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I do believe the numbers are smaller than many people think. You cannot go by the number of sightings if the foraging range is similar to a mountain lion. In my area there is almost continuous forest from northern MN east to Michigan. Someone may report one on a Monday in MN and someone else two weeks later in the UP of Michigan. It could be the same one. Descriptions of color and size would not be a good indicator in identifying the same Sasquatch. Sightings at different times of the day in different lighting would give completely different accounts, especially if the size is an estimate. i.e. a nighttime sighting in the headlights may appear white and the same one might appear more gray when there is still some daylight left. If they are traveling for food, they would not need to leave MN or WI as the deer and small animal populations are abundant all year round. There are over a million deer in MN and I suspect even more in WI. So does that leave weather or mating? If northern Sasquatch travel to warmer climates in the winter months, do the southern Sasquatch travel north to the cooler climates with forests, lakes and swamps that offer a large variety of food choices. This might explain why there are occasional sightings in states where there is very little tree coverage as they are just passing through. I have also sorted John Green's database looking for similarities, but I suspect it's like taking testimony from witnesses to a crime. Everyone sees or remembers details that make it seem like there were multiple crimes instead of one. I do agree that rather than roam the entire US, they have regions that they travel within and may occasionally go out of the region to seek new homes due to forest fires or a reduced food supply.

Well, if Bigfoots do indeed exist they are the rarest of creatures so encountering one would be equally as rare. I've spent many a day and night roaming these East Texas woods hunting, fishing, just wandering around and even did it for a living for awhile and I have one experience that is possibly BF related, so an encounter or experience would generally be a once in a lifetime event. Of course, the more time you spend in the woods the greater your odds are of having such an encounter.

It's been over thirty years since I've been to the place in Northern California where I had regular encounters, but that location hasn't changed. No building or other development. I think it is probably still a prime location and plan to return there, assuming I ever get time. The locations in Lemmon Valley, Nevada may no longer qualify. The valley has seen significant development and is very highly, as opposed to sparsely populated, now. The undeveloped areas moving Northeast along the Western side of Pyramid Lake, through the Pah Rum Mountain Cluster, and on into Southern Idaho are probably still used as a travel route. The common theme to these areas is that they would qualify as oases within their broader environment. Lemmon Valley was a seasonal travel route (mid-summer) through arid high desert. This means that areas along the route with easy access to water were stop-over points. Where there was water, there was also food in the form of more succulent vegetation for direct consumption and to support prey animals like deer and jack rabbits. There was also an abundance of "snack food" in these areas like lizards, snakes, cicadas, rodents, and small birds. The human communities around these developed water sources also provided gardens, pets, and other food sources. The family group that used to come through would stay for up to six weeks so long as food was plentiful, apparently staying in the hills just above the community. The spot in Northern California was a high forested plateau bounded by three peaks. Within this high plateau there were about two dozen small lakes, one developed campsite, and two or three hiking or jeep trails. The lakes along the trails were stocked with fish every couple of years and still are. There was a lot of activity there and the family group, again, appeared to hang out one hill away from the campsite and trail with the stocked lakes. We had encounters there from May through September, but those were just the months that we were in the area. The family group may be there year round for all I know. Point is, though, that the high forested plateau provided plenty of water, food, secure areas with multiple easy infiltration and exfiltration routes, hills providing vantage points to observe human activity, and a pleasant summer climate. It was an ideal spot within what is generally considered Squatch habitat. I think that an experienced operative like yourself, FarArcher, could identify potential oases in areas where there is a history of encounters through simple map reconnaissance. That narrows things down considerably.

I can go along with the movement for breeding thought. Especially in the area where we spend a lot of time in the field. There seems to be what I would assume is a large male. He occasionally leaves 18" tracks in the area, about every three or four months. It may be more often than that it's just that we don't always find them. However, we do find smaller tracks and other evidence of what we think are a female and juvenile on a more consistent basis. I interpret that to mean they frequent the area most of the time while the larger individual may move around more. I agree yes they are mobile and can easily cover much territory but that doesn't mean they all do. I'm in agreement with BobbyO that other than breeding purposes there's really no reason to move out of a familiar, food plentiful area. I also agree with NCBFr that there really isn't much of a reason, at least in the PNW to move more than a days walk from a familiar area. Around here if you moved 20 miles from any one place to another you could be in some very inaccessible spots to us humans.

While I am sure there are exceptions, small groups of BF's (1-4 but usually just 1 or 2) would have to have a territory in which they live some or all of the year. This is an area they know like the back of their hand including hunting grounds, safe spaces, dens, and water holes. I doubt they would survive if they spent their life wandering the country. The size of this territory is probably an easy 1 day walk for them which in rough numbers is probably twice that for active humans so perhaps 15-20 miles understanding that is not distance as a crow flies. Now I do believe they migrate once a year in to breeding zones and these migrations could be hundreds of miles. My 2 cents based on experience hiking the woods in which I have lived in 2 states and reading hundreds of cases for what it is worth.