How reliable is smell when verifying BF activity?

[PNWexplorer]

We've all heard the Bigfoot encounters that include the presence of a horrible smell often described as a mixture of BO, feces, and skunk.  But I've seen other encounters that don't mention this odor.  I had a friend of mine tell me about his encounter decades ago in which he verified a visual sighting and the accompanying strong odor.  Another friend had rock throwing incidents and howls, but no odor.  My own encounter was rock throwing, but no odor or visual confirmation.

 

I just heard of a possible encounter tonight that occurred last Saturday and was wondering how probable it was.

 

My folks went on a horseback camping trip in the St. Joe National Forest area last week.  The main camp was at the Big Creek campground where about 10 other folks were camped with their horses.

 

My mom's best friend and her husband were tent camping while my folks stayed in their RV.  At about 4am, the best friend's husband wakes up due to issues with the air mattress.  He's fiddling around with it when he hears the horses making noise.  He goes outside of the tent with a flashlight and can see the horses throwing a fit.  They're stomping their feet, winnying, and generally distressed.  He said he smelled something awful, like the BO, skunk, and feces.  He shines the light around and heard something move off into the woods near the camp.  The smell goes away, the horses settle down, and he goes back to bed.

 

He tells the tale to my folks the next day and my dad replies that it must have been a bear.  My mom says it must have been a Bigfoot, lol.

 

I don't recall ever smelling anything when encountering bears.  I did an internet search and it revealed that bears generally don't stink and that it's mostly a myth.

 

So, did my folks have a Bigfoot come near the camp and upset the horses?  Horses generally don't react that way to a skunk, but will to a bear or other large predator.  

 

 

[NatFoot]

No way to know. 

[7.62]

It depends because bears can have a pretty strong odor if it had recently feed on a dead carcass . 

It doesn't take much to have that odor cling on it's fur . Winters coming so they won't pass up too many meals even

if it's something that's been dead for a little  while.

 

That's the kind of odor that will cling on the air , maybe that's what he smelled 

Could have also been a couple of coyotes , same thing . Those things will scavenge road kill and even roll on a dead carcass . I've smelled coyotes in my stand before seeing them a couple of times. The air just smelled like death then saw two trotting down the game trail .

[Doug]

Being a hunter and taxidermist for many years, I have encountered bears, fresh, not old or rotting, from customers and ones I have taken myself, that have smelled so bad when I was skinning them, I had to use vic's vapor rub up my nose, a big paperclip pinching my nose just to lessen the stench and my eyes watered so bad it was hard to see what I was doing, while others under the same circumstance, had almost no smell at all.

[norseman]

23 minutes ago, Doug said:

Being a hunter and taxidermist for many years, I have encountered bears, fresh, not old or rotting, from customers and ones I have taken myself, that have smelled so bad when I was skinning them, I had to use vic's vapor rub up my nose, a big paperclip pinching my nose just to lessen the stench and my eyes watered so bad it was hard to see what I was doing, while others under the same circumstance, had almost no smell at all.

I concur. I called in a bear for my buddy that ended up missing a paw. It stunk to high heaven.

 

The spring bear I took in Alaska had no smell at all.

[Huntster]

20 hours ago, PNWexplorer said:

.......I don't recall ever smelling anything when encountering bears.  I did an internet search and it revealed that bears generally don't stink and that it's mostly a myth.......

 

16 hours ago, 7.62 said:

It depends because bears can have a pretty strong odor if it had recently feed on a dead carcass . 

It doesn't take much to have that odor cling on it's fur . Winters coming so they won't pass up too many meals even

if it's something that's been dead for a little  while.

 

That's the kind of odor that will cling on the air , maybe that's what he smelled 

Could have also been a couple of coyotes , same thing . Those things will scavenge road kill and even roll on a dead carcass . I've smelled coyotes in my stand before seeing them a couple of times. The air just smelled like death then saw two trotting down the game trail .

 

I've smelled bears, and also seen them up close with no smell. I've literally been within 10' of wild wolves (think "Cisco" on Dances With Wolves), and smelled nothing. Yet our dogs would come home after rolling in a carcass smelling so bad it would sting your eyes. It would be particularly bad in September/October with salmon carcasses littering the river banks.

 

In springtime bears emerging from their dens will smell out winter killed animals and gorge on them. I remember a small herd of Dall sheep killed in a snow avalanche that attracted numerous bears one spring. Dead whales washing up on the coast draws bears by the dozen. Imagine the smell.

 

Somebody opined on sasquatches stashing deer carrion like grizzly bears pooping on, pissing on, then burying carrion. This might be a strategy sasquatches employ to provide through winter, just like primitive man might have stored food for winter.

 

I think the odor thing is just like with bears; intermittent, depending on their activity. 

[7.62]

6 hours ago, Huntster said:

 

 

I've smelled bears, and also seen them up close with no smell. I've literally been within 10' of wild wolves (think "Cisco" on Dances With Wolves), and smelled nothing. Yet our dogs would come home after rolling in a carcass smelling so bad it would sting your eyes. It would be particularly bad in September/October with salmon carcasses littering the river banks.

 

In springtime bears emerging from their dens will smell out winter killed animals and gorge on them. I remember a small herd of Dall sheep killed in a snow avalanche that attracted numerous bears one spring. Dead whales washing up on the coast draws bears by the dozen. Imagine the smell.

 

Somebody opined on sasquatches stashing deer carrion like grizzly bears pooping on, pissing on, then burying carrion. This might be a strategy sasquatches employ to provide through winter, just like primitive man might have stored food for winter.

 

I think the odor thing is just like with bears; intermittent, depending on their activity. 

That makes a lot of sense because some people say they smelled a strong odor when they saw a Sasquatch and some witnesses never mention the odor.

As for your dogs coming home smelling like road kill 

 

I have a Husky that can't pass up any dead fish or carcass he finds in the woods or  shore line. He has to roll in it .

 

 

[PNWexplorer]

However, the BF odor is pretty universally described as a combination of skunk, feces, and human BO.  Not something you would get from rolling in dead fish.

 

I found an article that seemed to have a reasonable explanation...

 

https://cryptozoologynews.com/tsiatko-skunk-ape-bigfoot-odor/

 

 

[Huntster]

1 hour ago, 7.62 said:

........I have a Husky that can't pass up any dead fish or carcass he finds in the woods or  shore line. He has to roll in it .

 

Absolutely fascinating behavior. I've often wondered if wolves and coyotes do it. We've had Labs, both male and female, who did it.

 

1 hour ago, PNWexplorer said:

......I found an article that seemed to have a reasonable explanation...

 

https://cryptozoologynews.com/tsiatko-skunk-ape-bigfoot-odor/

 

Outstanding article! I noticed this in it that I had unscientifically noticed:

 

Quote

.......according to the gorilla theory, only the males possess the specific glands, so any  female specimen sighting would likely result in an odorless encounter........

 

[BlackRockBigfoot]

4 hours ago, PNWexplorer said:

However, the BF odor is pretty universally described as a combination of skunk, feces, and human BO.  Not something you would get from rolling in dead fish.

 

I found an article that seemed to have a reasonable explanation...

 

https://cryptozoologynews.com/tsiatko-skunk-ape-bigfoot-odor/

 

 

Great article.  

 

 

[MIB]

When the BFs were visible, or when they were seemingly somewhat interactive, I've never smelled them.   The only time I've smelled them was when they were sort of .. not hostile exactly, but "pushy", and they were out of sight / not visible.    Interesting dichotomy, no?   But not enough data points to draw a firm conclusion, merely enough to wonder.

 

Bears ... I don't generally smell bears.   My dad and aunt talk about how bad they smell, about knowing one was going past the house just by the smell.   And the fresh pile of bear "poo" on the lawn was hard to dispute.   Maybe I'm just not that sensitive to smell.   The few I have smelled were scavenging human garbage or rotting fish along the river.   Those .. the smell would knock a buzzard off a gut pile.

 

MIB

[Doug]

All the bears that I have worked on that smelled bad, definitely did not smell like anything rotting or decay. More like really bad B.O. that would give you a head ache if exposed to it for more than a few minutes. Some were quite intense.

[wiiawiwb]

I've only came across that smell once in my life. Earlier this year. I was out alone poking around and as I was walking I hit a very strong wave of stink. It was almost like a band of it as the smell ended three or four feet ahead. I turned around and could smell it when I moved laterally. I followed that about ten feet before it ended.

 

Never saw prints, broken twigs, or indications of disruption in the leaf litter. It was probably just a skunk that emitted its stink but it was odd that it was a "band" of smell. 

[Huntster]

On 9/24/2020 at 7:28 PM, MIB said:

........ Maybe I'm just not that sensitive to smell.   The few I have smelled were scavenging human garbage or rotting fish along the river.   Those .. the smell would knock a buzzard off a gut pile.......

 

My sense of smell is pretty well gone now. I can still smell really strong odors or scents, but clearly not like my younger years.

[NatFoot]

This thread doesnt speak too well for the exist camp.

 

We have members explaining the awful smell, even some as BO and not rotting flesh. Couple the smell from a bear with the "hair on the back of the neck" feeling or "feeling watched" and that's just a prey instinct with a large animal nearby....that's also very stinky. That explains a TON of Class B's.