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Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Do they have black panthers in WV?

I will try to do my deer story but will never do it justice. I had a husky catch a baby deer in my back yard many years ago. I ran out and saved the deer which was alive but down. The husky was circling me and the deer to try and finish the job. Momma deer comes flying out, gets on hind legs and starts attacking me and my husky with her front hooves. We basically had 4 concentric circles going around with the baby down in the middle. The husky easily evades the attack and tries to press in and get the baby. I dance around mom evading blows while trying to catch my dog and get the baby free. After two minutes of this baby gets up, and runs off while I block my dog. Momma finally gets down and runs off as well. Damn huskies. More than once they have almost killed me.

None, but I've had a couple of times I came close to shooting. A few other times I unslung the rifle just because, and they know what that means.

Another article... http://www.hastingstribune.com/news/speakers-at-bigfoot-conference-leave-big-impression/article_b69e12f4-332b-11e9-8d57-b3203847fc1c.html weather did not keep me away... I met Bobo a few years ago in Iowa and suggested that Iowa was one of the best places to look because we don't have to search millions of acres of forest. We were at Yellow River State forest at the time. Macy is better (in my opinion), but don't go squatching on the reservation without knowledge of the tribe. People have had equipment confiscated by going around a tribal business (Rez Squatching Research). The last Nebraska published sighting is mine: http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=59757 This was north of Macy... For anyone still hanging in Nebraska this week after the conference, there is a presentation at Blackbird Bend Casino on Thursday night (I will not be there) Robin Roberts will be there to do a presentation and I believe Richard Soule will also speak. They plan to introduce the NETV "Nebraska Stories" show that night featuring my friends Barry and Derek Webster, and hopefully not myself. I was there when they filmed and signed a waiver, just in case. I insisted that I had no desire to be on tv...

Get a room you two!!!! 😂😂

Great description of the phenomenon called pareidolia, SW! Your soapbox is well worth standing on. If newer posters on this forum learn about “ ‘dolia” then a lot of criticism can be avoided, as the newbies can then critique their own pics. I have seen posts where the poster says, “It may just be pareidolia, but I think I see a BF next to the tree...” I experienced ‘dolia myself: I’m an avid friend to wildlife on the road and thought for sure I drove past a turtle trying to cross on the opposite lane so I doubled back and stopped to take it out of the road. It turned out to be only a glove or can or rock or something....dang! Couldn’t believe my eyes (and brain) did that! But I still stop when I think I see one, and often I am right. Note to moderators or forum execs: could we have a section where excellent posts like this can be kept permanently, filed under the topic they cover? Something like “Here’s What Bigfoot Forum Members Need to Know”?

Just some responses to offer to some of the comments and questions about sequencing fossil DNA.... Any who have an interest in this topic should absolutely get a copy of Svante Paabo's great book, "Neanderthal Man". It can be tough sledding in places, but the narrative of how DNA was extracted from fossilized remains is exciting and captivating. The question has been asked about why all ancient DNA hasn't been sequenced at this point. If you read the book, you'll be left with the impression that it is miraculous that ANY ancient DNA has EVER successfully been sequenced. DNA is a fragile thing, even when it is modern, fresh and uncontaminated. What you get when you try sequencing DNA this ancient, if you get anything coherent at all, is only bits and pieces of the genome. These DNA fragments need to be stitched together to form anything remotely useful that allows you to identify it as a distinct species. (A time consuming, tedious and expensive process) Even then, you won't have completely sequenced the genome....just enough to give you something useful. Only after doing this will you be able to competently compare the genome sequence to modern descendants' DNA and identify which sequences are likely to have come from those ancestors. Without the ancient template to compare it with, the modern genome doesn't screams, "This is Neanderthal"! Until you have something know to compare it to it is only just one sequence fragment in the modern DNA. You need a map. I have no doubt that the more refined and consistent the sequencing of ancient DNA becomes, the more likely it will be that we discover modern humans have inherited DNA from far more ancient ancestors than is commonly know or believed. Already we know of one in the Denisovan line, a common ancestor between those people and modern humans, that is so far unidentified. The history of modern and our progenitors is a long, long way from being written, and we are even further away from understanding what we do know. One fossilized bone fragment, if it holds sufficient DNA, could stand what little we do know and the entire predicted model on its head. This stuff is incredibly fascinating, and not just because it might shed light on BF origins as well.

I can think of a host of other more plausible scenarios than BF here.

I was hiking in the Rio Grande National forest back in April. Just a day hike. I came across quite a few of these tree structures. One wouldn't have thrown me off but 10+ looked kinda odd. Theres 2-3 in this photo. Aspens. There was huge fir many years ago and this part of the forest is till recovering.

Latex is not an archival recording format. By its very nature it is unstable. It does not hold its shape, is easily malleable, and changes shape and volume over time as the material degrades and reacts to its storage environment. So if you are trying to determine whether someone would legitimately use it in the field to cast footprints, it would only make sense if: 1) the person was a naive amateur, or 2) simply experimenting to find out for themselves what it would do, or 3) the only material they had with them at the time was liquid latex. I guess you can't really discount 1) out of hand -- an interview with the person might help with clarifying their level of field savvy/intelligence, if you felt this was a valid concern. Option 2) is unlikely -- why would someone waste a clear footprint for experimental purposes?!! Clearly 3) is absurd, except for use as a ludicrous movie plot element. -Michelle