i watch the witness accounts and then move on.

“I hate to be remotely critical here because I’m extremely interested in the subject of Bigfoot, having grown up in Washington State. However, I hope none of these people ever have to rely on their skills as hunters to find food because they will starve.

“If there are Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), and if they are wild animals as the four people on the show claim, then they will never see them… these folks are the noisiest people in the woods I’ve ever seen (heard?). All the radio chatter back and forth, the walking around at night, screaming and cameras are going to scare away every wild animal within a couple of miles.

“As an avid hunter of North American big game, I can tell you the best thing to do would be to set up a blind (preferably high up in a tree) and sit very quietly for hours on end over a period of several days or weeks. Crashing around through the woods at night is not a very effective hunting technique. As a military member I can tell you, patience, stealth and concealment are also the best thing for hunting anything that may be remotely human.

“I realize that patience, stealth and camouflage doesn’t make for very good TV but if you’re serious about finding a wild Bigfoot, the bumbling about in the woods at night isn’t going to do it. Try watching some hunting shows on the outdoors channels and pick up a few tips.

“My interest in “Sasquatch” was heightened after an interview I conducted with the late Dr. Grover Krantz when I was a student journalist at Oregon State University in the early 90s. I would suggest following his example and offering more scientific evidence rather than footage of four city folks crashing around in the woods.

“Entertaining show, and I get a kick out of the bumbling around in the woods but I’ve seen nothing to even close to solid evidence yet. As long as I keep watching, I’m sure the BFRO and Animal Planet won’t care that I’m not convinced.”

I just hope, as L Surface pointed out, that this doesn’t encourage a bunch of yahoos to invade the American wilderness shouting, howling and bumbling around looking for Bigfoot… especially during deer season.

While there are many things that they can, and should do, to be taken more serious and to possibly be successful in their search. I will just list 2 most basic.

First, I would stop having these town meetings, and then go out and do a night hunt. All they are doing is announcing to hoaxers that they are out in the woods searching. At least to the objective viewer it appears this way, and a skeptic would point out the validity of any prints, etc… because of this.

Second, and this is most basic, when you’re in the woods searching for something that doesn’t want to be found, you need to be DEAD QUIET!!! Take it from me, I’m a former Marine Scout Sniper, and that the 1st part of training you learn because to be noisy is to be dead. As much racket as that team makes, they’d be lucky to see a deer.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth, oh and one more thing. PLEASE, stop calling them Squatches! It makes you seem even more unprofessional and a joke.

that said…

@Artist
“Paranormal-themed genre – may help the curious, skeptical and critical public to understand just how difficult these evidence searches are, how daunting and dangerous they can sometimes be, how unpredictable their targets are, and how seldom everything “comes together” to produce the holy grail – EVIDENCE!”

But Finding Bigfoot shows EXACTLY how ‘easy’ it is to get ‘evidence.’ Every sound, broken branch, dead animal, video with something questionable…. it’s ALL a sasquatch. I guess you haven’t watched the show. It’s really easy for them to find ‘evidence.’ And I haven’t watched for years now, but I think Ghost Hunters turned into the samething… everywhere they go is haunted now and they get tons of ‘evidence.’

I hope the sarcasam is read. Lots of Paranormal-themed genre shows show exactly how NOT hard it is to find evidence. If the shows consistantly found nothing, they’d be gone(RIP Monsterquest[and I know they did find a couple things]).

“Both investigators and targets have to be in the right place at the right time; weather has to cooperate; equipment and power sources have to be assembled and powered up and working and ready to deploy instantly -sightings typically last for only a few seconds, so if one recognizes a distant target (in dark, rainy and spooky conditions) and remembers the camera at all, by the time the device is retrieved and turned on and aimed and focussed… it’s all over!”

Except on TV where the few seconds of distant targets are always shown to hype the shows. Finding Bigfoot, Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth, etc.

“So. If you critics think it is easy, and that you know how to do it better, get out your checkbook and hit the road. You’ll return exhausted, emptyhanded, disappointed and frustrated… but (perhaps) with more tolerance and respect for these shows.”

I’m not sure what critics you’re referring to…. as I don’t think I’ve read one single serious comment on this site where anyone has said ‘Finding evidence seems so simple.’ But about getting out the checkbook and hitting the road… yeah, that’s exactly why a lot of people wont or can’t do it. Not enough money, not able to take time off from the day job of Finding Income to go and search for the mythic creatures.

For the record, if anyone wants to finance a trip, I’m very easy to get along with and would be more than glad to tag along.

“See how that works?”

Not really. The shows make it look very easy to find evidence. I think enough people with more than a passing interest in the field knows the opposite.

Maybe you mean proof. Because, I’m going to generalize, none of the shows have found proof of anything. And that’s why they’re still cryptids and paranormal. Because they can’t be explained away and have yet to be proven.

Did I make any sense?