JanV Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 So many of our observations seem to stress the strengths of BF: speed, strength, awareness. I wonder what vulnerabilities they might have. For instance, their sense of smell. Most primates, humans included, don't have a very good sense of smell. What about BF? Do we have any evidence - anecdotal or otherwise - regarding their sense of smell, eyesight, hearing? What weaknesses might they have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DWA Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 More than a few hunters have had a clean shot had they wanted to take one. One guy in Manitoba did and killed one. I'm thinking that they're on a par with other wildlife - that get regularly taken by hunters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyO Posted February 19, 2014 SSR Team Share Posted February 19, 2014 The need for food would surely at some stage make them vulnerable, unless an overpowering feeling to stay concealed ( for want of a better term ) stops them at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coonbo Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) BobbyO is correct. A lot of sightings and vocalizations are seen and heard due to BF family units and/or individuals moving around in their territory to different food sources. This is verified by reading the numerous reports where BF are doing things directly related to food (stealing pigs, chickens, vegetables from gardens, picking grapes, fruit, raiding fridges and freezers, rummaging garbage cans and dumpsters, stalking/killing game, etc., etc., etc.... I can't help but think that many more sighting and vocalizations we see/hear, while not obvious to us as food related, actually are - that we see or hear them in transit to or from food. Where I lived south of Hobo Station, Mississippi, about once every 10 days to 2 weeks, the local "troup" would have to cross an 80 acre field to move between two large wooded areas. They would follow a creek bed that cut through the field, between the two woods. As individual members moved up or down the creek bed, they would let out short little whoops, presumably to keep them all informed where they were, and what their progress was. The first one that made it all the way across would let out a distinctly different call that I took to mean "I made it! Everything's cool. Y'all come on." Sometimes I'd join in on their whoops and they didn't like that very much. Edited February 19, 2014 by Coonbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanV Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Do you think their vocalizations are always deliberate? Or could uncontrolled vocalizations be a weakness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyO Posted February 19, 2014 SSR Team Share Posted February 19, 2014 They'd surely always be for a reason. I don't think anyone knows for what reason, but a reason nevertheless. Communication with others would be my bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DWA Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Do you think their vocalizations are always deliberate? Or could uncontrolled vocalizations be a weakness? Well, uncontrolled vocalizations in other primates get a treatment here and yep, it could be a problem: http://woodape.org/index.php/about-bigfoot/articles/233-lenhardtcommentary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coonbo Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) I believe they're mostly deliberate. Too many times I've heard the babies and/or young ones crying or making a racket and then heard a very obvious sharp warning or scolding from an older one, and it's suddenly dead quiet. I believe they are taught, from very early age to control their vocalizations. BUT... I've also witnessed with my own eyes and ears twice, while he was doing it, frustrated boogers grumbling, and in one of those incidents it was also popping its teeth together while grumbling. I've heard it also, when I couldn't see the BF. Believe it or not, it sounds a lot like the grumblings of "Taz" the Looney Toons Tasmanian devil. I'm not sure if any of the vocalizations heard during these incidents were deliberate or just brought about by frustration. One of the incidents I witnessed was frustration because I had moved a molasses and sweet feed dispenser and he couldn't get to it easily as before. He was definitely vulnerable, and had I been in possession of a nuclear tipped LAWS rocket, I coulda dropped him in his tracks, or at least gotten his attention and made him even more aggravated. P.S.: If you're ever out in the boonies by yourself, even if you're armed, and you hear a grumbling noise that sounds something like Taz, and it's coming towards you and sounding more aggravated the closer it gets - do yourself a favor - open an Extra Large can of GONE and get the heck outta there...... NOW! Edited February 19, 2014 by Coonbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gotta Know Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 ^ Noted and appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incorrigible1 Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 The creature's kryptonite seems to be any visual recording device. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coonbo Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Concerning the OP and the question about BF senses, my opinions, based purely on what I've seen in the field and other anecdotal evidence, are as follows: Sight: Fantastic night vision, probably equal to any other animal out there and better than most. Daytime vision: color vision probably not as good as ours due to retina being packed with rod cells for superior night vision. Might even be color blind in some part of the spectrum (if so, most likely red). Resolution and binocular vision: equal to or almost as good as ours. Spatial acuity: close to equal to ours, maybe a little better, maybe a little worse (I lean towards better than ours because of the many reports of them running at high speed over and through rough, uneven terrain and not falling and busting their butts.). Peripheral vision: much better than ours due to more rod cells. Hearing: Equal to or maybe slightly better than the best of us within our range of hearing. Probably lots better than the average human, because most humans have at least some hearing loss due to lots of exposure to damaging sound levels. I also believe they can hear sounds outside our best range of hearing. Certainly down into the infra-sound spectrum, and maybe up into the ultra-sound spectrum. Smell: Just because they are so much larger than us, there are more square inches available for receptor cells in their nasal passages. And if more space available equals more receptor cells, then I believe they can out-smell us. This is probably an important sense for them in that it would allow them to smell ripe and available food sources at a distance. Even our sense of smell can be fine tuned and become more acute when we spend a lot of time in the boonies. I can remember in the jungles of Central America being able to smell the presence of the enemy and natives. Also, even now I can often smell where a buck deer has been, or smell a nearby bluegill spawning bed, or the presence of a copperhead or cottonmouth, and other weird things. If you've ever seen the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (I highly recommend it, and it's based on a true story), when Johnson rides up on a mountain man named Bear Claw, out in the middle of nowhere, and starts to introduce himself, Bear Claw says something like "I know who you are! You're the same dumb pilgrim that I been hearin' for twenty days, and smellin' for three!" That's sort of the way it is when you've been "out there" for quite a while, so that's why I believe that generally BF's senses are much better than the normal, techno-warped, rock music drowned, urbanized, over confidence soaked human. And there's something else - the intangible known as the "sixth sense". Most of us have so deeply suppressed ours to the point it's non-existent or non-functional, whereas BF's is running wide open in overdrive. Because of their size and need for relatively large amounts of food, given a stable, suitable habitat, that need for food is their largest source of vulnerability, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Coonbo i enjoy your reading your posts very interesting stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cotter Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Smell: ..... I can remember in the jungles of Central America being able to smell the presence of the enemy and natives. Also, even now I can often smell where a buck deer has been, or smell a nearby bluegill spawning bed, or the presence of a copperhead or cottonmouth, and other weird things. My dad was a Sgt. in WWII, he had a native american scout. This scout could smell the japanese in the jungles of New Guinea. My old man said it was the craziest thing he'd ever experienced. Came in handy more than a few times I guess. I know what you mean about the buck deer......I've come upon scrapes and smelled em before I'd see em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIB Posted February 20, 2014 Moderator Share Posted February 20, 2014 I don't think they have many or they compensate for them pretty well else we wouldn't still have a mystery, would we? The end result speaks to that pretty clearly. Specifically regarding their vision ... based on the reports, my guess is their eyes are enough larger than ours that while they may have a different balance to the number of rods 'n' cones than we have, they can have more of both for better acuity in both daylight and dark. If they have a weakness, it might be behavioral rather than physical: curiosity. MIB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Weaknesses? Settling down with just one other BF...all Sasquatches practice polygamy, and that's a fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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