The Wireless Wilderness project, as explained in the last newsletter,
involves installing wireless web cams at locations of suspected
bigfoot activity. It sounds simple but it's a big undertaking. This
type of project can be broken down into two smaller, but still challenging
tasks: Getting the expensive and elaborate equipment that is required
is one task. Evaluating known sites that might be suitable for the
project is the other.
Evaluating
a known location is the more important task. One can't justify an
elaborate installation at any location without good evidence that
a sasquatch repeatedly passes by a certain spot, yet it is
difficulat to establish that without monitoring the location. A
'Catch-22' if there ever was one!
The solution
is preliminary monitoring of various candidate sites using devices
that cost less and are easier to install. Wireless web cams are
too expensive and complicated to use in the first phase. Less expensive
hunter cameras -- sometimes called "camera traps" -- are much easier
to install and capture clear images of any animals that pass in
front of them. They use passive infra-red motion detector triggers
to sense something moving through the field of view. In the day
time they simply snap a photo, at night they snap a flash photo.
Experience with other large wild animals shows that animals are
not frightened off by the bright flash at night. They may interpret
the camera flash as a lightenning flash, which is something they
experience frequently.
There is
far too much wild land in this country to go mounting camera traps
around willy-nilly. The sites must be carefully selected. The most
promising camera locations are those where circumstances suggest
that a sasquatch makes repeated visits to a particular spot. Occassionally
the BFRO hears about and investigates cases where saquatches periodically
snoop around rural homes and raid outdoor freezers. These are refered
to as "bigfoot magnet" cases. They receive special attention
from the BFRO.
In
southeastern Oklahoma, for example, residents in a remote mountain
home were fairly certain that bigfoots were raiding a chest freezer
in an outbuilding. Frozen deer quarters were being taken away at
night, in conjunction with distinct vocalizations and sightings
near the home. In Oregon and California, campers have reported things
stolen from camping coolers, again in conjunction with bigfoot sightings.
Based on reporting patterns, it can be assumed that for every such
reported incident of this type, there may be many other similar
incidents that go unreported.
Last month
I was doing a follow-up investigation of a multiple-sighting report
at a property in western Washington. The residents had reason to
believe that a few bigfoots inhabited the forested areas surrounding
their home.
During the course of my interview with the witnesses, it emerged
that they had two outdoor freezers with venison, a quartered pig,
and fish in them. Occasionally one of these freezers was opened
at night and frozen foods, such as the pig, were missing. The freezer
door was typically found standing open the next day and the remaining
contents of the freezer had begun to thaw.
The residents had not made any connection between these happenings
and the three sightings they were reporting. They were mystified
as to where the food was going, and could only suppose that hungry
neighbors were the cause, though it seemed unlikey, given their
remote location and thier good relationship with their very few
neighbors. The manner in which the freezer was left open and the
kinds of things taken was further reason to doubt that humans were
the thieves.
Can a bear
open an upright freezer? Probably. A bear would also leave a mess,
make a lot of noise, scratch the paint on the freezer, and eat at
least part of the food on the spot. I am not suggesting that every
disappearing item from a rural outdoor freezer points to bigfoot
activity. I am saying that if large frozen food items are disappearing
from an outdoor freezer in a remote location, in a stealthy manner,
and human thievery seems unlikely, bigfoots may be the cause ...
especially if the residents are seeing, hearing or finding tracks
of bigfoots near the home.
The BFRO
has provided a "camera trap" for this location. Should luck smile
upon this project, we will have not only a good photo, but also
justification to install much more equipment at this location.
Should the
western Washington location produce good photos, that evidence may
or may not be seen as persuasive. But if similar evidence were gathered
at more than one location, then we will have successfully replicated
the experiment. That would lend much greater validity to this approach,
and to this subject in general.
Are there
any other types of "bigfoot magnets"? Probably. Rabbit
hutches may cause the same behavior. The folks near western Washington
who were losing frozen foods were also losing so many rabbits that
they gave up raising them. Something was carefully opening the wooden
catches at night and taking rabbits. No disturbance was detected
and no tracks were ever seen (because of the soil conditions near
the hutches).
In Oregon, the occupant of a remote homestead with vegetable gardens
has reason to believe that a bigfoot raids his garden every summer.
A seasonal location such as this offers decent potential for monitoring
experiments, but obviously requires more time and patience to monitor.
Ongoing situations are preferable.
If you live in a rural area where there are rumors of bigfoot sightings,
please ask around to see if people are missing food from outdoor
freezers, etc., under mysterious circumstances.
Pacific Northwest
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