Opinions on Sasquatches and Game cams

[MIB]

1 hour ago, Twist said:

^^^ Do you have those often? 

 

That requires a careful answer.    In general, no, quite infrequent on average but there are brief blips where for a period of days in a very narrow location, it is predictable, and in a couple places, it is for the same short window of time each year.    It is suggestive of bumping into something making a seasonal migration but there is no other indication there's anything there.     The times I am sure there is something there, it's not a "scary" thing at all.   So quite different from what is reported.

[norseman]

I’ve had an uneasy feeling once while packing mules in the Frank Church wilderness. If Bigfoot was around I never detected him. I was camped outside Cold meadows and was riding up to the rim of the Salmon River. A place called grand dad’s cabin or something like that. I was by myself. If I remember right I had the stock act up on the high line one night. And then riding through this one area I consistently had a creepy feeling like I was being watched. I chalked it up to a Cougar. I had a mule deer tag and a bear tag. Missed the Elk tags they were all sold out.

 

Never cut Cougar sign either. What it was is unknown to me. I’ve been sleeping by myself in the woods since I was a boy. Dunno.

 

Beautiful country. Very hard to access. I used the stoddard creek pack bridge to get in there which has since washed away. Closest town? Salmon Idaho?

[Twist]

50 minutes ago, MIB said:

 

That requires a careful answer.    In general, no, quite infrequent on average but there are brief blips where for a period of days in a very narrow location, it is predictable, and in a couple places, it is for the same short window of time each year.    It is suggestive of bumping into something making a seasonal migration but there is no other indication there's anything there.     The times I am sure there is something there, it's not a "scary" thing at all.   So quite different from what is reported.

 

 

Thank you for the answer.   Creeps one out regardless of the predator.   I assume that IT raised your hackles.  Glad you came out safe.   
 

 

5 minutes ago, norseman said:

I’ve had an uneasy feeling once while packing mules in the Frank Church wilderness. If Bigfoot was around I never detected him. I was camped outside Cold meadows and was riding up to the rim of the Salmon River. A place called grand dad’s cabin or something like that. I was by myself. If I remember right I had the stock act up on the high line one night. And then riding through this one area I consistently had a creepy feeling like I was being watched. I chalked it up to a Cougar. I had a mule deer tag and a bear tag. Missed the Elk tags they were all sold out.

 

Never cut Cougar sign either. What it was is unknown to me. I’ve been sleeping by myself in the woods since I was a boy. Dunno.

 

Beautiful country. Very hard to access. I used the stoddard creek pack bridge to get in there which has since washed away. Closest town? Salmon Idaho?

 

Same, glad you came out safe.   Living to tell the tale is always preferred.  

[iacozizzle]

Orangutans visit the tree almost daily, but with range problems in the dense canopy, the cameras don't always fire. And the orangutans, seeming to spot the cameras, take circuitous routes to avoid passing near them.Dec 7, 2016

nationalgeographic.com

 

 

Nice Shot! An Orangutan's Hairy Climb - National Geographic

 

 

Article has a pay wall unfortunately.   I've read that one idea is that the orangutans associate the cameras with humans and want nothing to do with them.

 

I speculate it's similar with sasquatch.   The trail cams stick out as unnatural in their world and they associate the cams with us.  Humans made it, humans put it there and the humans might still be around.  Sasquatch avoids camera and heads to territory with less human activity.   

[norseman]

39 minutes ago, Twist said:

 

 

Thank you for the answer.   Creeps one out regardless of the predator.   I assume that IT raised your hackles.  Glad you came out safe.   
 

 

 

Same, glad you came out safe.   Living to tell the tale is always preferred.  

I am glad i wasn't on it!

 

https://www.postregister.com/news/local/work-continues-on-stoddard-pack-bridge/article_e315bf10-652e-11ed-9716-4321375bed19.html

 

Down river at Campbells Ferry I was leading a string across a similar bridge when I was attacked by Hornets! Another story. 

[Chim Chim]

Being watched in the woods is definitely noticeable, I trail run several times per week and stop every mile or so and do push-ups/sit-ups.  I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’d be in the middle of that and feel like I was being watched and look up and see a deer/coyote/fox/etc looking at me wondering what the crazy human is doing.  I rarely see people but when I do if they catch me on the ground like that they’ll look at me like I’m half nuts, it’s all good, I just say Hi and laugh when they walk away.

[Doodler]

Whatever they are, they're programmed like every other animal with instincts. 

 

I've seen deer do some truly stupid things, but in the woods, they know without thought when something moves. The eyes trigger the neurons to fire straight to the muscles without going through the wrinkly stuff at all. You do the same thing with snakes and spiders. It takes training to not immediately jump when surprised.

 

I've always assumed they exist in small enough numbers, and we just aren't putting that many cameras out, and they don't have to see a camera to sense it. I've always assumed they simply freeze, study the situation, and divert around if they see, smell, hear anything unusual. I can hear a trail camera click, I can see the red illuminator, and my hearing is wrecked from decades of drumming and driving loud cars without hearing protection... But I can head the clicks. My vision is terrible, astigmatism, floaters, somewhat color blind but I can see the red lights.

 

And if there's only a few hundred of these things, a million cameras in the woods aren't going to see one.

[BElrod]

On 1/28/2024 at 8:04 PM, DarkEyes said:

What are people’s thoughts about the allegations that Sasquatches “avoid” or are “deterred” by game cameras?

I've noticed that at least some predators seem to avoid traveling the same path as their prey.  On cameras where I get deer, elk and moose; the bears and cougar are mostly seen crossing rather than following the trail.  

 

Blue Mountains of Washington Cinnamon Bear crossing the game trail.

[Amonchris]

On 1/29/2024 at 7:02 PM, MIB said:

I suspect they recognize tech as a human thing.    The don't seem to overly trust us and by extension, our stuff.    Exceptions of course, but there seems to be a difference between what we've seemingly tried to hide (cameras) and things we just leave on the ground (grader tires).   

I have always believed they think anything held by a human is a gun. 

[MIB]

13 hours ago, Amonchris said:

I have always believed they think anything held by a human is a gun. 

 

I think you overestimate their fear of guns.   It's not the gun, it's the person holding it.    SCARED people with guns are dangerous, unpredictable, volatile.   Calm, confident people with guns are just calm, confident people .. not a threat.   It's the fear that turns the gun into a hazard.   Humans telegraph fear quite loudly in our posture, motions, and so on.    I've had a couple of sightings, camp visits at night, been punked / messed with .. and every time, minus one, I had a gun, often a hunting rifle slung over my shoulder, not something hidden.    It ain't about the gun, it's about the human.

[BElrod]

On 1/29/2024 at 6:19 PM, Huntster said:

I do believe that many of them have a pretty good concept of firearms, because I full well know that some bears and crows do. I have have had two bears react like a criminal when a rifle was either pointed at them or the bolt was worked (even with other human noises going on at the time), and I even found that crows would disregard me pointing a broom at them, but would take off like their tail feathers were on fire if I put the broom down and picked up the shotgun.

 

I've seen this behavior, but I do not have reason to think it is related to any concept of firearms.  I'd call it 'recognizing predatory behavior'. 

I used to keep goats and raised up to 100 kids per year.  To sell breeding stock, I listed photos on a website.  It was amusing, and frustrating, to see how some (not all) of these goats would go into full panic when I'd point a camera at them and raise it to my eye.  Some would even scream as they ran away.  However, I could get good photos of them by shooting from the hip.  Apparently shooting from the hip is not predatory behavior? 

 

Similarly, I've noticed that some coyotes lolygag in the camera's IR while it's recording video and other coyotes are startled and scramble away.  I've also been with a group of 4 people watching 2 bull moose.  Neither our side-by-side approaching nor getting out and talking bothered the moose.  Squeezing an empty water bottle sent them running.  

[Catmandoo]

13 hours ago, BElrod said:

Apparently shooting from the hip is not predatory behavior? 

 

In the previous century, we learned that for 'man in the street' photography, a camera held up to eyes was intimidating. Less conspicuous and almost invisible / blending in was / is the 'twin lens reflex' camera held at gut level. 'TLR' cameras are not extinct. Unfortunately, very few members / lurkers of this forum can handle a TLR and film. Film does not have AI (hint). For 35mm and larger formats there are 'waist level finders' to shift the optics away from eye level. Evolution in the digital world has view finders that flip out and rotate for various viewing angles. For hand held shooting, you may want to practice holding a camera / camcorder at your belly button. A stabilizer complicates the procedure.

 

We hold weapons up to our eyes for optical sighting and animals seem to understand that posture. The exception is 'cowboy shooting' and that worked for Rambo and John Wayne.

[Northern Lights]

I've said this before in other threads, but it needs to be said again. 

 

We built a sound proof container, and tested whether game cams emit any sound, even in sleep mode and found they ALL did.  High frequency sound, above our hearing level.  We feel that game cams are basically sirens to wildlife.  How many pictures do you see with deer or bear staring straight at the camera, plenty.  

 

We attempted to try and tamp down the potential sound by embedding them directly into trees (see below).  Even using a hot glue gun to put the bark over as much as possible and still have it work.  We kept this camera in place for 2 years and was about 500 yards from where I had a 15 minute thermal sighting and this camera didn't get anything worthwhile.  

 

After finding out about the high frequency sounds, we went to a couple of manufacturers asking if they were aware and if they would try and reduce or eliminate the noise and they were not interested in putting in the time or effort to explore that type of design.  It wasn't in their interest since the cameras work perfectly well for capturing images of wildlife.  

 

I would recommend using a game cam to keep a nuisance squatch away, but don't expect to capture them with the current technology.  My 2 cents.  

[Catmandoo]

Nice burying job on the Reconyx Hyperfire.  I suspect that you were watched during your camera burying actions. Glow or low glow? The ultrasonic noise from the Hyperfire is not a spherical pattern or symmetrical. Looking at the front of the camera, the capacitors for the flash are at the upper left location. The loudest ultrasonic noise emits out of the left side and left upper area. Asymmetrical shielding is difficult.  Turning off the flash presents a less noisy camera and night time triggers will record a time stamp of unidentified animal activity. The flash-less PlotWatchers emit ultrasonic noise. There are anecdotal comments about 'knowing' Bucks avoiding trail cameras.

 

Many years ago, Reconyx made the 'Silent Image' camera with their electronics in a slightly modified SeaHorse brand equipment case. The case was made out of polypropylene, about 1/4" thick. Polypropylene (PP) does an excellent job of attenuating ultrasonic noise. PP is in the polyolefin group. Placing a trail camera inside a case requires planning, tools and lots of arts & crafts. Not all of the camera evils are dealt with by using an external PP case. Magnetism and EMF are more difficult to deal with.

 

Surveillance camera manufacturers stick to products that humans can't see or hear.

 

I would like to have  nuisance Sasquatch, but closing the distance is a challenge. If current technology is a problem, we need to have Sherman set the WAYBAK machine to a time of equipment with less tech.

Taking inflation into account, my 25 cents worth.

 

Some links for further reading:

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349603546_Animal_detections_increase_by_using_a_wide-angle_camera_trap_model_but_not_by_periodically_repositioning_camera_traps_within_study_sites

 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110832

 

https://naturespy.org/can-animals-hear-camera-traps/#:~:text=Although many mammals may be,actually pick up the sounds.

 

 

[BElrod]

On 4/20/2024 at 9:07 AM, Northern Lights said:

I would recommend using a game cam to keep a nuisance squatch away, 

 

I've heard this advice on tv shows.  It would be an interesting experiment to hang game cameras without batteries to see if that changed the behavior of a 'nuisance squatch'.