Big foot saves a 3 year old boy ???

[BIAD]

No chance of it being a bear. (Hibernation & Predator response to "prey".)

I don't think there's much chance of it being a guy in a fur coat (wouldn't the kid know?)

But, Bigfoot....? (If real)
WHY would Bigfoot help out a small kid?

Well, that depends on how the Bigfoot mind works, and how smart/compassionate etc he is.
What if he is both REAL, and REALLY SMART?
What if he's seen this before?
What if he KNOWS that when a human kid gets lost in the woods... HUNDREDS of other humans come thrashing and trampling about for days or weeks on end looking for them?
What if he observes the kid for a few hours, sees him wandering helplessly about, getting deeper into the woods and KNOWS that the sh*t is about to hit the fan?
He can't walk up to a passing deputy and hand the kid over... (he knows that he'd get shot in an instant).
But, what if he was smart enough to know that if he returned the kid, close enough to civilisation... to a road intersection or similar... that other humans would find (and return) the kid and there'd be no need for hundreds of them to come trampling around in Ninurta's his woods?
or What if his particular branch of the family tree sees humans as close (but quite crazy) cousins? Would his compassion kick in and a similar outcome emerge?

I don't know specifically what Bigfoot is, but I personally know enough people who've sworn to having had direct interaction or encounters with them to believe that they are something real.
If that's the case... then why not SMART or COMPASSIONATE somethings?

All excellent rational assumptions and the only things stopping us is our selfish presumption that we are only the unique
species on this planet that holds moral principles!

I agree there could be pragmatic reasons why this supposed creature could deduce that returning the child would close
down the search of its area with the aim of maintaining its privacy, but there again, this would warrant a high thinking
process.

In my opinion, it's the hair that fools us. The notion that if a being is covered in hair, it falls under the stereotypical title
of 'beast' or 'animal' and we're taught from an early age that anything fur-or-hair-covered holds animal survival instincts
and is incapable of solving complicated situations or having the ability to pity.

We've always been like this, depictions of dragons on tapestries are deemed as crocodiles, drawn by ignorant artists
with a over-active imagination. The same goes for the carved effigies of the Green Man around the eaves of Christian
churches. Theorists condescend that the strange faces merely represent the taking of a pagan belief of nature and
absorbing into the religion that supposedly flourished during King Lucius' time in early Britain.

Obviously, this belief crossed the Atlantic, but via Native American legends, the physical version of the Green Man
was already waiting in the vast forest of the Americas. So how does that work?!!

Anyway, to have a large hairy two-legged 'man' that thinks like one, is not only indication that we may not have a
clue about our modern world, it also means we've been outwitted by someone who's lifestyle is assumed to be
beneath us.
It cannot be, it would ridicule science and the quest to kill God would be set back. All sectors of academia would be
questioned and one can imagine how trust in medicine, modern medical care and security would take a beating.

From the earliest days of building a foundation for societies, we've believed that we're the only smart one out there in
the forests. We accept that basic animal guile can keep our prey elusive and anything that doesn't fit into the age-old,
well-indoctrinated paradigm, is put down to human error or insincere trickery.

I don't think this kid was with a bear and if it's true that he wasn't just imagining a 'friend' created from his television
watching or -as Wallfire suggests, a money-making shell-game from the parents, then what known animal would show
enough care as to keep the child healthy for the missing time?

That's why this subject fascinates me, such a being would split apart our comfort zones and reveal that we have been
the real ignorant species.