What Bigfoot Hunters Can Learn From a Rare Fox

redfox_pCryptozoology lovers will appreciate this. An extremely rare fox was seen by scientists recently. It’s OK for a fox to be extremely rare, but not for Bigfoots? What does this discovery mean to our search for cryptids? Read what Bigfoot Hunters can learn from the scientists’ efforts.

Wildlife biologists from Yosemite National Park were on a backcountry trip to the most northern reaches of Yosemite National Park last month. Their goal was to retrieve motion sensitive cameras (I think these are the same as trail cams) that they had placed in that area in the hope of finding proof of the extremely elusive Sierra Nevada red fox.

Sierra_Nevada_Red_Fox,_Lassen_Volcanic_National_Park-_Keith_Slausen_USFS_2002Fortunately for them, their red fox sauntered into view on two occasions, once in December and once in January. The scientists think there may be less than 50 of these creatures roaming the backwoods of Yosemite. (Photo left by Keith Slausen USFS.)

Biologists from UC Davis, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have also seen Sierra Nevada red foxes in the area of Sonora Pass since 2010.

Back in Yosemite, their team of biologists will continue to monitor their cameras for more information about these beautiful rare creatures. They have also placed “hair snare stations” near their cameras in the hope getting hair samples for DNA analysis.  (Photo below right by Keith Slausen USFS. How good is that animal’s camo?!!!!)

SierraNevadaRedFox_KeithSlausen_USFSProblem with Trail Cams

I didn’t know much about these types of cameras, other than the obvious from what we see of them on the various cryptid TV programs. When I looked into it a bit more, I found an interesting primer on the Cabela website where they mention some important points about choosing a trail cam.

  • Lens Quality: Not all cameras with high megapixel ratings will take good pictures. It seems companies will then provide cheap camera lenses in the trail cam which will still produce useless photos.
  • Trigger and Recovery Times: If a camera takes one photo, how long does it have to wait before taking the next photo? This could seriously mess up sequence photos if you’re lucky enough to get them. It could be a matter of seconds, but how fast can animals move? So this becomes a critical factor, in my opinion.

trailcamsSo not all trail cams are created equal. If you’re an amateur Bigfoot hunter and don’t realize this, you could wind up wasting your money and your time. If you’d like to read more about how to select a trail cam, I recommend the article I share in the References section below. (I’m not affiliated with Cabela’s in any way. I just think it’s a helpful article.)

Hair Snares

The concept of hair snares to catch hair from a particular animal is also new to me. The Yosemite scientists are using hair snare stations hoping to obtain hair samples from the Sierra Nevada red fox.  So I have to wonder if these things would work for Bigfoots.

HairSnareStationExam1I found a scholarly article (National Lynx Detection Protocol) about collecting evidence of lynx in North America by Kevin S. McKelvey, James J. Claar, Gregory W. McDaniel, and Gary Hanvey.  They did a good job explaining how a hair snare works and how to set them. I’ll include that article link in my References section below (fs.usda.gov) in case you’d like to learn how to do it. Scroll down to the section title Selection of Sites and Station Positions in their article and read to the end. (Example of a hair snare station, photo right.)

They point out a very serious word of caution. Hair snares require scent stations to lure in the beast you’re trying to sample. In the case of Bigfoot, whatever you put down may also attract other carnivores like bears so it’s imperative NOT to get the scent stuff on your clothes or equipment. That’s so important, I’m reiterating it here.

HairSnareStationExam2Also notice, they don’t just put out 2 or 3 trail cams in a small areas. These scientists are putting out 25 or so cameras 2 miles apart from each other. They’re covering a HUGE range in their search for the ever elusive lynx. I think that’s an important point for Bigfoot hunters to consider too. (Another example of a hair snare station, photo left.)

Probably none of us can afford to buy that many trail cams, but what if a Bigfoot hunting club pooled their trail cams and worked together on one big study? That would work.

My Thoughts

I think it’s great that the scientists have evidence of the Sierra Nevada red fox’s existence. They say they want to learn more so they can put efforts forward to protect them.  For those of us who believe in Bigfoot, we feel they deserve the same kind of attention and care from the scientific community. (Photo below right from slideshare.net.)

SlideshareDotNetIt’s probably going to come down to us amateurs to find the Big Hairy guy and prove it to science. To do that, we need crystal clear, unambiguous, well-focused photographs and videos. It’s critical to have a good trail cam to get this caliber of proof. And for the love of God, lose the cell phone cameras – they stink!! Get a good camera with a high quality zoom feature so you can catch any Bigfoot activity occurring right around you.

I love the hair snare idea. That will take some planning and thinking, but if people could start to do that out in the wilderness, it may prove useful. I mean, if it’s good enough for the scientists as they hunt for evidence of lynxes and Sierra Nevada red foxes, then it should be plenty good enough to get evidence of Bigfoot. (Photo below from trail cam.)

What do you think?

SierraNevadaRedFoxTrailCam

References

http://www.trailcampro.com/Firsttimebuyersguide.aspx

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444859.pdf

http://www.capradio.org/41146

3 comments

  1. Yes. I agree. It will probably take an amateur to find proof of Big Foot. The money they wasted on those professionals doing those “In Search of Big Foot” shows. They are all the same. The only proof is that someone hears it in the woods. lol They all end the same. With nothing. And the only pics or videos are so blurry. You’re right. If you’re going to go after it, bring a good camera and get some hair!

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