I would believe as your summer approaches the sighting will increase....is this actually true or am I presuming a little too much...and....why don't bushfires produce a medium to well-cooked Bigfoot for us humans to salivate over....I know here in Victoria, Australia over the summer just gone, the massive bushfires killed something like 175people and an untold number of wildlife...some estimates put it up to a million critters....you guys have once again got bushfires in California...why no Kentucky Fried Bigfoot...

Rod,

It's been raining like the dickens in KY, TN, AL, etc for more weeks than I can count right now. We've been under sever t-storms, flash flood watches/warnings and tornado watches/warnings ever since the spring rains hit our area.

I'd love nothing more than the wild fires out in CA to get this next several days that we are due here. I'm sure if anyone sights BF in our area he'll be doin' the back-stroke, whistlin' Dixie!


Bit

I believe BF sightings increase in the summers here due to the fact that more people get out into the forests and woods with the nicer weather. Less folks go out in the woods in the snow and rain. That is unless you are purposely looking for the big guy, then you go when ever you can I suppose. I am just talking about the casual non-hunter type sightings.

The reasons, I would imagine, that you don't have a burned up BF from fires here is that they are smarter than the average animal in the forest or woods and know to escape the oncoming fire, and not too many BF, if any, live in Santa Barbara where the fires are in CA at the moment. That area, although woodsy, is a highly populated, upscale area of California. More city than woods and the prices are way too high for an unemployed transient biped of any type.

Rod,

Your assumptions have two flaws in my opinion.

First, with the summer comes a shut down of visibility. The foliage becomes very heavy in many of the areas known for bigfoot activity.

I know there are possibly more people, but the make of the type of people in the campsites and woods changes. There are fewer hunter / outdoorsman types and more city folks out for a commune with nature. I don't think most of these type people are all that observant of their surroundings.

Choctaw

I have to agree; more folks out in the woods (even "yokels") increases the odds for an encounter.
And yes, there are a couple of reports here in California of BF running from huge fires. These reports were found on the IBS website, which is now owned by someone else. Not all of the reports are still available.
Santa Barbara is populated, but sits between the ocean and the mountains. Once over the ridge, there is gazillions of acres of empty rolling hills and forest. There are several reports from this area as well, and I do know that there is plenty for them to eat in the form of deer and wild pigs.

I like your thinking here Choctaw...

As for Bigfoot being smarter than your average critter in regard to escaping fires...not sure about that one...many people perish in bushfires, some whilst trying to escape...also we gotta be careful in explaining why we have no serious proof of Bigfoots existence, not to turn him into some kind of Superfoot in the process....cheers

Just my $0.02. If you want to read sighting reports, check the spring through fall months. If you want the best chance of actually seeing something, go out in the winter months.

g'day rod

Have to figure that you can't have a sighting unless you're out there, and people up here, tend to stay in during the cold months. Living in the Seattle area meself, I sure don't get out during the "rainforest" slog, from November thru April/May. And here, on the west coast, every spring through autumn weekend, millions of ignorant revelers pack up their caravans and hit the woods, and most sightings are by the weekend warriours, who have an urge to commune with nature, even though the tree huggers have brought back the wolves, and griz. Griz tracks were found on Mt. Rainier awhile back. It is true, that the greenage makes it easier for BF to move about, and watch you, and you'll never know it. I hope to get out there soon, now that the greenage is coming back, and experiment with something to remove most of that advantage. MonsterQuest has brought a more interested average weekend reveler, to thinking about what is around them out there. Kinda tabloid, but it did make people think about it, and I think more sightings and reports will come in because of it. As I posted in another topic I started, people will get to know their local BF hunters, and become more open about reporting their personal sightings in real time, instead of the vast number of sightings listed ages after the incident. Getting the word out that you're a serious BF hunter, in your local area, will make that easier. Adding to the Google Earth sightings index, will over time, show those trends.

I totally concur!

Even in cold, northern climates with large amounts of snow?

I've been rollong this around since this morning, and it makes sense to me that there is some truth to it, but I can't quite put my finger on why.

Can anyone better articulate why this seems plausible? Is it from reading years worth and multitudes of sighting accounts?

On the face of it, the two seem to be opposite, but also not.

Those aren't my stomping grounds so I wouldn't hazard a guess. I would think the more severe winters would have a negative impact on activity but that would just be a guess.



In my case it comes from personal experience, not studying reports. The more people you have out in the spring, summer, and fall, the more eyes and ears there are in the woods. It would reason that you'd get more reports from these times. Conversely, the very thing that makes it more likely that there will be an unidentified sound or road crossing reported is the very thing that makes these things more wiley, i.e. human pressure. In the cold months in the areas I've worked (GA, OK, LA) the leaves are off, food is scarce, there's hardly anyone else in the woods, and anything living there is having to put in extra work to find food while at the same time moving more freely due to the lack of human pressure.

Again, all just my $0.02.

The reason I asked is because I do live in an area with long winters and lots of snow. So much so that trail markers (on hiking trails) are often place very high up because winter provides many feet of snow.

I would guess that around here the winter is probably the worst time to expect a sighting. Spring and Fall would be my seasons of choice here.

How much does this affect areas that are subtropical such as Florida for example...

That's a pretty good $0.02 worth! So it would seem that the sightings in cold seasons\areas would be more weighted and with less human contamination etc.

Sounds reasonable to me.

As a person blessed(or cursed as the case may be) by living in what for several months of the year, does a good job of mimicking Siberia...this is IMO a very valid statement.
I really think activity peaks are going to be regional in nature, very strongly in some cases.
Here....winter is completely "dead", even though winter recreation puts in some cases MORE people in the woods then in mid summer(by in the woods, I mean IN THE WOODS, not in state parks and at the beaches...).
Our "peak" here, based completely on personal experience, is May-September, with possible spill over a bit on both sides. The core of winter, say, December to March, is really pretty much at a standstill.

Rod, are you planning a trip to the colonies for a B.F. scouting?

I made a graph based on some Washington State data that was posted in this BFF LINK.

Not unless I win lotto or decide to start selling various halluciogenic drugs to those in the community whom like to partake in altering their reality and perceptions of the current world we live in....and seeing that there is rather a high risk involved in ending up locked up at her majesty's pleasure in a jail full of males...and the fact I have various tattoos on but backside, suggests I may be quite popular amongst a certain number of frustrated and lonely men...and the idea of being popular in prison does not grab me as a positive move...so...the chances of me planning a trip to the colonies for a BF scouting expedition is at this stage is remote...