Esteban Sarmiento

Who is Esteban Sarmiento?

Esteban Sarmiento is a primatologist and biologist.

He earned a biological anthropology PhD in 1985, and from then until at least 2008 he worked as a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. His main field of study is the skeletons of hominoids, both extinct species and extant species.

Sarmiento is one of the few mainstream experts to give serious attention to cryptozoology, particularly reports of Bigfoot. Sarmiento does not suggest that the existence of Bigfoot has been established, but that its existence is possible and that claims and evidence deserve careful scrutiny. He has stated: "If the animal in the P&G film [Bigfoot] is real, this animal is exceedingly human-like [...] It would be our closest relative on earth.” He has appeared on several episodes of the History Channel series Monster Quest discussing Bigfoot and other "cryptids."

Sarmiento filed a lawsuit against Queens College claiming that the college's refusal to grant him interviews in 1999 and 2000 for Associate Professor employment was motivated by racial discrimination, and thus a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2005, a U.S. District Court ruled against Sarmiento, stating that Queens College had established valid reasons to deny him the employment interviews. A similar lawsuit against Montclair State University, again alleging racial discrimination as a factor in a 2001 hiring procedure, was also unsuccessful for Sarmiento.