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With regards to North American grizzly bears, individuals among the extinct California variety were documented to be as large as coastal Alaskan bears. This might have been for the same reason: salmon. Of course, the Alaskan bears didn’t start to see the kind of human hunting pressure that the California bears saw as early as the late 1700’s. Mexicans were capturing bears to fight bulls long before Americans started arriving in search of gold around 1850. Great Plains wolves & grizzlies, preying on giant bison, were also reported to be huge before they and their prey were extirpated by Americans. The food/size thing for sasquatches might be the same. West Coast sasquatches, benefitting from large, regular runs of protein rich salmon, were likely larger than, say, sasquatches from the Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas/Louisiana corner. But as we destroyed the salmon and simply overran the coast, the sasquatches (like the bears and wolves before them), have died off or moved north. (Note: I think sasquatches are behaviorally more like pumas than bears/wolves with regard to human pressure; more secretive, quiet, and nocturnal. Both brown bears and wolves are less tolerant of intense human pressure, but recent Alaskan studies are proving that given the huge spaces needed nearby, both species can and will quietly infiltrate even dense cities of humans with remarkable secrecy. I believe sasquatches do likewise...........)

Folks, I don't know about you but this SSR effort is just hands-down a monumental achievement. The concept and subsequent execution of such a task has not been only about classifying the source data- it has also been about working out the bugs in the program and system along the way to which GIGANTOR (and the name SHOULD BE in all caps ) can take the credit as he patiently took in all of the notifications of glitches in the SSR and worked through them in order to have the data perform as desired. BobbyO, who worked diligently in every spare moment he could muster, and RedBone who has been nothing short of a juggernaut who has been unstoppable on getting report after report pigeon holed into the dataset. We owe these people a immense tip of the hat and I personally thank them for what they have done though my thanks falls way short of what they deserve, Thank you guys for staying with your goals when I fell behind, and for doing it all so incredibly well.

An lets not forget, how many sightings go unreported.

Yup, some 5600. Of those, about 2900 are classified in the SSR database. Maybe not green clothed, but there is H. Floresiensis There is Gigantopithecus

I believe enough that I would rather have my "non-believer" wife see one. I agree with Okiefoot. It seems highly unlikely to me that every eyewitness is either a hoaxer, the victim of a hoax or simply misidentified another animal. Same with footprints - all are fake or a double bear print, etc? For me it comes down to numbers of sightings and types of sightings. A friend brought up how there are x number of sightings of leprechauns yet I don't believe in them - my response was I don't believe there is a fossil record, a green clothed very little person doesn't fit into any taxonomy, and there are many more bigfoot sightings - etc - so I am not just blindly accepting sightings without some independent thought. (and yes, I understand that the bigfoot skeptics will also argue fossil record and taxonomy, but a North American great ape sure as heck seems more plausible scientifically than the Lucky Charms dude). H

I look at it the same way; to know for certain they exist, I would have to see one for yourself. My belief is based on "weight of the evidence". To me, there have been far too many sightings over a long period of time (1-2,000(?) to all be fabricated stories. And too many tracks too long and wide for humans, with some showing toe impressions and some in remote areas, for all be hoaxed.

The work that ADFG has been engaging over the past 15 on “Urban Bears” is utterly fascinating. This is just one of those studies: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm%3Fadfg%3Dlivingwithbears.anchorageurbanbearsstorymap Of particular interest is this of Black Bear #16 (found on the “behaviors” tab in the above link): You can click on each colored dot and get a window pop-up with info on that particular bear and his/her activities at that moment.

Maybe some of us are just waiting for someone else to do the hard work and get lucky by bagging one of these beasts and beating the .gov to national media sources that can't be ignored or undone?

Thank you all. I wanted to do this for some time and I received much prodding from my friends out in the field. I have more material I will be working on too! One short story I want to share that occurred this year on a group expedition. I was sharing a travel trailer with a friend, neither his wife or mine were interested in making the trip so I grabbed the sofa sleeper rather than stay in my camper shell. Late that night I hear this faint tap, tap, tap on the wall right by head. It woke me up and thought I was dreaming. Before I drifting back to sleep, I hear it again and I get that tingling feeling (The best way I can describe it when they are near). I spoke very softly fearing my friend would hear in the front area, "Look I'm tired please let me sleep". I know some will think B.S. but I'm just telling what happened. There was no more tapping. The next day I told my friend the Boogers were coming right up to the trailer. He is a field newbie and I could see that blank doubting stare and politely nodding his head. Fast forward to that night after we came in late to rest. He stepped out later to run a camp site errand. I could feel the trailer rock as he walked down the stairs, then this hard jolt hit and the door exploded open and he leaped back inside with both eyes wide open. "SOMETHING BIG JUST RAN AWAY FROM BESIDE THE TRAILER HE SCREAMED OUT!" I just sat there for a few seconds on my computer, then looked up at him and replied "I told you so" LOL! Folks I have a blast out there watching people when the Big Guys show out!! I'll stop for now thanks again!