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I saw a National Geographic special about the discovery of the Australpithecus Sediba in South Africa. That was the species found in a deep cave. The skeletons of several dozen individuals were in this deep cave. The species lived concurrently with others in the Homo genus about 1.9 million years ago. What was noteworthy that the only bones in the cave found other than the Sediba were the bones of one owl. So it was not a lair of a large cat that hauled the victims down there. The scientists would not state it with any surety but that seems to indicate that the Sediba cared for their dead and stashed them in the cave. I could not help wondering as I watched this, if BF stash their dead in caves or lava tubes. It was really a fluke that these bones were even found. Lee Berger, the chief scientist leading the dig, had to recruit small women paleontologists, especially if they have caving experience, because most men could not fit through the passages to get to the cavern location. Berger had previously, with the help of his 8 year old son, found australpithecus bones in a pit. They are very rare and only a few bones defined the species. After that he instructed some local cavers to start looking in caves for bones. A comment was made quite relevant to the lack of BF fossils. There are more scientists examining the bones of human ancestors, than there are bones to examine. They are very very rare.

Thanks! Agreed. If one shows itself - especially in the open more or less - it's for purposes of misdirection. If an approach by horseback were all that was required for putting the sneak on BF, then there should be all kinds of sighting - especially by those who tend to spend lots of time in the saddle. But they don't. They don't see squat - because being on horseback is not a factor.

You got that completely wrong. I was a functional test pilot in the USAF on two different aircraft. I would fly the aircraft after major maintenance. They did not want an inexperienced pilot to fly an airplane that might have major stuff not work. That was pretty cool. Even used different check lists and did a test profile to check out major functions that could only be checked while the aircraft was flying. In the T-38 we would do a burner climb to about 35,000 feet. Push the nose over and go supersonic to check for flight control problems or supersonic fire lights which were very common. Then go into a test area, do full stalls, to check the wing rock in a stall, make sure it would not flop over on its back, shut an engine down then relight it. Shut the other engine down and relight it. Go inverted and pull negative G's to make loose stuff fall out of all the nooks and crannies. Was amazing what would fall out and you had to grab that was floating around. You could not pull negative G's very long as the oil system did not work inverted, and the engine would have problems. I cannot remember what else we did. But the most fun you can have with your clothes on, is fly an airplane that has never left the ground before. Did that with my own airplane that I also built. For a pilot, that is pretty close to a lunar landing in excitement. I suppose there is something similar for a hunter with big game. Dangerous game comes to mind.