Migration

[norseman]

Good one norseman. Any idea on the distance there ? IF they can actually cover 100 miles in a very short time, in a field season of foraging, that looks like either a big range or any number of possibilities. I think Doc Meldrum suggests BIG territories at least for some. Then you have potential clan competition that is likely variable depending on .. uh.. the variables.

If my memory is correct, and it was N. Cali to SW Washington?

I mapquested Eureka California to Prineville Oregon to Walla Walla Washington (Squatch wouldn't detour to Portland) and came up with roughly 650 miles.

[norseman]

Also, with other species, males generally tend to range farther and wider than females.

[Guest]

No probs, it's just that you have a habit of making things sound like just because you have said/wrote it, that that's the end of it, when it's not..

If I've written something that is demonstrably "not" then by all means illustrate my error.

[BobbyO]

If I've written something that is demonstrably "not" then by all means illustrate my error.

Zzzzzz

[Guest tracker]

The big guys could travel those distances in one year let alone many if they had or wanted to. You can't compare them with human abilities. They don't tire or get held up by terrain or weather conditions, Maybe just open ground during the day and running into us would slow them down.

How far could a person ride a horse in one year ? 800 miles is doable in the cold seasons with extended dark hours.

[norseman]

The big guys could travel those distances in one year let alone many if they had or wanted to. You can't compare them with human abilities. They don't tire or get held up by terrain or weather conditions, Maybe just open ground during the day and running into us would slow them down.

How far could a person ride a horse in one year ? 800 miles is doable in the cold seasons with extended dark hours.

People do the Pacific Crest trail in one season, so it's perfectly doable.

[Guest vilnoori]

How about the NA stories about them riding logs down rivers, if you account for that they could go a lot faster and further than you think.

[Guest ajciani]

Maybe, but my point was that the addition of a few wolves to Yellowstone was very much noticed.

I believe you mean the addition of a few wolf packs was noticed. They hardly noticed the natural return of wolves until there were so many that they were having territorial fights. The only way they even manage to track the wolves is with radio collars. When the collard wolves died, they had to spend a lot of effort finding the pack again, so now they collar about 1/4 of the pack.

A few bigfoots spending the winter hunting deer in, say, Alabama? That should leave a lot of carcasses lying around by spring, and probably some notable decline in deer numbers during subsequent growing seasons.

You underestimate both the ability of nature to destroy a carcass, even during winter, and the number of deer.

There was a deer that got hit on the road, buried in snow, and plowed off the road onto an embankment. By the time the snow melted, the only thing left of that deer was some fur and some bones. I almost didn't even notice it while driving past. I once found a deer's rib cage while scouting off-trail, rotted flesh webbed between the nearly bare bones. A few weeks later, there was not even a trace of it, and that was before spring.

You also grossly underestimate the numbers of deer. In California, the deer are so prolific, that poachers and joy-shooters barely make a dent. The only way the DFG people notice them is during parole searches or when people turn them in. The annual deer harvest is about 25,000 to 30,000 deer, and the population has varied between 600,000 and 800,000 in the last decade. Even if a family of bigfoots ate 1 deer per day, that's only 365 per year, which is probably less than are killed on the road in the same territory.

In Illinois, we harvest between 175,000 and 200,000 deer per year. The size of the population is not known exactly, but it is between 1 and 2 million (it's a rather large margin of error). Illinois could easily misplace 10 or 20 thousand deer every year. If they ate nothing but deer: saying a typical deer provides a usable 30,000 calories in meat, another 15,000 calories in organs, and a typical bigfoot would need 8,000 calories per day, those unnoticed deer could feed 150 to 300 bigfoots per year. BTW, car collisions account for about another 25,000 per year in Illinois. Oh yes, geese are plentiful, so are ducks, and during summer, I am sure they eat plants and tubers as well. This State could probably support 1,000 bigfoots, and our naturalists would never notice the impact.

Every year in Illinois we probably scatter (through lost deer during hunting and auto accident wounding) about 20,000 deer carcasses in the woods. That's roughly 3 square miles per deer carcass. Of course, there's about another 20,000 to 40,000 that probably just drop dead, or meet the coyotes. So we should be finding a deer carcass in roughly every square mile of woods every year. I have never found a deer carcass in the woods in Illinois. I have found deer fur in the coyote poop, and carcasses on the roads, but never a carcass in the woods. Oh, and that 1 per square mile includes all the farm land and urban area as well.

[Guest]

In Illinois, we harvest between 175,000 and 200,000 deer per year. The size of the population is not known exactly, but it is between 1 and 2 million (it's a rather large margin of error). Illinois could easily misplace 10 or 20 thousand deer every year. If they ate nothing but deer: saying a typical deer provides a usable 30,000 calories in meat, another 15,000 calories in organs, and a typical bigfoot would need 8,000 calories per day, those unnoticed deer could feed 150 to 300 bigfoots per year. BTW, car collisions account for about another 25,000 per year in Illinois. Oh yes, geese are plentiful, so are ducks, and during summer, I am sure they eat plants and tubers as well. This State could probably support 1,000 bigfoots, and our naturalists would never notice the impact.

Every year in Illinois we probably scatter (through lost deer during hunting and auto accident wounding) about 20,000 deer carcasses in the woods. That's roughly 3 square miles per deer carcass. Of course, there's about another 20,000 to 40,000 that probably just drop dead, or meet the coyotes. So we should be finding a deer carcass in roughly every square mile of woods every year. I have never found a deer carcass in the woods in Illinois. I have found deer fur in the coyote poop, and carcasses on the roads, but never a carcass in the woods. Oh, and that 1 per square mile includes all the farm land and urban area as well.

even in new york, that harvest is huge, 220,000 in 2009 alone, thats a lot of deer to be running around, hardly any natural predators.....in sure if biggie was feasting on these critters , it would hardly make a dent at all....

these are consistent numbers not just a one good year type of thing, so even if 5 % were consumed by the big guy, it wouldnt be noticed at all...

yup, thats 11,000 deer that are really tasty ny deer, lol.......

http://www.hvqdma.com/nys-2009-deer-harvest-numbers/

[Guest tracker]

Yea i agree know one would notice an extra hundred deer missing in areas where a few thousand live.

Edited December 19, 2010 by tracker

[BobbyO]

Yea i agree know one would notice an extra hundred deer missing in areas where a few thousand live.

I think the numbers are even wider than that Track, i'd say it would be a few hundred per Year where there are Tens, & even more likely Hundreds of Thousands of Deer.

Whatever we are to assume, the numbers are in favour of the " Pro " side of the arguement & to say that if BF ate Deer the numbers would be noticed, is ridiculous in my opinion especially in States where the Deer Population is in the 6 figure bracket, when the overall Deer Population in the US is over 20 Million..

[Guest]

I know you were using this as a hypothetical situation, but the deer population in Alabama as of 2010 was 1,800,000. They are a real nuisance for farmers. Several smaller airports have had to fence around the runways to keep them from cutting across and causing plane wrecks. I think that the Alabama DNR would welcome a few bigfoots to thin out the population. Here are a few stats on deer and car accidents from State Farm:

According to State Farm Insurance, Pennsylvania comes in first as the state that has the most automobile and dear crashes. A survey done by the insurance company showed that 1.5 million automobiles are involved in collisions with deer each year and have caused 150 deaths and $1.1 billion in damages. Deer migrate and mate between October and December and that is when most accidents occur. The time that they most often happen seems to be first thing in the morning and dusk. Since a deer can weight over 200 pounds, a run in with one can cause death to a driver, passengers, the deer and thousands of dollars in damage to your car.

Based on rankings of the total number of deer accident claims filed with State Farm other states that rank high with deer car accidents are Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Minnesota, Virginia, Indiana, Texas and Wisconsin.

I think someone suggested that they follow herds? I haven't got the time right this minute to look at the relationship between deer migration and bigfoot sightings but it might be interesting to check it out.

[BobbyO]

I know you were using this as a hypothetical situation, but the deer population in Alabama as of 2010 was 1,800,000. They are a real nuisance for farmers. Several smaller airports have had to fence around the runways to keep them from cutting across and causing plane wrecks. I think that the Alabama DNR would welcome a few bigfoots to thin out the population. Here are a few stats on deer and car accidents from State Farm:

According to State Farm Insurance, Pennsylvania comes in first as the state that has the most automobile and dear crashes. A survey done by the insurance company showed that 1.5 million automobiles are involved in collisions with deer each year and have caused 150 deaths and $1.1 billion in damages. Deer migrate and mate between October and December and that is when most accidents occur. The time that they most often happen seems to be first thing in the morning and dusk. Since a deer can weight over 200 pounds, a run in with one can cause death to a driver, passengers, the deer and thousands of dollars in damage to your car.

Based on rankings of the total number of deer accident claims filed with State Farm other states that rank high with deer car accidents are Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Minnesota, Virginia, Indiana, Texas and Wisconsin.

I think someone suggested that they follow herds? I haven't got the time right this minute to look at the relationship between deer migration and bigfoot sightings but it might be interesting to check it out.

We have a little Jodie, on Page 2 of this Thread..

In Colorado specifically & if i were to do it for other States ( buy the relevent Maps ), the $$ would start mounting up a little..

[Guest Spazmo]

I think someone suggested that they follow herds? I haven't got the time right this minute to look at the relationship between deer migration and bigfoot sightings but it might be interesting to check it out.

Several of us have done this (as BobbyO mentioned) with results that might show a correlation. I've shown a correlation in my area, but the number of reports is too low for me to make a definite determination. The numbers BobbyO posted (with deer/elk migration maps) is far more telling than what I have done.

[Guest]

Yeah, now that my memory is jogged I remember the Colorado map in the thread. That's great Spazmo, I've only been interested in the topic for a little over a year and don't know what everyone has done so I'm usually a day late and a dollar short with my suggestions.