It started in September with a hunter named Rick Jacobs. He planted a stationary tree camera in Allegheny National Forest, about 115 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, to try to scout some bucks. Instead, on Sept. 16, the camera caught images of, well, something.

“We couldn't figure out what they were,” Jacobs said. “I've been hunting for years and I've never seen anything like this.”

The pictures are copyrighted, so you'll have to go to this page on the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization's Web site to check them out.

Yes, that's right. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. It's an actual organization. According to its home page, it was "Founded in 1995 - The scientific research organization exploring the bigfoot / sasquatch mystery."

So Jacobs connected with the BFRO and now, with photos in hand, they need your help. They're looking for some skinny, mangy bears. And they want to take pictures of them from unflattering angles.

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

According to BFRO, two of Jacobs' pictures show what could be a "juvenile sasquatch." (Again, feel free to go check them out. You're reading this entry, so you weren't going to get anything done right this moment, anyway. Be warned, though. The page can be slow to load. Such is the price of popularity.)

But, at BFRO, it's all about the scientific method, so they need your help. Here's an actual section from the Jacobs photo analysis:

The debate about these images revolves around whether the figure is a skinny, mangy bear or a primate. The experts we have spoken with about these images say the anwer to the skinny-mangy-bear vs. primate question may be found in the third image --"Jacobs Image 3".

We are seeking comparative images of a skinny, mangy bear, bent over and smelling the ground, as you see in this image. The people we have spoken with so far who have spent a great deal of time with both primates and bears (mainly zoo people) say this figure looks much more like a primate smelling the ground than like a skinny bear smelling the ground.

If the figure is a mangy bear bent over, then it should be fairly easy to replicate with photographs of such. So we are seeking images of a skinny, mangy bear in this same posture.

BFRO members are directed to ask around to find one or more skinny mangy bears in captivity, such those that are occasionally brought into wildlife rescue centers. We will direct the caregivers of those skinny mangy bear(s) to coax their bear into smelling the ground so it can be photographed at this same unflattering angle. We also ask BFRO members to go to their local zoo in order to photograph various ape species when they bend over to smell the ground. Chimps (and other apes) in public zoos are easy to find and photograph. The hunt is on for skinny mangy bears in captivity. If you know of a mangy bear in captivity somewhere please send an email to...

So, to summarize, they want skinny, mangy bears. So they can take compromising photos of them. In the name of science.

"These recent images from Pennsylvania are very significant to bigfoot research," BFRO says.

Bigfoot. Right here in our state woods! Maybe that's what's chasing all the deer out of the northern woods of Pennsylvania. And to think we wanted to blame the Pennsylvania Game Commission all this time.

Somebody call Steve Austin!