...But I notice you didn't respond to my question about the camera...
Some 1/2 second clip of something ducking behind a rock yet the camera isnt trained on that spot for hours to see if it moves? or becomes upright again?
Okay boys and girls, buckle up it's going to be another long one. Sorry to all those ahead of time for the length of my posts...
The camera issue: Having studied the raw footage ad nausea I will relate the point and issue. The footage was slightly longer than presented (
it has mostly been presented at a 0:27 - 0:30 second running time verses the 1:52 seconds the clip actually is). The camera at that time was being moved and caught, from what I originally observed by complete accident, the large male in the video on the ridge edge. They were moving the camera to train on a spot behind where they originally had been set up and caught the image mid-move. (
This camera move was mainly due to, as related to me later, that Todd and the others believed they heard a sound behind them but later figured it was a reverberation off the surrounding walls of rock. Being a videographer by profession I can attest that the movement was a sudden and unplanned pan due to the amount of time it takes the camera to focus on the location of the male in the frame.) The large male dropped into a squat and the camera veers off for a few seconds and there is vocal commotion, which is all but indistinguishable. (
This potion of the video has been cut from every broadcast, save the first versions, due to time and that you really see nothing save mountainside.) There is a scattered collection of almost unwatchable footage that follows, a mistaken record when they were moving which is a nauseating blur of rocky earth and voices (
how many videos like THAT have been posted around the world, like we need another of THOSE) and then a short examination of the area which occurred shortly thereafter where no sign of the male is seen, no footprints or hair. What WAS in that footage was a key element of Todd’s “superficial signs” which, if made public, would defeat the purpose of preventing a measure of tracking ability for would be hunters which leads me to….
...But I know that if you, a man who never mentions a degree or [certification] relating to cryptozoology or biology or even hunting, can track these animals [through] “superficial signs”, then the best hunters in the world could walk into the wilderness and harvest a Sasquatch.
Your point could not be more accurate in the direct relation to the best hunters. The smallest detail concerning signs left by these animals, or any way that hunters could track them then it would be open season. There are a group of hunters that quite literally travel the world chasing Bigfoot sightings looking to kill the creature. As a skeptic I was more shocked than anyone to discover this fact, and still to this date I cannot seriously understand the motives behind, or the expense of, hunting Bigfoot on a global scale, but it happens. We have taken EXTREME measures to ensure even the smallest detail does not leak through our videos. We scour chosen footage for any image that could offer a sign of location, habitation, behavior, or tracking signs and file the footage to be released AFTER protection has been achieved for the species. This has prevented some very relevant footage from being publicly broadcasted or displayed to date, but we hope to release that footage after laws have been passed. Everyone here, skeptic or no, agrees protection is paramount and as such take the exposure of even the smallest detail that could culminate in the hunting of these creatures to be catastrophic.
Now to your mention of degrees… What really is a degree? A process through which an individual is exposed to information and/or research over a length of time through which they gain a breadth of knowledge by either raw experience, direct application, or the consuming and understanding of scholastic text. Todd has, over the past FIVE years, devoted himself almost exclusively to the study, field research and conservation of a single species: Rocky Mountain Bigfoot. Masters degrees are achieved in less time and on a broader breadth of study. In that time he has gathered field evidence, studied behavioral patterns, interaction with habitation and environment, unique behaviors that denote intelligence and much more. His application of his studies has to date yielded video evidence (
and more) and confirmed his ability to track these animals through the application of his developed “scientific method”. He is able to discourse with college and university professors about a wide variety of subjects, which he has become affluent in, such as primatology and zoology, as well as expert hunters and trackers. He knows more about the wide variety of indigenous North American species and their migratory and behavioral patterns than most and is rivaled only by people devoted to study of the specific field. So really, what is a degree? If it is a breadth of knowledge and a field of study then Todd has it in spades. The fact that he doesn’t promote such things goes to the fact that he really doesn’t want to talk down to his audience or make himself better than other people. But if you were fishing for insight then I’ll tell you that Todd does have actual degrees as well; though it will be up to him if he feels he want to share exactly what they are.
Just a quick FYI, the following is taken from a University Information Package concerning the study of Primatology: “Many colleges and universities in the US offer
some courses in primatology. Very few if any, offer programs which lead to degrees specifically in primatology.”
...And Also, 40 yards is close enough to use what is called a Dermal Core I believe...A device like a tranquilizer that simply hits the animal and takes a minute piece of flesh leaving a wound smaller than the tip of a pencil...
The item you are talking about is a DNA Dart, or Pneu-Dart (which is also the company which is the leader in the field). Though it is true that the dart can be fired from 40 yards, and does collect DNA, here are some things your statement failed to reflect.
1) Todd was out in the field with a consumer brand video camera, about a $500.00 MiniDV store bought camera as he was financing the expedition completely out of his own pocket, (
read: underfunded). The specialized CO2 rifle used to fire the Pneu-Dart starts at $1,750.00 USD; specialized CO2 cartridges are $40.00 USD and good for 10 fires or 12 hours after activation; each DNA dart is $27.95 USD, and an added tracking device is $74.95 USD with the tracker itself a sweet price of $590.00 USD. So to fire one dart would cost $2,482.90 USD, a cost approximately $3,000.00 CND at the time the video was captured.
2) To own one of these rifles you must be registered with the government, be trained in their use, and carry a government issued license. A process that is costly and time consuming. Those who can use the weapon usually will NOT have anything to do with Bigfoot as is evidence by Todd’s newspaper ad back in 2005/06 looking for a tranquilizer gun expert, of which there was only ONE reply and only AFTER he captured the video evidence.
3) Firing a CO2 based weapon at high altitudes diminishes the pressure the weapon fires at. Add to that the obvious incline the creature was at compared to where Todd and his team were and you have a 100% chance of missing your target. Any hunter will tell you that firing on a target at a elevated position is a crap shoot at best, add to that the multitude of wind currents that sweep through the mountains, (
helicopter pilots will not fly near certain cliff faces at times of year due to the unpredictable air currents) the chances of a skilled marksman hitting anything with that type of weapon is slim.
4) Finally, IF Todd had been able to own a rifle, or get an expert to come along with him, and IF the person firing the weapon was lucky as hell and hit the creature, and IF the dart was able to be retrieved then it would have to be tested. To properly test any sample for DNA, or for an accurate DNA map of a sample costs approximately $12,000.00 USD and can take up to a year depending on how busy the handful of labs across North America are at the time. When you test for DNA the lab informs you that though you have paid there is no guarantee that they will be able to provide results, and the process may in fact “destroy” the sample. Also, here’s a point of interest for all you conspiracy people out there that we’ve confirmed as fact: to date there have been a number of DNA samples put through for testing though places like Harvard University and Oxford University; for some reason each of these samples have mysteriously vanished or been officially “lost”.
I quite appreciate your inquiry concerning the Pneu-Dart; it gave us an opportunity to address a item which Todd expended a great amount of time and effort researching and attempting in vain to entice an expert to assist him with it. The frustration and ridicule he endured during that time was horrendous and something we have mostly relegated to the back of our minds as we have now solved this problem.
Finally, whatever this Dan Hamilton Incident obviously includes violence of some sort, and wouldnt this only substantiate you're claims?. Great White sharks are protected yet they kill people, People are mauled by cougars, yet they are protected. So wouldnt video proof of these creatures being involved in an "Incident" only further your work?.
As Todd mentioned he spent a year working on Dan Hamilton attempting to glean every bit of knowledge from the incident. When the frustration of dealing with the families involved, (
as this is a very real tragedy), the authorities, tracking down information that is there then suddenly not, finally got too much Todd returned his attention to direct field applications.
I can understand people’s curiosity concerning this incident, but these are very real people, with real families with real emotions. At some point curiosity must give way to common decency, putting your wants at bay to respect the wishes of those affected by heavy emotional pain and loss.
Also, due to an injunction by some of the family members, we cannot discuss details of the incident, what we possess or don’t, or make public some of our interviews captured during the first year of my involvement with this project. Hopefully one day this will be settled and we will be better able to address this very real tragedy. Until then I hope people will be respectful of the families wishes and let this go.
And as far as you protecting [them] from [extinction], It seems like they have hung around for at least the last few hundred years without you, so why all of a sudden do you think they need protecting?
I will address this last point by first by stating terse and tactlessly that this statement is indicative of the narrow perception we have fought to address. Though there are still hundreds of sightings across North America each year, that number compared to mans encroachment into previously uninhabited regions denotes diminished numbers in both sightings and population. The hard science states that one of the potential reasons for the lack of skeletal remains are low population numbers. Every year a great number of species worldwide become extinct. Of each animal that becomes protected there are at least ten that vanish from the earth. So why bring protection? What if the reality is that because of pollution, invasion and the wholesale destruction of habitat, destruction of migratory corridors that Bigfoot now lives in pockets that the slightest interference with could cause the group to die out? This is a reality with other species, and could very well apply to Bigfoot. If this is the case, then any sighting very well could be the last, as is Todd’s greatest fear. Protection will enable proper scientific study and conservation of the species upon discovery. Anything less would be utterly irresponsible and outright criminal. Something we will continue to insulate against regardless of outside pressure.