Like what?

My statement was probably overly strong, but the point is that chimeric legendary creatures are fairly rare. There's obviously tons of supernatural powers in North American Native mythology - shapeshifting, spirits, etc. But most creatures or spirits are man-like or animal-like or abstract (the wind, the dawn, etc.) Sometimes giant or otherwise unnatural, but rarely chimeric like winged horses, lions with man heads, etc.

A great example is Lakota mythology. Everything is spirit or ethereal or is represented by a known animal - eagles, frogs, beavers, bison, etc. The only abnormal ones are usually human - having two faces, for instance.

This runs directly opposed to a lot of Eurasian Mythologies that are full of fantastical creatures like the Manticore, the Chimera, Dragons, Qilin, Phoenix, Simurgh, etc. etc.

It would be very, very odd that 90%+ of the spirits, gods, etc. of native american tribes are represented by known animals except for ones that strongly represent Sasquatches.

The only other example I can think of off the top of my head are 'horned serpents' - snakes that have horns growing out of their head. And most of those, iirc, are tribes that were closer in proximity to Mesoamerican tribes which did have a lot of fictional creatures in their pantheon.

Lastly, I'm not an expert in Native American folklore and there are a lot of various tribes on the continent. Could definitely be some legends I'm not aware of. But I have heard the same argument before by people more knowledgeable than me, especially about tribes that traditionally inhabited places that are now strongly associated with 'bigfoot'.

Kathy Strain, an anthropologist, has a great book about the wealth of Native American legends that strongly tie into the Bigfoot legend.

I meant to add this to the FreeForm thing but, yet again, screwed it up. I do think that camping, hiking, trail cams, portable records, video recorders are relevant for the obvious reason that if one is out researching it's nice to get ideas on trustworthy gear.

I get the wariness of a chinese blade but, so far and fingers crossed, this one has been a bargain and has stood some pretty rough treatment.

There are absolutely better knives out there but this one is super cheap, the Fallkniven is far superior. I just can't see myself hitting a $180 Falllkniven A1 (https://www.amazon.com/Fallkniven-Survival-Kraton-Handle-Sheath/dp/B001DZM482) with a hammer/mallet/big assed log while batoning wood.

The cheapie Schrade isn't the only sharp I bring but it has thus far proven to be reliable.

Yeah, that's the bummer.

I'm looking into picking up what the they use to get night snots shots (ahem, SHOTS) of lions in Africa, the Astroscope, and adapt it to my rig, but that's also pretty steep.

Flir has a 1024 x 780 video camera that's about 20 grand.

I'd love to get some night vision goggles with HDMI out, but it all comes down to what the size of the sensor is and the amount of usable pixels you can get out of it.

Unlike visible light sensors for cameras, these sensors aren't made in as high a number and are pretty niche items.

https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-Systems-ThermoSight-640x480-Black/dp/B00NBW88US/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1473293161&sr=8-14&keywords=flir

People did give this el cheapo one high marks. There are decent videos on YouTube with this unit. Solomark Night Vision Monocular, Blue-infrared Illuminator Allows Viewing in the Dark-records Images and Video

Price: $145.99

https://www.amazon.com/Solomark-Monocular-Blue-infrared-Illuminator-Dark-records/dp/B00THZ2NFE/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1473293254&sr=8-18&keywords=flir

Habituation sites are not areas that have habituated bigfoots, they are are groups of bigfoots that have been habituated by specific humans. That process will usually involve a consistent location, and the most common scenario by far is for property owners with land that connects to forest frequented by BF.

Area X is not a habituation site. NAWAC goes out there with sniper rifles, the BFs throw acorns at them and keep them entertained and employed as bloggers.

For your purposes, I recommend starting with Robert Morgan's Bigfoot Observer's Field Manual for location scouting and general outlook and approach. Then read Christopher Noel's Impossible Vists to get a feel of what habituation usually looks like and how it can play out. Finally, read Autumn Williams' Enoch to see how deep habituation can potentially go, but know that many people think it's just a homeless guy spinning yarn and pulling Autumn's leg, and she never got any proof to the contrary. Even if that's the case, it's pretty damn good yarn and he's got a solid understanding of bigfoot somehow.

Mostly, do your best scouting a location that they frequent and that isn't too hard for you to get to, and once you're sure they're there, just keep going back as much as you can and try to let them get to know you. They may eventually open up to you in return.

I know exactly what story you are talking about.

It was in one of my old bigfoot books I had when I was a kid. I'm not sure which one but I think it might have been this one, or this one
If not, both books are a great read.

My copies of both books were pretty old when I got them. I may still have the first book around somewhere but I know for sure the second fell apart.


I also remember some good bits of the story and if you wanna PM me, we may figure out enough to find it on google.

The photo is not likely authentic, but the area is pretty well known for sightings. There's a pretty good book by a police officer from the area on the subject

Get this book. It’s the best scientifically based book on the subject, written by Dr. Jeff Meldrum, a Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State. He’s a super knowledgeable guy and it’s an awesome academically based study of the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Legend-Science-Jeff-Meldrum/dp/0765312174

Dude, amazing stories.
I have a book recommendation for you: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q5WYS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I GUARANTEE you will enjoy that book. He explains in great detail how he learned to talk elephant.

One of my key takeaways from that book is that in the animal world we are basically autistic in our lack of understanding and awareness of what is going on. We're blind/deaf.

My question is: how did you figure out how to talk to the lion and the cheetah? Was this something you worked on for a while or did you just figure it all out while on safari?

Just to comment on the book, Man-eaters of Kumaon is a fascinating read. I have read it dozens of times and as I grow older, I find different parts of his story that fascinate me. Check it out if you can. Good adventure reading.

Thanks for sharing your story.

For anyone interested in more stories of interactions between bigfoot and first nation people, check out David Paulides books. Last year I read The Hoopa Project, which I found fascinating. I've also got Tribal Bigfoot which I've just started.

I actually had a 16" wide one rigged up with a 12volt gel cell battery and a PVC frame I made out of 3/4" PVC pipe to carry it in. It was super bright and rather portable for what it was. Used it for finding downed deer in the dark.

However, I switched to one of these - https://www.amazon.com/SKYRAY-Tactical-7xCREE-Flashlight-Torch/dp/B00J3GRH9Y and its almost as good. Gets really hot after about 15 minutes, though.

You're still misunderstanding evolution. Biologists don't consider animals in terms of "inferior" or "superior".

As for the laws of physics, organ systems require energy, and an organism has a total energy budget to run its systems based on the total energy it can consume. Brains are metabolically expensive, so evolving a large brain requires lots of energy. This energy cannot just come from eating more, however, because there is a practical threshold to how much energy an animal can actually extract from the environment: the more food an animal eats, the more energy it has to spend digesting that food; at a certain level it hits a plateau, and this plateau is below the level of energy it takes to run a human brain. Humans got around this by externalizing part of our digestive process, by cooking and processing food: instead of using our own energy to digest our food, we use external energy sources to digest part of it for us. This allowed us to reduce the energy budget of our digestive systems and divert that energy into running a brain larger than physically sustainable under natural conditions. Brain size in human ancestors was only moderately larger than chimpanzees before Homo erectus, but by the time controlled use of fire was habitual human brain size had doubled. Controlled use of fire is not an accepted or commonly reported bigfoot behaviour, and it is not consistent with them being so elusive since smoke would make them easier to find; without some mechanism to break this energy plateau it is not possible for bigfoots to feed an exceptionally expensive brain like humans have.

A seminal paper on the bioenergetics of brain evolution was Aiello and Wheeler's (1995)Expensive Tissue Hypothesis, which described the unique relationship between human brain and gut size, and Richard Wrangham has bud part of his career on the relationship between controlled use of fire and human brain evolution, including his 2010 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human

Podcast sources#

1. http://podbay.fm/show/257243172/e/1229569525?autostart=1 - direct link
   
2. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-talk-bigfoot!/id257243172?mt=2
   
   

   Related#
   

   
   

3. The Hoopa Project
   
4. http://www.nabigfootsearch.com/
   
5. David Paulides (02-19-13) Missing 411 & Bigfoot DNA
   
6. Sasquatch genome project
   (a) The DNA Study In A Nutshell
   (b) Sasquatch Genome Project Press Conference - October 1, 2013
   (c) Coast to Coast AM - Dr Melba Ketchum - source
   (d) How the Bigfoot field has discouraged serious scientific inquiry
   (e) David Paulides talking about the reception of the paper (Coast to Coast, March 17, 2013)
   (f) Melba saying it was "angel" DNA
   (g) The Ketchum DNA Study - One Year Later - by Christopher Noël
   
7. Giants, Cannibals & Monsters: Bigfoot in Native Culture written by Kathy Moskowitz Strain, one of the interviewers of the podcast.
   (a) Author info - "Kathy Moskowitz Strain received her B.A. in Anthropology (1990) and M.A. in Behavioral Science (emphasis Anthropology; 1994) from California State University, Bakersfield. She is currently the Forest Heritage Resource and Tribal Relations Programs Manager for the Stanislaus National Forest. Kathy has been a professional archaeologist/anthropologist for 20 years, and conducting research and fieldwork on 'Hairy Man' for nearly as long."
   (b) Where to buy: Amazon, Hancock House (publisher)
   (c) Endorsement by David Paulides:
   "[can you point us to a definitive source for the Native American myths you discussed earlier in the thread?]
   Yes; Giants, Cannibals and Monsters, by Kathy Strain.
   She is an archeologist for the Department of the Interior and a good friend.
   She spent years developing the book, its good!"
   
   

   About the people interviewed#
   

   
   

8. Harvey Pratt
   (a) https://harveypratt.com/
   (b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Pratt
   
9. David Paulides
   (a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Paulides
   (b) https://twitter.com/canammissing
   

This is the one that sparked my interest (around 1976 or so):

https://www.amazon.com/Bigfoot-yeti-sasquatch-myth-reality/dp/B0012EM3QM

Yes!
Check out Cathy Strain's book.
Giants, Cannibals, & Monsters.

She is an anthropologist and works for the National Park Service, liaising with Native American tribes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GKC3XY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

https://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Among-John-Willison-Green/dp/0888391234


https://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Legend-Science-Jeff-Meldrum/dp/0765312174/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BA978N1HSCA95QSMZZ4D