All Quiet On The Bigfoot Front

This is the slow time of year for Bigfoot research. When leaf cover is gone the Bigfoot activity goes down significantly.

To Prove Bigfoot Exist - Only a Body Will Do.....

With the majority of the Bigfoot World and Mainstream Science refusing to accept the Ketchum DNA Study and Dr. Sykes' farce the “Bigfoot Community” is in a major funk. Some would even argue shock. Dr. Sykes managed to disappoint and anger all sides of the debate in the Bigfoot World. He was a “Universal Wet Blanket”. The Ketchum Haters, Ketchum Supporters, Bi-Pedal Ape, Human Hybrid, Paranormal Bigfoot, Underground Bigfoot, UFO Bigfoot, you name it and all factions were disappointed in the “findings” by Dr. Sykes.

This left the whole community with the collective realization that only a body will do. DNA studies will not do, High Definition Video will not do, multi-witness encounters will not do, footprints will not do, sound recordings will not do, only a Bigfoot laying on a slab for the world to dissect and examine will do. Though many like myself hate to admit it we all know this is the truth.

The debate now moves to how do we get a body? I am a “No Kill” proponent. Since I know they are a Human Hybrid I cannot condone murder to satisfy the demands of “Scientific Proof”. So how then do we get a body. After much thought and discussion this is my “proposal” on how to obtain a Bigfoot body.

Even though most of the time the Bigfoot demonstrate an ability to elude humans with ease for some reason they have not mastered the simple task of crossing the road without getting run over. Do not ask me to explain it, but it appears to be true. A posse of men on horseback can corner a Bigfoot in a box canyon and it can literally vanish into thin air, but granny comes around the corner in her Buick and bam the Bigfoot can’t get out of the way??

 With that in mind here is what I think we should do. Organize a group of donors who will put up $100,000.00 in cash up front. Then assemble a group of volunteers on a “rapid recovery team”.  This effort should be centered in the Northern California/Oregon/Washington State area. Have a team of two people take the cash around in a brief case and began approaching state and local highway maintenance and cleanup crews, those fellows that have the unenviable job of cleaning up “road kill” from the highways and back roads. Sit down with the men/women and open the case and show them the cash, then tell them “Next time you come upon a road kill that has arms, legs, genitals, and looks like a large hairy man or ape and you know it’s not a bear or any other animal, instead of calling Fish and Game or local law enforcement and reporting you have a dead hairy person looking thing on the road, throw it in the truck and call us. Call us any time day or night and we will come to you and hand you this $100,000.00 in cash, no questions ask in exchange for the body.” Hand out your card and then wait.

In my opinion we would have a body within one year and we would accomplish the goal of obtaining a body without having to hunt and murder one. To be honest I often doubt hunting one could be done by civilians. It would take the logistic assets of our military to pull off a live kill scenario in my opinion.  So why not take advantage of the most elusive creature in modern history’s “Achilles Heel”, crossing the road.

UH OH - Journal Nature - Genome analysis suggests interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and a mysterious archaic population.

Journal Nature just posted this article, was Dr. Ketchum on to something???

Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ rampant sex lives

Genome analysis suggests interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and a mysterious archaic population.

New genome sequences from two extinct human relatives suggest that these ‘archaic’ groups bred with humans and with each other more extensively than was previously known.

The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a different archaic human group, the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting at the Royal Society in London. They suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups living in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet unknown human ancestor from Asia.
 
“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work.

The first Neanderthal¹ and the Denisovan² genome sequences revolutionized the study of ancient human history, not least because they showed that these groups interbred with anatomically modern humans, contributing to the genetic diversity of many people alive today.

Click here to read the rest of the article

The "Loss of Innocence" - Advice to Aspiring Bigfoot Researchers - Re-Post

Over the past few weeks the Finding Bigfoot episode that I was in has aired a couple times. This has prompted a few inquiries about Bigfoot Research in general and what it takes to "get started". I posted this article several months ago and it expresses my thoughts to those wanting to get into "Bigfoot Research" as a "hobby".

The "Loss of Innocence" - Advice to Aspiring Bigfoot Researchers

I used to love the outdoors. I would go out alone and wander around in the forest, exploring new places, the further off the beaten path the better. I would go into the National Park and select a drainage and just go, walk in for a couple hours then turn around and walk back out. I preferred to hunt deer alone, finding spots so deep in the thickets that no one else would even dream of going back into these places. Every now and then I would get the feeling I was being watched, but I would shrug the feeling off and go back to enjoying my day.

The actual location of the encounter

Those days are no more; the wilderness has lost its wonder. It is no longer a place of peace and serenity. It all changed for me on a sunny June day in 2009 while fishing. I was casting a point of land that was part of a public recreation area. I made some silly sounding “whooping” calls why I do even know.  I was just messing around imitating what I had watched in a YouTube video. Then the most amazing thing happen, something came tearing down through the woods. It was breaking limbs and crashing around in the thick underbrush. My jaw dropped and I was in shock as I stared at the shoreline. It stayed back in the shadows and I could only catch glimpses of sunlight on it from time to time. It acted like it was looking for something. It would go up the bank to the right and then the left. While all this was going on I was fumbling with the trolling motor trying to put some distance between it and me. After a couple minutes I heard a very clear “humph” three or four times. Then I heard it walk back into the woods slowly until it was out of range. It took me several minutes to compose myself as I sat down in the bottom of my fishing boat.

This event would change everything. I had to find out what had made this noise. Even though I had a sighting when I was a child, this event was the catalyst; this event started me on this journey, this “quest for the truth”.

Over the past three years I have seen and experienced things that are unbelievable. The average person has no idea what is going on in the wilderness. I can no longer go into the woods in a state of “ignorant bliss” and just enjoy it. I know what is out there, I know what is watching and lurking in the shadows.

I do still enjoy being out but it is different now. It is hard to explain to those who have never experienced it, but the Bigfoot “know that you know” and this changes everything. I have a difficult time deer hunting because of interference from the Bigfoot. I go on family outings in the National Park with relatives that have no clue about Bigfoot or that I research and we will hear “strange sounds” or encounter “odd smells”.

 I can not explain this but some people are what I called “marked” by the Bigfoot. No matter where you go, if there are Bigfoot in the area they will find you and make themselves known to you. On average it takes a couple days in an area for the “locals” to find you. Then all the “odd” stuff begins to happen.

My “loss of innocence” is compounded when you throw in the other crytpids that have shown up. I had only heard rumors about the “Dogman” until I captured it on video and then later made direct eye contact with one. I was not looking for them and definitely did not want to see one.  It is a shock to the system when you begin to realize what you have been taught all your life is wrong and that your “reality” is not the truth. You have heard the old saying, “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”. Well I found out how true this statement is. To be honest I am still adjusting to this “new reality”. Gone are the days when the woods were a place of solitude, peace, and wonder. It is now a place where the “Monsters” live and they do not respect your “reality”.

I get several request from people all the time “where can I go to see a Bigfoot”, “what can I do to have an encounter”, and “I want to know the truth about them”. My first piece of advise would be are you sure that is what you really want? The “truth” is a very sharp double-edged sword and is no respecter of persons or your belief system.

I have been bursting many bubbles lately when I talk to people. My advice now comes with stern warnings about being cautious, going armed, never going in the woods alone, do not take your children with you, if you’re a woman be extra careful. I can hear the disbelief in the voices of those hearing this for the first time. Those who think like I once did; the “benevolent keeper of the forest” is not always so benevolent and he is not the only cryptid out there.

So this is my advice or better my warning to those who want to “research Bigfoot” or “find the truth”, find another hobby, this is not what you think it is. If you still insist then be ready for a shock to your belief system, be ready to throw out everything you think you know. When you think it can’t get any “weirder” it will and there are very few people who you can tell or talk about this with. You will be called a crackpot, crazy, insane, out of touch with reality, idiot, and these are just the ones I can repeat. You will experience things you can not record on film or produce “evidence” of, you will be frustrated constantly by camera malfunctions, blobsquatches, and noises you plainly heard but your equipment did not pick up.

 There are also the unintended consequences of research, home visitations. Yes in many cases they will follow you home, do not ask how or why I just know they do. Then your friends and family will really thing you are a lunatic.

Finally I have one more warning to give you, with knowing the truth comes responsibility.   What do you tell the woman that calls you who is all excited about researching Bigfoot and loves to go out into the woods all by herself? When you see that a child has gone missing in a wildness area you will wonder. When phone calls come from scared people who have a Bigfoot habitation around their home what do you tell them? When you talk to a person that has just had an encounter and they called you because you’re the “local researcher” what do you tell them? What are you going to say to calm their nerves? How are you going to reassure them that it is ok, they are not crazy, what they saw is real.

Some who research seek anonymity to avoid the above but it will be difficult if you choose to go this route, you will be faced with choices to speak out or be silent and there are consequences to both decisions.

So in closing my final word to you is take up golf or fishing it is safer and less stressful, but if you insist on perusing "Bigfoot Research" be prepared for your “loss of innocence”.

George Knapp Had It Right All Along....

This article by George Knapp in December of 2012 was prophetic:

 George Knapp: I’m dreaming of a Bigfoot Christmas

IN THE DARKENED elegance of La Scala restaurant, one of the most exhilarating — and chilling — conversations of my entire life spilled across the table. It happened more than two and a half years ago but is burned into my brain as if it transpired yesterday.
To my left sat a distinguished microbiologist, a scientist whose name is known all over the world but who keeps a low profile in his adopted town of Las Vegas. Two seats to my left was a former cop turned author and Bigfoot researcher named David Paulides. And to my right was Dr. Melba Ketchum, a DNA researcher who found herself in the middle of an unexpected but career-threatening controversy. It involves the hairy gent with Size 18, triple-wide feet, who is known by many names all over the world, but answers most often to his iconic nickname: Bigfoot.
Before I was allowed to see any of the key research material, I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. I was thrilled to be among the first to see the information, but it has driven me crazy ever since. The only public utterance I’ve made is a prediction two years ago during a taping of the KLVX public affairs program Nevada Week in Review. Because of what I learned that fateful night, I made what seemed at the time to be a wacky, off-the-wall prediction during the program — that dramatic news would surface sometime in 2011 about the enigmatic beast known as Bigfoot.

  Since then, I have been needled relentlessly by my journalism colleagues, including veteran TV host Mitch Fox and fellow panelists Steve Sebelius and Jon Ralston. Oh, the humanity. So where’s the Bigfoot news, they repeatedly asked. I have been unable to answer, and it has been tough.
The well-meaning Dr. Ketchum naively assumed that the world of science would welcome her data with open arms and open minds. Her initial draft of a scientific paper unwisely referred to the existence of a Bigfoot-like creature, and she was certain the information from her study would receive a fair hearing from the scientific world. My friend the microbiologist gave her the sad-but-true news that no mainstream science journal in the world would ever publish a paper, or allow for an honest peer review, of any paper that mentioned Bigfoot or Sasquatch by name. Unlike my TV prediction, that one proved prescient in the extreme.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Bigfoot by a HAIR...

With the airing of the recent documentary specials “Bigfoot Files” much was made about hair and extracting mtDNA from hair shafts. Dr. Sykes went to great lengths to assure everyone that he could decontaminate the hair and thus extract a “pure” DNA sample. Here is Dr. Sykes statement: The fact is hair is very resilient. You can clean any suggestion of contamination from the surface of the hair without damaging the DNA that lies within. This is something we have only known in the past couple of years.

Mitochondrial DNA can be extracted from the hair shafts. This is possible with “normal” hair from a human or animal, but during Dr. Ketchum’s DNA study she discovered a quality about Bigfoot hair that was unique to the species. Regardless of how hard she tried using Human Primers or Universal Mammalian Primers she could not get any mtDNA to amplify when using a Bigfoot hair shaft only.  Either the shafts contain no mtDNA or the shafts contain enzymes that inhibit the primers from attaching to the mtDNA sequences which would result in amplification. 

Dr. Ketchum's comment about the hair:

 I found I repeatedly couldn't extract DNA (something that never happens with large robust hairs like these), I couldn't understand it.  I sent non-rooted hairs from the same 8 samples I had been attempting to extract  to the North LA Criminalistics Lab to be robotically extracted.  His system is designed to yield super-clean DNA from very low yield sources we have in forensic testing.  He didn't get any DNA either.  So this enigma was repeated and neither of us with combined 60 plus years of extraction experience could explain it.  We thought it was inhibitors but no, there was just not any DNA present in our extractions.  Our control human samples extracted perfectly.  He gave me the extractions that he made on those eight samples (some of which were Paulides submissions) and I put them on my spectrophotometer to double check them and confirmed his robotic samples contained no DNA at all.

Dr. Ketchum had discovered this unique property and consequently a repeatable identifier for Bigfoot hair.  If the hair would have been contaminated by human mtDNA then that DNA would have amplified with the Human Primers and if the hair was from any know animal the mtDNA would have amplified by the Universal Mammalian Primers. A fact the Journal Nature referees wanted stripped from the DNA Study.

With this knowledge Dr. Ketchum began to spread the word to those of us who were collecting samples to please only send in hairs with a visible follicle or skin tag attached.  It was a waste of time and money to send in hair samples with no skin tags because mtDNA could not be extracted from the shaft alone.

I know for fact Dr. Sykes and those working with him had access to the DNA Study. The Bigfoot hair morphology was discussed in great detail including photographs and supplements.  The fact that only a few hairs were tested out of 100’s that were sent in to Dr. Sykes is a puzzling aspect of the “Bigfoot Files” TV Specials.

 I have a theory that Dr. Sykes was aware of this unique property that Dr. Ketcum had discovered about the Bigfoot hairs. He knew if he tested true Bigfoot hairs he would not get any mtDNA. He had already professed himself to be the expert and able to extract “pristine DNA” from only a hair shaft, so he has a dilemma on his hands.  If he processes known Bigfoot hair and gets no mtDNA then he has to admit one of two things:  1 - He is incompetent and unable to extract mtDNA from possibly dozens of “clean and pristine” hair samples or 2 -That the hair must be from a Bigfoot or an unknown hominin after the mtDNA failed to amplify from dozens of hair samples. This by default confirms Dr. Ketchum’s DNA Study finding’s and validates her study.

Since both these scenarios is unpalatable, Dr. Sykes opted to just test a handful of hairs he knew where known animal. Surely you do not believe that Dr. Sykes was so inept that he did not have the hairs pre-screened by a forensic hair expert. It is costly to run DNA testing on these hairs, at least $1,500 if not more per sample. Surely the hair expert Dr. Sykes used was not so incompetent that he gave Dr. Sykes known animal hairs of Bear, Dog, Raccoon, and Wolf?  If so, then Dr. Sykes should be suing this hair expert to recoup the thousands of dollars spent on wasted DNA testing. This would explain why only “seven of the best samples were selected for testing”.  In my opinion who ever screened the hairs for Dr. Sykes made sure to exclude any known Bigfoot hairs. This way Dr. Sykes would only be testing known animal hair and avoid having to explain the lack of mtDNA amplification. 

This is a “kill two birds with one stone” scenario. Dr. Sykes discredited the Bigfoot researchers in the United States and avoided confirming Dr. Ketchum’s DNA Study. Mission accomplished Dr. Sykes, mission accomplished.

Bigfoot Sketch by Sybilla Christine Irwin

Sybilla Christine Irwin was kind enough to do a sketch for me. She took multiple still captures from the Bigfoot in the Laurels Video and created this wonderful sketch. I think this is spot on to what the old girl looks like. Over the past couple years of studying the video, it appears that the Bigfoot may be female. I and others who have studied the video think the Bigfoot has a "Old Woman" appearance. You can view more of Sybilla's fine work at:  Sybilla Irwin - Galleries

Actual Still Capture

Bigfoot Growl

Did I capture a Bigfoot growl? I placed a DVR in a black sock then hung it in a tree behind our campsite. Alone with a wood knock I captured what sounds like a low guttural growl.

Larry Surface Compares the Ancient Red Deer Cave Skull to Bigfoot Photograph

Larry Surface makes a very interesting comparison with the "Red Deer Cave Skull" to my photograph from a Bigfoot in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

To read Larry's blog click here

 

 

How Much Evidence Is Enough???

When I first began this odyssey called Bigfoot Research one of the goals was simple, get HD footage of a Bigfoot and share my findings. I was frustrated by researchers announcing they had “ground breaking footage” but then never releasing it to the public. There was always an excuse from legal battles with land owners to waiting until the DNA Study was published. So I made the pledge to myself that if I filmed it I would post it. I too got caught up in holding a couple clips because of the DNA Study, but since its release everything about my research is out there. When I contemplate the amount of data that is now public it amazes me how many, especially in the so called “Bigfoot Community”, demand more “proof”. I have often asked myself, “how much is enough”?

They wanted pictures/videos and when I went out and figured how to capture them on video and posted the video/pictures.

Bigfoot Research - Lone Footprint Discovered in National Park

On an outing over the weekend (October 3rd, 2013) I discovered a 13" footprint on the edge of a mud hole. I video blog on my thoughts of why Bigfoot leave lone footprints from time to time.

Bigfoot Research - October 2013 Update

This is my research update for the month of October 2013. I find some changes made to a stick structure I built. I also explain the "trail marker" system the Bigfoot use in my research area.