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I did not see a "thought" through the FLIR last week. Thoughts do not have heat signatures.

Just got back from 6 days of exploring a small portion of the Six Rivers National Forest and the Siskiyou Wilderness in Northern California. Spent 2 nights car camping in the SRNF and 3 nights backpacking into the wilderness. The best part of the trip was the backpacking part, since I went deeper into the wilderness and I saw plenty of wildlife. Below are some pictures of the wilderness area and the lake where I camped the first night. Also showing a picture of my thermal imager setup.  This was the first time that I backpacked with a large lithium battery (the Jackery 240 Wh portable power bank).  I had backpacked before with my full size tripod, since the image quality is better when stable. I wanted to test the ability to run the thermal imager and video record all night (8 hours) for 3 nights (without having to monitor and replace the 4 AA lithium batteries every 7 to 8 hours).   First night, I heard noises coming from the brush, got out of the tent ~9:38 PM, started recording on the thermal, and saw the buck in the photo. The unit recorded as the buck came out of the bush and walked in front of thermal imager. The time stamp and date on this FLIR unit is not correct and cannot be fixed (apparently the battery that runs the clock is internal to the unit and cannot be replaced unless I ship the unit to manufacturer; this is a design flaw).   The 2nd FLIR photo was the 2nd night and occurred down 600 ft in the valley. Again, I left the unit running all night for 8 hours and it captured this bear walking towards the creek. While the photo is not clear (because the bear is far), the video shows its bear shape and motions more clearly.   BTW, the buck moved on to the other side of the lake and disturbed the only other backpacker there from 1 to 4 AM. I saw the guy in the morning and he was so scared that he did not sleep and started a fire. He never saw what was making all the noises and stumping the ground. I told him it was the buck, since it did the same in my campground earlier that night. Not sure what was the problem with this buck, but I also captured a doe in the imager that came later, so maybe the buck wanted to clear the area? I was happy to have a thermal imager and see what was making the noises.

I think you have found this podcast since the time you write this post, but just in case, Dr. Disotell lays it all out on a MonsterTalk podcast from 2009.   I actually have a lot more respect for him now.  You just have to put up with him being outspoken. He really doesn't care about studying BF as much as he apparently loves his ego.  He does have a PhD from Harvard so he's got that kind of vibe even though sometimes he has a mohawk. Maybe he wants people to think he's a rebel even though he is not. 

https://youtu.be/CacIlFaXph0

Welcome, Warren. I don't generally suggest hunting or catching them, and neither did the advisor in the anecdote. He said to the younger man something like "you WILL disappear". Perhaps he spoke from experiencing a scary incident in his time, hard to say. Just thought I'd throw it out there. As others note, humans and apes are continuous breeders. BFs probably are, too.     Maybe spring gatherings are more of a cultural phenomenon, I recall Sasfooty saying so. She also said that they change the noises they make with the seasons.