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I think it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that individual sighting reports = individual Bigfoot/Sasquatch. That isn't necessarily true. Years ago, I was looking at BFRO reports and noticed that within about a months time there were 3 reported sightings in 3 different states that all converged to a small geographic area. I think those 3 reports represented one Sasquatch on the move. For that reason, I think it's a good idea to look at chronology of the sighting reports too. 50 reports could mean just 5 or 10 Sasquatch. So both could be correct, there are a lot of sightings around green spaces, but very few Sasquatch.

Hunter, thanks for putting together the SSR Database map with the 50 mile radius. It does give credence to the claim that BFs have been reported in the Green Swamp area. Using the same SSR database, I created the table below of only Class A reports by county The 4 counties that surround the Green Swamp (Pasco, Sumter, Lake and Polk) do show above average sightings for the Florida counties. So the Green Swamp area might be one of those key Florida areas with a signal instead of random noise. Attached is a Florida county map to help folks see where the 4 mentioned above fit. The green corridor idea is a possibility. There might be something to it if you consider all the conserved lands in Florida (see attached map). Granted, this is nothing compared to PNW or Canada, but still people are reporting BF sightings in Florida and there is no apparent difference in quality of report between those in FL and PNW.

Well, there you go! LOL.

I'm afraid I have to balance current reports with historic aboriginal accounts, other mammilian densities and histories of abundance/scarcities, and human population explosions. Yes, coyotes populations can even increase alongside human population explosions, cougars can survive alongside such human population explosions, and feral hogs can literally take over rural areas as humans proliferate, but grizzly bears cannot do any of that. Aboriginal accounts universally indicate sasquatches inhabiting the most rugged terrain and only occasionally raiding human villages. Accepting all current reports and thus theorizing that there are 50,000 or more sasquatches running around the continent is to make the failure of discovery that much more fantastic and unlikely. As I posted above, the population density of black bears in Florida is a third of what it was in 1500. Cougars are critically endangered there. The human population of Florida in 1900 was 528,000. Today, 120 years later, it is over 21 million, an increase of 4000%. It is not unreasonable to expect fewer sasquatches, and it is very reasonable to see that there are over 40 times as many people today to see the few sasquatches remaining. This fits the Glickman theory of sighting densities (pages 2-7): http://www.photekimaging.com/Support/rptcol2.pdf

There have been a rash of selfie deaths at Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Backing up to get the perfect selfie and fall off a cliff. Some moron was doing that with buffalo at Yellowstone too. Natural selection at work.

I see these mules out of draft horse stock, and all I can think is the Jack must have had a lot of help! I mean, is there a chute or, umm....appliance that helps that, or are we talking A.I. with a turkey baster? Inquiring minds want to know.

Hunster….I just think you might want to reconsider the idea of a BF population being "trapped" or "hemmed in" by encroaching development. Not even some of the more canny predators like coyotes and cats are inhibited much by those boundaries. Sighting reports of BF all over the continent support a much more nuanced survival strategy, perfectly concordant with the area we are looking at. What the evidence shows is BF are very well adapted to exploit greenways, utility right of ways, creek and river fringes and even pedestrian/bike paths going back and forth at night. If you zoom in on your Google map, thousands of such connections to the wilder areas are in plain view. They apparently cover lots of ground in search of food sources, many of which are human provided. The idea that they are ever bottled up in what is likely only their daylight base of operations for night foraging is not something I'm considering to be likely. It is not lost on them, I'm sure, that when the sun goes down and the A/C units start to hum, they pretty much have the place to themselves. On occasion they are wrong, and somebody walking a dog or sitting on the deck with a cigarette has a sighting, but they are not sticking around to let anyone have a second look , that much is clear.

18 hand mule.

I don’t think so. None of my tack would work. And wild animals generally remain wild, it’s like Russian roulette. Packing mules and horses are tough enough in the mountains. Big Sam was 18 hands and 1800 plus pounds. You could buck 4 ft deadfall and not know it in yer ass. He was like riding a magic carpet through the woods. He was hard to stop though. Hard headed and had a tough mouth. I bet I could have packed a whole elk out on him. But he was my saddle mount. Looked close to the one pictured. Out of a Belgian mare.

Including downtown Tampa? Below is an SSR map readout of every report within 50 miles of the center of the Green Swamp. They range in date from 1955 to last year. The 1955 report is the one that is nearly in today's downtown Tampa. https://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=13034