I just finished reading the discussion of rock stacks posted on BFRO as part of their reports on the NM expedition. The theory is that sasquatches build build stacks of big boulders so that ground squirrels will nest in the spaces between the rocks and then later the sasquatch can come back and dine on the hibernating squirrels. This all seems reasonable to me, but I got to thinking that this ought to be considered a kind of "tool use" by the sasquatch. After all, they are constructing something with a particular use in mind. Just like a chimp breaking of a twig and then using it to fish termites out of a mound the sasquatch has "constructed" something which helps him acquire food.
It also occurred to me that there is an exact analog between this behavior and something we humans do. Crappie fishermen often weigh down brush (old Christmas trees are perfect) and sink them into lakes at the proper depth to attract schools of crappie which hang out around the sunken trees which give them protection from larger fish such as black bass. I see no difference between a fisherman sinking brush into his favorite fishing hole and later coming back to catch (and eat) crappie and a sasquatch building a rock stack and later coming back to catch and eat ground squirrels that have nested there.
Like so many things about the sasquatch mystery, I thought this was interesting.

Interesting, yes. Tool use, sorta.

Have there been witnesses who have seen sas stacking rocks? I am not sure about that.

But, I think the BFRO is correlating two independants, here, assuming that sas does build these things, who's to say they are creating squirrel habitat? It's speculation and bad science.

I'm not making any sense, so I will explain it with a diagram.

Independant 1 Independant 2
Sasquatch building stacks of rocks. Squirrels habitats
| |
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
Therefore, sasquatch
build stacks of rocks
to create habitat for
squirrels.

Point 2, squirrels don't use mini caves for habitat. They either make a nest in a tree or create a burrow beside a fixed object.

Wylee Coyote's big mistake was saying that bigfoot wanted to dine on ground squirrels. Let's assume he just meant rodents. It's been mentioned before.
Speculation? Yes! That's nothing new to this board. We speculate all the time. That's part of what keeps this and other forums going, along with the discussion of it. See the 'bigfoot sex ' topic...betcha that will be going for a while...

Bad science? No, not nescessarily. I have not seen a bigfoot stack rocks in formation specifically to form a habitat for small rodents to inhabit, then go back & smash the habitat to kill the little critters and pop them into their mouths like Skittles. I do remember reading a report sometime in the last four years of something similar, though. I don't know where to find it--it was in a desert area, that I remember. As I remember, there wasn't just one pile of rocks, but a whole row of piles next to a trench, which sort of pushed the credibility of the whole report...but it made sense at the time, to me.

It's all about mimicry. People do it all the time! Mimicing nature. A man puts a little fish or a worm or whatever on a hook. Sometimes he even puts a formation of feathers on the hook! (Go figure...doesn't make sense, but apparently it works--I'm not into fishing). But the result is that the big fish eats the little fish or worms or whatever. So, big fish eats little fish. Suddenly a man has a little fish & a big fish on the hook. Hmmm, supper. It's enough to feast & satisfy hunger.

The man observed nature, saw what was going on, and decided he wanted some for himself. So, he thinks, how do I do that? If you want to eat a fish you gotta catch a fish. To catch him you have to attract him...therefore, little fish (or worm...). The man gets his pole & stuff together & just does it.

This is not out of the realm of reason to me. It's survival. It's simple...simpler than fishing. If you told me bigfoot was tying fibrous material together & building nets to catch fish or making fishingpoles I'd label you a romantic. If you tell me bigfoot is making rocks stacks to trap & kill rodents, then I'd think about it & come to the conclusion that that sounds like a viable option. It's simple, it's effective.

Oh, and as far as a "rock pile" being a "tool" goes, I don't know. It depends on the definition.

Does a tool have to be actually held in your hand to be defined as such? That's a question for someone on this forum who knows more about it than me.

Whatever ya call it, it seems to be an effective means to an end.

This is the sort of thing a Bigfoot might have stumbled on by accident, which makes it a reasonable, or small-leap, speculation. I.e., a BF might have tossed rocks aside when delving for sustenance in a rockpile. Six months later he discovered that rodents have taken up residence in the new rockpile he's created. Ergo, he starts gathering stones to make rockpiles. (Something he may have been doing anyway on a small scale, to make markers or whatever with.)

Chimps may also have accidentally discovered the usefulness of probing insect nest with sticks after initially bashing and poking such nests in irritation.

But weighing down and sinking a bush would require making more connections (more intelligence), because access to the prey is indirect (via a fishing rod, not by hand-grabbing), and because fishermen didn't stumble on the method after having weighed down a bush themselves and inspecting it later. Rather, they made an imaginative leap after observing a situation created by accident that they could re-create the situation themselves. (This of course assumes that BF stumbled on rock pile making by accident, which is just my guesswork.)

I don't think squirrels hibernate????

Crew Chief

I was thinking of rodents in high mountain areas where it really gets cold. I'm pretty sure that marmots highbernate. Don't know for sure about other yummy creatures.

Sorry guys, that diagram did not come out the way it was supposed to