-apart spacing.

“I was sitting down going, ‘I can’t believe what I’m looking at here,’ ” Kruse said.

Since then, they’ve done more searches throughout the Midwest, and though they have yet to actually spot the legendary creature, they have found numerous other footprints, structures made of sticks, and uprooted trees that they believe are associated with Bigfoot.

Over time, the She-Squatchers have discovered some of the challenges that come with searching for Bigfoot as a female. Other hunters have expressed concern for the safety of a small group of women alone in the forest at night, and some of the She-Squatchers have learned firsthand that not all bras are suitable for trekking through the forest.

Still, the women feel they have unique qualities that make them particularly attuned to finding Bigfoot. Each of the women self-identifies as “sensitive” and “intuitive,” and they believe in using positive energy to locate the elusive creature. Instead of relying on dogs or weapons on their searches — like most hunters do — they partake in unconventional techniques, like meditation and automatic writing.

“We project [that] ... we’re your friends and we love you. We have really good experiences that way,” Kruse said. “If we were carrying weapons, that doesn’t really go along with that.”

The team found this stick structure — believed to have been made by a Sasquatch — in the woods earlier this year. (She-Squatchers)

There are also theories indicating that women have a higher chance of finding Bigfoot than men. According to scientific research, ape species find female pheromones less threatening than male pheromones, potentially making it more likely that a Sasquatch will reveal itself to a woman over a man.

But if that ever happens, don’t expect the She-Squatchers to lead you to Bigfoot. Though they share photos and videos of their findings on their blog, they intend to protect the cryptid from other people as part of their message of peace.

“If we find Bigfoot,” Kruse said, “and you were to ask me, ‘Where does Bigfoot live?’ I wouldn’t tell you.”

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