Bigfoot's Adapted Night Vision

[Guest]

I absolutely think they have great night vision, I have heard numerous stories of them traveling very fast in the dark of night and without night vision they would be smacking into big trees and be severely injured, I imagine a BF with no front teeth would have some problems chomping thru some tasty deer or elk! Also, I think they move around and hunt at night as they are SO big, they would be spotted more easily and they know this...

[MIB]

Hmmm .. can't seem to edit again so ... I forgot something.

 

Given my personal experiences the question of "whether" is not valid or worth my time to debate.   The question of interest is "how do they see in the dark" or possibly "how do they give the appearance of seeing in the dark."    I don't see that answer to be found in debate with scoftics or even discussion with armchair proponents, it's not to be located on the internet nor in a book.  It requires investing some time and money on field experiments.   Unlike high school science class, unlike science on TV, there's no promise of an answer within the allotted hour or even semester, it just takes as long as it takes.

 

MIB

[TD-40]

I don't think bigfoot are nocturnal because they have adapted to be or choose to be. I think they are nocturnal because they have to for stalking prey and because it's cooler. Imagine being 8' tall, 500 lbs, with thick fur while out walking 20 miles per  day. It's gotta get hot. Might as well move around at night.

 

However, there have been threads about theories of bigfoot having some kind of nighttime visual capabilities that are unique to them, such as bioluminescence. Hard to say, really, why they are thought to be nocturnal.

[NCBFr]

I do not think their superior night vision is anything more complicated than having extra large pupil and retinas allowing for more light in to their eye than humans.  I read somewhere that an Owl can spot a mouse on a football field lit by a single candle.  BF's eyes are probably twice the size of humans and Owls.  Also, I have never heard of anyone saying they saw the whites of BFs eyes.  All references to eyes seem to be large and dark when seen in the day.

[LeafTalker]

You could be right, about the actual mechanism(s) that allow them to see better at night, NCBRR.

 

But some reports do suggest that at least some BF have sclera (or whatever you call the whites of the eye): 

 

http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_report.asp?id=28423

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=2050

http://www.sasquatchcanada.com/manitoba-sightings.html

[Airdale]

The creature that slapped my house five to six times, so hard the inner wall shook, in August of '09 must have had pretty decent night vision. It ran off down our backyard on two legs just after midnight with no significant ambient light. We live on two acres in the foothills of the Elkhorn Mountains about five miles south of Helena, Montana. The only level part of the property is a narrow strip of front yard. The backyard is an average 6% grade with uneven ground, large outcroppings of ex-foliated granite, thick shrubbery and trees, ending in a steep sided ravine with more rock outcroppings and a small creek. The ravine is over 20' deep at the upper end, and other than 150' or so that we've thinned out at the lower end over the last several years, is pretty well choked with Aspen, Pine, Fir, Russian Olive and Spruce trees as well as choke cherry bushes and thick clusters of Giant Ropeweed. There are also wild Clematis and Rose Bush vines up to 3" in diameter that often interlace with the trees and other underbrush. There are places a human could not get through in the daylight without protective clothing and something along the lines of a cordless reciprocating saw. What ever struck the house was not deterred by any of those obstacles and was obviously quite heavy by the sound of the footfalls.

[Guest thermalman]

If ever proven true, Mike Greene's thermal capture would be an excellent indicator of how well BF can see in pitch blackness, as it navigates through the forest. One of the best thermal captures on the net. Although inconclusive, it makes a good argument for the existence of BF.

Edited October 17, 2014 by thermalman

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Some very good observations guys, I certainly lean toward this creature having keen night vision,

but somehow still quite able to see in the daylight.  I think they use their eyes and ears primarily, and

the sense of smell secondarily to locate prey.  This is why they are ambush predators and lying in

wait for either animals pushed toward them, or ones that wander by.  They are not like a bear sniffing

the breeze for scent.  Of course everything here is all of our own personal conjecture, based on what

we have read or heard, not science of any kind, nor would I pretend for it to be a scientific discussion.

That is quite another discussion to be had at a future date.

[NCBFr]

LT - Thank you for the links, made for some interesting morning reading.

[Guest Divergent1]

I wondered about Neanderthal's big eyes, great for night vision on those long winter nights, but how did they cope with the intense light reflected off of the snow during the day? I've never read anything about that and I doubt we will ever have an answer to that one.

 

I'm curious about the reports of bigfoot without the white sclera that we have. I know other primates, like chimpanzees, don't appear to have a white sclera. The sclera of the eye isn't necessarily involved in vision and the fact that theirs isn't white might have nothing to do with night vision.

 

I do know that the genetic code for vision, night versus day, in mammals can toggle back and forth depending on environmental pressures. It's not something that is a dual ability, you either have one or the other. I decided to look at cestaceans in other water mammalian species since they function in the low light of the lakes and oceans but also spend a fair amount of time on the surface.

 

http://www-stud.rbi.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~krotzky/Neuro-Seminar/Peichl1.pdf

 

What I got from this is that they might be color blind in order to adapt to different light levels. In the dark they would see a bigger variation of shades than we would which would be essential for hunting prey. Research on color blind humans has demonstrated that the best military snipers are color blind so this seems to be the best explanation for what is noted in bigfoot reports.

[LeafTalker]

Sure thing, NCBRR. Glad you liked the reports. 

[jayjeti]

I do not think their superior night vision is anything more complicated than having extra large pupil and retinas allowing for more light in to their eye than humans.  I read somewhere that an Owl can spot a mouse on a football field lit by a single candle.  BF's eyes are probably twice the size of humans and Owls.  Also, I have never heard of anyone saying they saw the whites of BFs eyes.  All references to eyes seem to be large and dark when seen in the day.

 

Larger eyes might help, but animals with night vision, like owls, have features beyond large eyes, like more cones to see things in low light.  Animals with night vision produce a visible "eye shine" due to the tapeta lucida, a layer of tissue immediately behind the retina that reflects visible light back through the retina and increases light available to the photoreceptors.  Some have noted eye shine coming from bigfoot.  Cats have night vision and will produce eye shine, and their night vision is not due to large eyes, but due to the make-up of the eye affording them better vision in low light than is possible for creatures without enhanced night vision, such as humans.  

[Wingman1]

I would think it has something to do with the internal structure of the eye to allow for enhanced night vision.

It is hard to conclude anything with certainty. Their daytime vision may not be quite as acute as it is during

the night, but without an actual BF eye to study who can really say. Definitely something worth pondering

over though.

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Quite interesting Divergent1, marine animals loss of the S cone and development of monochromacy is one type of development from being

in limited light environments, although in this case the depths of the seas.  Sasquatch may be variable in the level of nocturnal behavior they

engage in due to other factors I deem obvious, say for instance living near humans.  But if for some reason, say a limited gene pool, some of

the creatures inherit this form of color blindness, well that could be why they are forced into a more nocturnal existence, but some may have

escaped those traits, and do quite well in the daylight.  Just a theory to throw out there while we are wading in the mud...I think that more thought

ought to be given to the limited number of individuals and the effects that would have on a specie long term.  Some quirks might actual benefit

survival, say an adaption toward nocturnal behavior, others may deficit survival, perhaps a bent toward sweets...

[Guest Divergent1]

Another aspect might be how they perceive color, or the lack there of, in the environment that they've learned to interact with. I found this site as I did more reading on color blindness. Some of the demonstrations reminded me of what people with synthesia might experience and how blind people might adapt to their lack of vision.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see?language=en

Edited October 18, 2014 by Divergent1