News

Great Apes That Swim?

Monday, 28 April 2008

The great apes, particularly orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus - Bornean; Pongo abelii - Sumatran), continue to exhibit behavior that is truly amazing. Recently, orangutans were observed by naturalists swimming across a river to gain access to their favorite fruit. Orangutans, like the other non-human great apes, were long thought to be non-swimmers.

Observers thought they had seen it all until they observed the orangutans, thought to be almost exclusively herbivorous, spearfishing with sticks and eating the fish. The orangutans even went so far as to steal fish from fishermen. The observers thought that the orangutans had learned the behavior from watching humans. The unexpected behavior has been caught in photos featured in the book Thinkers of the Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal.

These acts would not be the first incredible stunts performed by the amazingly intelligent orangutan, an ape that many contend is actually the second most intelligent species on the planet. Orangutans, known to animal trainers and primatologists around the world as the best escape artists that nature has to offer, are frequently known to pick locks, break out of cages and set other orangutans free. They are also seen stealing boats and paddling across rivers.

The more that orangutans are observed exhibiting such intelligent and human-like behavior, the less contrived that putative sasquatch behavior sounds. Cynics have long dismissed the reported swimming, fish-eating behavior of the sasquatch as products of overactive human imaginations, because, among other reasons, such behavior had no precedent among non-human great apes.

Sources: Timesonline. Can Animals Think, Time Magazine Online. Orangutan (Sheppard Software).

2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference Speakers

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

The TBRC Conference Committee (Craig Woolheater, Monica Rawlins, Alton Higgins, Jim Cotton and Daryl Colyer) has started making plans for the 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference, to be held again in Jefferson, Texas. The date has been established as 18 October 2008.

We would welcome any suggestions that you have for our 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference speakers. A conference with a fresh list of speakers would be very desirable and it would also be a plus to have most of the speakers from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and/or Louisiana. Please make suggestions to us via our contact page as soon as possible. The Conference is fast approaching!

86 the Choppers

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

In the April 2008 As the Woodpecker Flies update from Cornell University, researchers involved with the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBW) report that aerial surveys proved to be an unproductive approach to documenting large woodpeckers.

As stated in the article, "Aerial surveys depend on the woodpeckers being flushed by the approaching helicopter so the birds can be spotted as they fly away. But few of the woodpeckers along the flight path of the helicopter actually flush, making this an ineffective way to search." Researchers estimated that the survey team missed 90% or more of Pileated Woodpeckers.

Project scientist Martjan Lammertink said that ground teams of six searchers were just as efficient as the helicopter crew at finding Pileated Woodpeckers. However, an advantage of ground teams is that they "can do other things - conduct playbacks, look for cavities and feeding sign, and count other bird species of interest."

The TBRC often receives recommendations to use a variety of unconventional approaches to document the sasquatch. Perhaps this experience from the IBW research effort provides a lesson in the value of traditional techniques.

Source: As the Woodpecker Flies, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

East Texas' Prodigal Son

Saturday, 12 April 2008

Texas has historically been home to the American black bear (Ursus americanus), with several subspecies found in different parts of the state: U. a. eremicus (Mexican Black Bear) and U. a. amblyceps (New Mexico Black Bear) in West Texas; and U. a. luteolus (Louisiana Black Bear) in East Texas.

The Louisiana Black Bear ranged over most of East Texas, but was ostensibly extirpated from there in the early 1900s. While at one time its population thrived, it seemed likely that the Louisiana Black Bear in East Texas had finally succumbed to overhunting.

Through the years, federal, state and academic lists of wildlife did not include any mention of black bears in East Texas except perhaps as once having thrived there. A small population of the black bear in the Trans-Pecos region in far West Texas was acknowledged by state and federal authorities, but the rest of Texas was officially devoid of any remaining black bear population. In spite of this, rumors persisted among hunters and rural citizens of the Louisiana Black Bear's continued existence in the most remote parts of East Texas, especially along the Louisiana-Texas state line and in the Big Thicket.

In recent years, there has been a gradual and growing movement of acknowledgement of the black bear's eventual return to East Texas as populations in bordering states seemed to be thriving. It had to be just a matter of time, it was reasoned, before East Texas would once again be home to the black bear, even though a growing number of East Texans (and South Texans) were already claiming personal familiarity with black bears.

Texas Parks and Wildlife began to take reported sightings of the black bear in East Texas seriously, developing a sightings report form for encounters with the species.

Well, it now appears that tomorrow is today; take a peek at Texas Parks and Wildlife's brochure Bear Safety in Mind (pdf).

The Big Thicket to be the Bigger Thicket?

Tuesday, 01 April 2008

The Big Thicket was once a vast dense forest of over 1,000,000 acres. It truly was a big thicket. Early settlers described it as perhaps the most impenetrable forest they had ever encountered.

Through development and parcelization, the vast Big Thicket actually became a smaller thicket and in its present official form, the Big Thicket National Preserve, managed by the National Park Service under the Department of the Interior, its size is roughly 100,000 acres. The original Big Thicket is now sometimes referred to as the Primitive Big Thicket, and is broken up by a number of small towns and private land.

The area has a rich history of so-called "wildman" or bigfoot sightings, often referred to as "Mossyback" in the area.

The good news: legislation was recently drafted by the National Park Service, at the request of U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R), 8th District of Texas, to increase the size of the Big Thicket National Preserve by another 100,000 acres. The land would be acquired from willing sellers.

The TBRC will keep a constant eye on the status of this important legislation. While 200,000 acres is not 1,000,000 acres, the expansion of the Big Thicket National Preserve by another 100,000 acres would no doubt be a great step toward the conservation and restoration of this place that's been called the biological crossroads of North America. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this special place called the Big Thicket can soon be the Bigger Thicket.

Source: The Big Thicket Reporter (Big Thicket Association).

Like Tom Slick, We Just Want to Know

Thursday, 20 March 2008

"He won't quit because you know there's no such word as 'fail' to Tom Slick."

To the generation growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, those words may evoke memories of the cartoon hero and his versatile Thunderbolt Greaseslapper, but they could just as easily have applied to the real life, but little known, Texas millionaire Tom Slick, Jr.

Among the many interests pursued in his short but very adventurous life, Tom Slick sought to validate the existence of the sasquatch and the yeti. Considering his other noteworthy accomplishments, one must wonder what might have been.

The author of a recent article about Tom Slick in Country World, a Texas online publication, suggests that were he alive, "Slick might have hooked up with or even founded the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, which carries on Slick's interests."

Quite a compliment.

The TBRC Online Store

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

If you've wondered how you could lend a hand to the TBRC's mission, but maybe you live a world away, or maybe you don't have the time or inclination to contribute in other ways, well making some purchases through the TBRC Online Store may be the way to go.

The store now offers a line of sharp products, ranging from mousepads and calendars to golf shirts and underwear, featuring the TBRC's "starfoot" logo, originally designed by Duncan Hopkins, with adaptations by ideapark's Brook Lorntson.

The proceeds from the sale of the products all go toward the non-profit TBRC's mission statement. So, if you live a thousand miles away or even if you live in downtown Temple, Texas, the TBRC Online Store allows you to help the TBRC and get something nice in return.

Please visit the TBRC Online Store and contribute to TBRC research; buy a golf shirt, a calendar and anything else there that you like!

Today the Wolverine - Tomorrow the Sasquatch?

Thursday, 06 March 2008

A fascinating article appeared on Wednesday, 5 March 2008, regarding the documentation of the first occurrence of the wolverine in California since the 1920s. Oregon State University graduate student Katie Moriarity obtained a photograph using a camera trap in the Tahoe National Forest, in northern California.

This stunning news has generated great excitement in many quarters. In other circles, however, the reaction has been less enthusiastic. Tahoe National Forest public affairs officer Ann Wrestling indicated that U.S. Forestry Service officials in Washington, D.C., told her not to comment about the wolverine.

The TBRC conducts searches for sasquatch evidence using camera traps such as those employed in the Sierras. As with the wolverine, highly credible witnesses report seeing large bipedal primates; the absence of evidence does not necessarily mean a species does not exist. Given enough time, equipment, and luck, perhaps another unexpected discovery will soon be announced.

Read the full story here.

See the photo here.

WANTED: Arkies and Okies

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

The TBRC is in need of field investigators, particularly from Arkansas and Oklahoma to assist in talking and meeting with witnesses, as well as assisting in field projects in extremely remote areas. Qualified applicants should be skeptical, but at the same time enthusiastic, inquisitive and open-minded. Interested individuals should also be in good physical condition. Commitment and the ability to cooperate and work as part of a team are the most critical traits.

Join the team. Help the TBRC turn today's mystery into tomorrow's discovery.

Leading Scientist Names Bigfoot Tracks

Wednesday, 02 January 2008

Jeff Meldrum, Ph. D., Idaho State University, TBRC Board of Advisors, has given sasquatch tracks a new label, Anthropoidipes ameriborealis (literally "North American ape foot"), in his just-published paper, Ichnotaxonomy of Giant Hominid Tracks in North America.

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