That said, I consulted my references and, besides hair color, there is a difference between the scale pattern found in black bear hair and brown bear hair, but it is a very fine difference. It would take someone with a bit of experience to make that distinction quickly and confidently.

Brown bears, grizzly bears and Kodiak bears all refer to the same animal. There may be some regional variation, but they’re all the same species (sometimes different subspecies).

Blair, to answer your question, hibernation is almost unheard of among primates. There is a species of dwarf lemur with a fatty tail that goes into a torpor, but that’s as close as it gets for primates. There are plenty of reports of winter sightings and, of course, the yeti is quite famous as a possible cold-weather version of the same creature. While anything is possible, I see no reason to discourage people from investigating during the winter months.

Also, I have another question, If we have all this technology, why do people think every noise in the woods is automatically a Bigfoot? A lot of animals are nocturnal, why do we assume Bigfoot is awake and roaming the woods at night?

Thank you for your kind offer, but if I recall the press conference correctly they did not recover any actual hairs, just images of ‘hair swipes’ in the impression.

Truthfully if there were any hairs they more than likely would have been lost in either the weather or the drive home.

I do have a question for you. Is there a noticeable difference between the hairs of black bears and brown bears and grizzly bears? I am assuming yes but I would like to know from someone with experience in this field.

I’m surprised the forensic photographer didn’t figure this out.

And the one pic of footprints shown before looks like bear tracks overlaid with a boot track.

Until proper DNA results are in, I’m going with Bear.

I’m curious as to, if it is a bear, if it was a Grizzly or a Black bear. I’m a bear freak, and they play a major part in Sasquatch research (misidentification).