Comments on: Bigfoot Field Note #1– Part II

By: Rick Noll

Rick Noll — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 21:39:08 +0000

All are good points. There are a lot of things in the woods that can look like the track of a live animal, i.e. water drainage, moved rocks or logs, limbs of trees that have fallen, even tire tracks. Faking tracks is quite different than misidentification. Faking is malicious… misidentification is ignorance or lack of experience.

By: Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 15:08:07 +0000

A very interesting and informative piece, and I especially like it because it highlights the importance of careful casting. Cast making is an inherently difficult and time-consuming process, and a botched cast is almost worse than no cast, because it can throw in so many artifacts and red herrings. (Of course, it’s fair to point out that even the best casts are of limited evidentiary value.)

I’d like to see more research done on the ways in which known animals can create Bigfoot-like tracks. As Reyko pointed out above, “I have seen bear tracks that, when the front and back foot overlap, look EXACTLY like the photos I’ve seen of bigfoot tracks.” One method might be to do research in a zoo or other open area where bears are known to roam but Bigfoot (presumably) do not. It would not be definitive (nothing in Bigfoot research is), but if known bear tracks can mimic suspected Bigfoot tracks, that will help avoid misidentifications. Plus, such a controlled experiment would give some scientific legitimacy to the field.

By: Rick Noll

Rick Noll — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 00:32:33 +0000

Yes I can not always tell just what a track is… casting it can give that much more info. I have found impressions that have gone both ways… turning out to be human and what I believe to be Bigfoot.

When in doubt, if you can… Cast it.

By: rkeyo

rkeyo — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 03:37:52 +0000

I have seen bear tracks that, when the front and back foot overlap, look EXACTLY like the photos I’ve seen of bigfoot tracks.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:02:00 +0000

Excellent – thank you so much for this information.

Have you ever had a track you were unsure of until you actually cast it? Just curious.