Food Containers Disappearing And Need Help With Getting Tracks To Find Out What Is Taking It!

[Guest Coonbo]

lightheart,  I'm totally with you there.  I haven't photographed or cast a track in years and I usually only photograph things I come across that are unusual, or something that I can use for teaching.  I learned that I saw and found a larger quantity of interesting things if I just immersed myself in the habitat/environment and quit worrying about trying to find some "souvenir" or "proof".  I'm convinced that they watch us much more closely than we realize.  If we are attuned to right things, good things can happen.  This isn't always so, but if you are repeatedly returning to a certain area, you need to be keenly aware of how you're perceived. 

[Xion Comrade]

Well whereas the container from 2 weeks ago disappeared completely, the 2 containers I left in it's place(A week ago) were completely and totally untouched after a week of sitting in the woods(Just got back from checking on em)...This has happened before, one time in spring I had 15lbs(All in containers with lids cracked) of awesome apples and stuff just sit out to go bad, when I discovered this was when right in the very area those containers were sitting I had that gifting experience(It was also the same exact spot just a couple of weeks before this I had my first bigfoot experience, one walking up to me and standing just a couple of feet from me while I was laying in my hammock, 2x in one night, not a visual sighting but a oh so obvious and revealing experience nonetheless), one had taken a roaring chewbacca toy and gave me a few knocks, probably followed me around the woods too but I didn't realize it until later. I was really sad when I saw that the food stuff was untouched, but that experience more than made up for it!

 

Alot of people think they are scary, personally I just think they are goofy dudes. I am sure one could make me poo and pee myself pretty easily and it would make for some great fun(For them atleast), but I have never been afraid of them for more than a second or two. I figure alot of the things they do that people interpret as scary or threatening behavior are actually just them demonstrating a strong wild sense of humor and us being to uptight about it, and I am willing to test that theory to the extreme, that is what I set out to do in the first place. I'd totally let one kidnap me at this point tbh. Be pretty funny to know what their thought processes are like.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Xion Comrade

[Guest lightheart]

Coonbo,

Thank you for the kind words. Yes I absolutely know that they are close by enough to observe what you are doing most of the time. I had a pretty amazing experience with this in the heart of the summer. I was walking down a spot of trail and came upon about 15 tracks made by three individuals. They were just everywhere. I was carrying a plastic bag to pick up trash so I just bent down and started rubbing them out after looking at them for identification. The Mosquitos were so bad that they were swarming around me and biting me.( kind of like the FB show in Alaska) I was totally alone so I started kind of yelling. " You can't be doing this....Look at all these tracks....They are everywhere...." Then a stick snapped from within 10 feet or so....."Still almost shouting I said . " Yeah I know you are there....but you can't be doing this...These tracks are everywhere." As soon as those words were out of my mouth I had a realization that I was standing in the middle of the trail reaming (sp) out a Sasquatch. So I took a deep breath lowered my voice and said it again in a calmer tone....ha ha. I started rubbing out some more tracks but the Mosquitos were carrying parts of me away by that time. I dropped the bag where it was and trotted a ways down the trail to get away from them for a few minutes. Went on down to where there was a breeze for about 5 minutes and then headed back to finish rubbing out the tracks. The bag was gone.....Not even a hint of breeze that morning. I would have passed any person that had picked it up.....So I used my shoe for the rest of them and left for the day.....way too many Mosquitos. The next time I went there was a remarkable gift left a short ways down from the spot where the footprints were. About a month later a plastic bag was left in the middle of a trail that I had already passed down. I said thank you and picked it up.

I decided over the summer that I would just kind of take a Native American approach with this. I don't chase them. If I see them I pretend I didn't and keep on going. About every three months I leave a small natural item as a token of goodwill but I don't try to get a regular exchange going. Not sure that would be a good idea for either party. I don't really want anything from them except safe passage as I am hiking. By just immersing myself in the environment with all my senses alert I have been able to draw some rough conclusions about how they live and what they do. I find it fascinating to tell the truth and I really enjoy my time in the woods as well.

Edited January 11, 2015 by lightheart

[Guest lightheart]

Zion

Read Stillwater's list of do's and don't s on the researchers habituation thread. I think it is some of the best advice I have ever read. I believe it is post 134. I tried to copy and repost but I am still getting used to my new iPad. It is really important not to become overconfident after they took your gift.

[Xion Comrade]

Zion

Read Stillwater's list of do's and don't s on the researchers habituation thread. I think it is some of the best advice I have ever read. I believe it is post 134. I tried to copy and repost but I am still getting used to my new iPad. It is really important not to become overconfident after they took your gift.

I'll read the snot out of it once I get home! Thanks for the pointer

[Guest]

A game cam would at least tell you if it is bear, racoon etc. If put in the open, and stuff is never taken for a few months, (animal proof containers) then you take game cam away, and it starts disappearing, you might conclude its the big fellows.

[norseman]

Ok so here is a common theme in my are I keep experiencing. I leave food(About 4 or 5 apples covered in peanut butter) in one of these containers(About as big as your head)...

 

https://www.glad.com/images/glamour/freezerware_large_2.png

 

So far over the course of my time in this area I have lost atleast 8 of these exact containers, they are simply gone. I looked for 3 hours spanning a mile radius from where I had left one and neither it nor it's lid were anywhere to be found, just poof gone. What on earth does this? I know for certain I have pretty stout bigfoot activity in this area and that they are not afraid to take some food from me, but I wanted to see if anyone had any similar experiences where another animal did something like this. A guy at work thinks maybe deer(Says he has seen them carry things a long ways), and I think a bear COULD do it(Not a deer though), but why? When I picture ANY animal that is even strong enough(Which rules out everything but huge coyotes, deer, or a bear) to pick up one of these and carry it off I cannot see any practical reason for it, because it would have to be carrying just a empty container(It would all fall out)...

 

I have had these same animals eat the food I leave out and when I was 100% sure it was a bear or a deer(Left tracks in mud) they always left the containers where they were. I sometimes have the lids attatched, sometimes just sitting ontop of the container to let the scent out more. Sometimes the lid is left laying and the container is gone but typically it is the whole thing that gets totally gone when this happens. No chewed pieces, no nothing, and never a halfway decent track to tell me what takes it(Sometimes some huge game trails and impressions appear around the area I put the food though)...Don't get me wrong, this doesn't happen every single time I leave food out, but it is a common thing. Maybe half or 1/3 just vanish, the others are almost always totally untouched, with just a few being obviously eaten by typical woodland critters.

 

Which brings me to my next point, guy at work figures I should dump about 50lbs of sand out and place one of the containers in the middle of it, anyone have any experience/advice with this sort of thing? Really really would like to find out what is taking these containers(Probably lost 50 bucks worth of the things so far lol) and am planning to do one spot with the sand trap and another one just plain so as not to be to forceful, a sort of "Please let me see your footprint but it's ok if you don't want to show it also" deal.

We use flour with bear baits.

[Sasfooty]

So how's that working out Norseman?

[Woodslore]

Ever try 550 cord to hold the container or maybe a chain? Could always hook a bear bell to it. did that with things raccoon's were taking once. Just a thought. Maybe get a metal one and hang it in a tree so whatever is taking it can get the apples. 

[norseman]

So how's that working out Norseman?

It worked awesome until they outlawed the practice of baiting. It's still legal in many states.

Not only could you judge size, but you could also see them at night, outlined by flour.

[Sasfooty]

Bears or Bigfoots?

[Woodslore]

It worked awesome until they outlawed the practice of baiting. It's still legal in many states.

 

To hunt bear here in Nova Scotia you need to have a bait tag.

[norseman]

Bears or Bigfoots?

Bears? If you thought I was talking Bigfoot my apologies.....

But it could work for Bigfoot, worth a try I guess if your on a budget and want to see your thief's footprints.

[Sasfooty]

I can imagine it working for bears, racoons, etc., but BFs are very careful what they step on/in. I guess it would be nice to know what, other than BF, was taking the apples, though.

[norseman]

Are you basing your belief of squatch being careful where they step based on the skookum cast? Or?