Finding Bigfoot‘s Tyler William Bounds Addresses the Cryptomundians
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 4th, 2012
Tyler William Bounds, of Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot, posted this comment to the post What Did You Think About The Season Two Premiere of Finding Bigfoot?.
I felt is was important enough to warrant a separate post.
I work on the show as a production assistant, cameraman, and as the hiking and camping coordinator. I am also a member of the BFRO. I won’t comment on the show and people’s seeming dissatisfaction with it in general, or the cast, or the production, as I have already done that back in June, when I discussed with Loren the discovery of possible bigfoot tracks while filming an episode in Georgia. But I will take exception to two assumptions made here in the comments.
1.) There is always a chance that there will be random people in our filming areas, but we go to great lengths to not tell anyone specifically where we will be filming. Maybe the person with a particular states’ Film Commission, who issued us the necessary permits to film in certain locations, told all of their buddies, and those people decided to come out and mess with us. I will concede that it is indeed possible. But in the majority of our filming locales, there was NOBODY around that would be doing that. We were often a long ways out in the wilderness, or had permission to be behind locked gates or in restricted access areas. We have necessary permits, or landowners’ permission, to go the places we went, and we strive to keep those places very secret. In some states, I can virtually GUARANTEE you that there wasn’t anybody within miles of us while filming. We film at night in out-of-the-way locations, and contrary to what you might think, there isn’t a Bigfoot Hoaxer Mafia, consisting of people obsessed with messing with researchers, or for that matter, film crews.
2.) In each state, myself and one cast member went and camped for 3 days, in areas of reported activity. There is NO other cast or crew members with us when we go out. We spend 3 days hiking and exploring, setting up audio recorders, trailcams, bait stations- all the things we, as dedicated and very serious bigfoot researchers, do when we are in our local areas, on our home turf, NOT making a television show. I took my responsibilities during those 3 days VERY seriously, and I worked very, very hard to make sure that everything that occurred during that time was documented, and that anything happening that could be a possible bigfoot interaction was investigated to the best of our abilities. It was my job to film the cast members out doing their bigfooty stuff, but, for me personally, my duty as a bigfoot researcher was primary, and my job as a film crew member was always secondary.
Thanks for watching the show.
About Craig Woolheater
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.
“I can virtually GUARANTEE”
Not sure if it’s the choice of words but I am not inspired to confidence the way that rings out. To me you give a guarantee or you do not. It is unlikely however that one could make that statement with 100% certainty.
Given GPS technology proliferation and the human will; there is always the possibility that some human could be out there for any number of reasons.
I’d gladly watch a show dedicated to Tyler’s three-day campout and area recon/setup rather than the circus of stupidity that is the final edited version of this show. Alas, it will never be.
I want to think nothing is staged. I want to believe nothing is staged.
However, when Matt makes blanket statements like “Sasquatches are well known to do _________”, I lose respect for him -and- the show.
How can he ethically say they are well known to do anything, if we cannot even prove they exist scientifically? He cannot. So it is clear he’s just pulling it out of thin air so he can sound knowledgeable on television.
I would prefer the show, to lose Matt Moneymaker (ironic last name I must say) altogether, and go with Raena and BoBo, as the Skeptic and the hunter.
It’s interesting how much time and effort is taken defending this show by the people who make it.
Gridbug/BunniesLair: exactly.
Bigfoot research – where and when it is being done seriously – is not Bigfoot TV. (Apparently.) Except for the somewhat exotic nature of the subject, it is plain old garden variety boring wildlife research. Which is the kind that leads to bespectacled, eccentric-looking gentlemen (or not) walking up to podiums, cleaning their glasses, and blowing our minds.
The mind-blowing, Bigfoot TV guys and gals, is at the end, not something you shoot for in the beginning.
I’ve suggested here before that Bigfoot TV stop underestimating its audience, and change its slant. Well, gridbug, you and I might watch. But how the hell big are their ratings as it is? The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy sounds like they have some very intriguing stuff going on. But they understandably shun Bigfoot TV like the plague. Jeff Meldrum shows up occasionally, and doesn’t get his sneakers too too dirty; as a scientist, he has a knack for summing up the evidence in compelling ways (and no doubt a lot of practice). But he and his ilk are too small a part of the proceedings, as they are now, to do anything but…well, maybe provide the one piece of info that makes the audience do anything other than “yes, bigfoots are well known to do that” (BFROites…guys, we don’t even know they exist!) or snigger (most everybody else).
I really think that a program that addresses the breadth and depth of the evidence, and the painstaking grind of the real research – and it can be done, done consistently, and done for a long time, there’s that much evidence – would not only bring in unexpected quantities of viewers, but could even lead to the public attention that might finally coax mainstream science onto the track of the sasquatch.
Hey, it’s a crypto site. I can dream.
Yes, DWA. A thousand times yes. 🙂
This show is a complete waste of time, money, resources and credibility. All it needs now is a laugh track, because it’s pretty much just another half-assed reality show with little to no actual value beyond some rubbernecking for the easily amused.
Of which I am not.
Hi Tyler,
First let say that some of the criticisms posted here and expressed elsewhere do not represent the views of all those who watch the Finding Bigfoot episodes. They’re entitled to their opinions and should be allowed to express it in a reasonable manner.
I’ve watched all the shows and realizing I’m watching something that has been produced for the mass audience of TV I’ve enjoyed it. I haven’t tried to over-analyze the episodes or be overly critical of the team or their methods.
At the same time I’ve realized that some of the material is probably dramatized which is what TV does. I haven’t seen the presentation of any material that was deliberately falsified with the intention of increasing ratings or misleading the public.
Bigfoot evidence is out there and is fairly easy to find and see if you look in the right places around the areas where the species has been seen or encounters have occurred.
I’ve seen a couple of people with close encounters that I hope are able to overcome the fear of the species and enjoy their experience. Such close encounters are rare and the species seldom really harms anyone except to scare them half to death and I speak from experience.
I hope your show goes on for a few more years and perhaps out of it might come some serious scientific interest. You might get lucky and get some real evidence of the species. My best,
Tyler,
Congratulations, you have a fun job doing something you enjoy doing…looking for Bigfoot
The REALITY is, this show, “is what it is”…there is no such thing as Bigfoot, and every sound, track, and story, are either misidentified, a hoax, or naturally explained…NOTHING HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH AN ANIMAL THAT DOES NOT EXIST.
We know you hear things, see things, and believe things are there in the woods, but I promise you…none of it is Bigfoot. I can imagine teenagers and prankster adults heading to your little town meetings then heading out to the woods to see if one of their howls or wood knocks makes the show from a hill across from your team. In my opinion that’s what is happening
You or one of your co-producers “recreated” evidence for many shows last season, as stated by your cast members on posts here on this site. The “real” evidence never makes the show because…THERE IS NO REAL EVIDENCE.
If you want to try and sell it to your audience that populations of 7 ft tall hairy primates are running around in different forest areas all over North America…Im sorry Tyler, you know there is not.
So have fun with your little adventure show, I hope you get a million more viewers, but please, don’t come here and take yourself sooooo seriously…ain’t nothing out there in the woods for you to take seriously.
I bet this show NEVER proves me wrong
CDC: Um, who are you?
Very clearly someone totally unacquainted with the evidence. Why don’t you get schooled instead of coming here to sneer? (Or to get over being jilted by Patty, whichever it is?)
People who spend their time bashing the proponent fringe announce their ignorance in loud tones. Not a pejorative; just a fact. Would you go to a physicist and say “relativity is a crock, you fool?”
There are scientists with big-time credentials who vouch for the reality of these animals. Their basis?
The evidence.
Why not go argue with them, studious?
@ DWA
I’ve seen every bit of evidence since probably before you were born DWA, and that’s how I have formed my OPINION.
The ONLY piece of evidence…and I repeat ONLY evidence, is the Patterson/Gimlin film. I can’t debunk it, recreate it, and I cannot prove it is a hoax. No one can say FOR SURE what the film shows, so it remains the ONLY piece of evidence. That’s it DWA.
Footprints?
Dermal ridges?
Hair samples?
Videos?
Pics?
Recorded sounds?
Eyewitness accounts?
DWA you put them all together and show what “EVIDENCE” science would use to base your claim that these animals exist.
You and other similar “believers have it backwards…NO ONE IN SCIENCE says these animals “EXIST” due to the EVIDENCE…they can ONLY say that there is a “POSSIBILITY” that the animals “MAY”exist due to this “evidence”…Collectively all your evidence can do is “maybe” show a “POSSIBILITY”. THAT’S REALITY and THAT’S SCIENCE.
“There are scientist with big time credentials who can vouch for the reality of these animals”. Your chose your words very carefully because you know there are NO SCIENTIST ANYWHERE who say this animal does exist…only that it may be POSSIBLE.
I want there to be unknown animals more than you do DWA…and I don’t even know who you are.
I just want it done the right way, with research and science…not with wild, stupid, claims that every, footprint, dermal ridge, hair sample, video, picture, recorded sound, and eyewitness account, is DECLARED TO BE SASQUATCH BY SOME FROM THIS SHOW!!!!!!
I would never “bash”, Dr Jeff Meldrum, Esteban Sarmiento, Daegling, Mittermeir, or even Bob Gimlin. I respect all of them for the time and effort they put in, and for their honest belief in the animal.
But I don’t have to accept the statements by Moneymaker, Biscardi, Erickson, and others out there who claim the animal exists without the actual supporting “EVIDENCE” to prove it.
“Sneer”? Nah I think it is the blind believer who sneers the most, at those who challenge the claims made by those who say “that’s squatch behavior”, “thats what squatches do”, “that’s the how bigfoot……….blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You see DWA, I may be better “schooled” than you.