See How They Run

DB Donlon

One of the main questions plaguing bigfoot researchers is the old perennial, "If bigfoot exists, why haven't we caught one?" This is a serious question and it deserves serious consideration. Until recently, there weren't many answers, either. At least, not available to the public. But privately researchers have been sharing information gathered over the years that suggest bigfoot has some abilities beyond what we might have expected.

Unpublished reports that I've been privy to suggest that bigfoot can keep up with a car moving at a high rate of speed. These reports are unpublished because, as anecdotal evidence, they don't count for much by themselves. People can make mistakes, after all -- perhaps they weren't going as fast as they thought, or maybe they didn't see what they thought they saw. Anytime a report like that challenges conventional wisdom, the prudent thing to do is to wait until you get a verified report that supports it.

I think maybe that happened this summer with the Pine Ridge Reservation sightings. I'm thinking in particular about the police officer who wrote that he had observed a bigfoot running while he pursued it in his car. To quote him (from a post on the bigfootforums.com,) "I then continued my chase but he was just too quick. I was traveling around sixty miles an hour and he was still ahead of me."

That seems pretty fast, but I know of at least two other, independent reports that state a bigfoot kept up with a car moving at 55 mph, and I've read others which mention lower, but still significant figures. What I'd like for the readers of StanCourtney.Com to do, if they are inclined, is to help us come up with more cases of bigfoot observed moving faster than we thought they could go. How good a case can we build for it? If you have any cases, or know if any in the many books written about bigfoot - anything at all, please let us know, either by leaving a post on the North American Bigfoot Forums, or by emailing me directly at dbdonlon AT gmail DOT com. (You know how to turn that into a real email address, I trust..) or contact Stan Courtney.

Think for a minute about what this tidbit of information could help us explain. Why can't we catch them? For one thing, they move much faster than we ever thought they could. And how about people who think, when they looked briefly away, that the bigfoot had vanished before they could look back? Maybe there's nothing extra-normal in that, except that bigfoot is extra fast?

I recall in particular one case that I investigated. A man was doing the rounds at his farm and came up over a slight rise, startling a bigfoot in the road. It jumped over a fence near the road, through a small band of trees, and out into a wide open field. The man was sure he was going to catch sight of it running in the field, but by the time he had gotten down off his jeep and over to the fence, there was nothing to be seen. He was certain it couldn't have gotten across the field in the time it took him to get to the fence and was forever perplexed about why he didn't see it. Now maybe we have an answer for him.

What are your thoughts? Let us know at the North American Bigfoot Forums.

Vocal Mimicry

Vocal mimicry in bigfoot has been talked about among researchers. However it is difficult enough to recognize a bigfoot sound let alone a bigfoot imitating birds or other animals.

Mimic is described by Wikipedia as:

"....any species that has evolved to appear similar to another successful species in order to dupe predators into avoiding the mimic, or dupe prey into approaching the mimic."

"....a mimic doesn't try to blend with the surroundings, but to appear as some other creature."

Sound mimicry has been described in many birds, marine mammals as well as primates, humans, cetaceans, seals and birds. Especially in birds is mimicry well known and accepted. Mockingbirds, catbirds, and various other birds do some really great imitation calls. I have seen a blue jay give a perfect red-tailed hawk's call which I wouldn't have believed if I weren't watching it just ten feet away.

There is a great amount of scientific literature available that deals with all aspects of vocal mimicry, the great apes and human speech:

The Life of Mammals, Vol. 4 DVD
David Attenborough
.."only feet from an orangutan .. discussed the intelligence and mimicry abilities of these great apes. "..."and mimicry are all primate traits according to Attenborough. "

The evolution of speech: a comparative review.
Trends in cognitive sciences, 4(7):258--267.
Fitch, W. T. (2000)
"At least two changes were necessary prerequisites for modern human speech abilities: (1) modification of vocal tract morphology, and (2) development of vocal imitative ability."

The Biology and Evolution of Language
Philip Lieberman
Man, New Series, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Sep., 1986), p. 542
"All great apes have large air sacs attached to their larynges, ....."

Humankind Emerging
Bernard G. Campbell
"Vocal mimicry not only makes speech possible, but is used by hunters..."

Social Imitation In Neonatal Monkeys
"Mimicry exists throughout the animal kingdom, but imitation with a purpose--matching one's behavior to others' as a form of social learning--has been seen only in great apes."


The Cognitive Prerequisites for Language
"Vocal mimicry, to say nothing of vocal imitation, seems to play, at most, no more than a very minor role among any species of primate other than humans (Seyfarth and Cheney 1997)."

Although none of the following examples can be proven to be a bigfoot vocalization most occurred in areas that had previous eye-witness bigfoot sightings.

Suspected bigfoot vocalizations:

1 - Barred Owl - I spent the night of 27th of August 2005 near Seneca, Illinois in my van and kept the microphone on the roof. I heard about fifty whistles and then rock knocking. After the barred owl hooting the rock knocking started up again.

2 - Barred Owl and dogs from the Argosy Project - quoting - "The day after the rock clacking incident, I came back to the location alone to leave the Bigfoot more food. It was about 6:45 p.m. and I was finishing packing up my gear at my spotters station when I heard a hoot to the east in the woods. I would call it more like someone doing a bad imitation of a barred owl hoot. It hooted a few more times, and each hoot seemed to be very low to the ground about 250 feet away."

"Then I heard a dog barking just north of the hooting. The barking didn't seem very convincing to me. I've heard it numerous times before, and the barking sound is always stationary. After a brief pause, whoever was doing the hooting and barking moved closer together. I could hear rustling in the undergrowth as the two individuals met. I've never heard of an owl walking to a dog before. Shortly afterward I heard two whoops almost immediately to my left."

3 - Dog barks - I have a report from Madison County, Illinois from a witness who has had several sightings this summer and fall. He relates that he heard what appeared to be a military type formation moving along the creek behind his house. He described the sounds as being dog-like "but not quite". The sounds were proceeding forward, being answered left and right as it moved upstream, perhaps following a deer.

4 - Wild Turkey Clucks - On the 12 of April 2005 I went to my local state park. As I was sitting on a log near a large thicket I heard what I thought was wild turkeys clucking. When I turned around to investigate, the sounds stopped and I heard a loud wood knock coming from the top of the hill.

5 - Raccoon - I have a friend that does nighttime recording close to St.Louis, Missouri along the Missouri Bottoms. He has recorded what he describes as raccoon-like sounds but not quite.

6 - Raccoon - I recorded this raccoon-like sound near a feeding station where raccoons are not seen.

7 - Coyote - I recorded an unknown howl this spring in Central Illinois. This has been discussed at the Illinois Howl webpage. It has been labelled as either a coyote or wolf. However I have a Native American friend who reassures me that it is a bigfoot mimicing a coyote. I have reports of the same type of vocalizations being heard by hunters and researchers in Georgia, Oregon and four different locations in Illinois.

8 - Jungle birds - I have a report from Northern Illinois and I myself have heard in Central Illinois in the daytime, during the winter, what can only described as a jungle bird type sound.

What is the purpose of all these suspected vocalizations? Although no one knows for sure I think it is safe to assume that it is a way for an elusive animal to stay hidden and not give away their presence and position whether it be to prey animals or humans.

The Jennifer Syndrome

I have a friend at work by the name of Jennifer. Now when the topic of bigfoot research comes up in conversation she goes into a tirade usually along the lines of - Where's the evidence? Where's the body? Why hasn't one been shot?

If you mention to her that all of these questions have already been addressed on many of the websites, she laughs boldly and walks away.

This reaction to the mentioning of the word bigfoot I admit is very common in our modern American society. I am not a psychologist so I can not adequately explain or understand it other than I suspect its root causes are

1) Fear of the unknown.
2) Fear of anything associated with the dark.
3) Fear of the "boogie man" or "monsters in the closet".
4) Concerns that we humans are not the only upright walking ape.

What about me? Am I insulted or feel put down because of the ridicule? No. Although I may disapprove of their reaction or taunts I know that it has been a common situation for a long, long time.

What about the witnesses?

I have interviewed several hundred people who have seen an animal that is not accepted to exist by the general public.

I spoke with a lady in Southern Missouri who had been traumatized by seeing an animal who came very close to her car while she was driving. She was distraught and close to tears the hour I spent with her on the phone. My role of investigating the report for the website became secondary to counseling the witness and trying to reassure her that although she had been frightened by being so close to the animal she was in no real danger.

Nighttime sighting on country dirt road in Southern Missouri.

Other encounters that can be considered somewhat harrowing are:


Couple has car shaken and sees large animal up close near Tebbetts, Missouri.


Two teenagers have sighting east of Seneca, Illinois.

Considerations for witnesses coming forward with their stories.

To even report an encounter to a family member, co-worker or a website requires that the witness admits to themselves about the incident. I have a contact who after relating the story to me about the sightings he and his wife had been having I cautioned him about telling people about it at work. It was too late, his wife had already shared her story at the office. Her co-workers laid out a trail of M & M's down the hallway and through the office and played a game called "follow the bigfoot".

Many witnesses that I contact express their relief that they have someone to tell their story to. Often times they are not interested in having their stores published, they are just appreciative to have had someone to listen to them. Several times I have been told "in the twenty years since my incident I have spoken to no one about this other than my spouse and you".

Several years ago when I got involved in research my wife's family, although not outwardly skeptical, did seem to harbor a little doubt about what I was doing. One nephew told me "I am forty years old and have hunted these woods all my life and I have never seen or heard anything out of the ordinary nor do I know anyone that has".

On the 23rd of Jan I gave him a phone call. I said "If you are not too busy I have something I want to show you."



As he knelt in the trail and felt the depression that each toe had made in the ice and snow I saw a different look in his eyes.



It is amazing to see someone discover for themselves what the truth is and not what they have been told by society.

Peeping "Uncle Harry"

It seems strange that an animal that supposedly is as shy and reclusive as the sasquatch would have gained the reputation for being a "peeping tom".

The Free Dictionary defines a peeping tom as a person who stealthily peeks into windows.

There are numerous reports of sasquatches either observing people or looking in windows at people.

BFRO: Youngster frightened by "monster" peeping in window

BFRO: Daytime sighting by swimmers in Wolf Creek area

I have a contact who as a child would frequently see "red eyes" outside her bedroom window at night. This went on intermittently for seven or eight years. I spoke with her mother, now in her seventies. The mother related how her child was punished for making up stories and not wanting to sleep in that particular bedroom. It all changed one night when the mother, while checking on her daughter, also saw the "red eyes". The family was never for sure who their peeping tom was.


An older story is found in:

Bigfoot Of the Blues by Vance Orchard copyright 1993 Walla Walla, WA p. 81

That concerned the story of Jim Ralph, retired Forest Service employee. In 1942 he was assigned to lookout duty at Hoodoo Lookout on the Walla Walla Ranger district. [This is 7 miles west of Troy, Oregon]. After spending the daylight hours in the lookout tower, Ralph would come down to spend the night in a log cabin at the base. One night after retiring he had the sensation someone was looking in his window. Checking outside he could see nobody so went back to bed.



The next morning there was a set of hugh footprints, toes pointing toward his window, when he arose! Ralph recalls he followed the tracks leading away from the cabin for several miles but had to return to duty in the tower. He says he covered the two tracks at the window with a washtub until his boss came up from headquarters. "He asked me what I was going to do about them," Ralph said. "I told him he was the boss and it was up to him. That's the last I ever hear of it, though."



My parents and my oldest brother (who was three years old at the time) spent the summer of 1941 at this lookout tower in Wallowa County, Oregon. I wonder what my mother would have said if she had seen those giant footprints outside her window. Maybe she wouldn't have been so skeptical.

My only conclusion is that these animals have an extreme curiosity about us and feel secure being hidden either by the darkness or the bushes.

*photos courtesy of Rex Hamstra

Be Prepared

If there is one recommendation in research that I try to live by and encourage others to do so also is "be prepared". The Boy Scouts of America certainly picked an appropriate motto. Although I have not necessarily recorded anything significant I have tried to learn by my mistakes, have the correct gear and hopefully keep myself alert for opportunities to record when they are presented.

In doing wildlife research I feel that the two most important pieces of equipment are some type of camera or camcorder and a audio recorder. There are many new digital camcorders on the market and prices continue to drop. For doing a remote video setup I happen to like the Sony analog because it has 4 hours on long play and the aperture can be opened up to allow in more light. For audio recorder recommendations please see my soundrecording page.

I have had some successes and many failures in my quest to be ready. In March of 2005 I happened to be fortunate enough to get a digital still picture of a bobcat.



I was walking along a pond when Belle, my Karelian Bear Dog, assumed a point position. I saw some motion in the grass at about 300 yards distance. I immediately started clicking pictures. I did not know at the time what it was, I thought perhaps coyote until I downloaded the pictures on my computer. Even in the corn stubble the bobcat was still very well camouflaged.

On the 29th of August 2006 I had a cougar cross the road in front of my pickup at 7 a.m. in broad daylight. Was I prepared, no. If I had my camcorder running, sitting on the dash I would have perhaps recorded an excellent sequence. I had stopped the vehicle to allow my dog to greet the farmers dog that always comes out to say hello. When I looked back up the road the big cat was crossing the road only 50 feet in front of me. Since then I keep my camcorder running on the dash when I get within a mile of my research area.

I try to do 10 hr remote audio recording every night. My audio recordings can be found at:

my unknown sounds and bird and animal sounds.

Doing remote video setup I have taken video's of deer, possum, coyote, bobcat, fox, squirrel, rabbit. Of course using night vision the pictures are never as good as daytime. Some of these can be found at:

bird and animal videos.

I think the future is bright for researchers getting new recordings. Prices have plummeted for both audio and video equipment. Almost everyone can now afford to have at least some type of recording gear. And whatever you do, always keep your recorders running while in the field.

The Patterson Film

Sound Recording Recommendations

Big Cat Crossing

Big Cat Crossing

Habituation

Habituation is an interesting controversial subject in Sasquatch research. Over the years there have been several cases of people making claims of long term interactions with families of bigfoot. I have been fortunate enough to personally investigate two of these situations.

I have a Native American friend, John, who lives along the Illinois River in North-Central Illinois. For the last twenty years he has routinely spent time in the woods near his home. I can not prove his claims nor do I have any evidence as to what I have witnessed while I was with him. My friend is a soft spoken man, suspicious of outsiders and what their intentions are when it comes to the large animals that live in his woods. He was concerned about both the welfare of the animals plus how I would handle myself if the animals came in real close. After several meetings with John he eventually agreed to allow me to tag-along with him on one of his outings.

We arrived on location about forty-five minutes before sundown to take up our positions. As we stepped into the woods I heard a howl coming from around the hill, and then it was repeated again. I was amazed. John said "They know me". Slowly we worked our way through the brush and upwards the base of a low lying hill. As the sun was going down we sat on the ground and awaited our "guests" or should I say that perhaps we were the "guests". John explained that he had this "special technique" to draw the animals in. He would bang together two wooden sticks and set up a rhythm while singing a traditional chant. Many times the animals would come in very close to investigate, sometimes within ten feet. John said to keep our heads down and not to make eye contact. As with the great apes, eye contact would be considered a threat and the animals would leave.

During the twilight John sang his chant and we anxiously waited to see if we would be visited. On top of the hill 125 yards away I heard a wood knock. John said "they are coming". I could hear movement behind me and to my left. For the next fifteen minutes we could detect brush being moved out of the way as something was approaching. I expectantly waited for whatever was hidden to show itself. The movement stopped about fifteen feet away in the nearest brush. We sat there for thirty minutes listening to the night sounds. Our "friends" did not come out in the open that night. Perhaps they were just being cautious about this stranger carrying a camcorder and recorder. We slowly made our way back to the van in the dark. Although somewhat disappointed I was still excited to have been let in to one man's world, a world that the general public does not acknowledge or understand.

Bigfoot Contactees: 50 Years Of Coquettishness

Some Thoughts triggered off by the Kosovo Sighting

A Quiz and a Challenge - What are These Sounds in the Night?

One of the most interesting areas of research in wildlife is sounds. Whether it is different frogs croaking, bird singing or coyotes howling we can make recordings and do computer analysis of these sounds.

In the area of bird identification when so many times the birder is not able to see the vocalist because of heavy brush, bird songs and calls have become a major resource. CD collections of American birds are inexpensive. Examples are:

Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs

A Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides)

The major institution that is deeply involved with bird sounds is:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

When it comes to mammal sounds it is more difficult. Darkness does not lend itself to easy identification of sounds. Most birds are active in the daytime (owls and nighthawks and a few others being the exception). The mammals are a different story. Although all mammals are seen at different times of the day, other than the squirrel family, most are chiefly active in the night.

Numerous websites have collections of mammal sounds:

Guide to Animal Sounds on the Net

Naturesongs

JungleWalk

Sounddogs

Hunting websites often carry large collections of the more common mammals:

Varmint Al's Coyote Hunting Page

Allpredatorcalls

Bioacoustics

According to Wikipedia:
Bioacoustics is the study of how animals use sound for communication and echolocation.

Major institutions that are involved in bioacoustics include:

Texas A & M University-Corpus Christ

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Bioacoustics Research Program (note: also includes mammals)

Sound Analysis

The advent of computers has allowed scientists and amateur alike to study sounds in an objective manner. It is not enough to say “oh that sounds like a coyote or that is just a mountain lion screaming”. It needs to be recorded with high quality field recorders and microphones. It then needs to be analyzed by computer software.

There are many different programs for evaluating sounds:

Adobe Audition

Audacity

Soundruler

For a longer list of programs check out:

Sound Analysis Software for bioacoustics

A Quiz and a Challenge:

What is this animal? I recorded this sound during April and May in Central Illinois along a creek in a mixed oak-hickory forest.



Illinois Howl - Recording



To answer the challenge one must be able to have a recording that is good enough quality to be analyzed. A poorly recorded and distorted recording has no value. To be considered the same animal the recording must:

1. Display the same pattern.
2. Display the same resonant frequency and overtones.

If you think you know what this animal is please send me a recording for analysis. My email address is: stancourtney@hotmail.com


For a further discussion on this howl please see:

Illinois Howl webpage

and for all the recordings of this howl see:

A Complete list of the recordings of the Illinois Howl

Nguoi Rung, a letter from Viet Nam

Mr. Courtney,

While looking for some information on the Internet, I encountered your website. At the time I was at work and was unable to pursue the website as well as I wanted. After spending much time on the website, I have decided to tell you something I have told to very few people. It brings back frightening sometimes painful memories of my tour of duty in Vietnam. I, as with many other veterans never fully received the recognition or the gratitude deserved serving our country, I do not wish to be remembered for what I am about to divulge and will deny any knowledge of it.

It was 1969; I was on patrol one evening, just before dark in the North Two Corp in North Vietnam. We were returning to the hill, when we encountered hostile fire, the squad was caught off guard so we used what cover was available. The fight had been going on for only a few minutes when movement caught my eye. Through the thick vegetation I saw what I thought was a large man breaking cover from behind my left side. As the thing ran past me I realized it wasn’t a man, and was not really sure of what I was seeing. The thing was about 7 feet tall and had an enormous build, though not completely covered with hair, the thing had reddish brown hair covering a good portion of its body. It had covered about 30 yards very quickly passing within
just yards of my position, when it got hit in the crossfire. The thing stumbled once or twice but never fell. All of a sudden the enemy broke and ran, one even left his weapon behind, they were yelling something, but none of us ever knew what it was they were yelling. We slowly regrouped and made sure no one was wounded and discussed what we thought we had seen. As it was getting dark and there were hostiles in the area, we decided to get back to the hill. That night we heard several howls sounding very similar to the ones that you have recorded, coming from all over the place. Some sounded like they were just outside of the hooch and others sounded more than a mile away. There were all kinds of sounds from whines to growls to sounds that sounded like barks. Needless to say no one slept very well that night.

Below is an artist conception of the Nguoi Rung.



The next morning, all of us that were on that patrol, decided to try to track this thing. It took a lot of talking to get Tops to let us go looking for it, but after hearing the same story from the whole squad he decided to let us have a chance to bring it back. We returned to the area and found a blood trail, leading into the jungle. We trailed it for quite some time when we found the body of an enemy soldier that had been almost entirely torn apart. We do not know exactly what happened, but I have a good notion to what may have happened. We basically ran out of the area back to our hill. The rest of the time we were in Vietnam, I never heard the sounds or saw anything like it again. The talk of what we had seen spread very quickly, and some of the locals called it a name that I can neither pronounce or remember, but the translation if I recall was Stench Monkey or Foul Monkey, something like that. I can’t remember for sure. What I do know is that it bothered me so much that I transferred from there, to a job on a helicopter so that I wouldn't have to be in the jungle anymore.

After returning home to Alabama when my tour had ended, I occasionally heard sounds that reminded me so much of that encounter. It had been years since I left Alabama and moved to west central Illinois. I seldom thought of that day in Vietnam or the things I heard and saw. The recording is exactly what I had heard over there, I could close my eyes and still hear the howl in Vietnam. Regrettably I have mixed feelings about discovering your website, relieved that someone else may now know what I went through, frightened that I that there may be something in the area of where I now live.

I realize that you are interested in pursuing this creature or one like it, but let me warn you from someone who has seen what it is capable of first hand. Don’t.

Bigfoot: The Nguoi Rung GI Story 2001

Nguoi Rung, Vietnamese Forest People, Wildman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tree Breaks

I don't like evaluating tree breaks or twists. I don't recognize them as being bigfoot related. There are just too many other things they could be attributed to: storms, winds, old age. I don't say that Uncle Harry didn't do it as some type of territorial marker, I am just saying it is "not my thing."

On the 1st of July 2006 this twelve foot tall four inch diameter maple tree was snapped in two along the path in the pasture just up the hill feet from my feeding station. There had not been any other damage on my property or my neighbors property. There was a path of knocked down tall grass from the hay field to the east directly to the tree.

Big Cat Crossing

The 29th of July I went to my favorite park squatchin'. There is about 4 miles of very curvy roads that meanders through heavily wooded hills.

It was 7:00 a.m. I was trying to beat the heat as the forecast was for temps in the upper 90's.

There is a small farm with a very large dog that I pass by. I always slow down to allow Belle and this other dog to look at each other though the glass. I was going about 15 to 20 mph. The dog was not in sight so I started to speed back up.



There was a quick movement out of the brush on the left side of the road and a large tawny longtailed cat rushed across the road and was gone. I was awestuck. I felt privileged to see such a magnificant beautiful predator.

I was also a little taken back. I have to realize for all the time I spend in the woods these elusive creatures are out there with me.

Excellent article in the Illinois Times By Scott Maruna The beast of the bluffs

The Waterman and Hill-Traveller's Companion, a Natural Events Almanac Cougar Watch

IDNR Officials Sort Out Reports Cougar or Bobcat Sightings in Northern Perry County