How Can It Be So Hard To Find A 7′ Primate?
If there are as many Bigfoot running around the country, why hasn’t better proof of them been captured?
This is a reasonable question, and it deserves an honest answer. While I don’t claim to have all the answers, there are a few logical reasons that can help explain why these elusive creatures are so hard to document.
Bigfoot Lives Where Humans Aren’t
First, the areas where these creatures tend to live are dense, rugged forests. While sightings near human settlements do occur, likely when they search for food, or moving from one area to another, their main habitat is deep within remote regions.
Likely residing in small groups, hidden away in high mountain ridges and deep valleys, or other remote areas Bigfoot avoids humans. They probably descend from these secluded spots to move around within their territory, but these areas remain difficult for people to access.
Even for the most skilled hikers, navigating this challenging terrain can be slow and noisy. Our movements often give away our presence, allowing the much quicker Sasquatch plenty of time to avoid being seen or captured on camera.
Bigfoot Avoids Human Trails
Sasquatch are known to steer clear of established human trails. Most people stick to established trails, making it very easy for Bigfoot to avoid running into us.
While it’s not impossible to encounter one on a hiking path, such sightings are quite rare and usually occur at night when there’s little chance of Bigfoot running into people, and usually is with them crossing one of our paths instead of coming down a trail.
There have been reports of ‘cut trails’ – narrow, hidden tracks that often run parallel to or intersect with well-known hiking routes. These trails are sometimes so carefully concealed that they seem intentionally hidden, as if Sasquatch are deliberately trying to keep their movements secret from humans.
This behavior suggests a high level of awareness and a strong desire to remain unnoticed, which makes obtaining clear evidence of their existence even more difficult. These creatures seem to go out of their way to avoid detection, adding another layer of mystery to their already elusive nature.
Bigfoot Is Skilled At Avoiding Humans
The third reason more people don’t encounter Bigfoot is that they are incredibly skilled at avoiding people and are highly motivated to not interact with us.
It seems pretty clear that Bigfoot have much better vision and sense of smell than we do. They almost always know that we are in the forest and have plenty of time to react.
This is why most of the accidental encounters are when people come around a corner with a car and a Sasquatch is crossing the road, or someone is quietly walking down a trail and happens onto a Bigfoot crossing a trail or drinking some water by a stream.
Considering how violent humans generally are, and the fact that it was very common for humans to carry guns or other weapons in the woods up until relatively recently, Bigfoot has a lot of motivation to not interact with us.
Natural Camouflage is Hard To Spot
Fourth, Sasquatch hair blends perfectly into their environment. The color and shading is such that they do not immediately stand out. They have a unique ability to adapt and blend into their surroundings.
In some instances, humans have walked right past them because they thought they were a tree stump. Sometimes these creatures will remain perfectly still, and so people will not even see them even though they may be nearby.
10 Best States For Encountering Bigfoot
Bigfoot Moves Like A Predator
The fifth reason that we don’t often spot Bigfoot is that they are wary of crossing open areas. They move like predators, staying mostly concealed, and not revealing their presence unless they feel very confident that no one is watching.
Cougars are an excellent example of this behavior. Even in areas that are well populated, people rarely see these animals because they stay out of sight the majority of time.
Under this category for me is that Bigfoot researches think that Bigfoot generally hide their footprints in areas with humans. By being very cautious about where they step because such large footprints are a dead giveaway of their presence. It makes sense that if they were paying attention, that they would take notice of us making a fuss over finding their footprints.
Sasquatch Are Better In The Forest Than Us
The sixth reason we don’t encounter Bigfoot more often in the woods is that they are much more athletic and adapted to life in the forest than we are.
There are many accounts of Bigfoot moving through dense brush with ease, or running up hills that would be impossible for a human to traverse. This makes it a piece of cake for Bigfoot to evade us, even when we are trying to follow them.
Photographing Bigfoot Is Tough
Lastly, if finding a Bigfoot wasn’t hard enough, getting a photo or video of them is even harder, and there are several reasons for that.
The fist is that encounters are short and I can tell you from personal experience that when you see something that you think is Bigfoot, your brain goes into neutral. Twice I’ve been driving and saw something down the road that I thought could be Bigfoot.
Both times I had a cell phone and a camera in easy reach. Neither time did I reach for one. My brain was too busy trying to figure out what I was seeing. Both times it wasn’t Bigfoot, but if it had been, it would have been long gone before I clicked off a shot. In one case I even had a professional photographer with me and his reaction was exactly the same.
The next issue is that most encounters with Bigfoot happen in sub-par lighting conditions. Rarely does anyone have a chance to photograph Bigfoot out in the open under daylight conditions. On top of this, most cell phones and even cameras do not do well in low-light conditions. This leads to a lot of ‘Blobsquatch’ photos and videos.
What About Trailcams?
Universally, people try and catch photos and videos of Bigfoot on trail cams and universally they fail, but why?
The best that anyone has captured on a trailcam when it comes to Bigfoot, is some blurry photos of an arm or hand, generally as it is reaching up to mess with the camera.
How Bigfoot avoids trail cams is the big question. My suspicion is that Bigfoot can see in a wider range in the spectrum than we do. That means that they can likely see the flash/lights on the cams, and I suspect they can even see or sense the cameras themselves.
As a creature that his highly attuned to its surroundings, it only makes sense that they know where trail cams are, and are wary of them because anything human is dangerous.
The Exceptions – When Bigfoot Finds Us
While Bigfoot generally avoids humans, there are times when for one reason or another, they make themselves known to us.
The first scenario that comes to mind are when people encounter an aggressive Bigfoot that is actively working to remove them from an area. Some typical behaviors are shadowing people, bluff charges, throwing things, and of course screams.
In most of these cases, I think it is because the humans have stumbled into a sensitive area such as a nursery, and the Bigfoot knows they can’t move the young or pregnant Bigfoot quickly enough. The other would be when humans are perceived as a competitors in hunting areas. It is logical in both those scenarios for the Bigfoot to show themselves and do their best to intimidate the humans out of an area.
The other is when the Bigfoot are curious about what the humans are doing. I suspect that often times these are females who seem to be interested in human children. Then there are adolescent Bigfoot, who I think make it a game of harassing campers. I wouldn’t put it past them to play a game of messing with us and doing things like trying to scare us, or pulling us out of our tents while we are still asleep.
The last time I think Bigfoot are willfully running into humans is when young males are on the prowl for a territory of their own. We don’t know how their society works, but it makes sense that as young males approach adulthood, that they are either kicked out or seek out new groups. Many animals do this, so there isn’t much reason to think Bigfoot would be any different.
Encounters with rogue males, or aggressive hunting parties may be the reason behind some Missing 411 type disappearances for adults, while I think curious females or female Sasquatch that have lost their own child may explain some of the children that go missing.
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