Sasquatch?

[seireikhaan]

Shinseikhaan-san, I gotta admit I also think a great deal about the Bloop. It's right up there with other great mysteries of our era.

I'm not usually one for digging into monster stories or the unexplainable, but the bloop really baffles me and I'm a bit paranoid as to what could cause it. And this isn't like some random boater heard it.... this was gov't recorded, on the record. Unlike a lot of horror/mystery stories we get drilled into our head, the bloop was/is real, without a shadow of doubt. Maybe someday we'll figure out what caused it.



Or maybe.... just maybe.... it was actually a sound emitted by the Octo-Squid generalissimo, to signal to his legion of demon-spawn that the time to plot for their coup of humanity had begun.

[King Jan III Sobieski]

I think Sasquatch could exsist...but the jury is still definitely out.

[miotas]

Come on everyone, you need to pull your heads out of the sand, there is no way that sasquatch's exist.

The only real undiscovered hominid is the yowie.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Come on everyone, you need to pull your heads out of the sand, there is no way that sasquatch's exist.

We have our heads out of the sand - that's why we believe!

CR

[pevergreen]

Come on everyone, you need to pull your heads out of the sand, there is no way that sasquatch's exist.

The only real undiscovered hominid is the yowie.

The yowie! Not as scary as drop bears or the bunyip.

Drop bears scare the hell out of me.

[Kurando]

Good discussion guys + I am gonna elaborate on what I mentioned in the initial posts about the time I heard one. Here's what went down + I'll stake my rep at the org on it as the gospel truth, to the very best of my memory.

Years ago I was out Harrison Lake which is a pretty massive lake about 60 km long + it's connected to the sea by a slow moving river + seals come up the river all the time.

I was on the south-eastern part of the lake, very wild coast line. I'm not sure what time of year it was, but it was got dark fairly earily. I have been kayaking for 20 years and I often stay out after dark.

At dusk the water fowl were going nuts way across the lake making a racket, ducks or Canada geese I guess, but they often do that in the evening. The sound was carrying across the water about 6 km to my location and I was kinda wishing they'd shut up. There were no houses for about 5 kilometers in any direction, and at this time of year even those houses would be uninhabited.

I was really close to shore maybe about 20 feet, and I was whiping in and out of the little bays that dot the coast. All of a sudden I smelled something very bad; a few years before I had encountered a bloated-dead seal floating in the water and it stunk in a simmilar way; so I got tunnel vision and thought "there's a dead seal in the water" I was sort of floating there in the bay focusing on the water to see where the dead seal was, I could smell it, but I couldn't see it... After about 30 seconds of not finding it I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

About 8-10 minutes later I was paddling along, with the ducks across the way still making a racket and that's when I heard it. Instantly I was like "Wow, what the hell was that!???" I pulled my paddle out of the water because unfortunately just as I heard what I'd heard I was on the backstroke "splash" of the paddle so I didn't hear it that well.

At this point I was drifting silently listening as carefully as I could, and I noticed that EVERYTHING on the lake was suddenly silent also.

Then after about 15 seconds I heard it again, plain as could be this time, and the call came from about 700 meters behind me right from the bay that I had thought I smelled the seal. It was a wierd "buzzing" kind of a call, but the thing is it had this presence to it. Like "I'm the King of the Jungle" kinda presence... It's like you might imagine that it might be like on an Africian Savanna when a Lion suddenly calls out and everything goes silent, even the crickets...

Very amazing + I have a feeling that it was in the woods in that bay when I stopped there, but I was so sure I'd see a bloated-dead seal that I didn't realize that the smell was coming from the woods and not the water. It might even have been watching me from the woods, but I just wasn't looking in the right place to see it.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the essential difficulty for all advocates of these large, mythical creatures is simple biology.

For them to survive at all, there must be a significant population available for breeding. This population must be dense enough for individuals to find one another reasonably effectively (unless one argues that they reproduce by parthenogenesis). Large mammals that are usually solitary by habit (the common descriptor of this legend) have to leave substantial clues at breeding time so that they can find each other.

Relict populations of large mammals tend to die out pretty rapidly precisely because of this lack of a viable population.

It's the same for the Loch Ness monster. To paraphrase, there cannot be only one.

[miotas]

The yowie! Not as scary as drop bears or the bunyip.

Drop bears scare the hell out of me.

Those bunyips are big, scary SOB's and those drop bears are sneaky little buggers, but they aren't hominids like the yowie.

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the essential difficulty for all advocates of these large, mythical creatures is simple biology.

For them to survive at all, there must be a significant population available for breeding. This population must be dense enough for individuals to find one another reasonably effectively (unless one argues that they reproduce by parthenogenesis). Large mammals that are usually solitary by habit (the common descriptor of this legend) have to leave substantial clues at breeding time so that they can find each other.

Relict populations of large mammals tend to die out pretty rapidly precisely because of this lack of a viable population.

It's the same for the Loch Ness monster. To paraphrase, there cannot be only one.

This is why the yowies are certainly the only undiscovered hominids, they are very short, they can hide very well, and very little of Australia is populated.

[Louis VI the Fat]

That's not a pic of a woodland monster. That's my granny coming home on a Saturday night.

[Fragony]

For them to survive at all, there must be a significant population available for breeding. This population must be dense enough for individuals to find one another reasonably effectively

Shouldn't be that hard to find eachother if even we can smell them.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Shouldn't be that hard to find eachother if even we can smell them.

If they can be smelt by humans, they can be tracked by dogs.

[Fisherking]

Except the story goes that the scent sends dogs cowering away with their tails between their legs…

[Ramses II CP]

No.

Just, No.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

While I'm here I also want to mention that I was debating this recently with Jesus, a chupacabra, and an invisible pink unicorn. They all agreed with me that Sasquatch is a complete fantasy, and the unicorn is a stinking evolutionary biologist, so I think he'd know better than all you duffers.

[Kralizec]

No offense guys, but this thread is rather funny

[Rhyfelwyr]

Don't mess with the sasquatch

[Hooahguy]

Don't mess with the sasquatch

that was so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kurando]

LOL, (ROTFL actually), that was classic Rhyfelwyr!

[Megas Methuselah]

Haha, Rhy. Nice.

[Fragony]

If they can be smelt by humans, they can be tracked by dogs.

Your common sense needs a little bit of romance, all the poorer for it.

[Kurando]

Relict populations of large mammals tend to die out pretty rapidly precisely because of this lack of a viable population.

What would you consider to be a viable population? Would 500 be enough?

It's kind difficult to get your head around how much unexplored area there is here in British Columbia. I live in what you might consider a fairly populated part of the province and even still I can get in my truck, drive for 1 hour, get out and walk into the woods for 30 minutes, and literally within that 90 minutes be standing in a place where no human being has ever stood before. -For someone who's not from here it might be hard to relate to, but it's unimaginably vast wilderness out here.

Here's a good example: in BC during the past 70 years over 50 aircraft (the majority of which with flight plans filed) have crashed and been lost WITHOUT A TRACE, and that's despite some spirited searches by highly-trained search and rescue personnelle.

If we have 50 aircract somewhere out in the BC wilderness with no trace, I'd suggest that we could easily have 500 large animals out in there with no trace.

[Togakure]

I enjoy the stories, and the chill that runs up my spine when I hear coyotes or pumas howl up in Desolation Wilderness at night while on an extended backpack trip. But I'm going to have to go with the side of "no proof, no truth" on this one. I won't say it's impossible, but I do think it highly improbable.

Sasquatch tales did make for great summer camp "out-in-the-woods overnight roasting marshmallows over the fire" stories though. Well, too good maybe. My fellow counselors and I got in some light trouble a couple weeks after one kid had gone home (he was about 13-14). His parents had called and complained that the camp-out stories/pranks had scared him so bad that he was having nightmares and waking up yelling and screaming. We had to tone it down a bit after that, meh.

[Fragony]

What would you consider to be a viable population? Would 500 be enough?

It's kind difficult to get your head around how much unexplored area there is here in British Columbia. I live in what you might consider a fairly populated part of the province and even still I can get in my truck, drive for 1 hour, get out and walk into the woods for 30 minutes, and literally within that 90 minutes be standing in a place where no human being has ever stood before. -For someone who's not from here it might be hard to relate to, but it's unimaginably vast wilderness out here.

Here's a good example: in BC during the past 70 years over 50 aircraft (the majority of which with flight plans filed) have crashed and been lost WITHOUT A TRACE, and that's despite some spirited searches by highly-trained search and rescue personnelle.

If we have 50 aircract somewhere out in the BC wilderness with no trace, I'd suggest that we could easily have 500 large animals out in there with no trace.

So very jealous, I don't think there is a single mile without a roadsign here. Can we have some of that space you have so much of??

[Kurando]

Fragony, hehe, actually the Fraser Valley where I live was originally a massive lake which no longer exists called Sumas Lake + the outlying region is too rugged to build on. It was the Dutch farmers who immigrated here in the earily part of the last century who were experts in such realms + they made the whole Fraser Valley liveable with dams and levees. So, if you want to move over here you'd be most welcome. The ancestors of those Dutch farmers are everywhere hereabouts! We have almost as many orange people in this Valley as we have green space around it.

[Fragony]

I you want to mess up nature accept no subsitude, we will drain and we will gain. Thx for your valley but we really are out of room to store it, it's like 40 times the Netherlands where to put it.

[Lemur]

A very important discussion on another forum: What would you do if a sasquatch slammed through your door intent on raping you?

-edit-

Apparently this subject has been given a lot of thought. There's even a movie: Ape Canyon.

"In Ape Canyon a lone Bigfoot (North America's Greatest Lover) roams the forests of the Pacific Northwest. He brings his gift of Red Hot Sasquatch Love to nature-loving ladies everywhere, whether they're hugging trees or simply camping and hiking. Bored waitress Darcy (Clover Lutter) had one unforgettable encounter and now she wants more. Night and day, she combs the woods for Bigfoot, calling to him, reciting love poems, and yearning for the wild, hairy touch of the beast who can satisfy her better than any man. Darcy's jealous husband Bill (Chris Henry) is also hot on the trail of Sasquatch, but he's coming with guns blazing. Time is running out for Bigfoot. Will Darcy win his heart before it's too late — or will the consequences of his untamed libido bring his wild ways to an explosive end?"

[Rhyfelwyr]

Here's a good example: in BC during the past 70 years over 50 aircraft (the majority of which with flight plans filed) have crashed and been lost WITHOUT A TRACE, and that's despite some spirited searches by highly-trained search and rescue personnelle.

If we have 50 aircract somewhere out in the BC wilderness with no trace, I'd suggest that we could easily have 500 large animals out in there with no trace.

That's pretty incredible.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Speaking of Ape Canyon... apparently some miners were attacked by a group of sasquatch at said canyon on Mt St Helens way back.

CR

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

@Kurando:

When you're out in the woods, do you happen to drink fresh water from the springs and creeks running freely there? Because these are likely to be lightly contaminated with quicksilver in some areas of BC. It won't kill you, but it will cause halluzinations. People see all sort of things when they drink too much of it, I'd imagine hearing Bigfoot would be pretty much the first you'd experience in that case.

[Lemur]

Apparently some ambitious soul made a Sasquatch porno in 1981. A lost classic, I bet.

After half the film is taken up with footage of them walking, the hikers finally stumble upon the first evidence of Sasquatch. The leader of the expedition describes it as a footprint, and we’ll take his word for it that’s what the ripple in the dirt is. A few moments later, they find a pile of Bigfoot [fecal material] and decide this must be the beast’s camp.

And they’re right.

As they watch the nearby tree line, they suddenly spy Bigfoot. Quite clearly it’s just a guy in a very fake gorilla suit sans the head, with hair glued on his face. He grunts and growls, in his poorly-dubbed way, but he doesn’t frighten the hikers. No, if he did that, there’d be no Bigfoot [sexual activity], would there?

So, one of the hiker guys grabs one of his lady friends by the hand and pulls her toward Bigfoot. He coaxes her into making contact with the beast. Demurely, she approaches and holds out her delicate hand. Bigfoot sniffs her politely, then …

[Kurando]

If they can be smelt by humans, they can be tracked by dogs.

I have been wondering a great deal about this, and I am certenly no expert on hunting or using tracking dogs. So yeah, I too would like to know why no one has tried using dogs.

The only thing that I can think is that usually the hunting dogs here are used to track animals that will tree themselves for protection when they are in a weird situation. Basically Cougars and Black Bears will instinctively run up a tree if they get a weird vibe or if you chase after them.

I remember once I unexpectedly met a big black bear at a bend in a trail and both the bear and I took off running in opposite directions. After a few dozen steps I stopped and turned to have a look at where the bear went, and there he was: he went straight up the first tree he could find. The funny thing is it was up a 15 foot alder tree that was only about as thick around as my forearm. It was very comical to see this huge bear precariously teetering back-and-forth up this skinny little sapling.

Anyhoo, I am not sure, but in dense woods I don't think that you could effectively use dogs to track animals that don't tree themselves. We have wild wolves here, and I'd bet it would be futile to try and track them because even though the track could be initiated a wolf could cover far more distance than a blood hound, and a person on foot trying to follow-up for the kill would be at a spectacular disadvantage.

All tracking aside, there is no point trying to chase after something that can comparably out-distance the tracker in rough terrain, but then again, I have heard that up-north they use dogs to track and corner grizzly bears (which unlike black bears) are not prone to tree themselves, so who knows...?

Are there any avid .org hunters who can shed some light on this?