This probably isn't an original idea, and perhaps it has been discussed on BFF before, but I wanted to get everyone's take on the issue.

Could the European settlers, that colonized North America, have had an even larger effect on Sasquatch than we thought? In that I mean, could the diseases that the europeans carried have caused problems for the Sasquatch population. How would a creature, such as a Sasquatch, adapt to Scarlet Fever or Bubonic Plague.

Could the Sasquatch population have been much larger before we came? Could disease have caused a significant drop in numbers?

What's everyone's opinion on this.

Interesting......Yup its been on thje BFF before....John Green proposed the same theory... I forget when....he analized his data and found a gap which he thought could have been caused by the introduction of human diseases into the sasquatch population........I...for what little my opinion may be worth, buy into this.......I believe that the sasquatch population is now rapidly growing, increasing our chances of seeing one......since we now have been sucessful in controlling many of the old diseases........

I think of it sometimes ... what if's ... remember what small pox did to the tribes decimated them !! By the millions !!
So maybe, it had a simular effect on the Sasquatch.
Or not, maybe, just maybe, they have enough monkey genes to ward off the deadly stuff, and may be more inclined to catch a monkey bug than a human one.
After all, i never heard one sneeze and i certainly dont want to hear one three yards behind me in the dark, sneezing it may blow my cap right off my head

do those diseases that affected native Americans affect other primates?
and badly? yes. It's an intriguing thought.

I was thinking small pox, but I wanted to see if I could find some
data on how it affects other apes (haven't looked hard yet.)

I'm wondering about a few things, esp out west, that might still
affect them. Rabies and plague, both still cause problems for
humans in the western states. Hmmmm, rabid squatch, not a
pleasant thought. Might account for some aggressiveness. Any
reports of foamy mouthed apes?

On a side note, I know that ebola DOES affect other species of ape
and that can be a vector for the disease in humans (Africans eating
bushmeat have contracted ebola).

Had another thought, again western areas, esp the SW. Hanta virus
and related retroviri. The vector there is deer mice. Rodents are a
suspected food source. hmmmm... Hope not.

Domestic dogs have passed distemper onto wild wolves, in places with devistating results...
One can only hope that imported diseases from either us or domestic primates have not had the same effect on squatch...

you name it, it might have been a factor. even a common cold might manifest under the right environmental conditions into pneumonia affecting especially older or weaker individuals.

Thanks for the input everyone.

The reason I asked this is that it relates to a report that was sent to me.

In the report a witness saw a Sasquatch crouching by a streambed, and every so often the creature would cough, he also said the the Sasquatch in question was trembling the whole time.

When I finish interviewing the witness I'll give a full report on this sighting.

:bump:

SFS - did you ever do a report on your investigation of the sighting of a bigfoot crouching by a streambed, coughing and trembling?

I found this thread because it mentions Bubonic Plague; I recall seeing signs about Bubonic Plague posted in the Sierra's when I was poking around the woods in the late 1980's while living in Reno NV. The signs caution people to stay away from rodents and places they might live because of the possibility of them carrying plague infected fleas. This CDC site gives a little info about Bubonic Plague: CDC - Bubonic Plague

So, what do y'all think - could the plague have an impact on the health of bigfoot, even in this day and age, considering that it's present in areas where there's reports of bigfoot sightings? Plus, the Bigfoot Walk-Up Pharmacy isn't open after dark, so it's not always convenient for them to get a refill on their antibiotics to fight off the disease.

(Edited for typo.)

Wasn't it theorized that HIV originated within African monkey or ape species?

Smallpox nearly wiped out New World Native populations. Maybe sasquatch suffered as well.

Interesting food for thought.

There was an interesting very old story (I believe in the early 1900s) in the Raincoast Sasquatch book where someone essentially described a group (I believe three) sasquatches but said they had horrible open sores on them. It was a pretty disturbing story but it certainly made me think of small pox or measles or any number of diseases. It is impossible to know which if any might be deadly to a Sasquatch. Probably having little contact with humans, Sasquatch may not have any immunity, especially to the modern diseases from Eurasia. But once one got something, it might have spread like wild fire through the population all but eliminating them.

:smily953:



Bumping a 2005 thread in the process,

WXYZ:

The JG quote made me look for past forum topics on human diseases infiltrating the BF species.

I've heard the theory that BF is wary of humans because of a hypothesized eradication by humans earlier in history of the Gigantopithecus Blackii. The gist was that humans hunted down the critter to the point of extinction. Such hunting never made much sense to me when such awe and fear accompanies many reports of the immensity of a BF.

IMHO, not that a prehistoric BF hunt could not have been successful, but if I'm Barney Rubble in Rock Vegas, I'm betting my clams that the big guy pounds the posse from Bedrock.

Perhaps the human germs and diseases caused the near extinction of prehistoric BF critters long ago and instilled a natural instinct that has passed to modern era ones to stay away from the humans. I'm not being original as it's the the same denouement as in HG Wells' The War of the Worlds and follows along previous discussions. But perhaps when BF sees or hears humans in many reports, perhaps he senses bad medicine, wants you to stay the hell away from him, displays aggression, but stays enough away from you so as not to have physical contact. (exceptions to this behavior do exist in many reports)

So, perhaps BF's purported aversion to physical attack on humans might stem from a more powerful instinct not to come physically into contact with a human simply because the humans kill not with arrows or rocks or bullets but disease. Perhaps, we still have that ability.

Perhaps someone has already cited this possibility, so I may be late to the game.

All of this presumption is certainly a stretch since it deals with a lone theory among many, and I am merely speculating on biological issues such as diseases crossing species that I know very little about. And about a critter we know next to nothing about.

Oh, well. Speculation is fun ---until someone like me gets proven wrong. Then, it's :guinness: time. And if I'm on the right track, it's :guinness: time.

And a spoiler warning regarding Jan Clement's "The Creature" in the postscript.

DR









PS: Kinda makes me wonder if a Jan Clement's cough around his Big Friend didn't actually do the poor big guy in. And tired of editing this damn post.

Great Apes are very susceptible to human diseases. This was a major concern of Dian Fossey's. There are only 700 Mountain Gorillas left and all could be wiped out in an epidemic.

Whole native villages were wiped out with no direct contact with the whites. Cholera is water-borne.

This diseases thing could explain why the Rogers Rangers incident took place up in Up State New York!!!!!

Crew Chief

These days we probably need to be more worried about them getting the Chronic Wasting Disease prion that's affecting deer. That would cause shaking dunno about coughing.

crewchf, not sure what you mean, as far as I can find, only you've mentioned the incident here before, any idea where I can find out more? Are you saying that there used to be a lot more of them in upstate NY, and it explains why there isn't now? or hasn't been the last hundred and a half years or so.

I know that tuberculosis can be caught by primates even more distantly related than the great apes, because this was a concern when I worked in a monkey lab with rhesus monkeys back in college.

I have heard that chimpanzees can carry the HIV virus (and may have originated with them), but do not suffer the immune system breakdown (AIDS) like humans do. If I remember right, this had to do with some recent evolutionary glitch in our immune genetics that was actually harmful. (Bad mutations can be carried if they're not strong enough to be selected out).

John Green's hypothesis is logical, and we might see, if we had the data, a general parallel in Sasquatch and Native American population sizes thru the 19th and 20th century.

It's only an impression, and I'm sure this is partly biased by increased sightings reported because of the Internet and a larger human population among alot of other reporting variables, but Sasquatch-Human encounters seem to have slowly increased since the 19th century.

This may represent, partly, larger Sasquatch populations which have paralleled Nat. American population increases in the 20th century as the immune survivors of European epidemics propagated.

Flashman I saw it on a TV documentary a couple of years ago!!! The story came from an Officers diary I believe... He wrote in it about being attacked by what they called mountain apes!!!

Crew Chief