September 17, 2007

Texas Bigfoot Tidbits

Daryl Colyer, one of my colleagues from the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, sent the following news to be posted here at Cryptomundo.

On Thursday, 13 September 2007, I had an enjoyable, energetic and interesting conversation with Dr. Duane Schlitter, Program Leader for the Nongame and Rare and Endangered Species Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife. During that conversation, Dr. Schlitter agreed to participate in the 2007 Texas Bigfoot Conference as a featured speaker. Dr. Schlitter will be an excellent addition to an already outstanding line up of speakers.

The list of speakers for the 2007 Texas Bigfoot Conference now includes:

Pete Aniello
Dr. Henner Fahrenbach
Alton Higgins
Dr. Jeff Meldrum
Rick Noll
Dr. Schlitter
Kathy Strain

Formerly of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History as Curator of Mammals, and later with Texas A&M University’s Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences, Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection, Dr. Schlitter is co-author of National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife, and Bats of Dominica. He was a contributor to Wilson and Reeder’s Mammal Species of the World, and the Fourth International Colloquium on the Ecology and Taxonomy of African Small Mammals.

Dr. Schlitter has long been involved in the search for rare wildlife species in Africa and Asia. He was part of the Smithsonian group who viewed the Patterson-Gimlin footage early on as featured in Argosy and was friends with Ivan Sanderson. Dr. Schlitter will take questions and will speak about what Texas Parks and Wildlife’s course of action might be should the TBRC collect definitive evidence of the sasquatch’s existence through its camera-trap project, Operation Forest Vigil.

Dr. Schlitter has been quoted in the past regarding our research. From the October 31, 2005 issue of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, comes the following quote:

The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department requires more than anecdotal evidence before the state agency will take Sasquatch seriously.

“To conclusively prove … Bigfoot in Texas, we would need an image that included details to show us that it was not a doctored or edited image in any way, or we would want a body itself,” said Duane Schlitter, who oversees the TPWD’s Nongame and Rare and Endangered Species program.

“The latter would be the extreme, but many doubters will be hard to convince. As a romantic scientist, I would like to be around when and if one is ever found anywhere.”David Casstevens
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

During our conversation, I found Dr. Schlitter to be very personable, engaging, interesting, polite, respectful and excited about the Conference. He told me that he was planning on attending the Conference regardless of whether he was going to be a speaker.

Also of there are a couple of other tidbits worth mentioning:

The TBRC just had its scientific research permit renewed for its camera-trap project, Operation Forest Vigil, to be continued on National Park Service land.

The TBRC’s website redesign project, after experiencing a setback, has been reinstated by another web design company and the new site is scheduled to be unveiled in November, perhaps at the Conference. The site promises to be unique and more along the lines of mainstream wildlife and conservation sites, complete with a database-driven sightings report system.