Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/17/wild-thing-podcast-is-like-ser.html
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Does anyone know how the researchers account for the fact that we don’t have any pictures of this critter even though cameras have been around for some time now, and majority of folks walk around with high-definition video and still cameras in their pockets?
Just taking a stab at it but we know there are snow leopards. Good luck getting a picture of one. We know there are giant armadillo around much of South America and even have a zoo dedicated to them. We know very little about them and have never seen a wild juvenile. Good luck taking a pic of one. Another thing to consider is that your HD camera in your phone has a wide angle lens and no mechanical zoom. Taking a good picture of something in the woods 20 yards away isn’t as easy as just snapping a pic. Taking a good pic at night… forget about it.
Lack of pictures isn’t really a good indicator of anything. Big foot may very well be an imaginary creature but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The forests of North America are vast and largely uninhabited. There are vast areas were man simply does not visit. So, a large primate may be unlikely but the scientific mind should remain open to the possibility.
For myself, I see the orang pendek as best possibility for a large undiscovered (by western science) primate and don’t hold much hope for the Big Foot.
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A Bigfoot enthusiast basically says the same thing on Quora.
Also, they discuss the Orang Pendek on one of the episodes of Wild Thing! Fascinating!
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I’m not sure I agree with that as a hard and fast rule. Of course, the absence of evidence isn’t necessarily always or usually evidence of absence, but sometimes it’s a pretty good indicator, especially when there are hundreds (thousands?) of people who are actively searching for this creature and many who claim to have actually seen it.
I agree that the scientific mind should remain open to the possibility of something like Bigfoot existing, but I’m not sure the chances are very good.
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This. I have a hard time just dismissing a hunter who seems genuinely shaken, and who knows what bears and moose and deer look like. And it’s not like they have anything to gain from talking about it but mockery.
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Pics taken by professional photogs after months of waiting don’t really answer the “folks walk around with high-definition video and still cameras in their pockets” question do they?
And lots of grainy bad pics which everyone discounts. Honestly, if I were camping and saw a giant ape like creature, I don’t think I’d be looking for my phone. I’m probably like a lot of people and would simply be transfixed. Then again, if I did get a shot, my phone camera having a wide angle lens would just result is a bad grainy image everyone would discount.
Me neither but I’ve heard some of these people recount their experience and if some of them are lying, Hollywood needs to snatch them up because they are really good actors. Sure, they may have been mistaken and they may have seen something else. But experienced and serious people have reported sightings so I have a hard time dismissing them out of hand.
edit to add a picture story.
Here is an image (reduced to 25% of original) of the Goodyear blimp flying over my neighborhood. I was on a bridge about a mile away. I could see the blimp clearly and snapped this pic with a Samsung phone. See the red square?
Here is that same area from the same pic this time cropped and not reduced in size
This is one reason our phone cameras aren’t good for providing evidence of anything.
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That’s gotta be the worst job, because there is no Bigfoot. It was a guy in a suit. Has the whole world forgotten that part? A job that’s nothing but self-promotion - it’s like being a Republican in Congress, or a performance artist.
No, but it definitely responds to your point re: snow leopards. There are likely just as many (more, I’d bet) folks trying to get photos of Bigfoot as there are trying to get pictures of snow leopards, folks with professional cameras and months of planning and waiting.
But I’m not sure what you’re disagreeing with me at this point, to be honest. I don’t think that it’s likely that Bigfoot is out there, and the lack of any photographic evidence is one of the reasons I believe its existence is unlikely at this point. You don’t really disagree with that, do you?
Same goes for ghost sightings, really. A lot of people are convinced they’ve seen things and tell compelling stories, but evidence is a little more difficult to come by for whatever reason.
Really? I’ve heard of no expeditions to photograph bigfoot with professional cameras that lasted months. Sounds interesting. Please send a link.
Let me know when the BBC sends a nature crew in to North America to sit on a known bigfoot location for 6 months. Then we are apples to apples.
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C’mon, there’s no need to be disingenuous. The Secret Lives of Bigfoot Hunters | Seattle Met This story popped up at the top of my first half-assed Google search.
But my above question wasn’t rhetorical, by the way. What do you disagree with me about at this point? I’m genuinely not sure beyond that we’re just committed to our roles at this point.
Who’s being disingenuous here? You are going to compare 6 moths of trail cam pics from 2 cameras to an onsite wildlife team using telephoto lenses and daily searching? Really?
I don’t hold any hope but I don’t want to call it either.
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Ah, I see. Your position is that six months of a trail cam is the extent of what was referenced in the linked article, and the extent of what has been done overall.
Should I include the fun they had at their cabin in the woods on a lake to a professional BBC wildlife team spending 6 months in a blind because they knew snow leopards frequented the area.
If your goal is to continue to pretend there is something worth fighting about or that we actually disagree about anything meaningful whatsoever, then…I guess?
Have a good evening, friend.
There was a rumor in Hollywood that John Chambers who created the special effects makeup and prosthetics for Planet of the Apes had made a Bigfoot suit used in the Patterson-Gimlin film. But Chambers denied it. Over and over.
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I agree with Krantz. I’m of the opinion that bigfoot and other cryptids don’t exist, but I certainly hope they do. YETILIVES!!!
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Those original POTA costumes were horrible. They wouldn’t fool anybody.
For a lot of people “Bigfoot” was this craze that happened in the 60’s and 70’s, and when one guy came forward and claimed to have faked it with big wooden feet strapped to his boots they just took that as the gospel truth, ignoring that this one guy couldn’t have been traveling up and down the country fooling people in every remote wilderness location where people had encounters. The existence of hoaxers muddies the debate but doesn’t prove every sighting and footprint is fake.
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