VANCOUVER — Was it a bear? Or was it a sasquatch, the legendary primate long rumoured to inhabit Vancouver Island?

A B.C. man is reporting he may have spotted the mythical ape-like creature in the Enchanted Forest near Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

"My brother and I had a strange encounter with a large, dark humanoid in the forests of Tofino,'' the unidentified man says in the introduction to a video posted recently on Youtube.

`Strange Humanoid Encounter' has been viewed more than 15,000 times.

The pair -- who say they live five hours from Tofino -- were on a walk in the forest, using a camera to shoot wildlife.

What they saw caught them off guard.

"Look, quick . . . stay back'' says one, as the camera begins to roll.

''My hypothesis is that this was a bear although my memory deceives me,'' the man writes in the video introduction. "The animal was about seven feet tall, give or take one foot. It hunched over quite a bit.

"When it first encountered us, it stared. By the time I got the camera out, it stated fleeing.

"It had no smell that overpowered the wet forest smell, and made no sound, except for rushing through the bush,'' he writes in online discussions after the video was posted.

After the creature fled, the pair run forward and look for footprints. What they find stamped in the earth seems more human than bearlike.

While the tape is blurry and the camera work shaky, there seems to be something resembling a human shape when it rears up.

When crouched, it looks like a bear.

So far, the video has provoked pages of discussion on YouTube.

Some respond saying it's a hoax; others believe it's the real thing.

"This is NOT a hoax. The quality is bad, but my original copy is quite clear,'' writes the man who claims to have posted the video.

The man, who did not respond to email requests for an interview, says he's sending the tape to the B.C. Cryptozoology Society "for an expert's advice.''

The videotape does receive mention on the cryptozoology.com website. The website's glossary includes such creatures as the Mongolian Death Worm, the Loch Ness Monster, Blobs, Globsters, the Beast of Gevaudan, the Coelacanth and Goatman.

Wildlife biologist Dr. John Bindernagel says postings of sasquatch videos on Youtube are not uncommon, but many appear to be spoofs.

"This video, it's very good of the fellow to at least entertain the option that it could have been a sasquatch -- not just an upright bear or not someone in a fur suit,'' Bindernagel says.

''But it's not very good and it's not something that a scientist would bring to attention of his colleagues as evidence because it isn't very good.

"It could well have been a sasquatch but it's neither persuasive or convincing.''

Bindernagel, who has written extensively about the subject, says the internet videos can both help and hinder efforts to do genuine scientific research into the Big Foot phenomenon.

"Because we have been unable to attract informed scientific comment, the media has proceeded with this very attractive, simplistic hoax hypothesis and that's been really quite problematic,'' he says.

 But Bindernagel is convinced sasquatch exist.

He says there have been more than 100 sightings of the legendary creature on Vancouver Island and thousands of sighting throughout North America since the mid-1800s.