A Most Frightening Sasquatch Encounter

Posted by: Craig Woolheater on April 16th, 2007

November 2006 – A Most Frightening Sasquatch Encounter

Introduction

After a month’s layoff, I am back with a new article for the BigfootBuzz. I am fortunate that the work I do allows me to meet and speak with a great number of people, most of who have lived, currently live or recreate in unpopulated areas around northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba. As a result, I have been privileged to have heard a number of stories relating to encounters with the Sasquatch. Some of these stories are freely shared y the individual without me asking any leading questions, while inevitably most are shared only after I mention my interest in the Sasquatch.

Generally the stories that I have heard have been brief encounters that last no more than half a minute or less, and did not involve too many people. Occasionally though I hear of a story that lasts longer and involves more than two people. Recently I was very pleasantly surprised and honoured to have had shared with me a story about an encounter with a Sasquatch that not only involved five people, but was a prolonged encounter lasting approximately five minutes or so. The only thing about the encounter that I was disappointed in was that it occurred over 20 years ago. Nonetheless, I feel that it ranks up there with any of the Sasquatch encounters that I have ever heard.

Although I have received permission from the person who shared their encounter with me to write about it in the BigfootBuzz, I am not going to reveal any names or the exact location at this time. I was so impressed with this encounter that I am planning on doing follow-up interviews and a visit to the site, even though as mentioned the encounter occurred over 20 years ago. Readers please note that this encounter was shared with me when I did not have any means of writing down the details of what I was hearing, and I have not had the opportunity to contact the person who shared the story with me to gather additional details and to confirm others. As a result, some areas of the story are a little sketchy. However, I have endeavoured to recall to the best of my ability the gist of the encounter and the details that I remember. In a future article, after having spoken with the person involved, I will provide additional details as necessary to complete the telling of this encounter.

The Encounter

The People Involved

The person who shared their encounter with me, (who I will refer to as “Jane”) is now 38 years old, but at the time of the encounter she was 16 years old. I found Jane to be an intelligent and articulate person who I believe truly encountered what she described to me.

Including Jane, there were five people in total that had the encounter. I did not speak with any other of the people involved in the encounter. These other four people involved in the encounter were approximately the same age as Jane.

The Location of the Encounter

As mentioned above, I will not reveal the exact location of the sighting. However, I can say that the encounter took place on a First Nation reserve in southern Manitoba. The area on the reserve where the encounter took place was away from the more populated area where the main community resides. While there are some trees in this area, it was by no means a “wilderness” area as the location of the reserve is generally within the Great Plains area.

The Details of the Encounter

I believe that the encounter took place either in the fall or early winter. One night Jane and four of her friends were driving in a car around an unpopulated section of the reserve looking for something to do. Three people, including Jane, were in the back seat and two people were in the front seat. The moon was either full or close to full as there was a lot of natural illumination for the people to see outside of the car to the surrounding fields and trees. Jane made it quite clear to me that there was no “partying” going on, only some bored kids looking for something to do, or as she put it “another typical night on the rez.”

The driver of the car was pointing the car towards the surrounding trees and brush to see if they could spot any deer or other animals by the illumination of their eyes by the car’s headlights. The driver of the car was known amongst Jane and her friends as a “kidder” always joking around and having fun, whereas the other person on the passenger side was known as a more serious type of guy. After having just flashed the car’s headlights into the trees and brush at the side of the road again, all the occupants of the car smelled something very, very rank. Jane compared it to the smell of a skunk or something that had been dead awhile. Everyone thought that the smell must have been a dead deer that was hit by a car and lying just off the side if the road.

After having been hit by the smell, Jane saw the driver look into the rearview mirror and saw his face take on a look of shock. Jane then saw the drive nudge the guy in the passenger side with his elbow and point with his thumb towards the back of the car. Jane said that the guy in the passenger side later told her that he thought his friend, in keeping with his reputation as a “kidder”, was messing around but nonetheless looked in back of the car. Jane, in watching this guy look back, saw his face take on a look of shock to match the drivers.

At this point, Jane was asking what was happening and what they had seen to which the driver replied that no one should look back and quickly floored the accelerator. Jane quickly looked out the rear window thinking she was going to see a bear but at first could not see anything of worry. After a second she saw what she thought was a tall tree stump by the road where they had just been. Turning she told her friends in the front seat that it was only a tree stump, and then turned back to look at it again – at which point the tree stump lifted up an arm so that it was parallel to the ground and began to run after the car!

At this point the other people in the back seat saw the creature too and began screaming for the driver to hurry because whatever it was behind them was chasing them. Jane related that the driver was driving as fast as possible to get back to the populated area of the reserve because he felt that they would be safe then. Jane explained to me that the roadway to get back to this populated area had a right hand turn followed by a long stretch of road and then a left hand turn with a long stretch of road, and that the road was surrounded by fields without many trees.

As the car was approximately 100 feet from making the right hand turn, Jane looked back and saw that the creature had cut across the field as if to cut them off after they made the right hand turn. This “freak-out” Jane and she started to yell at the driver to hurry up because the creature was going to cut them off and catch them. The driver increased speed after negotiating the right hand turn and the creature missed them by about 15 to 20 feet. As they approached the left hand turn, Jane looked back to see the creature cutting across the field again as if to cut them off after they made the left hand turn. Jane yelled to the driver to hurry up as it was going to try to cut them off again. The creature just missed catching up to the car after it had made the left hand turn but continued to chase after the car and its screaming occupants as they made their way towards the populated area of the reserve.

Jane stated that at its closest down the straight stretch of road the creature was approximately 30 feet away. The creature finally gave up the chase after the car went across a small bridge that lead to the populated area of the reserve. By this time the people in the car were hysterical, and drove to the local arena as they knew a hockey game was going on with a lot of people around. Once arriving at the arena, all the occupants of the car rushed into the arena where they met a number of friends and family who looked at them and said that they looked liked they had just seen a ghost. At this point, Jane and couple of her friends broke down into tears and related what had just happened to them. Their friends and family then took them to see some Elders to inform them of what had happened and to get some advice. Although there is more to the story, I will not go further into it.

Details as to the Creature

At first Jane thought that the creature was a large tree stump in the middle of the road. It was only after the creature raised its arm parallel to the road did she then realize that it was not a tree stump. In describing the raising of the arm, Jane imitated it as a person lifting their arm straight out in front of them and off to the side a little bit. Jane said that once the creature lifted its arm, she could tell that it was immense by the size of its arm. In addition, Jane stated that when it ran you could not only hear its foot coming down, but you tell it was an immense creature by the way its body shook under its own weight.

At some point during our discussion, Jane had made statements that lead me to believe that she knew it was covered in hair, but I do not recall the exact details. Also, I do not recall Jane mentioning anything regarding eyes, shining or otherwise, or other facial features of the creature. All of these details will have to be discerned from future discussions with Jane at a later date. On thing that Jane stated was that due to the size of the creature, its speed, and its apparent intelligence as demonstrated by attempting to cut them off, if it wanted to have caught them it could have easily have done so but for some reason chose not to. Jane hypothesized that it had young around and was simply trying to chase off a perceived danger to such young; needless to say it did a fine job in that regard.

Conclusions

I believe that Jane and her four friends saw a Sasquatch that night over 20 years ago. I recognize that my report is not complete and that there are many details missing, but I hope to remedy this in future conversations with Jane, and a visit to the encounter site. I find this encounter one of the most frightening and most intriguing. Frightening because a huge freakin’ Sasquatch chased a car load of people for over five minutes – that really does not need an explanation! Intriguing because of the perceived intelligence of the creature as demonstrated by its attempt in cutting off the car by crossing the fields. To my mind this type of behaviour speaks of a higher intelligence that is not generally found in animals. In any event this encounter bears a more detailed investigation to catalogue the events more clearly even though it occurred over 20 years ago.

If anyone has any comments on this article, or has a first-hand report or oral history that they would like to share with me, please contact me at the email address below. And remember; when on the rez always look in your rear-view mirror at night!

Whether you believe it is myth, spirit, supernatural, or physical, your responses are welcome here. Please email: bigfootbuzz@taiga-communications.com Meegwetch! Ekosi!Terence Sakohianisaks Douglas

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.


31 Responses to “A Most Frightening Sasquatch Encounter”

  1. treeclaw responds:

    Intriguing because of the perceived intelligence of the creature as demonstrated by its attempt in cutting off the car by crossing the fields. To my mind this type of behaviour speaks of a higher intelligence that is not generally found in animals.

    Actually this behavior is found in a number of animal species which hunt in cooperative packs. As for the chase I think it was just the SAS’s curiosity which kept the playful chase going for a while.

  2. DWA responds:

    I’ve always believed that the apparent absence of sas/car collisions as indicated by the literature – although actually I have read one or two instances in which the critter didn’t seem to be seriously hurt – stems directly from the creature’s understanding that cars stick to roads. Glad to see that confirmed. 😀 My experience demonstrates that other North American animals do not understand this. (Haven’t tested it with bears yet; they might get it, as we don’t seem to roadkill too many of those.)

    The understanding of shortcuts is pretty common to kids as young as toddler age. Doesn’t seem that much of a stretch for the animal we’re talking about here. It’s rare indeed to read about an intimidation display in which the animal actually shows itself. But it does happen.

    Keep us updated. Might want to contact this guy to let him know Cryptomundo’s interest.

  3. dogu4 responds:

    Interesting story. The idea of a nocturnal or crepuscular open ground predator triangulating its escaping prey as an act of husbandry rather than simple attack is one that fits well with my concept of how this creature came to occupy the landscapes in which we currently see them. I hope more details emerge. I’d love to examine the landscape architecture of the area in which this occured.

  4. raisinsofwrath responds:

    Craig,

    Even though I’m sure that “Jane” was genuine about the whole ordeal I do recall as to how she made a point of how boring a typical night was for them.

    With this in mind and knowing that some NA’s still dress up in animal skins for various reasons, did it ever cross your mind that there may have been other’s around that night that were just as bored as Jane and her friends were? I think you know where I’m going with this and it’s not to discredit anything but just wanting to consider all the possibilities. Maybe next time you go to follow up on the story it may be a good idea to do a little snooping around to find out a little more about the “rez”.

    As much as I want to believe that it was a BF incident, I’m sure there are jokes perpetrated there like anywhere else. For all we know there is another group of friends that is still laughing over the night they put on the bear skin and chased the carload of HS rivals.

    Again, just looking at all the angles and possibilities. I hope that I’m way off as it is a great story.

  5. Bob Michaels responds:

    This had to be a male Sasquatch who was in heat and attracted to Jane and perhaps wanted to steal her and retreat to his abode.
    First Nation stories have indicated that Sasquatches enter homes and steal children. I see no other reason for this aggressive response from the Big Fella.

  6. DWA responds:

    raisinsofwrath:

    Definitely in the spirit of keeping all angles open, but in the proper perspective, I doubt this was a human in an ape suit. What I read says no way.

    1. The size and speed of the critter seem apparent from the report. A man in a suit – even a one-piece Lycra track suit and appropriate footwear – will pose no challenge of any kind to a speeding car. Shortcut or no. My inclination, were I the driver encountering such a clown, would be to try to run the dude over, and put the fear shoe on the other foot.

    2. These folks sound from the read to have been way scared. I’m not sure that anything exists more calculated to draw snickers than a man in an ape suit. Particularly one trying to run. In short: no one in a car is scared of a guy in a costume.

    Either they saw a sas, or they’re flat lying, or good hallucinogens were involved. No suit here.

    I’m not sure why anyone thinks men in ape suits are responsible for sas sighting reports. You can find someone anywhere who might get taken in by it, but we’re talking way gullible here. I’ve never seen a human in such a suit who didn’t telegraph that fact quite quickly.

  7. Remus responds:

    Just a comment on the smell –

    So often the sasquatch/bigfoot/skunk-ape is described by that smell of “something that had been dead awhile”.

    If true, that suggests a dedicated carnivore.

    Happy camping!

  8. Remus responds:

    And while I’m at this –

    We never seem to find a dead sasquatch in the woods or as a roadkill.

    Almost all primitive societies buried their dead, usually in well hidden places…

  9. calash responds:

    Has this story been posted previously? As I was reading this I seemed to know how the story would go. This is either the same report or very similar to a report I saw several months ago. I enjoy browsing various web sites and reading of Bigfoot encounters. Unfortunately I have read so many that details such as locations or times are not easily recalled. Maybe it was on the BFRO sightings database?

    Regards

  10. raisinsofwrath responds:

    DWA,

    If you noticed, I never once used the term “ape suit”.

    I’m sure you are quite familiar with Skinwalkers on reservations and to this day there are still NA’s dressing in animal skins and terrifying others as Skinwalkers. In fact they are so good at it that many swear that they take on the real form of the animal and are also claimed to run very fast.

    If someone were taking shortcuts and the people in the car are already terrified, everything takes on a more extreme nature. The speed, the appearance and even the specifics of the ordeal.

    I never read anywhere in the story as to a good description of the assailant or just how fast it was running. If we all remember the incident of the alleged BF seen sprinting across a hillside in the memorial day footage I believe it was, it was claimed that no human could run the hillside that fast until they did the experiment with the sprinter and found that he not only covered the distance easily but in less time than the alleged BF.

    I want BF to be out there as much as anyone but to put stock in a carload of teenagers without question is silly.

  11. mystery_man responds:

    Remus- Well, herbivores can smell pretty bad too. Been to the elephant area of the zoo recently? Considering that most primates are not primarily carnivores, I do not think that there are enough facts to label Bigfoot as a full on carnivore at this point. In fact, that would be a jump from every other large primate known. Although some are omnivores and eat meat, they do not rely on this as the basis of their diet. I’ve always thought that the foul smell so often reported could have some sort of evolutionary advantage myself. Maybe as a way to warn other creatures away. I do not think that it is absolutely indicative of this being a strict carnivore.

    As far as the idea put forward in the article that this was a Bigfoot protecting her children, I find it hard to imagine any intelligent creature would leave them unprotected and alone as it goes on a lengthy, unnecessarily far chase of the threat. I would think it would not want to let them out of its sight if it was so keen to protect them. A lot of animals will intimidate a threat or even attack them, but chase a car that far for so long while its kids get left behind? That doesn’t add up.

    I think that maybe Bigfoot, like people, have different personalities and some may just be more aggressive than others. There may be no other reason for this behavior other than this particular specimen is one mean son of a gun. Perhaps this one was startled by the car and was in a foul mood and got enraged enough to give chase? Just something to speculate about.

  12. DWA responds:

    mystery_man: agree on pretty much everything you’ve said, but there may be another take on the protecting-young angle here.

    In one other case I’m aware of, the speculation was that a lactating female was accompanied by a male, which was the animal doing the intimidation display. In this case the animals were never seen, the situation being inferred from secondary evidence. It’s on the BFRO website for Maine, Pisquataquis County. It’s also one of the most intriguing reports I’ve read for the nature of the secondary evidence. I think the general consensus on this situation – such as there is – is that family groups form until young are ready to go out on their own.

    So the male might feel comfortable in going somewhat afield to chase off – and even lure away = a threat, leaving the female with the baby. Not that I think the male might be concerned about any other animal out there being a threat.

    Or, as you say, it could just have been a lone Big Guy feeling very territorial. And either way, behaving much like silverback gorillas do in similar circumstances.

  13. raisinsofwrath responds:

    In many instances in nature a mother will leave her young to draw predators away and make herself a target or to chase a predator.

    Often the young lay motionless blending in with surroundings while mom deals with the threat. Often chasing a threat for several hundred yards.

    If it were a family group I could see a male giving chase to drive an invader away from the family.

    None the less, lots of good theory happening here guys!

  14. DWA responds:

    raisinsofwrath:

    The last thing I’d put serious stock in is the word of a teenager – or a carload of them – on something like this.

    But I also wouldn’t dismiss out of hand an explanation of the encounter that passes Occam’s Razor either. Whatever the evidence for the animal’s existence, that this was a sasquatch – whether actually true or not – is the simplest explanation (other than that they were flat lying – which actually isn’t very simple given how many years have passed since it happened).

    And we all know what Occam says about the simplest explanation.

  15. mystery_man responds:

    Rainsofwrath- Yeah, for several hundred yards maybe. This was a lengthy five minute chase, probably a lot more than a hundred yards, which seems like an uneccesary risk to make. I mean, It chased them all the way to the edge of town. Most animals will chase the threat until it is safely on its way, not dogedly pursue it for such a long distance. Perhaps, like DWA said, there was another around as well.

  16. raisinsofwrath responds:

    mystery_man,

    Point taken! That would be quite a distance for a mother to chase a threat. That is if the distance covered is not exaggerated by the subject. Many people have trouble judging distance.

    DWA,

    I do understand your point of view and I don’t think this story was made up at all. The point I’m trying to make is did they actually see a BF or something else? Did it happen as they say or is this just how they remember it?

    I think you’ll agree that teenagers in a state of terror are likely to imagine all sorts of monsters.

    Although I will agree that in a multitude of cases it does apply, I have to respectfully disagree that this being BF passes Occam’s razor.

    Perhaps we can rule out some of my theory after your next conversation with the subject.

    As I said, I certainly hope this is a BF encounter but I cant just say “OK, it is” and be on my way without more info.

  17. windigo responds:

    After reading this, I can’t help but feel that Sasquatch really enjoy scaring the hell out out us. I think this situation be much akin to a child having fun terrifying their younger brothers and sisters. Imagine if the answer was that simple.

  18. DWA responds:

    raisinsofwrath:

    All points taken. Except the Occam one.

    No one eyewitness to an eight-foot ape that science doesn’t recognize can be taken at their word. That’s just the way it is.

    I’m just saying that there seem to be if we’re going with Occam two possibilities: (1) sasquatch and (2) lie. There’s too much detail here for me to say “fear;” people scared enough to imagine things usually don’t imagine them in this kind of detail. And they usually get over their fear when they see – as they inevitably would have over the course of this long an encounter, with the subject getting that close – that their initial panic was unjustified. That they never did seems extremely weird to me. So I think the “fear” answer wouldn’t pass the Razor for sure.

    But that doesn’t necessarily rule it out. Occam only says “most likely;” he doesn’t say “only possibility.”

  19. mystery_man responds:

    Good posts everybody! A little off the ongoing topic, does anybody other than me wonder what it would have done if it had caught up to them? Assuming this was a real encounter with a Bigfoot, I wonder if it would have just done a lot of chest thumping and intimidation like a male silverback gorilla might have, or would it have caused some hurt? Personally, I think that since it gave such hot pursuit, it was not merely interested in scaring them off, but out to do some damage. I get the feeling that some bodies would have turned up minus arms if this thing had caught them. I also wonder if there has ever been any deaths linked to any sort of sasquatch attack that anyone knows of. Curious to know what you other posters think about this.

  20. Remus responds:

    Follow up on mystery-man,

    I know I’m pushing this here but…

    What if they not only bury their own dead but their victims as well? What they don’t devour that is. What if they ARE carnivores?

    I really don’t think there is any truth to this but I just want to explore that possibility.

    Any ideas on how that scenario could be researched or quantified?

  21. DWA responds:

    mystery_man: I promise to stop saying “Read sighting reports.”

    On second thought, naaaah. Where would I be without my schtick?

    I’d be willing to bet – again just based on what I’ve read – that if they’d flat stopped the car the sas would have retreated. Intimidation displays always seem to stop well – very well – short of physical violence. (In fact in most, the ape doesn’t even show itself.)

    There is one “known” har har sasquatch fatality, I believe – and the tale has been told by none other than Teddy Roosevelt. Apparently a couple trappers irritated one beyond mere upset, and one of them wound up dead. Wish I knew where the detailed account was online, but I’ve seen it in more than one book.

  22. dogu4 responds:

    These are all interesting questions and good possible explanations but I can’t help but think that an amimal capable of this kind of open ground behavior is not the forest dwelling primate which seems to be one of the widely accepted theories of its natural history.

    While more regularly seen more closely in forest habitat, I think that those sightings are the result of a creature more suitable to open ground, unable to use its natural ability to identify and avoid us, being caught off guard.

    Afterall, who goes hiking across the great plains to go camping? A large brown body in tall grass is naturally seen as a cow, or moose or horse or bison. Our propensity to see things as we think they are would explain how a cryptic creature could be mistaken for the ordinary.

    The presumed physiology and size and mobility of what we associate with BF just seems more likely the result of an evolutionary path that would have been wonderfully suited for vast open ground habitat, and while these days the great northern forests dominate what we see as the remaining wilderness, in fact the wide open grasslands supported huge complexes of gigantic animals and comprised the the largest contiguous habitat in the world.

  23. DWA responds:

    dogu4:

    Interesting speculation there. First time I’ve heard it, and of course it makes incredible sense. Isn’t that what we say of our own evolution – Proconsul going upright and forsaking the trees for the open savanna?

    Of course there are modern analogues to the sas. They just aren’t primates. The brown bear and the wolf clearly evolved as animals of open country, just as clearly as the black bear with its tree-climbing ability evolved as a forest critter. They populated the American plains in great numbers, as Lewis and Clark could attest (frequently to their dismay). But thanks primarily to the coming of “civilized” European man, both primarily occupy forests or high alpine country now (other than those in the Arctic – where you find brown bears and wolves but no black bears).

    The sas’s intelligence and stealth – the latter as prominent in the anecdotal literature as its great speed afoot – have allowed it, like the bear and the wolf, to adapt well to forested country. But this is interesting to speculate upon. The sas clearly is seen often enough in open country for the speculation to have merit.

    Besides, other than juveniles who appear to be good at it and who are adept at using trees as camouflage, sas can’t (or rather rarely do) climb.

  24. mystery_man responds:

    Well, let’s not forget that there are quite large animals that have evolved to life in the forest as well. I’m not saying that Bigfoot could not have evolved to be an open ground creature, just that it is not the only possibility based on just size alone. Being of large size does not mean necessarily that it is adapted for life on the open plains. Look at the great apes of today and you will find that they primarily inhabit forested areas.

  25. dogu4 responds:

    Thanks for your comments, DWA. This envisioning of BF being a creature of the Pleistocene’s mammoth steppe is one that I’ve been harboring and reflecting on a lot, due to an interest I’ve developed in trying to see the antecedents of today’s landscapes (much diminished landscapes, I should add). This perspective not only puts some of the BFs presumed physical attributes into what for me seems a more natural relationship to its environment, but it also explains some behavioral aspects.

    Also, if you look at a north polar projection of the earth it becomes evident that once the so called “land bridge” between Asia and North America is in its normal relationship with regards to glaciation and sea levels historically, the super-landform of what I think is sometimes called “laurentia” presents a grassland unlike any that exists today in composition and size. How could one of the planets most adaptable, and wide ranging family of animals have missed out on that niche? I suspect that they didn’t for long…and long before the arrival of h. sapiens. Pressures and climate change would drive these surviving population into forests which could support them where they’d find their abilities to survive the northern climates a pre-adaption which would suit them very well for lower latitudes but higher altitudes.

  26. DWA responds:

    mystery_man: true about today’s great apes.

    But what dogu4 and I are talking about are adaptations in the sasquatch that seem perfect fits to what scientists describe as the evolutionary influence on habitat selection that happened with humans. None of the other apes have nearly the competence in treeless country of our two species. We are clearly divergent from them in the way we have adapted to occupy a multiplicity of habitats. And we’ve done some of the same things – tireless, efficient, speedy bipedal travel; sharply increased carnivory; much more useful forelimbs.

    Maybe our extreme social bent – we make chimps and gorillas and monkeys look like loners – has given us a critical advantage. (Including ways to vastly multiply the uses of those useful forelimbs.) But other than that, we seem to be sasquatch with better grooming. By our lights.

    And we never have truly left the forest, have we?

  27. DWA responds:

    dogu4: your last paragraph is a classic example of speculation on the sas that made me wrinkle my nose – until I thought about it a bit.

    When I first heard that sas sightings came from all over North America, I thought, uh oh, not real, UFOs here. I’d convinced myself it was a critter of the Pacific Northwest. It wasn’t until I read the BFRO site, and thought about it some, that I could see that that broad distribution made perfect sense – much more, in fact, than it being a “regional monster,” which Bindernagel (that’s his term) points out as a critical barrier to public and scientific acceptance of the species. (i.e., people from that part of the country have a quaint legend.)

    When I started thinking that Bering Land Bridge migration, and not primate evolution, might be the source of the sas, the same thing happened. Wait, I thought, that was (as you put it) mammoth steppe, not forest. But I hadn’t thought about the sas adaptations that would work well in open country – nor about the vast larder that was moving over that bridge with it.

    And one wonders whether this might open a new potential for places to search for subfossil remains.

    The more you think, the more you know – and the lack of speculation by the scientific mainstream on the sas is keeping us stuck in ignorance at this point.

  28. mystery_man responds:

    DWA- I know what you guys are talking about as I know one or two things about evolution and adaptations of animals. If I don’t, then I’m afraid I will be fired! 🙂 I am not contesting anything you two are saying at all. I agree that if you look at the adaptations that humans have made to cope with an open ground environment, then compare it with the bipedalism present in sasquatch among other things, then there is some obvious evidence for a correlation between our evolutionary pathways. I can see that point and see no reason that cannot be the case considering the striking resemblances in some of the sasquatch’s form and behaviors. Perhaps my use of great apes as an example was a poor choice as they are different physiologically than us, but I was merely illustrating that some of our closest cousins in the animal kingdom are doing quite well in a forested environment. I also wanted to say that lack of tree climbing ability does not in and of itself mean a creature is not adapted for life in the forest. A forest creature does not necessarily have to be an arboreal one. Anyway, maybe my last comment didn’t make sense but still interesting speculation going on here.

  29. dogu4 responds:

    Certainly, size by itself is useful in lots of niches, but consider how obviously adapted the BF is for long distance travel over any terraine, while gorillas’ size correlates with foods that are abundant and relatively nearby as are its predators and competitors.

    While I’m not so obsessed over the fossil record regarding the modern existence of BF, it is worth noting that the vastness of Eurasia’s northern plains has barely been scratched and yet there are fossils of erectus and even sapiens occasionally found. I’m not a fan of the idea that gigantopithecus blackii is the ancestor but rather an example which proves that primates have in the past experienced gigantism and so we can speculate that nature, following a well used and effective tact, would use it again though not for the same purpose necessarily.

    The process of preservation for which Beringia is so well known, freezing, has revealed some interesting finds but even so, were a hydraulic miner in up along the Klondike, finding a rack of ribs of big size isn’t likely to think it’s a primate…and +25K year old bones are pretty common up there, with scraps of mammoth teeth enamel scattered across the ground.

    It’s been mentioned that climatic warming will be presenting researchers in lots of fields with newly opened windows through which they can examine previously hidden data. We’d have to be ready to recognize the evidence should we stumble over some.

  30. mystery_man responds:

    I also wanted to point out that even if Bigfoot had evolved to be an open ground creature, it still possesses the potential to excel in and exploit a forested habitat. There are many remote tribes of humans that thrive in such environments. Bigfoot may have done the same. As Dogu4 said it may have been climate change or perhaps there was a lot of benefit to be gained from moving to the forests. I think it is feasible that Bigfoot could have evolved on the open plains, and then traded up for a forest habitat.

  31. RocKiteman responds:

    My {late} two cents:

    What I find most significant about this story – and maybe someone else mentioned this, I didn’t read all the comments – is that this animal kept up with a car for “over five minutes”. I don’t know how FAST the witnesses were driving, but it seems like these animals have {or at least THIS ONE had} considerable running *stamina*. I know the African cheetah can hit 70 mph, but that is just in short bursts. And squatches have two less legs. ‘Nuff said.

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