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I think the best circumstantial evidence was obtained by the Olympic Project.

502 was definitely a bad gateway. Glad to see it was not our pathway

Just wondering if its still the seething hotbed of opinions and contention it was always rumored to be.....also I'm still curious about the purple glow.........lol

I think you have to ask some followup questions. 1) WHEN did the encounter occur, because I think media attention has changed the answer over time, at least in terms of averages. 2) WHO are you? Because I think different demographics have different propensities to report. I take a LOT of local reports via word of mouth that are never formally submitted .. truly, I've heard many accounts even from BFRO and Olympic Project members around the campfire that I do not think are part of any public database. I think we have to be very careful, in the context of your question, about assuming any uniformity of answer. Then there's the question of what constitutes a report? Formal submission? Sharing with other bigfooters informally? Sharing with family .. who may not be proponents? Those will vary for each of us depending on something which may vary from trust of those we're sharing with to deliberately, abrasively jamming it down their throats and daring them to voice doubt.

I was visiting my cousin (who grew up and currently lives on the northern coast of Oregon) 2 years ago and she revealed to me that she had a sighting in her backyard in the 80's. She has known of my interest in squatching for the last 15 years, but never said a thing. She finally opened up and told everyone after 40 years.

^^^ Absolutely. That's one reason why old reports may be less reliable. Numerous (probably most) encounter reports give only the year, then at best the month and date. However, the inability to remember a date doesn't necessarily taint a witness's report. I can recount in painful detail a jump I made somewhere between '85 and '86 (maybe '87) where the 'chute wrapped around my leg. The fact that I don't remember the date without pulling out my (very short) jump log book doesn't make my recollection of the events any less credible.

The distinction I am trying to make? Is that a Bear is not self aware. It doesn’t recognize itself in a mirror, it attacks the mirror. It doesn’t understand that it’s leaving tracks that others can follow either. It itself tracks like a bloodhound, on scent. It has poor eyesight, but most importantly it’s not self aware. Knuckle walking great apes are self aware. They may react like a Bear at first. But they quickly figure out they are seeing their own reflection. Jeff Meldrum talks about making Chimp casts and observing the chimps be self aware of their own footprints in the sand. So if knuckle walking great apes are self aware? Surely a bipedal Sasquatch is more self aware than they are. This is the cognition part that most animals lack. So back to tracks. If you live in the woods and are hunting and foraging in the woods? You’re gonna leave sign. It’s inescapable. The key difference is having the cognitive ability to understand this. And if you don’t want to be found? Then you’re going to mitigate the risk as much as feesably possible. But you cannot erase it entirely. But if you understand this concept you can also use it as a WEAPON against the trackers. You could leave a short track way in the opposite direction of your families intended travel. You could stage a track in an area where you can easily observe your trackers from concealment. A false trail buys you time while the tracker has to sort it out. There are lots of counter tactics in the game of tracker and being tracked. This leaves the territory of a hunter tracking a deer through the woods. This is military and law enforcement territory. Where a tracked human could be leading you into an ambush. Now you’re asking yourself things like? Why is this track left in such an obvious way? Is it a misdirection? Are we being observed? Is it a stall for time? You may be a city slicker but if you’re honestly interested in this subject? There are lots of good books to read and you can practice some of it in your own backyard or a park. I observed a trackway in snow with my father. I have zero doubt that a Sasquatch knows it’s leaving tracks. IT KNOWS. So the question then becomes did it care? Or could it not be helped? If it doesn’t care then it probably has an ulterior motive. Which should send a cold shiver up your spine. But in our case hunting for a Xmas tree in an area we normally would not be in that time of year? And in deep snow? It probably just couldn’t be helped. In that case it’s probably betting on the fact that a human on snowshoes just cannot keep up in deep snow in mountainous terrain. And it is impossible to erase a snow trackway anyhow. So make haste. I have mulled this concept over in my head many times. Even when I am out in the woods looking for tracks. A quarry that understands that you could be tracking it? Is a paradigm shift for most hunters, hikers and lay people. Tracks will never be the smoking gun. Dental resin casts are great conversation pieces but nothing more. But tracks will lead you to the creature…. That’s a certainty. IF we are good enough to follow them and the weather holds.🤷‍♂️ The ultimate game of hide and seek.

https://www.science.org/content/article/mysterious-orange-lipped-monkey-discovered-deep-congo-rainforest-new-species I'm surprised that this doesn't have a thread yet. It seems tangentially relevant. This line I found interesting: "The Likweli monkey was first caught on camera in 2008, when a research expedition snapped a blurry photo of a black-pelted primate they didn’t recognize." That's right folks, all started with a blobmonkey!

For those who doubt the usefulness of DNA in identifying Bigfoot as a new species or a Homo sapiens hybrid, please read this paper on the Likweli monkey, which has extensive DNA results to demonstrate its place in monkey phylogeny as a distinct species. A similar paper on the Lesula monkey, another recent discovery, can be found in PLOS ONE.

^^^ This is a point Anna Nikaris has made about Bigfoot. She discovered some similar primate in Asia herself a few years ago. Never know what is out there.

For the moment, my little chunk o' heaven is calm. The East Evans Creek Fire (15,800 acres?) seems under control. The state fire marshal team tasked with structure protection left a week ago. The local IMT under state forestry has completed their 2 week rotation and has been replaced by a joint team from California and Australia. North-central and Eastern Oregon are a different situation. Something over 1.5 million acres have burned / are burning, several fires well beyond 100K acres, and today they're under a "PDS" red flag warning, not a red flag warning. I'd never heard the term. PDS is particularly dangerous situation. Low humidity, winds to 50 mph over active fires, and not enough resources to address new starts. Despite all of the conspiracy nonsense, these are lightning fires other than East Evans Creek which was the result of a car hitting a power pole and dropping live lines into dry brush.

How dare you question my opinion. When I said "thoughts?", I wasn't actually asking and I surely didn't expect anyone to provide anything worthwhile. Don't you know who I am? I'm like Ralphy in A Christmas Story after turning in his theme and in his mind getting an A+++++, with his classmates hoisting him upon their shoulders, and you are the teacher bringing me back to reality. Oh the gall of some people. Seriously though. Thanks for that. I did considered the car aspect and this was found several miles from the nearest road, so ruled that out. Stepping in holes? Maybe, maybe one leg, maybe and that is even far fetched in my mind. Let's examine this post mortem. What is going to scavenge in Minnesota? Coyotes, wolves, bears, and cougars and none of those would create torque resulting in spiral fractures. I think the key to this discussion really is the evidence of the spiral fractures themselves. That in my mind is quite telling. All good conversations. As a side note, later that same night, I watched a 9 foot squatch through a thermal walk through the forest, check out our camp as a guy was playing his native flute, and then move away for a total of 15 minutes (story for another thread). I'm pretty sure that is swaying my views on these breaks, but nevertheless I think they are good evidence.

A friend works on / volunteers on a ranch along the next river corridor to the west. They have found several deer skeletons, meat removed, just tendons, bones, and hide, with the rear leg broken and the neck snapped inside of an open-air barn. This is consistent with observations from other places. Thoughts? Well, you did ask. I think it is useless so far as providing evidence for existence. There are far too many alternate explanations for it to be convincing to anyone. Deer break their legs either stepping in holes, being hit by cars, and so on. As tendons dry, they can bend the neck or other joints in ways consistent with deliberate manipulation. What my friend found, the photos you shared, are interesting information for people who've already decided for themselves that bigfoot is, or is most probably, real, but so far as moving anyone from non-believer to believer .. nah, not going to move that needle in the slightest. I wish to thank you for sharing, don't want you to regret that based on my seemingly negative comments. I find it interesting .. but I'm not someone who needs convincing. MIB

Happy Anniv. Mr and Mrs. Huntster! I hope you are both feeling much better. Heat index in TN, MS and AR has been 110-127 sometimes lately and IT is nasty. (Climate change denialists look away, there is nothing to see here.) But, yes, Happy Birthday, USA! Our leaders are doing a lot of stupid things right now, but hopefully common sense will eventually prevail. I have hope for the future because we have smart and wonderful kids who deserve much, much better and they will change things. The recent BFF outage was unprecedented; thank-you Gigantor and whoever else helped to get it running again. Semper Fidelis!

Thank you to Gigantor for fixing our server!👏 Sorry folks!

We have a pathway and a gateway? Next thing you know we'll get all high-falutin' and have whatever high-falutin' websites have. Maybe a portal?

Had me worried, that was a long one! I don't post much but still visit often...

I recently read this thread in full. Super fascinating.

Holy kamoley! It's good to be back! Great to see old friends, again.

Wow! This is great! I was afraid we were done for good.

I don't think that's automatically a strange question. It is something we should be thinking about .. society-wise, not just bigfooters. I think the best answer is "it depends." There are some really bad assumptions built into the question, assumptions that should be examined. First thing .. what we consider "normal" is not historical normal. (1) Transpiration creates a downwind moisture plume which allows forest to grow in places it naturally could not. Fire destroys not just what it burns, but the downwind moisture plume which "artificially" supports forest in places that would naturally be desert if there were no forest upwind to provide the atmospheric moisture. (2) We have 100 years and more of fire fighting / fire prevention which has altered the natural landscape. Though it is familiar to us, it is not the long term norm and it is not "natural." Complicating things further, the Native Americans / First Nations people deliberately altered the environment / landscape with large scale fire. Because they seem to have arrived before deglaciation, there probably has not been a "natural" environment, one not altered by human activity, since before the last glacial maximum. Data suggest we are in a period of rapid climate change. Second thing .. forest regrowth is though a progression of stages. Once forest is lost, we get grasslands / brush, smaller trees, etc before big trees return. This can take centuries, not decades, not years, and given changing climate conditions, I'm not sure we will have periods between fires long enough for the cycle to complete, we seem to be looking at forest -> burn -> brush -> burn -> brush -> burn -> brush .. etc. We .. in my area .. are getting much more frequent dry lighting and large fires than we have ever had in recorded history. The opportunities for mature forest to re-form under these conditions seem nil. In fact it seems the only chance of restoration is via human intervention, not via natural processes. This situation seems likely to last for centuries, maybe tens of centuries, and the new equilibrium, if there is one, won't be the one we're used to. I suspect much of North America, if humans just vanished, would turn into a land of brush and grasses with very little "reclamation" by forest as we know it because of the increased rate of lightning fires driven by global warming. Once turned to brush and grasses, it is very difficult to return to forest because conditions don't last enough years in a row for that to happen. IMHO of course! MIB

Take care / stay safe!!

Hi, My name is Jack and I'm from Massachusetts, I'm new(ish) to the subject and look forward to learning more. Thank you for having me. Can't wait to dive right in!

I’ve often heard about the legend of the The Grey Man in Britain. It’s seems to be seen in the foggy,rocky and rugged mountains. There a number of sightings in England. Ive seen them three times on the West Coast of California and Oregon

This, in my opinion, is the best circumstantial evidence for the existence of sasquatch. Let me explain. I found these hind deer legs in northern Minnesota, both broken. The breaks are spiral fractures. In order to get a spiral fracture, the bones need to be twisted. In order to twist, thumbs are required (and tremendous strength). I have come across this multiple times. The next question, does this happen naturally? There was a research paper on this and the answer is yes rarely, and only under very limited conditions. Those conditions require a sun baked hard pan surface where bones were stepped on by large ungulates causing twisting breaks. These bones were found in a bog and as you can see, are sitting on sphagnum moss. Anyone else find similar evidence? Thoughts?

Yep. A "side consideration" in this regard is that the chances that the date of the 'claimed encounter' is misremembered/misreported the more time passes between event and report submission. My own report to BFRO, for instance, was submitted nearly 30 years after the actual event so the best I could do was try to back in to the date based on events and seasons surrounding it, I didn't have a specific record of the date.

^^^ Date of occurrence, to the degree of detail actually reported. Not all websites post date of reporting. A lot of reports from the 50s, 60s, and 70s are reported years or decades after the claimed encounter. For the 2000s, 36% were reported within 30 days of the claimed encounter. After 30 days, but within one year, 18%; after one year, 41%. 4% of the reports didn't provide enough information to draw a conclusion. Overall for 1340 reports, the numbers are 32% (w/in 30 days); 16% (> 30 days to 1 year); 46% (> 1 year); 4% (unknown).

Hello, my interest in bigfoot started years ago as a kid. It went away until I decided to embrace it for real a couple of years ago! I went on a BFRO expedition in New Mexico, and might possibly have had an experience... not exactly sure, but have some great pics. Now I'm in Florida and would love to get in with folks and learn all that I can.

Can you dig into the 2000s more specifically? I'm curious whether the increase came before or after Mysterious Encounters. It may have prompted an increase in reporting / knowledge of where to report in a manner similar to Finding Bigfoot.

Tar pit is still there. I am in favor of just ending the Premium membership. We can ask for donations once a year to keep the forum going. And I am willing to pick up the slack if it’s short. And Gigantor has graciously allowed us his server to use. But it’s open to discussion for cadre.

I agree with you on this. To me Bigfoot is near extinction which explains a lot.

https://youtu.be/b2rKogbd7mI?is=hN0WusbckkQOPozR

Koko and her sign language is actually quite remarkable. She not only used words in proper context, indicating conceptual understanding, she also would combine two words to express something she didn't already have a word/sign for. She acquired a very substantial vocabulary/lexicon of signs, and could express herself with pretty amazing clarity, especially in her later years. She also taught her offspring. What this says to me is that the cognitive basis for language exists before the physical processes develop. Unless, of course, it was our evolution of grunts and simple name gestures within our social context combined with our ever more upright stance and neck configuration which allowed us more refined control of the sounds we make, leading to defined verbal language, vocabulary and syntax which overshadowed any gesturing except during hunting when silence was needed. Only later would a more comprehensive gestural language be developed. And in this paradigm we humans imparted language to primates long before they had symbolic gestural communications, and that it required us and our pathway to be able to introduce verbal language of any form to them. And in doing so we effectively "violated the prime directive" by altering the course of their natural development. I guess the next stage of the experiment, were it not for contagions, would be to release signing great apes back into wild populations to see if this spread through different groups, and if they would find it an adaptation that betters their chances of survival or expands their capacity for abstraction. It is of interest to note that not only gorillas have learned this, but also chimps and orangutans, so there's some underlying predisposition for language amongst all of us.

Hi. My Username is FieldAnomaly, you can call me Scott. I've always been interested in Bigfoot type stories since high school (a long time ago) but it hasn't been a primary interest up until the last 6-8 months. I am a paranormal investigator with 20+ years experience in science-based investigations. I wrote a White Paper on the environmental events sometimes associated with Bigfoot encounters. I've recently applied my paranormal techniques on 2 solo backpacking trips, one on the Superior Hiking Trail, and one on the TN/KY border. I believe that if Bigfoot encounter stories are accurate, I can measure and quantify environmental changes. I'll be posting more in the main body, I'm just introducing myself for now.

This is a great point - Bigfoot probably do leave signs, but ... 1) If they live in very remote areas, few people will go there to find those signs. 2) If they dine and dash (graze on plants or pick off animals and then move on), then the evidence won't accumulate in one neat pile. 3) As a large animal, they probably have a large home range, so the bread crumbs are scattered over a very wide area. 4) The largest (credible) group of Bigfoot I've seen reported is 4 at one time, two adults and two juvenile-sized Bigfoot. If they do congregate somewhere, its very far from where humans go. Not arguing with any of the points you made - just want to start fleshing out some common sense (I hope) explanations for when skofftics show up and start saying, "where's the poop, where's the bone piles?"

Koko clearly had a chance to reach her potential because he IQ max (70-90) came into an environment where she got the attention, training, and so on at her zoo. If Koko was left the the wild Koko doesn't learn sign language and so on or at least at the impressive level we see on this videos. Its still spooky and impressive at the same time. I do think in our guts people naturally need to emotionally dismiss the things Apes do because it is hard to accept how close they are to us as 'normal people' I am guessing Bigfoot has at least a Koko level IQ. I consider that more potential of Bigfoot. I have to think Bigfoot uses whatever brains achieve its day to day working needs. If its day to day needs are a struggle it almost doesn't have the time for higher thought. If Bigfoot lived in Koko's zoo my guess is Bigfoot would be smarter on many levels vs. Koko. I would also guess Bigfoot would be able to achieve levels of learning Koko couldn't. None of this would happen though if Bigfoot didn't end up in an environment like Koko's zoo where this potential can become realized. Bigfoot is probably pretty smart and obviously good at hiding. I still say it doesn't mean Bigfoot has some really high level of smarts and understanding some suggest. I hope we never find out because to do so would be some rate animal was caged to do so.

Here is an Orangutan male passing the dot test. Instead of feeling threatened by “another” male in his vicinity? He calmly wipes the paint off his own forehead. Because he is self aware.

Hello, I am Kyle from Western, WA. I love being outdoors and learning everything about nature as possible. I have had a couple of strange encounters while living and hunting in Washington State. I am looking to meet people who share similar interests, and learn more about the topic of Sasquatch. Thank you for allowing me to be a member on this forum.

It’s amazing to think that 80s - 90s era camcorders took much worse footage than a 16mm camera in the late 60s.

Xspider1 its going to have to be a pretty extreme and extensive mutation for an individual to be deemed a unique species. The mutations would have have to be extensive enough to disguise the markers used to differentiate the original species, and I have hard time envisioning that occurring in anything but like bacteria, or fruit flies at best with their four chromasomes...maybe.... I'd think most mutations that would cause drastic morphological changes will prove lethal from the get go or shortly there after, unless, of course its the result of direct genetic manipulation recombining the genes of disparate species in a plotted out effort, but even then the original species involved could be identified. Were it by just a single inheritable trait that sasquatch is set apart from modern humans then it might well be attributed to an aberrant mutation, but there's clearly more involved in the differentiation between us.

Hello from Ohio. I have had a few personal encounters and am interested in hearing about other people’s experiences.

I became intested in bigfoot after a sighting on a road near north carolina i have been following it ever since

I agree with you .. but that's not relevant so far as moving the bar. What's in your mind, what's in my mind .. also not relevant to moving the bar. The only evidence that matters, so far as moving us closer to scientific acceptance, is evidence that skeptics and outright scoftics can't find an alternate explanation for. A body or a large enough piece to test and retest DNA from so many times that contamination or degradation is simply not a feasible explanation. There may be lesser evidence that draws scientists in .. then THEY will have to find the body instead of US, but ultimately it is going to come down to a body or major piece of a body. I wish I were wrong.

Hello all, I have been interested in bigfoot since 2012, when I remote viewed one in Missouri, then to my shock, he appeared in my driveway in person not long after. I've had multiple experiences over the past several years in Missouri and Illinois. I own the Unexplained Network, which has multiple shows about unexplained phenomena and of course, bigfoot. I cover the subject on my own podcast occassionally. I have a keen interest in the subject, and that is why I'm hositng two conferences this year, which I hope will continue into the future. I love hearing about other people's encounters and learning from professional invsetigators.I own the Unexplained Network, which has multiple shows about unexplained phenomena and, of course, Bigfoot.

I found this awhile ago.

Spent time with family! Best way to spend any time. We felt your pain, VaFooter, as the eastern panhandle was just as hot and humid!

Hi

Hi all I'm Shake, 35, and used to be a member of this forum a long time ago. My interested in sasquatch must have started almost 20 years ago, back when I was still a teenager living in Germany. I moved to Los Angeles eight years ago. I used to read the reports on BFRO for hours, absolutely riveted by the fact that hundreds of eyewitnesses were clearly describing the same mammal. How could they ALL be lying or hallucinating? I think what convinced me early on that sasquatches must be real is this BFRO page: https://www.bfro.net/news/SnowTracks/WI-tab.asp I was also fascinated with the Kentucky project, back before it was renamed the Erickson project (which happened around 17 years ago). There is a lengthy blogpost by DB Donlon about it that I'd love to share here later. My favourite recent evidence is the absolutely awesome Ouachita Project Monograph by the NAWAC: https://www.woodape.org/index.php/opmonograph/ I've also loved John Bindernagel's The Discovery of the Sasquatch. I'm dying to read his earlier book North America's Great Ape, but it doesn't seem to be available for purchase for under 100 $ anywhere... I'm excited to rejoin the fold of the one and only Bigfoot Forums! :)