Sasquatch: Bear In Human Form?

[Guest DWA]

3 hours ago, SWWASAS said:

DWA I think bear is in the sighting equation because of how the human mind works.   We see an object, or in this case a large animal, and our mind compares it to everything we have seen either in person or in books and pictures.    Kind of like running through a deck of flip cards.     Sighting report after sighting report reads like the witness saw something, his mind assumed was a bear because that was the only thing that fit, until the BF did something not bear like such as get up and walk away on two legs or the witness saw the face and realized it was not a bear face.    That brings in the human like facial description that is so common.    Also,  since the BF spends some time on all fours,  or drops into a crouch when caught in the open,   some bear sightings may not be bear at all but BF that do not betray behavior that is different than bear.   If they stay down and do not face you, it would be difficult to tell the difference at at distance.     In the case of bear, most humans with any sense would back away and not promote any sort of response from the bear.      There has to be a certain rate of misidentification just because of not hanging around long enough to tell what you are really looking at.     So I think misidentification could go both ways.    

 

Nope, not buying it.  I have never read a sasquatch report that could reasonably, taken on face value, be a bear. 

 

When you see something, you react first with what you know.  Those are the cards in the flip deck.  You say yourself that many witnesses think bear first; that's what one would expect.  Were bear a reasonable possibility...that's where it would stop.  Reports show an almost irrational tendency for the witness to *try to make* the thing he saw fit a conventional template; the witness can't do it.  One of the reasons I recommend a thorough read of the encounter database - which skeptics won't do because they really aren't interested in the topic - is that it utterly dashes the skeptical presumption that people are turning the mundane into the incredible.  Something which most of us know the human mind doesn't tend to do anyway.

 

A good grounding in NA wildlife identification and a pretty good grasp of human nature both are conclusive on this:  these ain't bears.

 

 

[FarArcher]

I don't think anyone who gets a halfway decent look at a BF can confuse it with a bear.

 

A bear has relatively narrow, sloping shoulders.

 

BF has very broad, wide shoulders.

[norseman]

Like this.

 

 

[Guest WesT]

Another thing that flags people they aren't looking at a bear is when they notice it has no ears on the top of it's head.

 

[MagniAesir]

11 hours ago, MIB said:

Cedars ... I'm not buying that part of the tale for a couple reasons.   Cedars grow in moist soil, exactly where the mosquitoes hatch and are thickest.   Second, cedars do not give off the pungent odors that kill bugs until after the wood is cut or a substantial amount is broken.   

 

I'm not deliberately questioning your claim about bigfoot in the cedar clump, but if true, your rationalization for why they would be there is based on a mistaken understanding of cedars, insects, etc.

 

MIB

 

 

I am the first to admit that I don't know a lot about Texas

But

in my teens I used to spend a good part of the summer on Vancouver Island at my cousin's place

He had a shake block claim that I used to help him on, he worked the claim when the dry season hit and he was laid off from logging

We would cut cedar blocks and then sell them to a mill that made cedar shakes and shingles 

The no-see-ums and mosquitos were horrendous and 4 of us would easily go through a can of deep woods off in a day

[norseman]

11 minutes ago, MagniAesir said:

I am the first to admit that I don't know a lot about Texas

But

in my teens I used to spend a good part of the summer on Vancouver Island at my cousin's place

He had a shake block claim that I used to help him on, he worked the claim when the dry season hit and he was laid off from logging

We would cut cedar blocks and then sell them to a mill that made cedar shakes and shingles 

The no-see-ums and mosquitos were horrendous and 4 of us would easily go through a can of deep woods off in a day

 

QFT

[norseman]

And the no see ums attack your face....I hate that.

[MagniAesir]

3 hours ago, norseman said:

Like this.

 

 

I will tell you about my wife's youngest brothers sighting

But first a little background 

my wife's oldest brother is a little taller than 6 foot 6 inches in height and wears size 16 (sometimes size 17) shoes

At the time of the sighting the older brother weighed around 350 to 375 pounds

 

My brother in law was at the time in his early 20's but was already a very experienced outdoorsman/hunter

 

The sighting happened in early September in the early afternoon on a sunny day

He and a mutual friend were out bear hunting

As they were driving down a logging road they saw a bear walking across the road on it hind legs

They slammed on the brakes and walked down to where the bear had crossed

There they found a huge bare foot human footprint that was much bigger than his brother's foot

 

He then hear a noise and they looked into the woods and saw the bear walk away on it's hind legs

It was then that the penny dropped,  he suddenly got scared and the pair of them ran back to the truck and got out of there.

 

He is a very black and white guy that thought only the weak minded saw things like ghosts or sasquatch, in fact he never believed his father about his sighting, he used to tell him that he was probably drinking at the time

 

The first thing he did when he got home was apologize to his dad for not believing him all those years

 

He still gets goosebumps to this day when he tells the story

 

Another interesting thing is that he and BCWITNESS have never met, but their sightings happened within 3 to 5 years of each other and within 2 or 3 miles from each other

[Guest DWA]

3 hours ago, FarArcher said:

I don't think anyone who gets a halfway decent look at a BF can confuse it with a bear.

 

A bear has relatively narrow, sloping shoulders.

 

BF has very broad, wide shoulders.

 

3 hours ago, norseman said:

Like this.

 

 

It is well worth noting that few if any in the skeptic camp are really up on wildlife identification (one of a number of areas of human existence they aren't up on, or on which their careful observations go right out the window when this is the topic under discussion).

[MagniAesir]

On Sunday, August 14, 2016 at 2:34 PM, MIB said:

Well, yeah, but behind that simple question lie so many more..   If the answer you find is "yes" then if you're an inherently curious person, you start wondering what they are, how the evade us, WHY they evade us ... and you start doubting the pat answers people who think they know offer as easy "outs".   It can lead to doubting some of the other things you thought you knew.   If the answer you find is "no", then you either go the scoftic / dismissive route or you want to look into how and why so many people can be wrong so very very very many times ... in a very serious way. 

 

The question of whether or not sasquatch exists may, in the long run, be less important than the questions that lurk beneath it, questions about ourselves.

 

MIB

Sorry I didn't reply earlier to this

I have been interested in sasquatch since the early 1970's

My grandmother gave me my first sasquatch book in 1975 when I was 10 (I still have it and was fortunate enough to have John Green sign it a few years ago)

I believed back then that there was no question that sasquatch would be proven to exist very soon

 

In my early 20's I realized that I no longer believed that sasquatch existed

And yes for about 15 years or so, I only kept up with the major publications/stories on sasquatch as I was busy with life

So forgive me when I say that after more than 40 years of being interested in sasquatch of which over 20 years was a keen interest

If I haven't turned into a scofict yet, I don't believe I ever will

[norseman]

47 minutes ago, MagniAesir said:

I will tell you about my wife's youngest brothers sighting

But first a little background 

my wife's oldest brother is a little taller than 6 foot 6 inches in height and wears size 16 (sometimes size 17) shoes

At the time of the sighting the older brother weighed around 350 to 375 pounds

 

My brother in law was at the time in his early 20's but was already a very experienced outdoorsman/hunter

 

The sighting happened in early September in the early afternoon on a sunny day

He and a mutual friend were out bear hunting

As they were driving down a logging road they saw a bear walking across the road on it hind legs

They slammed on the brakes and walked down to where the bear had crossed

There they found a huge bare foot human footprint that was much bigger than his brother's foot

 

He then hear a noise and they looked into the woods and saw the bear walk away on it's hind legs

It was then that the penny dropped,  he suddenly got scared and the pair of them ran back to the truck and got out of there.

 

He is a very black and white guy that thought only the weak minded saw things like ghosts or sasquatch, in fact he never believed his father about his sighting, he used to tell him that he was probably drinking at the time

 

The first thing he did when he got home was apologize to his dad for not believing him all those years

 

He still gets goosebumps to this day when he tells the story

 

Another interesting thing is that he and BCWITNESS have never met, but their sightings happened within 3 to 5 years of each other and within 2 or 3 miles from each other

 

Pretty cool.

 

I know you guys go back into that area now from time to time.....fingers crossed.

[MagniAesir]

33 minutes ago, DWA said:

 

It is well worth noting that few if any in the skeptic camp are really up on wildlife identification (one of a number of areas of human existence they aren't up on, or on which their careful observations go right out the window when this is the topic under discussion).

Absolute bunk

many very experienced woodsman I know as well as other skeptics are very familiar with the wildlife in their area

[Guest DWA]

...then they'd know you might mistake a sasquatch for a bear.  But you'll never go the other way 'round.

[norseman]

22 minutes ago, MagniAesir said:

Absolute bunk

many very experienced woodsman I know as well as other skeptics are very familiar with the wildlife in their area

 

Most guys I know that are outdoorsman do NOT believe Sasquatch exists. I'm not saying that means they do not exist. Only that many outdoorsman can go a life time without seeing rare animals. I've never seen a wolverine or a caribou in the lower 48.

[MagniAesir]

Same here most outdoorsman I know are skeptics, but to claim that they don't know how to identify the animals in their area is hogwash