I have been working two jobs for the last year and am now back to one. So I am finally, really getting to see "Catch up episoades" of MonsterQuest.

I saw two episodes this evening:

Giant Snakes and the Black Beast of Exmoor.

The black beast of Exmoor was quite interesting and I had to laugh at the "big cat" expert from Minnesota. A domestic, feral cat? It looked to be pretty good sized in relation to the surrounding fauna. She was trying to match it with one of our "bigcats", however, if these animals have been isolated in the British Ilses for centuries, possibly milennia, then they may very well have developed certain visual characteristics that are different from the pumas, leopards and jaguars she was "comparing" them to. I just did not think she gave a resounding argument why we shouldn't take that film seriously, when the wild life biologist, who was a sceptic, did a double take when he first saw it. Feeding rescued big cats Dog Chow in a controlled environment I would think is different than dealing with the "real thing" in the wild.

Anyway, this show is really growing on me.

Jon

Hi

Last yr the show seemed to have a sort of Magic about it fresh and new, The new show on Snakes was somewhat, Not very Good for me ..... Same Old story Same Old Song And Dance, ( Aerosmith) I love reptiles and of course watched it a few times, but no new info came from it,

Peace
Tim

I'm recording them all on my DVR. haven't watched any of them yet because they're on at the same time or just before the show I do. Can't wait to catch up on them though!

Teresa

hey teresa i agree totaly with above reply indeed. im definetly looking forward for the new upcomeing segments of monsterquest in upcomeing months etc im so excited thanks bill

"The Beast of Exmoor" was a fun episode. I was glad they interviewed Darren Naish, who runs one of my favorite blogs, "Tetrapod Zoology."

The giant snake and rat episodes didn't particularly catch my interest, nor did the "grassman" episode. I suppose it's a hit and miss enterprise. It looks like there are some great episodes coming up, as listed on the show's site,, including what appears to be a update on the "Sasquatch Attack" episode.

I won't be truly happy until there is a "BigfootQuest" show, with a decent budget.

I was a little disappointed with the episode in which they used a helicopter with an IR cam. That blip in the trees looked to me like a roosting bird...

Don't think it will happen till some of us band together to make it in my opinion. Even though I have been involved in various past productions, there are a lot of other hands in the mix before the public gets to see anything. The problem really is that these kinds of shows are really for the masses and not the people who are intimately involved with the subject. Our expectations are quite high compared to the demographics the networks are working on. Even the best of Bigfoot shows out there don't do very well compared to other products in the same vein. Sure there can be classics made from stuff a majority of the populace usually overlook... take for instance shark week and compare it to Jaws or Blue Water White Death.

Just take the editing for instance. One of three editing methods can be chosen from. The director-producer does it themselves with the potential problem of being too close to the project to be objective enough, a technical editor is brought on board and can do the work fast but must be locked up with the producer - director for the entire process or a creative editor is brought in and produces a finished product with very little help, it may look great but fudged here and there . Only the first option carries with it the passion for the subject versus the product. Working a TV series leaves little to no time to work with this option and so one of the two others are often used. This doesn't even take into account the executive producer or networks desires. And then there is the style. Almost every HC show can be analyzed showing a distinct style or template (Ever watch a TV series and be pleasantly surprised that they broke the mold for an episode or two? Take for instance Chris Carter's X-Files.)

I think we have one classic in this business so far and that is Sasquatch Odyssey. It deals more with the behavior of the people involved than the actual creature but what CAN actually be done with the creature? Not much. Sure you could show a lot more on an expedition in search of... but that would most likely again be about the people and some of the equipment. You could make a video book companion to John Green's three seminal works (On the Track... Year of the... and The Sasquatch File). Or you could do the same with Dr. Bindernagels work.

People can criticize what main-stream docu-dramas have been produced so far on the subject but it is nothing they (the people who make these things) don't already know and have thought thru. It is their living and they are producing. Got to hand them at least that. Broadcast TV is 99.9% formula. I would not expect anything more from it. I hope or would jump at the chance to work on something from the indie crowd with the subject.

the giant rat episode was milking it a bit in my opinion.

I think the new episodes and ideas (e.g. giant rats, giant snakes) are interesting and fun though not really in the same vein as the rest of the shows.

My problem is that those two episodes have really exposed how rushed, poorly planned, and poorly produced the whole series is. They couldn't even find a 10 foot snake? Really? With one of the world's anaconda experts. There seems to be this really simple formula of 'lets lend these guys our 3 camera traps' (I was actually pretty amazed they got some snakes on those) for a couple days and find some other cool but low cost toy that we can bill as "the first time ever used to look for rats" and fill in with some photo analysis and outrageous anecdotes from Joe citizen.'

Cheap and easy entertainment but not really a sincere effort to get to the heart of the matter...assuming there really is one.

A

The GIANT SNAKE episode was the freaking bomb. I love that topic, and I think a whole series could be done on that. Similar to the animal cops type of shows, they guys go around in the swamps and look for exotic reptiles in Southern Florida, and capture/ relocate / dispose of them. Interviews w/ people who's cat got nailed by a Burmese Python, and they live in Miami, the host/team finds other exotic swamp life like gators, rattlesnakes etc... and shows them off.

Contact me if anyone is interested in backing that. I'm going to pitch it to Animal Planet

hey everyone last night new segment about the chupercabra was great & verry informative. im definetly looking forward to next wedenday segment already... good morning bill

I came away with the impression it's a mangy feral dog.

Yeah,
I thought that was known already.

I think the show would have been better if everytime the narrator said 'Chupacabra', they spliced in Antonio Banderos saying 'Chupacabra'. It would have made it so much better.

You can't just go out into the woods or the jungle for a few hours or a single night and automatically expect to find what you're looking for. This is why Destination Truth never has anything mildly interesting to present. They fly to the other side of the world for a day or two, take some blurry IR video, fly back to the U.S. and then find that the evidence is inconclusive. More flash than substance and gets old fast IMO.

I think Monster Quest is a great show but they can't cover BF/skunkape/grassman/etc. constantly and will have to move their resources on to other subjects. I confess that I haven't seen much of Bigfootville outside of the Oklahoma episode but it seems they would have more of an interest in finding evidence. I don't see why they couldn't have left a few camera traps in the "hot spots" from OK and then come back to check on them from time to time. I think it would make more sense to have a show about elusive North American primates with something like 100 or more camera traps spread all over the continent (maybe have four cams in twenty five hotspot locations). The host/camera crew could focus on one area/researcher/eyewitness/etc. per episode and have updates on the camera traps as the series progressed.

You are exactly right, and that's why they never seem to find anything conclusive on these types of shows. I also like your idea of putting out trail cameras, digital still and video, and periodically checking them to see what turns up over a six month or one year period.

Well its just wishfull thinking The start up costs would be kinda high - have to buy trail cams, find locations to put them in, hire people to install and then maintain them, get the investigating team(s) some decent cameras and equipment and so on. After that I think costs would settle down. But what do I know? Would be cool to see how first hand reports and evidence is collected. Kinda like following a CSI team around.

or be trustworthy and maintain regular contact with local groups already doing that

Well . . . in all honesty, I think local groups should be kept out of the equation as much as possible. I know that will not sit well with some people. I think it would breed in-fighting and alot of unnecessary politics and possibly compromise evidence. The show should have it's own investigators & cameras with maybe technical assistance and analysis by Jeff Meldrum and others.

A valid point Kaiju, but the politics has a way of creeping no matter what you do or dont do.

Not if it is one entity interested only in discovery. No sub-groups, no sub-contractors just one compact organization that can present evidence to the public instantly.

I'd bet a good chunk of the "local groups" are a lot more scientific or investigative minded than anything you're going to find on Monstequest. You just don't hear about them or what they find because they do NOT actively seek some form of publicity.

BF episodes this week....two rerun, one new.

MonsterQuestSchedule

trin

Yep, the new one for this week is about Native American perspectives on Bigfoot...I helped out and hopefully it will be good. The expedition was on a reservation and was lead by James "Bobo" Fay and klyph. I believe John Freitas is also in the show.

Oh, YEAH!!

and we know 3 of the folks on the new episode...
Hairy Man, klyph and Bobo (not his account name...) aka James Fay.

should be very good...

my family and I rode the commercial jet boat ride 20 miles up the Klamath River
on June 30. Well worth the $40 to see the confluence of
Blue Creek and the Klamath River.

Don't know why they named it the Curse of Bigfoot? who knows?

I thought the Hairy Man episode was actually pretty good! So the Tahoe Scream's an elk, huh? According to this, there aren't elk in Tahoe.

I thought it was one of their best ones...for sure. I'm glad the native people that I arranged to be interviewed were used - that was important to me. I know that they have a lot more footage...maybe they will use it in the future.

Yeah, so that Tahoe Scream is an elk...and the Klamath was a coyote. I wouldn't have guessed elk at all - but I'd rather know than not know (and it makes me wonder what the heck was answering back!). Cool that the Ohio Howl came back (now twice) as unknown.

Definitely one of the best episodes.

Personally, I'm dubious regarding the elk suggestion, but I'm not a sound analysis expert.

But if there are no elk in Tahoe, how can it be an elk? Was it on vacation? Hitting the casinos and catching a few shows? Also, we used that call in Skookum, where there are LOTS of elk, and didn't get a return...

Good catch B. I am curious how they would respond to that and why they wouldn't have considered that. They did mention native species and if elk isn't native to Tahoe then how would they account for that?

Just because they are not there in the wild does not mean some are not around. I know of 2 farms in Indiana close to where I am from that raise them to sell. Who knows maybe close to where they recording was made was a farm that has some elk.

i was thinking the same thing, a farm. Not so far from my squatching grounds you have multiple llama farms, a bison farm and an animal park, with you guessed it, elk!

I've been to where the scream was recorded. There are no farms around there. Mostly residential mixed with the edge of the forest.

I should say I have no idea what the Tahoe Scream is. It may be an elk, though I doubt it. To me, it always sounded somewhat avian.

You don't need game farms in the west where you have elk running wild all over the place.

Well, that's the point. According the map I linked to above, there is no wild elk population in Tahoe. So, either we have an itinerant group of elk passing through (and I can't speak to the likelihood of that) or, as was suggested, the elk was on a farm or petting zoo or whatever. I was there only once, but my recollection is that there was no farms or other likely places an elk would have been kept in that area.

Also, the one time I was there we used the scream in call blasting and feel we received one very faint return that sounded the same. This was years after the scream was recorded, suggesting either the elk was still around (yet not in their normal range) or that it wasn't an elk that made the noise.

I have sent an inquiry to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for more information regarding elk in the Lake Tahoe area. If I hear anything back, I'll post it here.

No Elk listed in the Lake Tahoe wildlife mgmt unit.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/ltbmu/recreation/w...ife/index.shtml

Can someone link to the recording that is in question?

Access to the Tahoe Scream is tightly controlled. It's not available on the web, as far as I know.

Well then, in absence of the recording, I will wildly speculate, and say it is a coyote, mule deer or Owl.

Well, the link says the mule deer are migratory... who's to say an occcasional elk won't tag along. Probably why this sound is not heard very often around Tahoe. I'm pretty sure I've seen tule elk in the area many years ago myself, like in the early 80's.

Good episode. Shame the Klamath shoreline-expedition was cut short due to extracting the boat (?)

trin

The question as to whether elk range through there occasionally is exactly what I asked the RMEF. I assume they'd be a good source for info.

Someone I know did a spectrogra(m)(ph?) a few years ago comparing the Tahoe scream to a barred owl call and it was identical, and I mean identical. I dunno if he still has that on his computer, but maybe he can post it if he does.

I'd buy a barred owl over an elk any day!

Bipto...if you hear from the Rocky Elk Foundation and they want to hear the recording, let me know and we'll send them the original. If it is elk, I'm sure the FS would love to know.

hey kathy & everyone last night new bigfoot segment on monsterquest was wonderful indeed. i watched it twice ill definetly watch it again. thanks bill

[should be very good]

Monster Qwest puts on a good production, but the problem is they set you up to let you down. You get to tag along on an actual expedition with "intelligent and normal" people, unlike some of the other shows that seem to like to include some nut.
But like the expeditions I have been on they end up with no new clues or answers and at the end, just more curiosity. And then they throw in these climax scenes that end up to be nothing, like the scene when the boat is going down river, and the narrator says something like this, "Everything is quite on the river banks, it appears it is going to be a slow night, when suddenly! without warning " - followed by the sound of a sand bar hitting scraping the boat bottom, This is the same with all their monster topics. And calling Bigfoot "Harry Man" thought the show was annoying.

I did like the show though.

I also watched again the earlier show with the ladies in Skookum meadow. I have met the blonde girl, Christine Walls. Lovely woman and very nice. I have also camped out in Skookum medow. Boy I tell you when the sun goes down, and its too late to hike back to base camp that place gives you goose bumps. My gun was next to my head the whole night.

I've spent many nights there and spent lots of time walking down very dark roads around there. Yeah, it can be creepy as all get out. Especially on the closed roads immediately around the meadow. Not sure there's any bigfoot left around there, but plenty of cougar, bear, and elk!

August 10, 2007
That is the day I posted this. July 28th, 2008, that is the day Monsterquest broadcast it with no credit whatsoever.

I was never able to see this show before because I don't get The History Channel but I bought the first season DVD set on the weekend and started watching it tonight.I've only watched the first four episodes so far but its been pretty good.I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the season and hopefully season 2 won't be long in coming out on DVD.

im looking forward to tonight new segment called vampires in new england it should be interesting, i bet future segments will be better indeed

im definetly very excited about this new bigfoot segment on monsterquest this wedenday at 9pm eastern. thanks bill

Being originally from Ontario, and with family-owned property in some rather remote locations, I'm looking forward to their second addition on the Snelgrove incident. Believe me, that is a province of many mysteries and miracles of nature. It's truly a lovely place on earth outside of the cities.