Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy group has blood on their hands

The so-called Echo 2 blood sample.

In the summer of 2011, the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy conducted a long-term field research operation in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma. This report from their website describes their serious military style approach to taking down Bigfoot.

First, who are these guys and what is their mission? This is where team Operation Endurance comes in. The team consist of two to five members of the TBRC and their mission was to spend at least a week monitoring Bigfoot habituation sites.

The premise for Operation Endurance was based on evaluations of previous experiences indicating that prolonged stays in an area occupied by one or more sasquatch creatures could result in expressions of animal behavior of a more overt nature than shorter visits of, say, one to three days. Plans were devised to test this proposition.

From 4 June to 20 August 2011, teams of two to five members of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy spent from several days to weeks in a near continuous visitation within a location thought to represent occupied sasquatch habitat. Generally speaking, teams went in for one-week periods, at which point another team relieved them. Twenty-three members took part in the operation.
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Teams and team members were free to be as active or passive as they preferred. Teams had access to several third-generation night vision units and eight or more Reconyx game cameras, as well as, on a more limited basis, high quality sound recording equipment and thermal imagers. Cameras were positioned and repositioned in response to suspected patterns of activity noted by team members. Observers were also positioned in what were considered strategic vantage points, based again on reviews of suspected activity noted by current or previous teams. Departing teams met with newly arriving teams for briefings and recommendations.

According to reports, their military style methods worked. In July 2011, after weeks of hearing tree knocks and vocalizations on Charles Branson's property, the team members had become convinced that there were sasquatches among them. Click here to listen one vocalization from the area.

Foot impressions were also observed, but the terrain proved impossible to track the creatures very far. There were two apparent foot impressions, one small and one large, that were found in soft patches of soil near a creek.

And then on July 3, 2011, team members spotted what they've been searching for and opened fire.

The first creature, observed on 3 July 2011 at approximately 7:15 PM, was described by the TBRC observer as a smoothly walking brown-colored upright figure approximately 6.5 feet tall or taller. The observation lasted about two or three seconds and was made at a distance of about thirty yards. Team members subsequently observed tracks and foot imprints, one displaying what appeared to be toe impressions. Heel-to-heel distances between some of the prints varied from 52 to 64 inches. One print was seen to have crushed a limb that remained unaffected when stood on by a team member weighing 200 pounds, an indication that the print maker was very heavy.

The TBRC investigator fired upon the animal with an auto-loading shotgun in an attempt to collect a specimen. The creature ran off and no blood was found before the loss of daylight. Additional teams returned to the area in the following days to continue the search for evidence. Stones with apparent blood stains were subsequently discovered a short distance east of the original sighting location in the dry creek bed that is adjacent to the cabins. Several, but not all, of the rocks were collected. Another team was sent to collect the remaining rocks, but a hard rainfall took place on the day of their arrival, and the team was unable to locate any more of the rocks.

Mark McClurkan of Foxtrot team found this evidence in the dry creek bed.

One member who was an experienced trapper, tracker, and lifelong hunter, identified a blood trail along a rocky creek bed that went on for a "fair distance." The creature dropped very little blood he said. In his opinion, the coloring, sparse distribution and drop pattern of the blood evidence was not indicative of a mortally, or even significantly, wounded animal. The observed blood pattern, he said, was almost certainly produced by a slow steady drip from a flesh wound, probably to either an arm or leg.

They are planning to test the blood sample and perform DNA analysis.

Using the Bluestar Forensic blood-visualizing agent, the material on one of the collected rocks tested positive for the presence of blood. Genetic testing is planned.

The group determined the operation to be a success and believe they have learned quite a bit about the creatures. There doesn't seem to be any remorse for shooting what could possibly be another human, only hairier.

Events experienced by team members produced an overall perception that the creatures were extremely intelligent, wary yet curious. For example, by all appearances, sasquatches definitely take notice of the presence of cameras, approaching with circumspection, if they approach at all. Such behavior is not at all far-fetched; indeed, wildlife biologists have recently noted similar cautious behavior among alpha coyotes in relation to camera traps (Sequin, Brussard, Jaeger, & Barrett, 2003). Members believe we have come very close to obtaining images; we will continue to employ cameras for documentation purposes, in spite of the noted limitations.

[via www.texasbigfoot.com]

Related:

• A brief history of Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, the guys who shot at Bigfoot
• July 2011 Bigfoot shooting incident at Honobia, OK