That sound... what is it?
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Tom Fonner. He has been exploring the backcountry of Arizona for over 30 years. He enjoys the solitude and peace of the outdoors with a passion for wildlife, nature, and landscape photography, tracking, hiking, camping, and fishing. You can visit his blog at swbri.blogspot.com.There are many experienced trackers and wildlife experts that spend time in the backcountry of North America. I have over 30 years of experience in Arizona alone. Most of us have heard animal sounds that we can identify and on occasion we have heard sounds that leave us puzzled. The sounds that we do not recognize are often figured out over time, but now and then there are animal sounds that leave some of us stumped. Most seasoned trackers and wildlife experts will not jump to conclusions on those rare occasions when they hear a sound they cannot identify.
Many in the Bigfoot/Sasquatch community have recorded unidentified animal sounds or vocalizations in the backcountry of North America. Some of these have been analyzed and some of those have been reported to be of unknown origin. What does this tell us? Results of the unknown animal sounds and vocalizations are just that, unknown.
A majority in the Bigfoot/Sasquatch community are convinced that some of these unknown sounds are the calls made by Bigfoot/Sasquatch. Others take this a step further and claim that Bigfoot/Sasquatch can be identified, tracked, and located by its calls. These self proclaimed experts have convinced many that this is "fact" and proof of its existence. They go into the mountains and yell into the woods or set up equipment that will amplify the recorded sounds in a process called call blasting. Remember that these recorded sounds were analyzed an labeled as unknown.
I fully understand why these individuals or groups use these sounds in their investigations. It is not the use of the vocalizations that is a problem but the arrogance of those that proclaim that they know these are the sounds that Bigfoot/Sasquatch makes. I have heard some researchers state that they believe the sounds "might" be that made by Bigfoot/Sasquatch instead of stating that the sounds "are" made by Bigfoot/Sasquatch. There is a significant difference in the point of view that something might be instead of something is.
I believe that Bigfoot/Sasquatch may possibly exist in North America. Until the existence of Bigfoot/Sasquatch can be verified we investigate from the point of view that we "might know" and not that "we do know". Only when this animal can be observed making its calls, over an extended period of time, will we be able to state that we know what it sounds like. Until then investigators and leaders in this field should always state that it "might be" and not that "it is".
Here's what 8.5 minutes of alleged Bigfoot audio sounds like:
Completely agree with this article. If the BF community/researchers want to be taken seriously, they have to start following some basic scientific principles. The whole "we KNOW" has to go. No one KNOWS anything. They suspect. Just because you have spmething that is currently unidentified doesn't mean that it PROVES anything about an unknown species. Like I've said before, hypotheses are great but they are not proof or truth of anything until they are actually tested in a scientific method.
ReplyDeletePoint and case would be that BF hunter groups are in the woods at the same time as others. If one is doing howls/screams/call blasting, then the other group in the woods will hear an unexplained noise.
omg man, think for minute that u saw this creature once,and now some book nerds will come to u and say u didnt see it because its not real...
DeleteI saw bigfoot in Illinois 2009,i know what i saw and i KNOW THEY ARE REAL
The people who poo poo it or say that only a science can prove it - Oh well! When you see one YOU KNOW.
DeleteChuck
Prove it. without proof, your story is worthless. How do you know you saw one? How do you know you didnt mis identify another animal or hallucinate? you don't...sorry, but with no evidence your story ranks up there with peopl who claim alien abduction. Those people are lying and there is no evidence to prove you aren't lying too...
DeleteAnd what proof do you have that he didn't see what he claims? A debate is 2 opposing positions on an argument providing logic or evidence to support their position. You provide no evidence for your position nor can you prove that he is being false. When YOU link it to unrelated activity, that's not proof of skepticism, that's ignorance. His lack of physical evidence doesn't give you the right to question his credibility. The sighting of ANY animal rarely delivers physical evidence. So when someone sees a bear do you require them to tackle the bear and deliver it to you? Your conclusion is faulty: the lack of evidence is not in itself evidence, it's inconclusive.
DeleteAnd eyewitness testimony is not worthless. A single event by itself may not show immediate value, but the collection of many events DO have value. There are thousands of documented events reported over 100 years. Even if 80% are false, that's still a good population from which to draw insight. Besides time, events vary by geographic location and access to media. Analyzing a population of observations for common elements IS worthy and is done in many disciplines including business. While common elements in a small data-set may indicate coincidence, in a large diverse data-set they better reflect substance. Then you can take substantive elements and compare with disparate populations to discover root causes for actions. For example, one common element is subject behavior; in comparing to the behaviors of known animals, primates match well while bears do not.
Having an open mind doesn't hurt your brain.
Dave from WA
Dave, you can't prove a negative. It's up to the person making the claim to provide evidence and an argument.
DeleteOtherwise its just that - a claim.
@ First Anon
DeleteFirst of all I love you assumption about "book nerds". Yes I all but have a degree from an accredited state college in the wildlife field, but that doesn't mean I have spent my entire life in the woods and on the rivers. I chose the field of study because it is what I love. So there you go, taking a small bit of data (me talking about science) and assume I'm a nerd...you sound like MM and and his BF and cattle assumption.
Secondly, you need to understand that I have NEVER said that BF doesn't exists. A family member of mine has had an "encounter". However, the community as a whole has to understand that people taking blurry videos, unidentified sounds, still photos of a back, and "sightings" is not truly evidence.
@ Dave
-There is not a lot of proof needed when one sees a bear when they are places were bears are KNOWN to be. Also, many of my friends and I are hikers and we have PLENTY of clear video and pictures of bears. However, I also don't believe every person that tells me that they saw one because there are a lot of liars out there. Also, I know many people who say that they see tons of Cottonmouths. However, I encounter these people in areas WHERE THERE ARE NO COTTONMOUTHS. So guess what, there are tons of people out there who can't even identify a snake that they run into a lot. They automatically jump to the conclusion of it being a Cottonmouth if it is near the water. So people automatically jump to that because it makes for a better story, yet you don't think people do that with BF sightings?
Once again I am not saying that BF aren't real, just saying that the "tons of people have seen", "I witnessed", and "I heared" arguments aren't valid as a data set if there is no data. If people can't identify a snake they see on a daily basis, I do not believe that they wouldn't make up a "sighting" to rationalism something odd that they saw. Until data is able to be collected, able to be reproduced, sources of the data shown, body found and studied by many people....it is all just a theory. THAT is the point of this article and my comment. If you want to be taken seriously, stop saying you KNOW. You may personally KNOW that a BF exists because of something you have seen, but that doesn't mean anyone should believe you. Also, you can't say you KNOW anything about the behavior because sightings are so rare that the behavior you have observed could simply be an anomally.
I spent some time in AZ and never once saw me a Bigfoot.
ReplyDeleteWell if YOU didn't see one, it must be a myth!
DeleteI live in the state of WA - that's pretty much Sasquatch central. I've hiked all over the Cascades and the Olympics - including known "hotspots" - the last 24 years; I've never seen a Bigfoot. But small wonder: ~10 miles from my doorstep starts millions of acres of forest. And WA state is the smallest state west of the Mississippi; AZ is much larger than WA.
In 2000 I saw a white wolf on the Northwest flank of Mt Rainier (Spray Park/Mowich Lake region). There were no known wolves in Mt Rainier then. It looked right at me when it ran by but never stopped. It was less than 20 feet away - well above the tree line so no obstructions. I was just sitting on a lone rock eating trail mix; of course I didn't have my camera ready. I grabbed my camera and started chasing it then realized I was chasing a wolf... stupid urban n00b. :-) There are maybe 50 white wolves in ALL of WA. An extremely rare, once in many lifetimes event. I know what I saw - I've seen lots of wildlife in many states. That said, I have no proof.
I can still see it in my mind - just like I can remember exactly what I was doing when the Challenger blew up or when the Twin Towers collapsed. Most people retain vivid memories of high impact events. It's not a stretch to imagine that seeing a Sasquatch qualifies as something you would never forget. So when someones says they saw one, I believe that they believe they did.
But let's say there were 1000 encounters this year - a lot for any given year. There are over 300 million US citizens. So we are talking an event involving 0.0003% of the population. When you do the math, it's pretty obvious that this is an extremely rare event - like my wolf encounter - that the mast majority of Americans will never have in their lifetime.
So you never saw one in AZ; well neither have over 99% of the AZ lifetime citizens. It doesn't mean this species doesn't exist, it just makes it extremely rare to encounter one. I've never seen a mountain lion here but they most certainly exist.
A Personal POV is not proof, either against or for. A body, preferable alive, is. Until then, it's an unknown (from a science perspective).
Dave from WA
Yikes! Sorry 'bout the long post. If it's too much and not seen as worthy, OK to delete. David from WA
DeleteNice post David, agree whole-heartedly. John
DeleteWell just think of the people that are out there years and never see one, and some researchers that spend 20+years out there and only see it once..If it was that easy to see one everyone would of seen one by now.
DeleteThis animal has been observed thousands of times making horrendous spine chilling screams, roars, gutteral chatter and many others. I agree with the author to the extent that many sounds are unidentified and have to be that way. However when one witnesses the creature making the sounds - YOU KNOW. Alan Berry and Ron Morehead know, and many other also.
ReplyDeleteTom Fonner's premise is wrong as this creature has been verified many thousands of times and by some extremely qualified police, sheriff, FBI,and forest and game rangers. Just ask Action Jackson, retired Yellowstone ranger who was the most successful ranger in finding poachers while patrolling the remote regions of Yellowstone Park, on horse for I believe over 20 years. I'm sure Bigfoot Broski has heard and maybe even know him.
Nice tape. I will save this and have heard a couple of the sounds myself.
Chuck
The phone call to 911 sent chills down my spine the first time I heard it. Raw emotion and fear in that guys voice as he tries to override what he's seeing as a man, but hesitates because he knows it's not! Very convincing... to me anyway.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. The same thing happened to me the first time I heard it and it still does even though I've heard it several times.
DeleteChuck
Isn't the 911 call from a movie, erroneous attributed as real?
DeleteI never heard that claim. Research it, and post the information on that movie when/if you find it. In other words, prove it's not a real 911 call yourself. I'd suggest it's very good acting if it was a movie, above the level you tend to get in shlocky bigfoot movies.
Delete@Alha Dog
ReplyDeleteHey Chuck, I finally got around to reviewing that audio from our expedition. Unbelieveable. At the 3:43 mark, I swear it sounds like a "monkey" and it was CLOSE. Sounds like I heard at a pet store one time. I'm heading to BF meeting at 7. Gonna show??
The audio's on this video are cool.
Neat, I can't wait to hear it. I told you that something it or pushed the trailer around 12:30 that night, and made it rocked. Talk to you soon
ReplyDeleteChuck
Mr. Fonner, I appreciate the way you lay out this problem. People need to recognize this article as what it is. I believe there is a great difference between skepticism and logic. You are obviously exercising logic through these statements, and anyone who thinks a recording will ever prove existence is mistaken. The recordings are interesting, and nothing more without more evidence to corroborate them. Please keep up the good work, your articles are a refreshing change to the news we are regularly met with on this matter. John
ReplyDeleteI completely agree
DeleteI know this might not count as "proof" to you brainless skeptics and debunkers, but in 2007 while hiking in West Virginia I personally encountered two leprechauns. And there vocalizations sounded almost exactly like this.
ReplyDeleteWas it on Candy Mountain?
Delete