During a recent camping trip my friends and I heard a noise in the woods, I made a Bigfoot joke we all had a chuckle. This joke lead to a serious debate about the existence of this mythical creature. My friends are what I would consider open minded skeptics. They all know I am an avid reader of ATS so they turned the debate back on me. This being an impromptu debate I didn't read up before hand on Bigfoot. I told them I would post this thread in hopes of furthering our discussion. Here are some od their questions I struggled to answer:

1. What happens to dead Bigfoots? Are they buried? Why aren't there more carcasses of these animals?

2. How big is the estimated size of Bigfoot? We seemed to think it would have to be big enough to be genetical viable but small enough to go relatively undetected.

3. Does Bigfoot have a specified range? There seems to be sightings everywhere.

4. Why are they always filmed alone? Most primates and humans seem to be social animals by nature.

5. Does Bigfoot uses tools or build shelters? If so why are these tools ever recovered?

6. What is Bigfoot? Alien? Missing link? Made up?

Any help or clarification you could provide would be most helpful in our next debate.

Actually I wouldn't watch Finding Bigfoot. That show was a travesty for anyone looking for serious answers about Bigfoot and Matt Moneymaker is a hack who thinks every little noise is a sasquatch, one episode that fool was chasing his own echo. You should look up a show on the history channel called Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide. It was fantastic.

Originally posted by TheHistorian
During a recent camping trip my friends and I heard a noise in the woods, I made a Bigfoot joke we all had a chuckle. This joke lead to a serious debate about the existence of this mythical creature. My friends are what I would consider open minded skeptics. They all know I am an avid reader of ATS so they turned the debate back on me. This being an impromptu debate I didn't read up before hand on Bigfoot. I told them I would post this thread in hopes of furthering our discussion. Here are some od their questions I struggled to answer:

1. What happens to dead Bigfoots? Are they buried? Why aren't there more carcasses of these animals?

2. How big is the estimated size of Bigfoot? We seemed to think it would have to be big enough to be genetical viable but small enough to go relatively undetected.

3. Does Bigfoot have a specified range? There seems to be sightings everywhere.

4. Why are they always filmed alone? Most primates and humans seem to be social animals by nature.

5. Does Bigfoot uses tools or build shelters? If so why are these tools ever recovered?

6. What is Bigfoot? Alien? Missing link? Made up?

Any help or clarification you could provide would be most helpful in our next debate.

1. At the very least, they die and their bodies quickly decompose like any other animal. I've personally witnessed a fresh deer carcass decompose and completely disappear, bones and all, in just over a week. Add this to the remote locations they inhabit and low population numbers, and finding a body would be extremely rare.

2. This question doesn't really make sense. It's size is unimportant.

3. Mostly the Pacific Northwest, but there are sightings across the US, as well as other countries such as Russia and China.

4. There are several reports of them working and living in groups, but this is an interesting question. I've never seen more than one in a video, but there are audio recordings of several of them speaking back and forth.
There are also witness reports and audio of a phone call from a park ranger who witnessed a group of them travelling.

5. Not known. Some may build primitive, simple beds, and rock-throwing and stick/rock knocking is common, so their ability to perceive such things as tools exists. I'm not aware of any other "tool" use though; it doesn't seem to be necessary.

6. Gigantopithecus. There is ALOT of evidence pointing to this and it is the most reasonable answer.

Originally posted by TheHistorian
During a recent camping trip my friends and I heard a noise in the woods, I made a Bigfoot joke we all had a chuckle. This joke lead to a serious debate about the existence of this mythical creature. My friends are what I would consider open minded skeptics. They all know I am an avid reader of ATS so they turned the debate back on me. This being an impromptu debate I didn't read up before hand on Bigfoot. I told them I would post this thread in hopes of furthering our discussion. Here are some od their questions I struggled to answer:

1. What happens to dead Bigfoots? Are they buried? Why aren't there more carcasses of these animals?

2. How big is the estimated size of Bigfoot? We seemed to think it would have to be big enough to be genetical viable but small enough to go relatively undetected.

3. Does Bigfoot have a specified range? There seems to be sightings everywhere.

4. Why are they always filmed alone? Most primates and humans seem to be social animals by nature.

5. Does Bigfoot uses tools or build shelters? If so why are these tools ever recovered?

6. What is Bigfoot? Alien? Missing link? Made up?

Any help or clarification you could provide would be most helpful in our next debate.

topherwayne is right, stay well away from finding bigfoot, awful show for credible bigfoot fans and as topher says moneymaker is a twat! ill try to answer your questions best i can,

as for dead bigfoot bodies etc i think most people always refer to how many bear carcasses do you ever come across in the woods? interesting point that they may bury their dead but i personally dont think so. but the point of why are no dead bigfoot bodies found remains one of the main reasons for bigfoot sceptics to not believe in the existence of bigfoot.

as for size up to 9 foot has been reported, a full grown male could be anything from 7-9 foot and full grown female 6-8 but obv this could differ, same as humans, so i guess what age the bigfoot is when you see it. i mean there have been sightings recently of bigfoot babies with their mothers and obv these are fairly small.

bigfoot are mainly found in north america/canada, well thats where the most sightings are but videos crop up anywhere from poland to australia, obv these could be hoaxes but who knows?

i think most of the vids of bigfoots filmed alone is because alot of the older vids of bigfoot are hoaxes and its easier to do a vid of one bigfoot instead of two, like getting a suit and so on. i personally think the male always goes out alone to get food for the family. but recently there have been a few vids and sightings of families, check sasquatch:the quest doc coming out soon. erickson claims to have seen many sasquatch families together and even filmed a few. could be a coincedence but personally i think its just because there are alot of hoax vids out there.

as for shelters etc, there have also been a few vids up recently of supposed bigfoot nests, they are very well made and many people think they make these nests to sleep in at night. as for tools i have no idea really, i dont really think they are that smart to scult a saw or hammer type instrument but its well known they throw stones to ward off people and knock trees to communicate to each other.

as for what bigfoot is i dont think its an alien or anything that bizarre, i just think its as simple as its an ape, just a bit more smarter than a regular ape. sort of a neanderthal type creature smart enough to allude us thus far.

Originally posted by TheHistorian
1. What happens to dead Bigfoots? Are they buried? Why aren't there more carcasses of these animals?

Ok, I'll try and do my best but there will be people opinions that will differ to mine. Most things about it are theories anyway.

While we have never found a bigfoot corpse there could be a couple reasons why; there are some animals that live in a very similar habitat where we have a difficult time finding corpses, such as grizzlies which are another large animal. Generally where bigfoot is believed to live is in generally in very dense forest, where a dead animals corpse can be easily be absorbed back into the ground and decompose very quickly. Also if they live in dense deciduous forests there are more than enough scavengers around to help mother natuer decompose.

There is also the possibility that they are a very close relative to us, and maybe like nedrathals they bury their dead. If they are, as we call 'conscious', having a deity to explain occurrences would be plausible.

2. How big is the estimated size of Bigfoot? We seemed to think it would have to be big enough to be genetical viable but small enough to go relatively undetected.

I think the general accepted range is between 6-8 feet, there have been reports of taller and smaller though. But, those tend to be though of as children or big males, just as we have our taller individuals.

3. Does Bigfoot have a specified range? There seems to be sightings everywhere.

The majority of sightings happen around a place that tend to be a smaller population in any with an environment where larger game tend to be with plenty of hiding spots for a large creature. They obviously need to be around a food and water source and are known as being reclusive. There has been debate on whether or not Bigfoot is a omnivorous or a herbivore, so that would depend on it's habitats as well.

4. Why are they always filmed alone? Most primates and humans seem to be social animals by nature.

Well as for being filmed, I am only aware of select few films that have actually survived scrutiny, and with a select few as being possible it is difficult to tell of their behavior as they could have been in a group, with the other animals out of frame. It is also possible that they could live in families and one of the parent could grab their necessities while the other parent 'babysits'.

5. Does Bigfoot uses tools or build shelters? If so why are these tools ever recovered?

There have been supposed Bigfoot shelters found but while it could be possible that Bigfoot would make a shelter/nest there has never been hair samples found, and a big hairy animal would leave hair behind. But just because no hair has found does not mean these creatures could not use them. There are also plenty of natural shelter found in the expected habitat that they could use and never built any themselves, which as caves.

Tools are a tough one. I don't think there has ever been supposed tools found made by Bigfoot, that doesn't mean there couldn't be. Plenty of primates use many tools for food, and it's not just primates, we have found almost all species carry out some sort of tool usage. Whether it can make or use such tools as axes or sharp stones, there has never been any evidence that I know of, but they do think of rocks as weapons using them to discourage intruders by throwing them at the invaders. There have been a few stories of that included is the 'Monster Quest' episode filmed in Ontario.

6. What is Bigfoot? Alien? Missing link? Made up?

Bigfoot is supposed to be almost like a cousin to our species, they are thought to be a descendant of Gigantopithecus, a species that was very alive and real about 100,000 years ago that were monster sized.
Many people that have encounters describe their eyes as 'human like'.

There are plenty of theories on this animal and a lot of people that know quite a bit, and by no means and I an expert in this this field, but, I do consider Bigfoot to be a passion of mine and I read a lot. I have read quite a few books on the subject but I do consider Jeff Meldrum's 'Bigfoot: legend meets science' to be one of the best out there. It covers a lot of ground and he only uses good science behind his theories. Highly recommended.

I hoped I helped a bit.

Pred...

Anyone who knows me is aware that I cannot resist ANY Bigfoot thread, lol, so I will give it my best shot.

1. What happens to dead Bigfoots? Are they buried? Why aren't there more carcasses of these animals?

A common analogy that is used to explain this is that one doesn't find carcasses of many different types of animals, even ones that are especially abundant. For example, gorillas, elephants, etc. Another possibility, which is highly likely if indeed Bigfoot is more man than ape, is that they bury their dead.

2. How big is the estimated size of Bigfoot?

The general reports seem consistent, and they claim anywhere from 6-9 feet tall. I would think that the age and sex of the animal will determine the size, with adolescents being shorter than the adults. Personally, I suspect that many of these creatures are in fact not quite as tall, on average, as the sighting reports would suggest, but I am probably wrong.

3. Does Bigfoot have a specified range? There seems to be sightings everywhere.

Yes and no. These creatures, it is thought, eat meat as well as vegetation, so they would be able to survive anywhere that has the food sources. So any area that can support bears, deer, or similar animals could also theoretically support a Bigfoot. There are have actually been reputable biologists, zoologists, etc, although not many, who make this claim as well, and wholeheartedly believe that many forested areas throughout the country can support a creature of this size.

4. Why are they always filmed alone? Most primates and humans seem to be social animals by nature.

This is a good question. However, there is not any actual known footage of a real creature. At least none that are very believable. The clips that could possibly be authentic simply show a creature through the trees for a fleeting instant, so the timeframe is never enough to really determine much about the social nature of the creature. I do think they are at least semi-social in nature, considering they seem to communicate in some manner through eery human-like vocalizations, sometimes shouted across the forests.

5. Does Bigfoot uses tools or build shelters? If so why are these tools ever recovered?

Bigfoot, by nature, has survived this long by excelling in stealth. Due to this fact I would not expect them to create anything more than a temporary "bed" for a few nights at a time. Evidence of such beds have been found in the past, but you have to realize the vast area of forest and wilderness we are talking about here. There are usually NO people in the areas at any time throughout the year, with the only exception "sometimes" being hunters, who often do not report sightings, let alone an odd animal dwelling.

As far as tools, I would expect them to be able to use rocks, as well as sticks to perform tasks, but I personally do not see what they would need tools for, so I would say that they do not actually make tools in the sense you and I are used to.

6. What is Bigfoot? Alien? Missing link? Made up?

In my opinion, Bigfoot is a remnant of an ancient offshoot of primates or humans. I tend to lean toward them being slightly more human, as that would explain much more about their behavior and mannerisms in my opinion.

Any help or clarification you could provide would be most helpful in our next debate.

What I tell people is that these creatures have been recorded by Native Americans for centuries, and only later by white men, and this combined with the sheer amount of old and present-day reports really points in the direction of the creature being authentic instead of made up or a hoax. However, there are hoaxes perpetrated by people, whether it be footprints, howls, etc, but I think this accounts only for a small percentage of the overall number of sightings and reports of evidence.

The wilderness of America contains millions upon millions of unexplored acreage, which is plenty of room to support a population of these creatures. Biologically speaking, it is true that if there is a such thing as Bigfoot, then there would have to be a population of at least 1,000 or so individuals. I do not see this as a problem, and I suspect the number is even higher than this.

If the animals stick to the uninhabited, unvisited, unexplored areas of the forests, the odds that a human will encounter them are relatively nil. BUT, there are sightings, which leads me to believe their population has been growing over the years, and they are advancing outward towards the edges of their previous habitat.

I have studied this subject in depth for a pretty good while, and any claims made that attempt to disprove the existence of Bigfoot can themselves be rebutted. It really is theoretically and practically possible that a creature like this exists. Even if it did not exist, it would still be scientifically possible. I could actually keep ranting on this subject for pages and pages, but I will cut it off here to save you the trouble of having to read so much.

Thanks for all the input! Very interesting. There seems to be very little in they way of definitive answers in this area. I will have to try to find the history channel special. I have seen a few minutes of finding Bigfoot and I wasnt impressed.

Originally posted by TheHistorian
Thanks for all the input! Very interesting. There seems to be very little in they way of definitive answers in this area. I will have to try to find the history channel special. I have seen a few minutes of finding Bigfoot and I wasnt impressed.

Yes I agree finding Bigfoot does not seem to be helpful to the cause.

All I can say is - if you see one - takle that mother and bring it out in the light so we can settle this crypto once and for all!

Seriously though - have a tazer or tranq dart or something every time you go camping - if he is an ape I am sure he could kill a Human pretty easily.

So are there little pockets of Bigfoot all over the country? In my opinion there would have to be, since we have Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest, the Florida Skunk ape, the Swamp creature in Lousiana. So are these creatures all the same thing? Or are they distinct communities of creatures that have unique traits of their own?

I personally believe in Bigfoot... but I have a hard time reconciling some of these things when I try to put logic to them. If they live in the remote wilderness I could see how they haven't been detected. But it seems that we would have more reliable information of these creatures then a bunch of films that show the creature at a distance with less then stellar definition. From a historical point I agree with the poster that mentioned tales of Bigfoot from various native american tribes that have encounters with this creature. So there has been well documented cases of this not being just a recent development and show similiarites to modern day sightings.