I was talking to a biologist friend of mine the other day about genetics and size and distribution. One of the things we were talking about was how exotic breeders of different kinds of animals evertually cause some bad genetic defects to show up with all inbreeding. Like persian cat faces being so flat some of them are born without noses...and when they breed white tigers they cause many genetic problems like blindess and weird bone malformations.

BF populations would seem to be pretty sparse...so what is the theory about their genetic variations? Do they mate for life like wolves? Or are they more like primates that have a group of females? No one has ever seen a group together have they?

I remember a couple of stories I read somewhere....one was someone saying he had seen what looked like two male BF with a female and they both mated with her....he said there was what he described as a lot of wrestling around and then kinda rough mating...(I will try to find that story) and then another story concerned a guy who saw a BF male, female and a young one come out of the forest and start looking for rodents in the rock piles and they were eating them..I think they were Picas....near Yellowstone I think (I will try to find that story too) but I wonder if BF get a mate and form a family....I've read some family group stories....

Also, Patty was a lone female...was there any conjecture on her size and whether she was considered fully grown or not? I wonder at what age a grown up BF is kicked from the nest to find it's own home...or do they become part of a family group like Gorillas?

It seems most sightings are of a lone BF....passing through an area...on its way where? For what reason I wonder.

Humans need basically 3 things to survive...food, water, shelter....you can add stuff I guess but those are the basic need things...I would think it's the same for BF. So they have to have an area that provides them those things, and since their big suckas...I would think they'd need a lot of all three. I've read mentions of caves as shelters...either that or they make temporary ones from trees...I would suspect if they find someplace with good food and shelter they'd stick around. But then if there are no other BF's around...would need to go in search of it's own kind away from it's intial family group...unless they have a sorta Deliverance thing going on (cue the banjos).

The Sierra Sounds website and the whole experience of those men tells me that they were in the midst of several BF...maybe a group of some sort. Does anyone have any further information on that other than what is on their webpage? have they ever allowed any field researcher to go into that area and stay there with equipment?

Anyway....just questions I have.....

-Janice

(These Questions may elude us also)

There is a chance of inbreeding in all Species. Untill someone reports of seeing a Deformed bigfoot won't know for sure. But whos to say what that inbreeding may look like!

I haven't heard of any stories that would suggest this, other than the three toed verses the five toed. And some imply that would be because of their environment, Swamps verses Mountain terrain!

Who said Patty was alone? I'm sure there was a few others around that couldn't be seen.

Untill one is discovered, we can only make an Educated Guess!

Belle

Sosha

I think if you compare the other 3 species of great ape (present company excluded!), their populations are probably comparable to those of BF. Specifically, if you compare orangs, which are largely solitary and are now endangered, the problem of inbreeding would probably be precipitated in that population before a BF population - in theory anyway. I am assuming that there are at least as many BF's as there are orangs...

I believe that Krantz stated that a dominant male BF kept a harem of a few females, based upon eyewitness observation and comparing what we already know of the other 3 great ape behaviour. If you accept the Freeman footage as genuine, it would certainly bolster many eyewitness accounts of small family groups seen together. I suppose only a lengthy field study, similar to jane goodall's in gombe, will ever answer your BF behavioral questions fully.

Regarding the 2 stories you refer to - the one regarding the males fighting is on the bfro's website, i believe, and the other is in john green's book, Sasquatch: the apes among us.

Yeah, the sierra sounds CD's make some amazing claims - and I have heard one of the gentleman speak who made the recordings. But I find it hard to believe that during such a BF encounter, with multiple animals, close enough to be recorded, no one had the ability or the presence of mind to snap a photo, or return with a camera crew, or something. Granted, I don't know much about the situation, but at a surface glance, that is how it comes across to me.

Anyway, that is my .02 worth

Here is the sighting...discussed above (?). I always felt it was unlikely.
Jan
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=1408

I think there are more BF out there than we think. Their elusiveness is unfathonmable and their adaptability has to be very high as well. For that reason I don't think inbreeding is a problem yet.

But here is something else to think about. Who is not to say that present-day BF's are not the result of thousands of years of inbreeding of something else. (Neandertal, etc.)

Just my 2 cents worth.

I guess i´d have to question the word "harem"...........seems to make me think of group ...ie. clan behavior....maybe i´m just reading too much into this.....

Momma with semi grown offspring.......occasionally sibs ...some other reasonable combinations.....no prime male with family.........

Inbreeding.....must happen some.....study done by the U:S: gov. in late 60´s showed "inbreeding" behavior in humans was very prevalent.....1 minor girl in 6 had sexual relations with brother, father, uncle, cousin, grandfather etc........
see no reason why it wouldn´t occur in sasquatches to at least some extent.....

I do not accept the Freeman footage as genuine....too long a history of hoaxes....although , of course, he did have valid sightings and found many footprints......

Single animals most always sighted...even mother, offspring sightings are rare.....