BobbyO Posted October 10, 2016 SSR Team Posted October 10, 2016 That's a nice story Branco. Im still not convinced it's what you are perceiving it as to be, but it's a nice story and I appreciate you taking the time out to write it. She sounds like she was a lovely horse.
MIB Posted October 11, 2016 Moderator Posted October 11, 2016 15 hours ago, BobbyO said: anthropomorphism is a real thing. It is, it is indeed, however, I'm by no means convinced that the term is appropriately used in this situation. There are way too many indicators that bigfoot is a very close relative indeed. I think they fall in a gray area where "wildlife" paradigms cannot be ethically applied but the laws for humans don't quite fit either. It's somewhat like dealing with mentally incompetent humans: we're limited in what we can do to them and we're also limited to the degree we can hold them accountable. I suspect rather than anthropomorphism, the situation is closer to racial or cultural difference in what is vs is not "funny." Amazonian tribesmen may not understand jokes about robots but everyone understands a dead skunk in the tent. The bigger concern with jokes with bigfoot is what's funny vs what's deadly and when are the lines crossed. ... IMHO, of course. MIB PS: I "fear" now they're going to revoke my ape-camp card. Whatever will I do with myself? (Imagine dramatic hand to forehead. :))
JDL Posted October 11, 2016 Posted October 11, 2016 I can't think of anything I've seen that I could characterize as a prank. I've written about how one left a very large, still steaming pile of feces in the middle of a trail as an obvious message, but I took that as a warning and show of disrespect more than anything. When I prevented one from fishing a puppy out of our tent one night, it clearly conveyed disgust as it gave up and walked away, so there's no doubt in my mind that they are capable of that. Come to think of it, though, a sub-adolescent female once threw a couple of pebbles at me from behind a boulder. It was just up the hill from our home and my brother and I were hunting lizards in the skirt of rocks that had formed along the base of a highly eroded hill. A week before, the area was chock full of scores of lizards, but on this particular day there were none, and someone bigger than me had actually picked up many of the water melon to engine block sized rocks and tossed them a few feet away from the hill. As I was looking among the remaining rocks, a pebble skittering down them, got my attention, and as I was looking for the lizard that had caused the pebble to move, another pebble sailed over my right shoulder, hit the slope, and rolled down. I immediately turned to my right rear and snapped at my brother, a continual prankster and thorn in my side, "stop throwing rocks at me", but he was even further away and to my left rear. There was no way he could have thrown the pebble and moved to where he was that quickly. Looking in the direction the pebble had come from, the only place of concealment was a boulder in the mouth of a wash between the base of the hill and the base of the next hill. About twenty yards away. It was a pretty fair distance to throw a pea-sized pebble, but someone had. I said to my brother that I thought some kids were throwing rocks at us and that we should go catch them. Usually he was up for anything like that, but he balked. When I pressed him, he still refused and when I asked why he wouldn't he got agitated and told me that he thought "some people" were living back in the draw. I said, "well I'm going to catch them", and he took off running for home. Apparently the people had put a scare into him. At 11, he was a miscreant prone to sneaking out of the house at night to hang out with a couple of other kids like himself, drinking pilfered beer and smoking pilfered cigarettes. The draw was a logical meeting place close to, but away from the housing development. I watched him go, thinking about that, then decided to confront the kid(s). I approached the boulder (bigger than me) and looked behind it. No one there. No one was up either of the tree-less slopes of the draw, so I figured they had retreated uphill through the snaking draw. I followed, expecting to catch up with them as I rounded each turn. Finally, about a hundred yards up and in, I rounded a curve quickly enough to see the brown, hair covered backside of a "kid" (smaller than me) rounding the next turn on two legs. I slowed down, thought about it. Realized it was one of "them" (I'd only encountered adults prior to that), understood then why my brother was spooked, then continued more cautiously, checking the slopes above and the trail ahead of me more carefully. I reached the top of the draw, a large, relatively level area - more of a basin with a few large boulders in it surrounded by three hilltops, with an opening to a second draw going down the other side, and found that it was eerily silent. Nothing moving. No rodents, no insects, no birds, and every blade of vegetation that could contain water had been scoured from the area (this was high desert in the Eastern foothills of the Sierras). It reminded me of the ground immediately around a fire ant mound, but no ants. It had occurred to me that I was chasing someone's/something's kid, there were too many places among the boulders for adults to hide, and I considered that if I looked further, I'd find something I didn't want to face. I turned and left more quickly than I'd come. Anyway, I can't think of any reason the lone "kid" would throw a few pebbles, not at me, but intended to draw my attention, other than to mess with me. Beyond this, I do think that they do something akin to counting coup sometimes. Approaching a group of people or a house, demonstrating how close they can get and get away with it. 1
ShadowBorn Posted October 11, 2016 Moderator Posted October 11, 2016 Branco Those rocks in that picture, were they found too? I was just wondering since they were also in the picture as well. One of the rocks looks like a complete circle in the lower left and in the upper right that rock looks weird too. Up north in Michigan I have had my camper slapped by some thing while I was inside it sleeping. Everyone was out side by the camp fire and no one seen nothing and the slap came from the back area of my camper. The rock we found was on a log and it was next to my tent and it was about the same size rock. I was in the tent when the creature was out side my tent by myself. I did have to lock and load my pistol very slowly so it could not hear it. At the time I did not know it had the rock until after it left and I heard the other two return from the creek. So I know they do not know how to count. But they were watching our camp site and I must have doze off since they did take our salmon where the rock was found. But I heard them next to my tent and I wanted to cut a hole in my tent but was so scared out of my wits that I held onto my pistol tight safety off.
guyzonthropus Posted October 11, 2016 Posted October 11, 2016 JDL- I bet the one that left the "trail marker" was simply showing that it did care... Because it really did give a s%@# !! 1
Branco Posted October 11, 2016 Posted October 11, 2016 (edited) ShadowBorn: No Sir, those other rocks are just some unusual ones I've found and brought back from the Ouachita Mountains for the kids to look at.. I just placed the BF rock on the big one so the pic didn't show a bunch the adjoining unusual rocks. I'll bet if you had started slinging lead when you first heard that slap. that rock would have been air mailed to you in your tent. Frankly, as tired and sleepy as I was, I'm glad I didn't hear him walk up to the camper. BTW, one thing I didn't mention in that "BF rock" post. Saturday night I asked Keith to buy me a watermelon and bring it when he came back Sunday. He did, and when I broke camp, I left the melon on that trail down to the beaver pond, just far enough down so it couldn't be seen. He called when I got home, and said the melon was carried off either Sunday night or Monday night. The hunting club has one gated entrance, and members and quests are required to sign in on a weather protected bulletin board inside the gate. No one but Keith had signed in since we broke camp. Edited October 11, 2016 by Branco
ShadowBorn Posted October 11, 2016 Moderator Posted October 11, 2016 Thanks Branco The camper incident was one event and the rock incident was another incident at another time. Thank you for sharing on what you have learned and yes if it was any small critters there be a mess around the area of the melon. 5 hours ago, guyzonthropus said: JDL- I bet the one that left the "trail marker" was simply showing that it did care... Because it really did give a s%@# !! Guy I believe that it truly cared to leave you know what. You know DNA evidence.
Branco Posted October 12, 2016 Posted October 12, 2016 Just saw this on a side panel of the Drudge Report. Even apes love a good trick. http://www.newszoom.com/video/orangutan-cracks-up-watching-magic-trick/
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