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2015 The State Of Sasquatch Science


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Posted

There are people who aren't interested in the truth, just in winning the argument.  Bigfoot skeptics are a prominent example of this.

Posted

So...any bigfoot papers published by Meldrum outside of RHI?

Posted (edited)

No offense to the weekend and more than that researchers out there, and indeed we have some brilliant individuals including yourself SWWASP, well at least in terms of building cool stuff. Trust me in that I know that it will be one of our own who pioneers the art of predictability and locating these creatures, who learns how to observe them and approach them, however that might play out, I am just saying that it deserves more than the average weekend warrior to move things forward, and perhaps some of you are much more than average. I fancy myself to be at least a tick above average when it comes to understanding animal behavior, but is that enough? I am by no means brilliant. As some of you are whole heartedly agreeing....

Edited by Lake County Bigfooot
Posted

It's not a question of expertise.  It's a question of time and money.  Like all of science.

BFF Patron
Posted (edited)

No problem LCB.    It is a question of time and money DWA.   I have probably spent more of my own money than a university professor would likely do and spend more time in the field than the average weekender.    But from my experience in the military throwing money at something does not always guarantee good results.    The plan, procedures, field techniques all have to fit the problem at hand.    BF is a technical problem to solve.   While your average redneck bigfoot hunter can probably blunder into an encounter, they are not going to provide anything much of use to science as a result.   My personal problem is trying to solve the thing,  with the money and time I have available.    What most field researchers are doing is not working.     And I do not subscribe to the self described "expert" because if their methods worked,  we would have video better than the PG video,  DNA,  a body or skeleton,  or something convincing to get science interested.     

 

I am probably on my third iteration of field techniques trying to find something that has a better chance of success.  That will continue to evolve.    Some of that, like aerial search has not been cheap.   The Falcon Project people were not at all interested in the results of my findings about aerial survey methods.   It was probably good that the plug on that was pulled early.   The main problem with BF researchers jealousy and the sharing of  information.   There is little of that going on.    There are fairly well funded groups that do not share findings at all.    Most are founded by individuals who have had accidental encounters and they spend the rest of their lives trying to prove what they already know to others.   I have to put myself in that category too.   A presenter at a recent conference wants to start a foundation, have a huge museum open to the public, and turn BF into a non profit cash cow with other people paying the tab, and of course they would be running the non profit and on the payroll.    Talk about putting the cart before the horse.    The first step is convince science, that there is something out in the woods to find.   

Edited by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
Posted

This should be an easy one, can anyone recommend a battery rig for long term digital field recording, I use a Tascam mk7 and generally only get about 12 hours of recording off of rechargeable AA batteries, I am currently trying the new Ultimate Lithium Batteries for some recording in areas away from my property, right now I am deployed at the real Gander Mountain, hardly a mountain, but it was a spot I found Bear prints several years back, close to the river, the State Park, borders a huge rock quarry, and is some of the most southern glacial mounds extending from the Kettle Moraine. It would be nice to have a bigger rig to leave the thing out there for several weeks at a time. Any ideas on ones being sold, or ones easy to fabricate?

Posted

Not necessarily easy LCB. I am assuming that you set your unit to 'Auto Rec' or whatever the noise activated setting is to maximize run time. A company with a selection of battery packs typically used for video is "Bescor". A large selection and a battery run time feature. Their battery packs have 4 pin XLR plugs. You would have to adapt. Also, "PowerStream" has many batteries for your pack assembling future. Do you 'bag' your recorder to protect it from weather? An interesting de-humidifier is 'Humidisorb', from Trailcampro. I buy silica type de-humidifiers from Jake's Market Place. I have Bescor and PowerStream products. You will end up with big wall warts to recharge your batteries.

BFF Patron
Posted

Three things limit a digital recorder. The recording format, batteries and the SD card. I use a format that gives sort of medium quality and medium recording time on the biggest SD card it will hold. If I do get something, I want a quality that can be analyzed with software. The recordings for the Sierra Sounds that Ron Morehead did would be much better if they were done on a modern digital recorder instead of the cassette recorders available at the time. If you get something you want a reasonable quality recording. The auto record function increases SD card capability but will probably not trigger for a lot of distant sounds. Those recorders are set up for recoding music at normal sound levels which for most musicians now days is loud and not something that might be a great distance away. The Tascam probably allows an external battery eliminator. My Zoom recorder does. That can give you a very long recording time respective to power using a motorcycle battery. The SD card will be the limiting factor with external power.

Posted (edited)

Happy to report on my Sony M10. A friend traveled to southern WA a couple days ago and dropped it for me in an interesting area. The stormy conditions probably will make the files worthless, but that's okay. It was under something and bagged, yet still was sitting in a tablespoon or so of water that got forced in. It produced a message of "file damaged" yesterday, but is working today. Tough stuff.

 

Two AAs will allow recording overnight, about twelve hours, for roughly three nights, so nearing forty hours. I don't know how long they'd take to drain in continuous recording, as I haven't tried it.

Edited by JKH
Posted

"It is a question of time and money......."  

 

 "The main problem with BF researchers jealousy and the sharing of  information."

 

"There are fairly well funded groups that do not share findings at all."  

 

 

 

1) How much time and money? 

What do you think the return on investment would be in total $$ for discovery? Time shouldn't be much of a problem with the activity some groups claim to experience.

 

2) I often wonder if there aren't other motives besides jealousy and greed?

By watching and listening we can learn a lot about human nature. You can also learn from reading boards and watching videos as well. I suspect that the most obvious reasons for not sharing info isn't greed and jealousy. 

 

3) Who are these well funded shadow groups that don't share?

 

Thanks

BFF Patron
Posted (edited)

The only groups that are concerned about return on investment are those that are already making money from BF. If BF is proven most of their reasons for being around are gone. "Someone else found Bigfoot" is not likely to be a TV series. Attend a Bigfoot expedition lately or a bigfoot conference? It likely cost you several hundred dollars for the expedition and a lot of money to attend the conference. My last conference cost me about $400 if you include the hotel and admission fee. If you can go see one in a zoo, who would pay that kind of money not to see one in the wild.

I suspect the reason for most of the secrecy is that groups or individuals want to be the one that proved the existence of the creature. Secret research areas, methods, techniques all follow. Talk shows, documentaries, book deals, conference gigs, all would be the fallout for the one that proved existence. That is where the money is. The person that brought out the Mountain Gorilla body did not get rich from the act. Nor will the person that delivers a BF body to a lab from that act. It will be from all that which follows.

Edited by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
  • Upvote 1
Posted

You may want to consider that fairly well funded groups have nothing to 'share'.

  • Upvote 2
Posted

It's a emperor with no cloths deal with these groups

Look at the colossal failure of the nawac to put forth anything of scientific value. Then they cobble together that terrible monograph full of stories and pictures of rocks and pretend its science.

  • Upvote 4
Posted (edited)

It was enough to impress some individuals in that at least they followed scientific protocols. Back to the recording, I only record in continuous mode, and I suggest you do likewise, SWWASP is right in that much of what I have picked up would not have been activated by that mode. I know Stan Courtney and others use parabolic dishes to amplify distant regions and a microphone that is multi directional with a furry wind sock, that is the wildlife recorders standard so to speak. I like the idea of using an external battery, like a motorcycle battery. I will have to see if that is possible with the Tascam DR07mkii that I am using. On a local note I am certain that the humming I get when recording at home is the cell tower very near by, that really sucks. It is perfectly quiet when I am indoors or elsewhere. About to go through my last six hours of off property recording from Gander Mountain (hardly a mountain), though it makes for a good short work out for a 51 year old. I got about 20 hours of continuous recording out of the ultimate lithium energizers with a cold night near frost. Better than the average of 13 with rechargeable batteries I use for home recording. But I am shooting for about 200 hours which would eat up my 32 gig card. I generally record in Mp3 mode with the highest definition, it uses about a gig for every 7 hours of recording. To go back through the recording I use the NCH wavepad editing software, the newer version has a scrub feature which allows for panning over the file listening for anomalies, a seven hour file can be loaded and panned in 15 minutes or so, depending on the amount of interesting moments. I am not just recording to capture Sasquatch, I want to know what is using the area, deer, owls, coyotes, fox, and whatever else shows up, it is all educational and helps me see the bigger picture. Most nights I have captured anomalies I might suggest were sasquatch related, I had coyote activity in the area, that is just my observation.

Edited by Lake County Bigfooot
BFF Patron
Posted

It was enough to impress some individuals in that at least they followed scientific protocols. Back to the recording, I only record in continuous mode, and I suggest you do likewise, SWWASP is right in that much of what I have picked up would not have been activated by that mode. I know Stan Courtney and others use parabolic dishes to amplify distant regions and a microphone that is multi directional with a furry wind sock, that is the wildlife recorders standard so to speak. I like the idea of using an external battery, like a motorcycle battery. I will have to see if that is possible with the Tascam DR07mkii that I am using. On a local note I am certain that the humming I get when recording at home is the cell tower very near by, that really sucks. It is perfectly quiet when I am indoors or elsewhere. About to go through my last six hours of off property recording from Gander Mountain (hardly a mountain), though it makes for a good short work out for a 51 year old. I got about 20 hours of continuous recording out of the ultimate lithium energizers with a cold night near frost. Better than the average of 13 with rechargeable batteries I use for home recording. But I am shooting for about 200 hours which would eat up my 32 gig card. I generally record in Mp3 mode with the highest definition, it uses about a gig for every 7 hours of recording. To go back through the recording I use the NCH wavepad editing software, the newer version has a scrub feature which allows for panning over the file listening for anomalies, a seven hour file can be loaded and panned in 15 minutes or so, depending on the amount of interesting moments. I am not just recording to capture Sasquatch, I want to know what is using the area, deer, owls, coyotes, fox, and whatever else shows up, it is all educational and helps me see the bigger picture. Most nights I have captured anomalies I might suggest were sasquatch related, I had coyote activity in the area, that is just my observation.

MP3 mode has such a low sample rate that unless you are recording for personal entertainment and to share your recordings, they would be of little use to scientific analysis. Depends on your purpose for doing it. Here is a picture of a dish I made. Two feet in diameter. If you get tired of listening at night you can roast hotdogs on it in the daytime. Or burn a hole in your car set like I did. Lucky I did not burn up the car. If you aim it at a fluttering leaf at 100 yards you can hear the leaf flutter. Be careful with the voltages when using a motor cycle battery. A lot of recorders use 5 or 6 volts. If you look around you can find car converters that will convert 12 volts to 5 or 6 volts. You might have to change out the plug to match your recording device.

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