Big Cats and Big Foot

[Ray Ford]

On a couple or three other posts, I have made mention of Cougars.  The posts mentioning Cougars, in my mind, was not unrelated to the Big Foot discussion.  I have a question:  Is it possible that some of the things reported and ascribed to, or as, Big Foot are in reality Big Cats, or Big Cat activity?

I have been told that BF apparently has good night vision, and I have been told that he has eyes with cat-like pupils--which brings me to the core of this post.  

I was, sometime ago, shown a drawing that depicted a BF as seen and described by a friend.  The person who reported the sighting, said that he stepped outside of a camper trailer and saw the "critter" sitting on its haunches watching the camper--in the rain.  I would not want to challenge the person who made the report and provided the description--he saw what he saw and I didn't--but, as I looked at the picture, I could not help but think that the general shape of the creature was very similar to that of a domestic cat setting on its haunches.  Do Cougars ever sit on their haunches like a domestic cat does?  In addition, the drawing depicted the creature with cat-like eyes.

Again, I have no intent of challenging the person who had the drawing made: I just have that question.

[Micahn]

Remember all the numbers and % I give in this is off of the top of my head and do not mean the real numbers.
I would say that maybe 50 % or more of the sightings reports are mis identified animals. I feel that bears, Cats (this includes all the big cats) even moose and other animals have been misidentified. Then you have about 25% of them out right fakes or lies and that would leave 25% or less as real sightings. I believe in Bigfoot and I would be shocked if 25% of the reports was real Bigfeet.
Most people get scared in the woods if it starts to get dark on them. I would say that 75% of all sightings take place at night. If you add someone that is scared with some animal making sounds just out of sight you would have someone who is going to think of the scariest thing they can think of. To most people not much is scarier then a Bigfoot in the dark.


Also most people are very bad judges of distance. They are even worse at it in the dark. So I would be willing to bet that a house cat at night has been misidentified as a  Bigfoot and other things as well.

Remember I do believe in Bigfoot and I think it is a real animal out in the woods. But I am smart enough to know that humans are very bad at judging things in the dark and at a distance. Even in day light a lot of people have trouble telling what something is from a far distance. What would be clear to one person would be something different to someone else and they would both say they seen it very well.

[Greybeard]

Since I'm a skeptic and unlike Micahn don't yet accept the existence of bigfoot I'd push his percentages up more. It's all a very unscientific WAG on my part but I'd hazard that over half of the reports are more in the category of hoax and most of the rest misidentifications for one reason or another.

Still there are some reports that just seem to defy my ability to place them neatly into either of those categories. Folks who seem genuinely sincere and truthful giving reports of clear sightings that sure seem like there is no other logical explaination except that such a creature exists and that they saw it. Still no one can honestly KNOW that what another has reported is truthful and factual unless they themselves were there. Now you can know a person well enough to trust that what they say is truth and fact but you can't KNOW. You're going on faith based on your knowledge of them.

My problem is at this time I know no one well enough to be that sure so I have to take with a grain of salt all reports.

Still some like what John posted regard the LA hunt, like the one he posted for Dennis tonight, like one posted at SquatchDetective.com by Randy aka Fireman. I dunno. All sound quite sincere and I don't know any of them well enough to say they are not truthful so have to accept on faith they are. All encounters seem to clearly defy any other logical explanation.

Kinda makes me wish I had the time, money and health to go chasing around to see if I could have such an encounter so I could get off the fence on the issue.

[Skeeterbaymac]

Well said Mr Graybeard, I know of no one personally that has had a encounter/sighting.  If I did I would be able to form a better opinion.  

 One thing that I have a hard time trying to dispute is what about all the years and years of reports from as far back as the 1800 (I guess). From folks that did not know each other and lived thousands of miles apart.  At a time when we didn't have mass media and the person reporting the sighting probably did not have their imaginations influanced by other reports they had heard.  That is the thing I find hard to explain away.   That one makes me wonder?  

[Graybeard]

Based on the recent shenanigans at squatchdetective.com I have to assume nothing posted there can be taken seriously nor can anyone who posts there be taken seriously now, at least not in my mind. So I'm discounting the story there by fireman as more of the Squatch BS that seems to be flowing freely there of late.

To be taken seriously as a research site one must show honestly, integrity and truthfulness. Those qualities seem sadly lacking in the way events have come down over there of late regarding the BM photos, and contact between the site owner and John. In a PM from fireman to me last night at that site even I have now been attacked as well as shut out from viewing the forums. So I'll not return even if they open it back up some day. I will never be able to take them as a serious research site but rather as a prankster site. I think the image they are now portraying is truly indicative of how research must be taken there now. And to think I thought it was run by adults not grade school kids, could I have been wrong on that? Dunno. But at some sites it seems childishness reins these days.

With that I'm going to close all thread regarding that site and all threads regarding BM's blobsquatch and we're moving on to other things.

[John]

In the area where Bulletmaker, Dennis, and John have seen the big hairys, I have talked with folks that own property that joins the corps land about strange critters, and the possibility that maybe they've seen or herd something.

A couple swear that they've seen a black bear.

After listening to Dennis tell of his first person adventures, I'm thinking maybe the "bear" wasn't a bear.

[Micahn]

Well said Mr Graybeard, I know of no one personally that has had a encounter/sighting.  If I did I would be able to form a better opinion.  

I have 3 family members (Uncle, cousin, and a Grandfather) that has seen them. Personally I never have but I have heard and seen some things that I can not explain.

I can not say that I am 100% sure that Bigfoot is a real animal. I can say that I am 90% sure as I believe the family members who told me about their sightings as well as some things I have seen and heard. One of the family members sighting took place about 40+ years before the name Bigfoot was even made up. It also took place at a location that no one but a Very deep woods hunter or trapper could have been there to fake it. I can think of no reason at all for a person to run around with a fur covered body 50 miles from the closest town 40+ years ago.
So you know my Grand father that told me about it was a train conductor and seen it during one of his cross country runs out in the middle of no where. It could not have been a bear or any other animal that I an think of as it ran for over a mile on two legs while he had a clear view of it. It ran beside the train a couple of cars back from the engine ( my GF watched it out the window) and was going about 20 mph for over a mile. Sure a bear can walk on 2 legs but go over a mile at 20 mph ? I can not believe that a human would try to pull off a hoax 50 miles from a town way back then. And I can not believe my grand father would not have seen it was a man as it happened during the day light.
Anyway them are the reasons I believe Bigfoot is real. Sure I am not 100% sure but for me them are good enough odds for me to keep a open mind about it for now.

[Ray Ford]

In the area where Bulletmaker, Dennis, and John have seen the big hairys, I have talked with folks that own property that joins the corps land about strange critters, and the possibility that maybe they've seen or herd something.

A couple swear that they've seen a black bear.

After listening to Dennis tell of his first person adventures, I'm thinking maybe the "bear" wasn't a bear.

John,
My Cousin owns some 200 acres at the east end of Bristlecone Road south of Morris, Oklahoma, and she says that there has been a Black Bear sighted there--and threatens to kill anyone who shoots it.

Recall my post about the young horse and possibly a Black Bear?

I would posit that Black Bears may have been mis-identified as Big Feet, but the reverse, as you suggest, could also be the case.

[Ray Ford]

Since I'm a skeptic and unlike Micahn don't yet accept the existence of bigfoot I'd push his percentages up more. It's all a very unscientific WAG on my part but I'd hazard that over half of the reports are more in the category of hoax and most of the rest misidentifications for one reason or another.

Still there are some reports that just seem to defy my ability to place them neatly into either of those categories. Folks who seem genuinely sincere and truthful giving reports of clear sightings that sure seem like there is no other logical explaination except that such a creature exists and that they saw it. Still no one can honestly KNOW that what another has reported is truthful and factual unless they themselves were there. Now you can know a person well enough to trust that what they say is truth and fact but you can't KNOW. You're going on faith based on your knowledge of them.

My problem is at this time I know no one well enough to be that sure so I have to take with a grain of salt all reports.

Still some like what John posted regard the LA hunt, like the one he posted for Dennis tonight, like one posted at SquatchDetective.com by Randy aka Fireman. I dunno. All sound quite sincere and I don't know any of them well enough to say they are not truthful so have to accept on faith they are. All encounters seem to clearly defy any other logical explanation.

Kinda makes me wish I had the time, money and health to go chasing around to see if I could have such an encounter so I could get off the fence on the issue.

Graybeard,
I'm no spring chicken, but I've been in the woods a few times.  I had one strange experience with TG'son on Bullet Maker's place.  Basically, I was tending the fire barrell while the other guys roamed the woods.  TG'son had come back in to the fire, and, while we were talking, a strange odor wafted over the camp.  It smelled to me like a wet horse--and I know what a wet horse smells like.  I also know what a windy normally smells like.  I arrived at two possibilities:  Either TG'son let one with an unusual smell or a wet horse tippy-toed around our camp.

[Skeeterbaymac]

Mr. Micahn:  I agree 100% with you and I would be the same as you! No doubt in my mind if one of my normal  :grin: relatives said they saw one I would not question it one bit.  It would be good enough for me.

Mr. Ray Ford:  I have a question for you.  Do you guys always start a fire when you are looking for BF's and if so why?  I have never hunted BF's, never seen them and don't know anyone that has so I am asking as a novice.  It would seem to me that you would want to keep a low key approach am I wrong on this?  Also Wet bears smell pretty bad and if the wind is right I have smelled them from a long way off.  But I wouldn't describe the odor as a wet horse smell. It's more like a dog that has rolled in something dead few days. Real ripe!  

[Micahn]

Also Wet bears smell pretty bad and if the wind is right I have smelled them from a long way off.  But I wouldn't describe the odor as a wet horse smell. It's more like a dog that has rolled in something dead few days. Real ripe!  

I agree, The wife and I walked up on a Black bear about 5 years ago right after a rain storm. It was about 20 feet away behind some bushed (Palmetto if you know what they are) and I did not know it was there until the smell hit me. I said to the wife "Stop and start backing up real slow" I turned around and she was running full tilt to the car. I sure am glad that bear did not decide she was prey or I would be looking for a new wife chances are lol.
Anyway I agree they smell a lot like a wet dog to me. I grew up on a farm in Indiana with 14 horses and a bunch of cows and do not related that smell to bears. But hey I guess we are all different and maybe others think bears smell like a horse, Who am I to say they are wrong.

[Ray Ford]

Skeet and Mic,

I'm a novice too.  DG, Tg'son, BM, and the bunch reported having an encounter one evening when they were cooking.  I'll let them tell you about that if they wish to do so.  I wasn't there.  A couple or three times,
when I was invited along, there was an attempt to replicate the conditions with a fire and cooking food.  I understand the question about why a group of Big Foot hunters would announce their presence with a fire, but  a fire in a barrel on a cool night in the woods is nice for whatever  reason.  

I don't know that I've ever smelled a wet Bear--or a wet Big Foot.  Just remember:  I didn't see a wet horse.  I didn't hear a wet horse.  I found no tracks left by a wet horse.  The smell that wafted over our camp just seemed to be that of a wet horse.  I have no idea from where, or what, it came from.  Whatever, it disapated quickly.

[Skeeterbaymac]

Mr. Ray Ford:  I got to thinking of it last night after I posted and thought maybe they are drawn to the fire or something.  I guess it could be possible that they would check on a fire to see what was what. I do know that I use liquid smoke on my baits for bears and they love the stuff! I take a 35 mm camera container. Cut a small piece of sponge and put it inside. Then I poke some holes in it and pour in the liquid smoke.  I always have claw marks all over the trees that I hang these scent bombs in.  Half the time I have to go looking for the scent bombs.

Micahn:  Maybe she figured the bear would stop at you! :grin: It's hard to fight that urge to get some distance!