If you have seen Bigfoot-Tell me!

[The Bubba Effect]

A fellow INGOer used to have a roommate and that roommate had a girlfriend. She told us that when she was a little girl, her and her sister saw one.

It has been awhile since I head the story, but this is how I remember it.

She said that they lived next to an apple orchard. One day the neighbor came over just spitting mad, blaming her and her little sister for tearing up his apple trees. It was nearing harvest time and several of his trees had broken branches. She said that she and her sister protested their innocence, but the neighbor was convinced it was them (not a lot of neighborhood kids, out in the boonies). She said that a few evenings later her sister was looking out the window and said called her over. Out in the orchard, they could see what looked like a tall gorilla and it was walking through the orchard, pulling down a branch here and there and eating the apples, some of the branches breaking. I don't think she saw it again.


She was not shy about telling her story and she was emphatic that it happened.

 

[Dwight D]

I spoke with a man in Arkansas who saw one on several occasions, he said the first time he saw it that it was carrying off a wild hog he shot. Many reports about these creatures eating both meat and vegetation. Chimps and other apes eat meat so why not?

 

[Butch627]

Let me preface this post with this: I'm not saying "bigfoot" does NOT exist. Stranger things have happened. There is certainly evidence of SOMETHING, but nothing that can rise to the level of certainty.

So, my background on the matter: I had a passing interest in cryptozoology for a couple of decades. Followed things like Bigfoot, Lock Ness, Champ, etc... Probably one of the reasons I studied Biology in college. Took courses in Ecology, Environmental Ecology, Populations, etc... Gave me what I believe is a pretty decent foundation, but by no means am I at the same level as a Ph. D..

So, that said, on the topic of a large bipedal primate, I tend to look at not just the reports, but what it would take to support such a beast. What is their likely habitat? Food sources? Range? How many individuals would it take to support a stable population? When are they most active? For these questions, the best approach is to look at known analogs. If we want to stick to semi-bipedal, that leaves us with Lowland Gorillas, Chimpanzees (too small, really), and Orangutans (more arboreal, but close). Habitats are all dense jungles. All pretty warm, and wet. Lots of food sources, as anything this size needs considerable calories. Fruits and the like are staples, though meat is not unheard of. In the search for food, their ranges are on the order of 2.5 to 5 square miles. Orangutans, being climbers, can travel much farther. Both the gorillas and the chimps stay primarily is family groups. Orangs tend to be more solitary. Research shows populations need to be larger than about 250 individuals to be "healthy". Smaller leads to too little genetic diversity. And finally, all Great Apes are active during the day, and not at night. Most forage in the morning and evening, rest during the heat of the day, and nest at night.

So, I would expect "bigfoot" to fall somewhere into the description above. Similar in most ways, different in a few. For its reported size, it would need on the order of 10,000 calories worth of fruit per day, year around. It seems to be a loner, so a range of healthy adults, at the low end, would need to be 625 square miles, with an adult every 2.5 square miles. On the high end, 1,200 square miles with an adult every 5 miles. And that is for a just barely healthy population of 250 adults.

So, this is why I start getting skeptical, especially in highly populated places like Indiana. There just isn't anywhere for that many large primates to hide. Even the most remote parts of the state have several people per square mile. Sure there are "sightings". But no one seems to have a working camera (they are all blurry, every time). No skeletons. No carcasses. No scat. Some footprints, maybe. Some hair, that can't be fully identified. People keep having "sightings" at night, but it is extremely rare for large primates to be active at night.

BUT.. that's why I pointed our Russia. We KNOW there was a hominid species there, living alongside modern humans, only a few thousand years ago. The area is INCREDIBLY remote. Not much in the way of food for a large primate, but, well, it could still work. Maybe a small population is still holding on?

And I suppose my skepticism could be fueled by the current crop of TV shows. They paint "bigfoot hunters" as a bunch of buffoons. At least the few specials on NatGeo and Science have tried to be scientific. Unfortunately, they are either denied access to any real data, of the data they collects turns out to disprove "bigfoot" (hair that ends up being from a horse, for example).

I'm not saying you shouldn't believe. Heck, my wife LOVES this stuff, and believes it with all her heart. And, winning me over is EASY. Bring me some DNA, a skeleton that can be dated and reconstructed, or the living breathing beast in the flesh.

Thanks for the common sense analysis. I wish anyone who believes that they exist would comment on the points made in the quoted post.

 

[dung]

I was pretty sure I saw one when I was 8 or 9 years old in the woods (Wabash river bottoms near crawfish creek). However, it was probaby just the silhouette of my neighbor in front of the sun on the fence row. It scared the crap out of me at the time, but it didn't keep me out of the woods.

 

[DanO]

All these sightings were just my Mother in Law. Trust me, its her.

 

[mtinner]

I have one that I play hide and seek with. He's really good at it.

 

[Dwight D]

The Ohio grass man is the hide n seek champ of the midwest

 

[Magneto]

Seen a couple of UFO's but no Bigfoot. I peruse the BFRO site and I am always paying attention when I am in an area where reports of sightings have been made.

 

[1DOWN4UP]

This guy at work is 5'4" and he has to wear size 12 boots.

 

[ru44mag]

My brother swears he saw one. Probably back in the 70's. He said he could see the 2 red eyes above the corn tassels. I'm not sure if it was before, or after he started smoking dope.

 

[jsharmon7]

Watch your back:

Colorado Hunter Claims He Was Sexually Assaulted by Sasquatch - Montana Hunting and Fishing Information

 

[Thor]

In Slawomir Rawicz book "The Long Walk" he includes a fairly detailed account of seeing a couple of them in the Himalayas.

And give that his book is about the much bigger story of escaping from a Russian Gulag during WWII and hiking out of Siberia there was no real reason for him to include that in a 'oh this is what I saw that day' sort of way.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Watch your back:

Colorado Hunter Claims He Was Sexually Assaulted by Sasquatch - Montana Hunting and Fishing Information

Never seen one but I have spent some evenings knocking trees in the Hoosier National Forest. No replies.

 

[printcraft]

 

[Alamo]

There's an avatar or two that makes me think large hairy hominids live in Indiana. I know there was one that roamed Brown County in the 1959-1982 period, but didn't hear of any more after the USAF carted me off until I joined INGO a few years ago.

 

[ghuns]

This calls for some Greg Warren...

[video=youtube;xjNlWEr2ntw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjNlWEr2ntw[/video]

 

[Brad69]

We may have our own version of Bigfoot right here on INGO!
If Printcraft completed a DNA test I would bet at least 70 % caveman!

 

[Cpt Caveman]

Hes a sad,sad, sasquatch not a caveman.
I saw a big plywood one over in martinsville by the river.

 

[Dwight D]

So what do you guys think of this little piece of footage?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKUwdHex1Zs

 

[Brad69]

I am not a Bigfoot believer that being said I listened to an interview with Gimlin. What stuck me as strange he was kinda pissed that Patterson had no money for food or gas. Patterson keep going on about how his brother in law had some money and would make it good. That kind of real emotional detail is hard to fake?