MNskeptic Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 One will hear and read this commonly when on the subject of BF: The forest went completely dead silent when a BF was sighted. Let's assume this anecdote is true. Why? Why would song birds stop singing, chipmunks stop chipping, bees stop buzzing, and tree frogs stop croaking just because a BF was nearby? Makes no sense to me that many animals and insects in no danger of being foraged on by BF would suddenly go absolutely quiet when BF is in the area. And all species and genus of animal and insect act the same, at the same time, even when BF is no threat to them? That all animals and insects are even aware of BF's presence at the same time in the same general area would strike me as pretty amazing, too. So, what's going on with this 'silent forest' thing? I gotta believe there is more to the story than meets the eye...er, ears. MNSkeptic 1
MIB Posted November 10, 2015 Moderator Posted November 10, 2015 I've experienced this quite a few times. I prefer still hunting so I'm moving but slowly. I've heard what I perceive as patches of silence moving across the the background forest noise, nothing but wind in the leaves in one spot, but birds, squirrels, etc everywhere else. A few times they've moved over me, not center hit, but toward the fringe. There is a feel of disturbance / unease, exactly the sort of thing that would cause wildlife to go silent and still. Best guess? Infrasound. MIB
JDL Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 I've experienced this too and written about it here. I think it is a collective behavior associated with menace and I don't think it is restricted to just bigfoot. When something is clearly menacing, the smaller things around it seem to go silent, and nearby creatures react to the sudden silence by going silent as well. It spreads out in a radial pattern. I'm just saying that this seems to be how it happens. I imagine that there are a few theories about why it happens.
Rockape Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 If things in the woods go silent, most likely it's because you're there. 3
gigantor Posted November 10, 2015 Admin Posted November 10, 2015 For what it's worth, the few recordings of possible wood knocks WVFooter and I have obtained contain normal activity by birds, etc. There is a brief period of silence immediately after a knock, but then it all comes back within a few seconds.
JDL Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 I agree that a human can cause the forest to go silent at times, but when you settle down into an activity, essentially becoming part of the routine, it picks up again. The time I was stalked by the three males while fishing from the bank, the thing that alerted me to the presence of one directly behind me was the abrupt silencing of all the normal noise around me.
Guest Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 One will hear and read this commonly when on the subject of BF: The forest went completely dead silent when a BF was sighted. Let's assume this anecdote is true. Why? Why would song birds stop singing, chipmunks stop chipping, bees stop buzzing, and tree frogs stop croaking just because a BF was nearby? Makes no sense to me that many animals and insects in no danger of being foraged on by BF would suddenly go absolutely quiet when BF is in the area. And all species and genus of animal and insect act the same, at the same time, even when BF is no threat to them? That all animals and insects are even aware of BF's presence at the same time in the same general area would strike me as pretty amazing, too. So, what's going on with this 'silent forest' thing? I gotta believe there is more to the story than meets the eye...er, ears. MNSkeptic It is an old monster movie cliché. You are right, birds don't care about something walking around, they know they can fly. Frogs haven't heard of Bigfoot, they don't keep a respectful silence. Squirrels/chipmunks are natures proximity alarms, if you are nearby they will call out, why would Bigfoot get a pass. IMO, the "forest went silent" meme is just something people say to make their story more dramatic.
Shelly Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 I think to some extent that is a natural animal reaction and they can do it when anything large passes by be it a person or a bigfoot. i notice the same thing in my own yard with frogs. I have a big pond in the back yard with a bazillion frogs in it. They will all be making quite a racket until I open the back door and then, in unison, they all stop croaking. Some birds though do the opposite. When I go out, they start to squawk to warn other birds of my presence.
1980squatch Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 ... Some birds though do the opposite. When I go out, they start to squawk to warn other birds of my presence. Excellent point Shelly: http://bigfootforums.com/index.php/topic/49870-increased-bird-activity-prior-toduring-bf-activity/
Guest Crowlogic Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 It takes a human being present in the forest to determine that the forest has gone silent. Perhaps it is the presence of the human being that has made the forest go silent. Humans do lots of nasty things to forests and wildlife.
JDL Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 So none of you have experienced this? Ask any special ops guy if he has experienced it.
BigTreeWalker Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 Spending lots of time in the forest I can attest to the fact that it does go totally silent at times. In fact it did it enough times this last September, when we were elk hunting, that my hunting partner and I both commented on it when it happened. I don't know what causes it, but I do know that most of the time it isn't us humans that cause it to happen. Usually, as Shelley said above, the birds as well as squirrels and chipmunks let everything in the forest know you are there. When it becomes silent and the wind isn't blowing, it can become almost deafening. Which I know is an odd way to describe it but that is how it feels or it makes you feel like you've gone deaf. Whether it's bigfoot or not I couldn't say. An observation from our bone sites is that there is very little to no secondary scavenging going on. That is not the case with a hunter's kill site. I've seen the scavengers show up to clean things up within hours of us leaving the area. Animals stay away from us but I don't see the fear that would keep them quiet. I do see a fear to touch and/or scatter these sites we have found. If it could infer that the silence in the forest is a result of this same fear, I don't know.
FarArcher Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 One will hear and read this commonly when on the subject of BF: The forest went completely dead silent when a BF was sighted. Let's assume this anecdote is true. Why? Why would song birds stop singing, chipmunks stop chipping, bees stop buzzing, and tree frogs stop croaking just because a BF was nearby? Makes no sense to me that many animals and insects in no danger of being foraged on by BF would suddenly go absolutely quiet when BF is in the area. And all species and genus of animal and insect act the same, at the same time, even when BF is no threat to them? That all animals and insects are even aware of BF's presence at the same time in the same general area would strike me as pretty amazing, too. So, what's going on with this 'silent forest' thing? I gotta believe there is more to the story than meets the eye...er, ears. MNSkeptic It's not just when a BF comes into an area. In the daytime, you have an entire litany of critters here and about their business. After sundown, you have a whole new replacement crew as a general rule. Of course you have some who work both day and night, but not the bulk of things. I used to bed at night, then note, locate, and filter out each noisemaker - crickets, lizards, frogs, etc. Then when they'd get quiet all of a sudden, I would awake, knowing a new character just entered the immediate area. It's the same in mountains, savannahs, swamps, forests, salt marshes, and jungles. Nature's own early warning system.
Rockape Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 (edited) I've had it happen as I suspect anyone who's spent any good deal of time in the woods has, I did not see a Bigfoot when it occurred however. Edited November 10, 2015 by Rockape
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