Quiet vs Noisy

Some say when in the field it is imperative be extremely quiet and others say to act normal and make a little noise. I was discussing this with a friend not too long ago and decided to write a post on it expressing my views for anyone who might be interested and find it useful.

Well here are my feelings on this topic. I think it is best to use a combination of both noise and quiet. I believe that making some noise and acting more like regular hikers or campers, who though you remain very aware of the surroundings, yet you are pretending not to be is the best strategy while moving around through the forest and when at camp. My basis on this is that most animals will be aware of your approach and move away, which is a good safety measure as most know in areas where bear are a common animal. While since most animals will move away bigfoots which show to be very curious by nature, which is in itself a sign of intelligence, and with that curious nature and the fact you appear preoccupied(though in reality you are not), it might give them a reason to approach slightly closer to investigate you and your party then they might would under the alternative. The less likely you appear to notice them the more likely they are to get into closer proximity believing themselves to be less likely to be noticed by you. Though this is purely theory and I very well may be wrong here but I have found it to work.

Now here are my feelings on being stealthy and quiet. Most predators will move with stealth when stalking up on their prey so I would assume that when being stealthy and appearing to be stalking through the forest a bigfoot would associate you as a predator and keep a distance. Though it would dominate you with ease and be very aware of that fact you would still appear as more of a threat then otherwise. Appearing as a threat to any thing living in the wild with wild instincts tuned to survival as its main premise would react accordingly either with avoidance or with the potential of attack.  A threat is the last thing you want to be perceived as being if you are looking to get as close as safely possible which most are wanting to do.

Now for the mix. Regular talking and laughing at times and when something of relevance is heard then quietly listening, preferably with listening equipment like a parabolic microphone attached to a digital voice recorder and I often use a camcorder for recording as well. When things get quiet again start making a little noise again yourselves to get their attention again. They will probably be watching from right out of your field of view and hiding even in the dark, though with luck you might get a glimpse or with a lot of luck a full out sighting of them as they investigate you.

Brandon Garrett

Were We Are Going Wrong

One recurring idea that seems to be floating around a lot is that bigfoot type creatures are a paranormal kind of entity. Many swear they are and many swear they are not and the debates seem to usually escalade into heated arguments. Personally I am very doubtful that they are anything more then flash and blood creatures myself, but that is just my opinion and I base that on observation and logical assumptions. I will be the first to admit I may be wrong because I really do not know. The truth is that no one really knows. I can say I have experienced things that I could not understand but I make the assumption that there has to be a biological cause for such things even as strange as they may appear to us. Here is an example I like to use. Say for instance a squirrel hunter sees a squirrel  a tree and that squirrel sees him and moves to the other side of the tree out of sight. That squirrel did not disappear it is simply hiding. This is a common attribute of wild animals  living in a wild environment. They know their environment because it is their home and often times their instinct to hide and knowing it and knowing how to hide in it is essential to their survival. So in a sense if bigfoot is living in an area and wants to hide it could be very good at doing so. Now this is my opinion on this and nothing more. If bigfoot type creatures are indeed some sort of paranormal entity then I am wrong but I am also doubtful of that being the case. Though doubtful and knowing for sure are very much two different things. The truth is none of will ever know for sure the true nature of anything until it is proven real itself. Many of us know they are real from our own experiences, myself included, but what we know and what we can prove are again not the same thing. We need to do our best as several teams working together as one sharing information freely without arguing about who is right and who is wrong and all of these other silly debates in order to make this happen successfully.  We have support from science now finally with the DNA studies being conducted by Drs. Ketchum and Sykes  as well as many others in academia who are on our side. With the work being done by these individuals and the work we do in the field we are sure to be on the verge of success very soon I would like to think. I do believe it will take all the work of both the scientists as well as us researchers in the field to build the most functional base for this all to work out for the common goal. For this to happen we all need to work together as a team instead of against each other for individual goals. Everyone has a job to do in this whether you are a scientist, field researcher or someone who just looks at videos and pictures on your computer and has never set foot in the field, everyone has their place and job to do. One major problem I see is people tend to take their place and often times themselves way too seriously not realizing that this is actually a hamper on success. I see people putting again preconceived bios on certain videos and pictures that are placed out there for fair examination. Sadly in many cases they are hoaxes but to dismiss it as a hoax when it very well may be real simply because it just doesn’t fit a preconvieved notion is not the proper way to evaluate the evidence being presented. We all need to be a team assisting each other without preconvieved bios instead of all the childishness I generally see with arguments over nothing. If we want to get the real truth out there then we need to work together and stop telling each other that I’m right your wrong all in the name of personal ego.

Brandon Garrett

WHERE TO LOOK

There is one question that always seems to come up in conversations about bigfoot and that is,”how do I know where to look?” well that is not an easy question to answer with any certainty. How can you determine a population density and location to find something that has never been proven to exist and so little is known about with any certainty? The answer is neither I nor anyone else can say for sure but I do have a system I use that seem to be quite affective most of the time. It all  depends on the habitat, availability of food/amount of difficulty finding food and other requirements of survival within an area with the least amount of caloric expenditure to maximal caloric intake. Basically speaking if the habitat in a certain area has the basic requirements needed and there have been sightings reported in that area then the chances are higher of there being a population of bigfoot in that area at least part of the year or all depending on the part of the country in question. A simple method I use to determine this when looking at areas I want to conduct research in is this. First I look at the amount of reported sightings in that area, then estimate that the amount of reports are probably in most cases about a fifth to a third of actual sightings or encounters depending on the area and the attitude/acceptance/willingness to talk about of the average people in that area. I read these reports and rule out any that has the potential of misidentification or hoax usually leaving about a third to a half. Then I look at a printed map of the area if possible to determine possible marked trails and routes, then I use google earth to study the lay out of the area, looking for waterways, ponds, ect. Often times there will be bodies of water that will be visible on an aerial map that will not be shown on a printed map, and depending on the area and its amount of human influence and difficulty getting to, there will sometimes be sources of water that few people even know are there. Once all this is determined, look for obvious wooded corridors from place to place, especially close to water and on the edges of woods/meadows. These areas are favored by deer and other potential prey, as well as being good locations to find many good edible plant species that could be utilized as a potential food source as well. Now with this information you are now ready to get into this area and scout it out making reference to what you find in person to what you expected to find due to the maps studied, sometimes there will be similarities and sometimes there will be major differences as well as anything out of the ordinary you may find as you scout the area.  You will want to keep note of all this information no matter how irrelevant it might seem at the time because much of it can be used later to make comparisons while looking over future discoveries in the area. After scouting the area on foot choose locations to place trail cameras for further information on local wildlife that may be captured on the cameras giving more information of potential food sources as well as potential reasons for certain things you might find while scouting the area, for example certain animals will leave sign behind that can easily cause confusion while analyzing certain things found. If you know that animal is present and that it makes this sign then you know not to consider it as possible bigfoot evidence.               

Bigfoot Experts or just Bigfoot Know it Alls

  Sometimes I have to wonder if some people really know what they are talking about with some of the things I hear or read them stating about certain subjects especially when it comes to bigfoot and other cryptids. I always see at least one and sometimes more who seem to have an answer for everything and act like they are the ultimate authority on the subject of conversation. Well my answer to that is bullshit. Let me explain my thoughts on this.

  When I hear people call themselves an expert I kinda of shutter because there are no experts at this time on bigfoot. There are many people who are very knowledgeable and experienced but even the most knowledgeable and experienced of them are still no expert. We are all students of the subject regardless of what we have experienced or what we know. It doesn’t matter which camp you prescribe too( flesh and blood or paranormal) and what you have experienced or interpreted in your respected way, you are still not an expert. There are always things waiting to be learned.

  The truth is even with a well known and studied subject like say a mouse for example is still being studied till this day and many new things are being learned about them all the time. So to say that you are an expert about something that has never even been proven to exist is just ridiculous. The problem is I hear people calling themselves experts all the time. If you say you know everything there is to know about bigfoot and can not show me anything proving what you say you know other than a couple of links to websites then that means nothing to me other than a curious yet questionable resource. I read all the current news and keep up with all of that as well but I also do realise that not everything is true regardless of its source,(whether it be a scientific journal or what ever, it still has its place to be questioned.)

  So when I hear someone call themselves an expert what I hear is “I am a know it all looking for attention.” Those are just my thoughts on this.

Bigfoot Experts or just Bigfoot Know it Alls

  Sometimes I have to wonder if some people really know what they are talking about with some of the things I hear or read them stating about certain subjects especially when it comes to bigfoot and other cryptids. I always see at least one and sometimes more who seem to have an answer for everything and act like they are the ultimate authority on the subject of conversation. Well my answer to that is bullshit. Let me explain my thoughts on this.

  When I hear people call themselves an expert I kinda of shutter because there are no experts at this time on bigfoot. There are many people who are very knowledgeable and experienced but even the most knowledgeable and experienced of them are still no expert. We are all students of the subject regardless of what we have experienced or what we know. It doesn’t matter which camp you prescribe too( flesh and blood or paranormal) and what you have experienced or interpreted in your respected way, you are still not an expert. There are always things waiting to be learned.

  The truth is even with a well known and studied subject like say a mouse for example is still being studied till this day and many new things are being learned about them all the time. So to say that you are an expert about something that has never even been proven to exist is just ridiculous. The problem is I hear people calling themselves experts all the time. If you say you know everything there is to know about bigfoot and can not show me anything proving what you say you know other than a couple of links to websites then that means nothing to me other than a curious yet questionable resource. I read all the current news and keep up with all of that as well but I also do realise that not everything is true regardless of its source,(whether it be a scientific journal or what ever, it still has its place to be questioned.)

  So when I hear someone call themselves an expert what I hear is “I am a know it all looking for attention.” Those are just my thoughts on this.

An Idea on Possibilities of Bigfoot Diet

An Idea on Possibilities of Bigfoot Diet

 

Iv been studying these creatures for a number of years now trying to figure them out on deeper level than just do they really exist, that question is no doubt a yes they do exist. My question is more of how they exist. What do they do to feed themselves and what do they eat? Are they specialists or generalists, vegetarian, carnivore, or omnivore? What kind of lifestyle and living habits do they practice? These are only a few of the many things I am trying to learn and some of them I think I may have figured out to some extent, though much more research needs to be done to fully understand them as a whole, and as a personality.

It has been well written and established in theory by many researchers that water is detrimental to their habitation requirements and I must agree. Water is detrimental to many creatures’ habitat requirements aside from the species adapted to dry conditions where water is in scarce supply. That is well known and needs no real further explanation I believe. The majority of alleged bigfoot sighting reports do seem to be in areas near to water sources or with water sources in close proximity so it would be easy to assume the bigfoot-water connection.

So with being predominantly near water sources then water would appear as a necessity with them as it is with most any other animal. No surprise there, which leads me to the question of water as possibly being an influence to the plants that they may utilize as a potential food source and how often this utilization may occur to provide them with them with needed calories. I know from several locations I have researched that were in water sources that they do seem to move through the water as much as they seem to be on land quite often. At least that was the impression at those times. It seemed that they were using the water sources to move from spot to spot then reappearing on land in different spots. There are several species of plants edible to humans that grow in and on the edge of these water sources that makes one wonder if they could be utilizing these plants for food. Depending on the area there can be a wide variety of edible plant species in any season growing in close proximity to one another. Naturally certain seasons harbor better selections than others in variety and abundance. At the present I am working on a catalog of all edible plants found in each area that I and the Texas Unified Natural Research team have been investigating.

On a few occasions we have heard what could only be described as killing of feral hogs. The sounds are quite distinctive and fairly universal in sound. Usually consisting of loud thumps resembling a large log hitting the ground followed by the hog squealing in pain, then sometimes the sound of something being hit, then silence. On one occasion I could hear a whoop call then several different voices of distinctive chatter all moving towards the whoop call. With the whoop call coming from the same direction that the sound of the hog being killed came from only minutes before. This and several other similar occurrences have been witnessed by myself and other members of my team on different occasions giving me the idea that feral hogs must be a major meat source for them. Being a major exotic invasive species and in very large populations here in south east Texas there is no surprise that feral hogs would be an easy and abundant food source.

In addition to the feral hogs there are healthy populations of deer as well as smaller game animals including rabbits, squirrels, etc. There is no short supply of bird species either, species ranging from very small to quite large in size. Many species could be utilized in some way as a possible food source. There have been statements of them removing eggs and killing birds in some places. In most areas I research I have not found any conclusive evidence supporting that this is happening here, I do leave it open as a possibility though. Possibly utilizing these as a of supplemental food source, utilizing them when the opportunity arises, yet not relying on them in any major or significant way.

With the amounts of food sources of different type readily available around the types of habitat that the bigfoot creatures are most commonly sighted according to reports and my own experience in the field I have come to the conclusion that they are most likely opportunistic omnivores. There is a strong chance of having a hunter gatherer type of lifestyle having a major predominate diet of hunted animals for meat and gathered plants. With a good chance of utilizing what is easily available for caloric intake with the minimal amount of energy expenditure. So in conclusion I would suspect them to most probably have a main diet of seasonally available plants, as well as large animals that are in abundance making hunting them easier, with the additional utilization of anything that they come across and can obtain easily to supplement their diet to raise their caloric intake with the minimal amount of energy expenditure.

Brandon Garrett

The problem with Hoaxes

  I was just looking at recent photos and videos that various people are posting on Youtube and the like. I do this from time to time in hopes there might be a good one to study for my own research and from time to time I find things that are useful and have validity, the problem is on avarage out of ten I look at I might find one or two that were not a total waste of my time and I actualy have the potentiol to use in research. It usualy seems that minus that one or two the rest are either obvious hoaxes, parodies poking fun of the subject or potentiol hoaxes.

  Hoaxes are a major problem to us researches who take this subject seriously and work hard researching sightings and spend countless hours in the field collecting evedence and information. We work so hard because we have no other choice but to do so. We dont have the time to be looking at fake evedence. Most fakes are typically easy to spot early on but there are some that realy require careful study. The problem here is that when these are put out there for others to look at and your claiming them as evedence and they are not it makes us all look bad.

  Cryptozoology in general and bigfoot research already take too many scoffs and chuckles as it is and we do not need any more if we are ever going to be taken seriously before one is captured or shot.  I have no doubt it wont be long before it happens and alot of people will be eating their words but until that time comes we need to do serious research and stop puting things out there that a hoaxed. It doesnt matter if you believe or dont believe, I for one know for a fact that they are real living breathing creatures and with all the real true evedence that has been collected including eyewitnesses that should be enough to prove their exsistance but unfortunetly its not.

  So please for the sake of science do not hoax or fake evedence. Taking the fake photographs and making fake videos is hurting us rather then helping us.