Why Is Bigfoot So... Big?

[Guest BFSleuth]

Put a gun in a human's hands and he/she is at the top of the food chain.... until the bullets run out.

[Rockape]

I'm sure some of the older generation can relate to being barefoot as kids and going barefoot as soon as the snow was off the ground. I've read lots of stories. Shoes were expensive in the rural areas during the depression and war years and many kids had a pair only for school and/or church.

Growing up in the warm clime of Texas I would usually chunk the shoes as soon as school was out and not put them back on (Unless forced by my parents) until the next school year. By the end of summer the bottom of my feet were like shoe leather and I could walk on blazing hot oil sand roads with no problem.

[salubrious]

I know someone who tried to walk barefoot for a whole year. What he says about how tough your feet get after only a few weeks is worthy of note!

even then how did they keep from getting small injuries with infection risk every day, like scratches from walking through brush?

Its a matter of proper movement. The less clothes you wear, the less likely you are to get scratched up. You did read that right. Of course there is more to it than that. Tom Brown Jr. has something he calls a 'drum stalk' he teaches that is done blindfolded, away from paths and you can choose how much clothing (for the most part). Those with the least clothing (shorts or whatever) seem to do the best. Blindfolded, you learn to use your other senses pretty quickly. This keeps you from running into trees, and when confronted with a wall of brush, a sense to know how to move through it with the least effort. I wouldn't be saying this if I had not experienced it.

[Guest]

I still wear plenty of fabric when I go into the woods. I'm tired of all the poison ivy, ticks, and mosquitos getting to me. I have noticed however that I get much more scratched up because any thorn orpricker will snag in the fabric and slash along while the fabric moves in the direction opposite of the skin under it. Sometimes I think I'd like to slash and burn the whole woods down but then I collapse in my air-conditioned home and decide it would be too much work.

[salubrious]

[Guest poignant]

Ah bumping an old thread. Staying large also results in lower caloric requirements per pound of body weight.

I'd hate to be a small animal going through winter.

Think about all that mass I'd have to consume just in order not to burn out and starve.

[Guest]

Interesting read, good bump poignant.

I think the large size is simply survival rather than predatory. I disagree with sasquatch being THE apex predator simply because, and I may be wrong, but aren't the apex predators typically obligate carnivores? Lion, Cougar, Shark etc? I don't think the evidence exists that sasquatch are obligate carnivores. So to survive against large predators (cougar, wolves) and other large omnivores (bears), they had to either be more social in larger groups and greater numbers or become larger and stronger.

-KW

[Guest]

Gigantopithecus was a huge creature, which is what I tend to think BF might be evolved from (or at least some of them could be) and lived concurrent with more recent forms of humanoids, who were much smaller. Different niches, perhaps, different food sources. Liking these discussions.

[Guest vilnoori]

I think Sasquatches are big for the same reason so many of the megafauna of the last glaciation were.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna

[Guest BFSleuth]

Interesting that megafauna as K-strategists are longer lived with fewer offspring. I wonder if this might mean that BF might be long lived, perhaps longer lived than humans?

[Guest zenmonkey]

I think Sasquatches are big for the same reason so many of the megafauna of the last glaciation were.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna

agreed, but what gets me is the feet. they arent great ape feet. Where and when did that adaptation come into play?

[Guest]

Interesting that megafauna as K-strategists are longer lived with fewer offspring. I wonder if this might mean that BF might be long lived, perhaps longer lived than humans?

Apes ae also K-strategists in that sense. Humans live longer than most animals our size but that may be due to our culture and medicine. Humans live longer than elephants too.

agreed, but what gets me is the feet. they arent great ape feet. Where and when did that adaptation come into play?

Humans are great apes too.

[Guest]

Vilnoori, BFF members- just to say in remembers Rˆchard Stubstads hypothesis is that the Sasquatch may have a bigger cerabiliumn(?) than us, hence bigger body.

[Guest]

Body mass does not agree with brain mass 100%. There are other factors and even humans do not scale up or down that way uniformly. IIf bigfoot is 100% Homo sapiens just larger then the brain is only going to slightly larger than a shorter human's brain. This will not mean anything regarding bigfoot intelligence beyond having human-like intelligence. Humans can have great intelligence without having an enormous cerebellum. And humans with bigger brains can be very stupid too.

Yes, there is probably some connection between brain size andbody size and intelligence but it isn't the whole story.

Edited September 19, 2012 by antfoot

[Guest]

I believe it's because they descend from giganto. Giganto was so big because it was ground dwelling and lived with tigers and large pythons. it's larger size offered it extra protection.