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SWWA, what we see, and what is there have nothing to do with each other. Long range recon teams of five to six members are accustomed to ingressing to a well used line of approach and identifying and counting vehicles and personnel - without any of the five or six ever being detected. For days. Hundreds and on occasion thousands pass by in close proximity - and never see a thing. Folks assume since they're smarter, they'll automatically see anything in their area - but they're also assuming a dumb animal not having enough sense to actually hide from them. Throw in a built-in ghillie suit, and these things can look like a rock, blend with a tree, and even lay low in grass and low shrubbery. Everyone expecting to see something over six feet tall, likely in a semi-open area is going to be mighty disappointed. I just don't think these are dumb animals.

Shadow Born and Far Archer, I support your right to deny science and believe whatever it is you wanna believe....

I'm afraid so Far Archer.... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominidae

If you say you're an ape - I'm not going to argue that. But I'm not. I have lived in a jungle - time between hot showers would be 6 months. After returning to civilization, couldn't sleep inside any structure, and would still sleep on the ground outside at night for a couple more months, gradually adjusting back. And sorry, I didn't take on the appearance of an ape. Surely if hogs can alter their appearance significantly in a couple months, I could have changed in six. But I didn't. Well, my hair was longer, my skin was darker, mosquitoes would no longer bite me even as they buzzed around me, I could smell, detect, and track upwind humans from 3/4 mile away due entirely to their different diet. But it was still me. I got sideways with some of the monkeys there, as they were very territorial, and I've been run out of some of their territorial areas since they took extreme exception to my presence. If I had said I looked into they eyes of some, and "detected" some complex thoughts - what would your response be to me? Would I get the benefit of doubt, or would a tendency to disagree for the purpose of disagreeing be your response? Would you suggest I was "reaching?"

Humans are apes, my friend. Edit: If humans lived within a jungle environment, wouldn't they likely far more resemble the other great apes? My city happens to have perhaps the country's best zoo. I've spent time looking thru a pane of glass into a gorilla's eyes. I assure you, the ape I observed is not far removed from me or you. There's complex thought going on in that gorilla's brain.

Word salad. Species do not necessarily "improve." They do adapt, so that subsequent generations occasionally mutate, and if that mutation helps the progeny to better adapt to their environment, their genes will affect their offspring. It does NOT mean they are better than their predecessors, it only means current specimens are better adapted to survive their current environment.

F/A, tell me you've not slipped into the 19th century expectation that succeeding evolved species were improved and superior to their predecessors.

And that's why, if I ever got my hands on one, the world would not know a thing about it for another year or even two - the time it takes to prevent such an occurrence. They're not going extinct anytime soon. Too many of them, too tuned into their environment, and too widespread.