Yowie Video – Is This Australia’s Bigfoot?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 2nd, 2006
An Australian man with two friends renting a cabin for the weekend (June 24-25, 2006) in the mountains near Katoomba, Australia were toying with a new Elite Laser after dark when one of them caught sight of an animal standing by a nearby ironwood tree watching them. They caught it on film at an estimated distance of 15 feet before it ran away– on two legs. Watch the video clip and you’ll agree that you aren’t seeing a kangaroo or wallaby.
The videographer alerted his fellow laser enthusiasts by posting on the Wicked Lasers bulletin board on Monday evening, June 26 (see the discussion thread at Sasquatch Vs Laser). He offers to send the 4.9 mB video on request to other members on the board by email for their review and feedback.
The clip posted by B. Green at Google video appears to be the original 1 minute video as sent out by the videographer along with the full audio of the witness’s reactions after sighting a glimpse of the moving animal. Go to Original version of Yowie video.
An enhanced version of only that portion of the video which shows glimpses of the animal’s movements was posted by Black Sheep at YouTube. This version unnaturally brightens up the background and washes out the colors, but does provide more visible details to be seen than what was apparent to the witnesses at the time by the naked eye. Go to brightened but shorter film clip.
Within the discussion thread, the laser enthusiast who posted the video reveals himself as Marco Nero of Nero Designs, Inc., a graphic art/laser production company in Australia. In one of his posts he claims to have been the designer and matte painter for the Farscape series and his 15-minute claim to fame (that is, before this video clip) is that he was once interviewed by a film crew for the SciFi channel when they did a piece about Farscape several years ago. Among his comments, he expresses the concern that because of his connections with the special effects industry and his wife working as a costume designer, some people may instantly dismiss the video as a hoax.
Below are some of the videographer’s comments from the message forum where they were originally posted:
We don’t know what it was but it was just on 6 feet tall and was watching us test an Elite Laser last weekend in the mountains at Katoomba. This is a location believed to be occupied by the elusive (mythical?) Australian Yeti which is known locally as a Yowie.
We turned off the laser and chased it. No idea what it was but it was watching us curiously from about 15 feet away. It ran off when we turned the camera and torches on it. Could have been a prankster I suppose but it was a quiet road overlooking a massive canyon/gorge and the temperature was close to below zero at the time.
Here’s a screen grab.
Click on image for full-size version
The video is a bit darker so I pulled a frame and lightened it in Photoshop. Video is unaltered.
Source: Staff Researcher, Squatchdetective Organization
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Holy smokes! Its Yowbacca! Seriously though, given the lack of surprise in the cameramans voice and his background in special effects, I would lean toward this one being a pretty cool hoax. At least these guys worked a little harder than most at portraying a yowie/sasquatch.
Everything about this one feels wrong, it looks like a Dog/Wookie, it’s way to small and stumpy, moves wrong and the hair is way too long, no sagital crest, on, and on etc. I believe this was a hoax – by whom I don’t know.
Bob
Interesting. Watching the lightened version, it seems to me that the subject’s face never changes expression (as if it were a static mask); that is, if what I am seeing as a face is actually a face (a face that very much like Chewbacca from Star Wars).
I’ve included a link to a screen capture where I have labeled the “face” as I see it.
You never know. I know it does not fit the typical mold for bigfoot, but look at how many species of monkeys are out there. They could look totally different from the land down under. If you look at the brighter video you can see its mouth move for a split second. This could have been a curious youngster or a female Yowie. Then again, it could be a croc of *&^%&.
I have to say, wookie suit, guy/gal with long hair (or a very realistic/human hair wig). The behavior here just doesn’t seem right, ‘hiding’ by pressing against a tree then loudly stomping off only once the people are within a couple of feet.
Honestly, it’s a much better hoax than we’re used to.
I wonder if it’s a marsupial? Seriously, it’s not really fair comparing a yowie to a North American bigfoot. Australian animals are all very different from ours. Still, the behavior of this “thing” seems unbelievable. I agree with mrdark; extra credit for an above average hoax. Very inventive. I anxiously await the sequel: Yowie vs. Thylacine.
It is a high quality hoax so it seems. At least it doesn’t look like a guy wearing a wolf skin. The cameraman sure didn’t seem all that surprised to see a large hairy beast a few feet away.
Hitting the pause button while playing back both versions of video, just when the face becomes visible, it sure looks like some sort of mask with eyeholes cut out. I was thinking maybe a camoflauge mask like bowhunters use. It also seems odd that a number of “Alleged” bigfoot videos lately, have all been featuring something with distinctly different colored hair on top of their head, then the rest of the body. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any mention of such a combination in the hundreds of sighting reports I’ve read. This might be a good thing, to allow us to easily spot hoaxes. Seems those trying to fool people are at least too lazy to go to the trouble of creating more realistic looking wigs, or dyeing their hair to match the role they are playing. Next thing you know they’ll try passing off someone wearing one of those old Red, White & Blue wigs as being an AMERICAN SASQUATCH! Geesh! I vote hoax.
mrdark & kidkarysma I think said it all. Beyond the look of the beast, after all australia does have some odd looking critters down there, I doubt any creature would allow someone to get that close and then run away. Come around the tree and throw the camera man somewhere, maybe. The only way something like this would happen is if there was something else going on that distracted the yowie while the camera man snuck closer, although you would not be catching me sneaking up behind something like that. I know from personal experience what people do when you accidentally surprise them, imagine what a yowie or big foot could do. Then you have the camera man as well. Every camera today has decent zooming capability. I would never walk right up to the tree one of those is hiding behind. At least the “beast” was trying to look like it was being sneaky. I could only watch the shorter version, but watching the camera man walking way to the left to get there makes me wonder how he first saw “it” in the first place. It’s pretty dark out and the coloring of tree and “it” was pretty close. Complete hoax, but if they capture one that looks like this, who knows what to think then.
That’s actually an interesting video, especially the YouTube version lightened up and shown in slow-motion. But I agree; the observers were much too calm, in my opinion, and if that was a six-foot Yowie, he appeared to taking a whiz behind that tree before being startled by the laser-wielding Aussies.
Probably a hoax, but one of the better ones, which brings us back to a hypothesis offered many times on this blog: Someone will get a crystal-clear photo or video of Bigfoot, and it’ll be proclaimed so “real” it HAS to be a hoax.
I’d like to remind folks that not everyone is stone cold tough in the face of something alien, so some people can be at loss for words when they see something that suprises them, especially in this kind of situation. I’m not saying this is real either, I’m just saying don’t stamp a hoax label on it just because of the questionable reaction. The video itself has me about 50/50 on whether or not I think it’s real. What I do know is that, hoax or not, that thing is adorable.
I agree with Dan. Where can I get a plush yowie? Or perhaps a beanie yowie?
The Australian Bush can be a scary place at night… especially when drunk and trying to figure out where the beer is (has happened to me many a time).
Seriously though, the Yowie is meant to be almost a completely different creature from your “big foot”. I’ve read articles from early the 1920-30s saying people have been attacked / kidnapped / killed by these things.
Main difference (I haven’t really delved a great deal into this subject mind you) is height, colour, etc.
Be that as it may, your arguments for hoax have also been “cameraman was too calm”, etc..
Not really an argument. The laugh at the end of the full footage sounds to me like a post adrenaline laugh, the kind where you were faced with something unexpected, survived, and thus, laugh. Id have reacted in exactly the same manner as this camera man given the same situation.
We don’t have any predators here, except crocs, who are way up north, dingos… who are basically dogs, and rare (I’ve never seen one in the wild)… and the odd fox or feral cat who run away before you get even remotely close to them…. so generally people aren’t scared of animals here, and you’re safe to approach animals.. Except the big male roos… they’re mean suckers… and feral pigs…. And feral cattle… and buffalo… ok, so there is heaps of mean animals here, but most of the mean ones are further north than Katoomba.
I’m not saying this ISNT a hoax, but your analysis is flawed since you’re applying an “American perspective” on an unknown primate here, which is almost completely inapplicable since you’re dealing with a different (though seemingly related) cryptid on a different continental land mass. .. plus you all are far too cynical 😛
People are bringing in a lot of assumptions here about what an unknown creature, not even a Bigfoot, “should” look like, how it should behave, etc. But that being said, I looked at the enhanced version several times and can’t really make out much of anything, just movement. I couldn’t be sure if I was ever seeing a face or not, or any true color. I think the “light head hair” at the end was just reflection of the camera light. Personally, the Wisconsin footage was better to me.
And then, the poster is obviously defensive about his background.
I swear at the 33 second mark on the brightened video you can see a person’s eye, part of the nose and forehead in what apears to be the creature’s mouth (is that supposed to be an open mouth?). Like one of those costumes people use in parades where they see through the mouth.
I don’t know. Perhaps I am looking at it completely wrong.
an ok hoak.
lefty,
I think you are looking at it wrong. I’m not passing judgement on the validity of this video (though my gut screams “HOAX!”) but if you look at the video in youtube’s full screen setting you can clearly see a mouth and eyes where a mouth and eyes should be. I never caught a full episode of Farscape but any involvement with a show where costuming was used to such a wide degree, should make us all suspicious. The “creature” does look quite like a Wookie and not really like any kind of primate at all, bipedalism and facial features not withstanding. Obviously this is not based on any truly biological evaluation but if you watch the enhanced version at full screen, I don’t think any of you will see a primate either.
This is a perfect example of people seeing what they want to see. Nothing can be made of this video, except for a few things.
One, when the person with the camera is walking up to the tree with the “Yowie” beside it, it looks like a person just crouching there remaining perfectly still. You cannot make out anything clearly at all. It looks like a human face with short hair.
Two, As the camera person rounds the tree and the “creature” moves behind it, the one thing that you CAN see clearly is what looks like the top of a woman’s head who has shoulder length, wavy hair, NOT anything like the typical “look” of yowie/bigfoot head (from sketches, photographs, and choppy videos of true creatures). If you listen to the original video you will hear the woman in the background say, “Its a woman!” right after you see the top of her head.
Three, being out in the wilderness at night with something lurking about, the cameraman is remarkably calm, video camera still and steady, ESPECIALLY going right up to the “creature”, rounding a tree, and being merely only a few feet away. Just that in itself is proof of a hoax.
NO ONE would be able under those circumstances to do that and not be completely “all over the place” with the camera if it were true. Even if the cameraman didn’t know it was a yowie you would think that “accidentally” seeing some living creature (whatever it might be, human, yowie, or animal) in the wild at night he would have jumped back or had been more careful than trying to follow the thing a few feet away around the tree!
This is, at best, someone capturing a woman spying on them in the woods and at worst a staged hoax.
At the very least we can NOT say it was a true yowie. All the evidence here does not support that…unless you already made up your mind and view or interpret this video with the “bigfoot lens” as I call it…if it is a blurry picture, video, whatever, if someone says its a bigfoot or yowie, then by gosh its a bigfoot or yowie, regardless of how blurry or dark the video or picture is.
Like most things in this crypto-field, people see what they want to see. They truly do not think critically enough to be decent investigators.
Animals -do- freeze hoping to not be noticed, then when a human is quite close, take off in a hurry. I’ve experienced that many times with everything from deer, cats, badgers, rabbits, etc.
I agree that it does look like a particularly poor suit (far worse than anything Farscape ever did, which might be significant) while it is trying to look like a tree trunk, but when it takes off, on all fours, that does look like an animal to me. Not a primate. But possibly some sort of large marsupial. A small-eared ground-dwelling koala-type animal?
I didn’t find the speakers to be unconvincing, just totally absorbed in their new laser, they appear to be part of a group that enjoys seeing what they can do with thing – burn wood, pop balloons, etc., “look at that, look at that, what is that, what -is- that? there he goes” Sounds pretty realistic to me. -I- could say exactly that under similar circumstances.
So, it is either a really bad hoax, or a possibly an uncatalogued marsupial.
Why does this look like a small, slightly inebriated bloke wearing a fancy dress fur coat, or even a fake log. So its a man dressed as a tree. With a jolly face.
Hi everybody, Im a newbie here. I hail from Berea, Ohio. Just a couple thoughts on this. This does look like one of the better hoaxes. After reading about the guys ties to The Sci-Fi Channel I just had to wonder if someones career was in need of a jump start. On the otherhand I don’t read too much into his reaction, because my experience with Aussies is that aren’t really overly excitable people.
once again people too much assuming going on. not good for investigators of any kind. assuming what people will and wont do and what things will and wont look like makes for poor investigating. it also dosent allow for interpretation of the video in any real manner.
that said since i cant investigate this, as i am about 20 hours flight time a thousand dollars and a pass port
away from looking into this, it stays in the suspect category because of the background of the witnesses. one of the parties involved would be the hoaxer if any occurred cause of the reported isolation. this would be a fun report to run down.
there is a yowie group that will probably be all over this and i suggest that they should be allowed guest blogging privileges of some sort when a report is made. in the absence of that we know our excellent cryptobloggers will be all over this like biscardi on a hoax.
the resident blogger should and probably are in contact with their down under collegaues in regards to this reported encounter.
Well much better hoax than usual. But then again you just never know.
“Look at that. What was that?” REALLY BAD ACTING, BOYS.
You’ll never work in this town again.
Fake-a-roonie!
My gut says that this is a hoax…my first thought when I saw the screen capture in the body of the post was “Chewie!!! What’re you doing here?”
Then I watched the video. Now, I still think it’s a hoax, just from the fact that the “creature” still looks like a scout for the Wookie invasion force. I would like to reply to the folks who say that the reaction of the cameraman and spectators is fake. People react differently to situations. These folks were out playing with their laser…they didn’t expect to see a Yowie, so why would that be their first thought when they saw whatever this was? Chances are (if it’s real) they saw something, thought it was a person and then had an “Oh crap!” moment when they realized it was something else. The girl saying “It’s a woman!” could be proof of that.
Everyone’s different. Just because they didn’t react like you would doesn’t make their response any less valid.
Wow that video is a joke probably the wonderful people from Our Bigfoot.com. JUST some fool in a silly costume. Very poor quality of video.
Well, when I watched the original version I thought to myself “how could anyone make anything from that?”
I saw black, then heard something moving, but didn’t see a thing. In fact I thought the camera was further from the creature and static until they started looking to capture it on film again. It wasn’t until I watched the lightened version that I realized they had practically walked right up on the thing.
Others here are spot on that some animals will remain immobile and camouflaged until the very last minute (observe a squirrel flattened against a tree trunk and scurrying to the opposite side before flattening again for an example, or imagine a young fawn staying in hiding while humans move nearby).
Until I saw the movement in the lightened video I actually thought the “body” of the creature was part of the tree. This behavior (flattening against a tree for camouflage, staying hidden until the last moment) in and of itself makes me want to say that, at the very least, this deserves closer scrutiny. When you add in his purported sci-fi design background and connections to costuming via his wife we have either a very reliable witness who, in the interest of full disclosure, is forthcoming about his background OR someone with the resources to create a nice hoax.
Either way, greater scrutiny of this case is necessary.
As for the creature not “looking like Bigfoot” (i.e. presence or absence of a sagital crest, etc.) I’m always amazed how anyone can draw any conclusions from a few seconds of video where, to be quite frank, I have a hard time making out any detail other than that it appears furry and is in motion.
I know it is going to make me unpopular again with the “no-kill” crowd (and let me emphasize now that I’m not “pro-kill” so much as “pro-physical evidence”) but the only irrefutable proof is going to come from physical evidence in hand, such as a body, skeletal remains, a hide (from which DNA can be extracted), etc.
very much fake
It’s a practical joke. First of all, the YouTube clip shows a wookiee face (Chewie’s?). You just have to watch carefully. Second of all, Revenge of the Sith was shot in Australia and the wookiee costumes were made by Dave Elsey, the same make–up artist that worked (what a coincidence!) in Farscape (check this link).
And since I have always opposed harming innocent wookiees, I’m siding with the “no-kill” crowd this time.
This one needs a closer look. In reality, the “yowie” reacted and behaved exactly like a wild animal. Look at the movement as it turns away from the tree. Notice how it put the tree between itself and the camera man as it fled. It’s technique of blending into the landscape until the last minute is exactly what many wild animals do. Notice also, and this is very important, the “yowie” did not look up at the camera until the very last second. It was deliberatly shielding its eyes from the glare of the camera, until that last second when it looked up before performing that very smooth “ninja” spin from the tree. A wild “yowie” would be experienced enough to know that it’s eyes would glow in the light of the camera. It would have seen other animals eyes glow in the moonlight in it’s lifetime. Different types of animals eyes glow a different color in the light. What color do human eyes glow, what color to yowie eyes glow. That red eye in your photo is the same effect in the dark with a light.
If this is a hoax, then the hoaxer made that “ninja” “fading spin” from the tree on purpose to simulate a wild animal. I could care less about the authenticiy of the fur suit or the mask. The most compelling evidence in this video is the behaviour and movement. This may very well be the real deal, if it isn’t a very good hoax. NOW, if this was a hoax, then we are to the point where the hoaxers have moved past us speculators in the “crypto” world. Their technology has exceeded ours in ability to hoax. SO, a previous poster was correct, if this is the case, then the only thing that will “prove out” now is a body, dead or alive. Don’t hate the mesenger, hate the message, because the hoaxers have created this dilema we find ourselves in. It won’t be long now, I don’t think, before bodies will be produced, but we may find a human inside the suit.
Looks like a dude in a ghillie suit.
I can’t see a thing on the dark video on this monitor, and youtube is blocked here at work, so I can’t make any kind of judgement call.
Maybe the yowie was intrigued by the laser. Ever flashed a laser pointer around with a dog or a cat? They go nuts. Perhaps if this wasn’t a hoax the yowie got distracted by the laser.
I have to agree about the behavior as being very believable.
I have read many stories where a BF tries to become part of the environment not to be seen.
I have read stories as to where a BF will “show itself” to someone if they are not “freaking out”. The logic behind this is the BF knows that if a human sees it, they always freak out. If a person is not freaking out, then therefore the BF is not seen.
You can read a BFRO sighting from Santa Cruz, CA about one trying (and succeeding) to pass itself off as a pile of bark in the middle of the day.
I have watched the lightened version and the yowie looks just like the tree. I have seen hoax videos and it is very hard to have a fake suit blend in to the surroundings so good.
It reminds me of the Freeman footage. In the Freeman footage, when the BF stays still, you just can’t see it. Only when it moves is it visible. This footage is exactaly the same. The yowie looks just like the tree until it decides to move.
Anyway, that is some cool footage whatever it is.
Some of the illustrations on the yowie hunters web site are not unlike this creature and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were genuine! AYH’s observations would be welcome when they deal with it. A hoax can’t be ruled out anytime but I think this is a goodun and somehow the creature’s odd appearance does not undermine its probable validity as of a yowie, but give it strength. Very interesting! Now lets see some wizard enhance the pictures.
Interesting!
The Yowie’s appearance reminds me of the Vince Dorr sighting of the “Skunk Ape” from Collier County, Florida a number of years back.
In that case, almost certainly hoaxed, the creature also resembled a man in a Chewbacca costume — without the ordinance belt — from Stars Wars.
As a new poster, I’ll give the caveat that I’m quite a skeptic about cryptozoology. That said, I would add that the cameraman seems genuinely surprised.
And if one believes earlier accounts (including the Patterson film), then a sasquatch seems to be quite unconcerned with homo sapiens in its territory. That it was hiding, and only bolted when approached very closely seems quite in keeping with the testimonials and spurious cinematic/photographic evidence. If you were a six-foot primate with the concomitant strength of orangutans or chimps, you’d probably be unafraid of us spindly H. Sapiens too.
I’m pleased to see that a couple of you picked up on some of the same things I did, but let me give you my take on it.
First off, I’m prepared to say that I believe the footage itself to be genuine- meaning that the people were doing what they were doing, saw what they saw, and filmed what they filmed, and that they themselves did not perpetrate a hoax. The banter seems natural and genuine, as does, I think, the response. Keep in mind how dark the original footage was, and thus, how dark it was for the people involved. I don’t think they knew what they were looking at until after it took flight. I am also inclined to believe the filmer because he was upfront about his credentials (And his wife’s), and has distributed the footage freely. Hoaxers tend not to operate in this manner. Also, the original footage, without enhancement, frankly sucks. If I were a hoaxer and had a suit THAT convincing, I damn sure would have showcased it better in my video.
As for the creature itself, well, its most detracting feature clearly seems to be its resemblance to a Wookiee. Others have stated on how it seems to lack the features of a North American Bigfoot. Personally, I think the notion that an Australian hominid should look exactly like a North American one is highly speculative, at best. My personal theory on the Yowie has always been that it was a surviving Homo erectus (Or perhaps descendent would be more apt), but it certainly could just as equally not be. My biggest beef with it is that it appears to be awfully shaggy for an animal that has to live in the heat of Australia, but then again, they did mention it was quite cold out (This is their winter after all), so maybe that’s just its thick winter coat, and it sheds most of it in summer.
I find the behaviour, as mentioned by others already, to be rather persuasive. I have gotten just as close to wild animals as the camera man before they felt compelled to flee (Once almost stepped on a sleeping fox before even seeing it, I was so close…and you know they’re wily), so this too seems plausible. Also, I find it quite interesting that at that last moment, when it finally looks up, that it bears its teeth before fleeing. More typical animalistic behaviour if you ask me, and I would speculate that if this were a hoaxer, that he would most likely have accompanied such an action with some sort of sound.
Still, it does look an awful lot like a Wookiee, and those teeth seem very white for something that should never have seen a toothbrush. Regardless, I think this video should be properly analyzed and the case fully investigated. I don’t think we can say yet that this is GOOD evidence, but it certainly is PROMISING. Let’s hope it delivers…
as i look at this again i realise that yoda’s chewie like body guards have hidden him in the high elevation of the down under. i hope this doesnt get out to vader or we will have the whole empire breathing down our necks and not and e-wok in sight.
seriously we probably all think this might be a hoax and some are betting their life on it. you all have to realise that you need to be objective when looking over this stuff.
i would love this to be an overgrown bipedal marsupial that is yet to be catalogued. wouldn’t that be the shizzle
Ask them to go back to the site to look for footprints, hair samples on the tree etc
It’s look like a Wookie 🙂
I think is a fake.
TOOTHBRUSH,,,?????
A wild healthy omnivore, with a healthy diet, and no access to junk food doesnt need a toothbrush to have stark white, healty teeth. Have you ever looked in the mouth of a healty wild animal???? They have white healty teeth. Only in old age do wild animal teeth become worn and discolored. And many times, loss of tooth integrity is what does a wild animal in, at the end of their days.
Another thing, some long haired domestic dogs will over heat in the summer if you shave them trying to cool them off. The hair insulates them from the heat and sheilds them from the sun.
Another thing #2
If you took an average man and took him to a special effects studio and installed natural long hair or fur on him, completely covering his body and you did a biologically correct job of it, you would end up with something looking just like a wookie. Depending on the color of the fur.
Basic Comparative Biology 101
Ah! Nice Chewbacca suit. Very good.
Well I completely agree with MojoHotep…who has a great name, btw.
The behavior and movement are JUST like a wild animal acts…shoot, it’s really similar to how you and I would act in the same scenario.
Imagine you’re playing some sort of night-time hide-and-seek. Freezing, especially in the dark, especially under cover, is remarkably successful. Ask any thief 🙂
Also, the face screenshot referenced above doesn’t seem right to me…when I watched the vid, I saw the animal as pressed front first against the tree. There was only one eye visible, and this makes sense if they were screwing w/ the laser off to the cameraman’s left flank. The animal would have been peeking at the laser and not paying attention to the cameraman.
I thought the banter of the party there was totally natural, especially since the speaker was a guy. For guys, how many times have ya’ll tried to act chill about something when you didn’t know what the heck was going on? Saying “what….what is that?” is much better than screaming like a 5 year old. If the weird thing turns out to be a bush, you’re not a big pansy for freaking out. Seems typical to me.
I would have done the same, but when it ran, probably started cussin a blue streak to make my mom ashamed.
Good point, Mojohotep. I’m reminded of Jojo the Dog-Faced Boy, Lionel the Lion-Man, and other hirsute sideshow stars. They look a lot like Wookiees to me too. On a somewhat related note, I also noticed how the hair is darker around the nose and mouth, like it’s been stained. I’ve seen that on many a light-coloured dog with curly hair, like poodles and bichon frisse (Not sure of the spelling on that one).
I would have to say that if this is a hoax (And I’m still willing to admit the possibility), it’s a darn good one, with a lot of thought put into both appearance and behaviour. Perhaps someone’s been reading all of our comments here about hoaxes and taking notes…
I don’t know how people can be so sure it is a wookie suit when there is so very little real information in the image, which has been enhanced to or beyond any useful level. The only time we get real detail other than noise is when the animal takes off on all fours, at which point it reminds me of nothing so much as a beaver, which don’t live down under.
When the object is frozen by the tree, the detail is so poor you can’t tell it’s fur from the tree bark. It is very open to imagining patterns. At first I thought I saw a pattern in what we now are to think is the fur, that looked like a primate, and I thought ‘how crude’ but it was my human pattern-recognition imagination at work.
It could be a hoax, but I think those who are so sure of it are, like me at first, seeing things.
It behaves like a real animal, though not like a primate, but more like an herbavore, perhaps a ground-dwelling koala variant. We have no indication in the film of scale, I would point out.
I’m gonna catch alot grief from this post, but it occured to me today, if we all (researchers and enthusiast) start trying to create our own yowie and bigfoot hoaxes, we might learn what to look for when we are looking at video and trying to decide the big question “Hoax or Real”. The best way to beat ’em sometimes, is to join ’em. For a while, maybe.
Just a thought, but, I think, maybe one to consider.
I actually proposed much the same thing a few months back, but it is quite a double-edged sword. Learning the tricks of the hoaxer’s trade would do us all well, but having those skills, we would all be labeled as hoaxers by the skeptics. From their perspective, when any video of a cryptid is brought to light by someone who has faked footage in the past, then that video must be faked as well. Just look at this film. FX artists can witness strange phenomena just as easily as everyone else (They may even be more qualified to recognize it), but because he has the skills that may allow him to replicate it, he is instantly suspect. It would kinda be like Biscardi suddenly showing up with clear and unambiguous footage of a Sasquatch. Even if it surpassed the Patterson film for clarity, there would be few here, I think, who would believe him. He’s cried wolf far too many times.
Not telling people your footage is faked is dangerous, but you’d learn a lot about your fellow cryptozoologists’ skills of perception. After they learned the truth though, I doubt they’d be your fellows anymore. Still, there should be a way to accomplish this. I suppose showing it to other researchers, but keeping it under your hat (Not releasing it to the wider public for scrutiny) and making no claims as to its veracity might work. A, “Hey guys, I found this film, but have no details on it and don’t know if it’s real, what do you think?” might work. The trouble is, ultimately, it’s still deception, and that’s not exactly a trait that should be fostered in this field.
A better way might be to hold a workshop with FX artists to see how they do things, and whether or not their tricks can be picked out on screen. Researchers would not really be learning how to fake things, or doing any faking themselves, but they would gain more insight into how fakes are made, and how to recognize them. These FX guys could even experiment with Ghillie suits, Wookiee costumes, and off the rack gorilla suits as well, so that we could see if someone could produce a convincing film with such basic supplies.
Food for thought.
That video doesnt prove anything it just shows a shaggy dog peeking around the tree. How can any one believe its some strange animal. Well to me the two individuals in the video should had some kind of guns. I hate to say this but the only way to prove that bigfoots exist around the country scientists need a body one of these specimens. Videos are a waste of time.
Cryto_randz, there are so many things wrong with your logic there that I don’t even know where to begin.