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Looks like this topic has morphed, but fine by me. Y'all place nice though, or I'm going to have to make you stay after school and clap erasers? (Boy, do I date myself, or what? What do they make kids do now? Stay behind and delete spam?) Branco, always a privilege when you share your field techniques. Regardless of what one may think about BF, paying attention in the woods is a learned skill, and the the benefit of your experience always has value.

How many North American animals have trichromatic vision? And how many wolverine researchers truly camouflage their cameras? You don't need superman powers to spot a black box on a tree.

This is the desired end state. A perpetual search for a legendary creature. After Ketchum, Smeja, and Sykes, Bigfoot is dead to me as a real creature. But long live Bigfoot. Many cultures throughout time have had a Wild Man archetype, so why not ours? That it's a literal attempt to find an actual hominid is just an artifact of our literal(izing) culture. What if Bigfoot did appear on a slab? It would be a great day for science, but Bigfoot would become a definite animal with definite characteristics, losing most of its power as a psychological projection object. On the other hand, what if Bigfoot ceased to exist as a possibility, however remote? Where would our Wild Man go then? "He's a monster, he'll eat anything, alive, dead, fresh, rotten.... He's a survivor... mobile, quick, fast, and strong.... Anybody who sees a slow Sasquatch is not in the ball park.... He's got no limits, climbs any mountain, swims any river. He's got no barriers.... Not an endangered species, thats us.... He can pull down big game on the run or by stealth, like a cougar.... He can lay down a light track or spring like a deer.... Has a lot of humor, yet restraint.... Rocks cars and cabins, but lets folks go.... We agonize, he couldn't care less.... An opportunist at the top of the food chain, in great shape--he's got it made! Adapted to cutover lands, lives a good rugged existence.... He's got no need for wages, lives off the fat of the land, and pays no taxes!" -- Jim Hewkin, retired fish and game professional from Oregon, quoted in Pyle, Robert Michael. "Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide." Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995, page 204.