Tourism, or even just attention. Why do most people play pranks and practical jokes?

Look at roswell though, how much money have they made as a tourist destination.

I swear to god I seen something that looked like bigfoots baby in appalachia ohio as a kid. Looked like a monkey or a sloth, didnt look like a bear which hasnt been seen in that area in a 100 years. Climbed to the top of a tree and buried its face so me and my brothers couldnt see.

My siblings and I still talk about this, we have no idea what it was. By the time we ran back to get a parent, it was gone.

You can call bullshit, but I guess ohio is one of the top states for bigfoot sightings, I definitely think people are trying to make money, the area is dirt poor, appalachia anyway. But this article does explain it rather well...

https://www.citybeat.com/news/squatchin-ohio-bigfoot-investigators-are-more-determined-than-ever-to-prove-the-fabled-creature-is-real-14051034

According to the BFRO, there have been 313 Bigfoot incidents reported in Ohio as of press time, putting the state behind only Washington, California and Florida. Andres says that’s partially due to Ohio’s topography.

“Ohio is all segmented with woods and stuff, and they [Bigfoots] travel more with that than if you had a million acres [where] they would stay in one area and nobody would ever see them, like out West,” Andres says. “But in Ohio, if you’ve got woods here and then have to travel over to this wood, it’s moving more in those pockets, those habitats, so they’re more likely to be spotted.”

I also as a kid growing up, have seen large groups of wild dogs, were talking 40+, you wont hear anyone talking about them because very few people have seen them. They do not go anywhere near humans and the handful of times ive seen them, they all took off like bats out of hell.

https://wildlife-damage-management.extension.org/feral-dogs/

Feral dogs are usually secretive and wary of people. Thus, they are active during dawn, dusk, and at night much like other wild canids. They often travel in packs or groups and may have rendezvous sites like wolves. Travel routes to and from the gathering or den sites may be well defined. Food scraps and other evidence of concentrated activity may be observed at gathering sites.