Ok, the correct term is Pot-Bellied, but I thought the three B's in Beer Bellied Bigfoot might garner more attention.

The other night I was watching my $1.00 DVD Special I picked up at a local Walmart, "Gorillas... From the Heart of Darkness". This is a documentary that had appeared on the National Geographic Channel about a Bulgarian dignitary that was located in Rwanda before civil war broke out. He'd spent a lot of time shooting a lot of film of Mountain Gorillas and their habitat and parts were included on this DVD.

When he was discussing the Gorillas he mentioned that, "female gorillas always look for the best silver backs for their mate. One of the prime features are a big pot belly." He then went on to say, "The reason why gorillas have pot-bellies is because of the extra intestines needed to digest all that bulk fiber they consume"

I thought that was a rather odd statement so I checked around online and found that actually the stomach is larger and shaped differently as well as the intestines to help digest all of that plant material. Gorillas and Orangutans both have stomachs larger then their chests due to this fact. Now that brings us to the question.

Looking at a still of "Patty" I say her waist is thick, but definitely NOT larger than her chest. I also can not remember reading any reports that mention a pot belly, or description saying the stomach was larger than the chest. Has anyone else?

If not, then could this be a clue that bigfoot is simply NOT a strict vegetarian? And/Or could this be a clue that bigfoot is in fact NOT an ape?

Absolutely, IMO.

Dr. Swindler refered to an unidentified hominid primate. There are many reports of them eating non-vegetable foods. They appear to be an omnivore with a taste for the same things bears eat. Not much need for a hind gut fermenter. I think Krantz made mention of this. I'll have to look that up.

Did you find this?

http://www.indiana.edu/~origins/teach/P380/guts.html

On the other hand, the figure in the Freeman 1994 footage appears to have a sizeable gut. Could they be like their hominid cousins (us) who seem to go to pot with age?

Do you suppose they have lower back problems too?

test

Bulgarian or Belgian? I haven't seen this one but Belgian would be more likely. (And, not to be an a$$, but many would disagree with referring to what happened in Rwanda in the early 90's as being a civil war.)

Just so everyone understands, this isn't really the case. If it were true, the single best silverback would be breeding with about 150 females. It's really quite complicated and depends on availability, family ties, etc. In the mountain gorilla population females usually don't have a lot of choice, but there really is no need to discuss this here and it doesn't impact Moregon's real question.

Just want to point out that we should be careful distinguishing between the real stomach as a single organ, and the common use of 'stomach' to represent the entire abdominal region...but I get what you are saying and the above is basically correct- though the shape of the actual stomach organ is pretty consistent across mammals with the obvious exceptions of animals like ruminants, etc.

There is plenty of reason to believe or assume that, if these animals exist, they are not strict vegetarians. But there is little reason to do the same as far as them being apes if we use a proper biological definition and include humans in that taxon. Of the extant 4 genera of great apes (Homo, Gorilla, Pan, Pongo) ony two are vegetarian and neither is 100% strict.

I think there are a couple other threads that have better explored the whole intestinal/digestion questions and others that have looked at the ape or even primate question.

Apeman

Thanks Apeman. I'll go look at those threads too

Pot belly dermal ridges.....

Apeman, you were right it is Belgian not Bulgarian. The name is Romain Baertsoen and he arrived in Rwanda in 1966. The video also shows some gorillas that came upon a dog caught in a trap, with something that looks like a wire snare wrapped around his forleg. Now I've seen video of Koko, the gorilla that was taught sign language, but this is the first time I've seen what appears to be wild gorillas using a form of crude sign language, both in what appears to be an attempt to communicate with the trapped dog, and each other as if looking for a solution to get the dog untrapped.

The question I posed regarding not being a strict vegetarian or herbivore due to the shape of it's abdomen was a point I wanted to make. There have been a number of posters that claim some of the areas that have reported a bigfoot, could not support it, due to what must be an almost insatiable appetite for foliage (based on the diet of other great apes ie Mountain Gorillas since he believed it was a direct descendent of Gigantopithecus Blackii) due to it's reported size. I think the last one claims a bigfoot would have to eat somewhere around a minimum of 15,000 calories a day, and that it would have to eat almost non-stop to consume that many calories.

Thanks again for your input, and clarification.

Man I went out and got that dvd for $1 at wallys and we were watching the part where the dog was trapped and the gorillas were looking like they were trying to help the dog...man that was some good footage! we were really intrigued!

Same here Blackbear. It didn't look like they were random movements that simply looked like sign language, but actually calculated movements, in an attempt to communicate. Sort of reminds me of the movie, the remake of "Gone in Sixty Seconds" with Nicholas Cage. The one character didn't say a single word thoughout the entire movie. Then in the final scene says something so full of intelligence and philosophy it blew everyone away. The Cage says something to the effect that they had always thought he was mute, because he never said anything. His reply was something like, I just never had anything important to say before.

So if bigfoot has the same capability, it makes you wonder if after we have a hard day in the field looking for bigfoot, if the bigfoots don't get together after dark and tell Human Jokes about how silly we all looked to them. So, if you feel like you're being watched out there.. you probably are... and who knows maybe the butt end of the night's Human Joke Fest.