Ok, when I was maybe 10 - 12 years old, I was out feeding the cats one night and saw a set of dimly glowing red dots about 50' away in the weeds in the fence row behind our house. They were spaced maybe 4" - 5" apart and about 3.5 - 4' off the ground. When I saw them, I froze, and just watched for maybe 30 seconds, but they never moved or blinked that I could tell. I think the only thing that kept me from panicking was the fact that those "Zany Zapper" glasses w/ the red LEDs were out in stores then, and that gave me a comforting thing to relate them to. I haven't really thought much about this till last night on the Rense show when they mentioned the self-illuminating eyes.

So what I'm wondering is, IS there a precedent in Nature for eyes like that? We know things like lightning bugs and some deep sea fish produce their own light, but what would be the practical upshot to evolving eyes that did that? Especially in red, when everything I know of animal-wise glows sort of a bright green. Would it work like some kind of IR illuminator to aid the eyes in seeing at night? Would it be some kind of threat/ "Keep away" display? Red is coincidentally, a color that doesn't mess up your night vision, that's why so many flashlights come with a red lens.

Thoughts?

-Sarge

50' would be well within the range of light coming from the house. Assuming it was an animal (or a squatch for that matter) what you were seeing could have been reflected "eye shine" from the animal, and not neccesarily light produced by the animal. Red eye shine is one of the hallmarks of many reported nighttime sightings.

I have also seen red eye shine but did not relate it to Bigfoot at the time. I still have no idea what it was and it happened about 25 years ago or so.
It happened in a well populated area of Florida. It was in a better than average neighborhood that I grew up in for the most part.
A friend and I was walking down the street late at night and in some woods that we was passing is where we seen them eyes. Street lights was in both directions about 100 feet each way. It would be very hard to guess at the hight of them as that land went up very fast along there. From the hight I would say it went up 5 to 6 feet without 20 feet or so from the road. I would say the eyes was within a few feet of the road and seemed to be about our eye hight. I was about 15 at the time and over 5 feet high. So lets say the eyes seemed to be 4 to 5 feet above the ground. If where it was standing was 2 to 3 feet above the ground it could have been 2 to 3 feet tall or so.
I have seen deer, Hogs, Bobcats and even a panther had been shot less then a mile away just 2 years before.
A few different animals will have red eye shine. Possums is one that comes to mind. As well as gators and crocs. I am not sure what others shine red but I know some do. I have always figured it was something like a possum but do not know for sure. I do know that we ran as fast as we could for a ways as it scared the crap out of us lol. It is one thing to see something like that where you are expecting it. But when your walking along at the young age of 14 or so and see some glowing red eyes not very far from you it sends a shock right threw your system lol.

Actually, Possum eyes glow a sort of pinkish red and are much smaller than what Kathy M. and Montra described.

I am not aware of any other land animal that have eyes that luminate without ambient light. Kathy and Montra both stated that there was no ambient light at all when they saw the eyes.

When I saw a set of glowing red eyes, swaying side to side. There was no way the dim light from the porch (275 yds away and behind the trees) could have illuminated the eyes. We tried to simulate it with reflectors and could not.

I know what Kathy and Montra saw, I know what I saw..I believe what others have seen. I realize that it defys rational explanation, much of this creatures behavior does.

I finally feel vindicated for all the notes I got stating blatantly that "no land animal can produce red eye-shine without ambient light"....to those who told me that I can only say....




I might add...neener, neener, neener..but that would be a bit much..so I won't!

Redwolf

I think that most of us think that there is no ambient light when it is dark outside and there is no moon. It certainly can be really, really dark at night under a forest canopy. But it is not absolute darkness. Actually there is ambient light even on the darkest night.
When I was on a guided tour at Jewell Cave (and several others) the rangers told everyone to stand still and then turned out the lights. In that particular portion of the cave - deep under the earth - there was no light souce. It was absolute black. You truly could not see your hand before your face - or anything else for that matter and your eyes could not adjust. I have never experienced that absolute lack of light under any other conditions.
My point is that it can be very, very dark and still provide enough light for a highly reflective object to reflect. Leaves, bodies, all sorts of things can reflect ambient light which can then be picked up by other reflective surfaces.
I guess that I would like to think that is what is happening here. If indeed the observers saw eyes of some kind - BF or not - then it is more plausible to assume reflection than a totally unknown biological phenomenon in what is most likely a primate.
Just my thoughts on why I can't come to grips with the self illuminating eyes theory.
Jan

I was going to start this topic yesterday after hearing about the recent BFRO expedition! I remember reading several BF reports that have mentioned BF having "glowing red eyes" that seemed to glow from within, and not by reflection. It is such an eerie image! :willies:

Hi Jan (and Edward!)
I was just talking with Sean about this and that was my thought, too. Even on your darkest night, this eye is emanating that glow....where from? I don't know. It could be that miniscule amount of starlight amplified off the thing-I-don't-know-the-name-of behind the retina, or (and this is where we differ re: reflected light only) internally generated....some sort of chemical reaction aiding night vision?
oh, well, conjecture rules the day....
And, right, Wildman, there are alot of cases of "glowing red eyes" in accounts.

Flying squirrels eyes lite up big time red when hit with a light. I have only seen one and was 5 feet away. They are not very big ,but still very spooky.

Hey Jan! Well, all I know is that there was no moon, no flashlights, no car lights, no house lights, no cig lighters, no nothing...only stars. It was as dark as it could be, and I had a very hard time identifying people, let alone see where I was walking.

My understanding of animal eye glow is that a light has to be bright and near enough to reflect off the animal’s lenses in order to cause eye reflection. The most common sources are headlights, flashlights, taillights, house lights, etc. In those incidences, the animal is very close to the light source. The light can be shown directly into the eyes or at the correct angle to cause the animal's eyes to "glow". Various colors have been reported, mostly yellow, orange, white or greenish-yellow.

A full moon would be bright enough to cause eye glow as well....but the moon didn't rise until after we had left for the evening.

There wasn't enough starlight to even help me walk...so I can't imagine it was enough to cause eye glow.

I have no idea what caused it. I don't even know what it was. I only know what Montra and I saw. If it was a bigfoot, and that's a big if, I suspect we are thinking to narrowly...to me, a chemical response is more likely a candidate than ambient light. Why would a bigfoot be able to chemically turn his "eyes" on? Maybe it's an evolutionary adaptation to being a nocturnal animal? Maybe he was hoping for a date and though red was our favorite color? Don't know...we sure have a lot to learn about this animal... hey? what are you all doing standing around???

I just can't see this being a reflection of light. I know that we go into the deepest part of the woods on the darkest nights and just sit still and listen. You absolutely can't see it's so dark, not even shapes of trees, etc. Given the heavy forest canopy, how would the small amount of starlight get through enough for eyeshine?

I don't understand the "glowing" effect either, but I have to go with it being something about the make up of the animal that's causing this.

Just my 2 pennies.

Two words:

"My precioussssss!"

Can you expand on this statement Kathy? I am curious!



RW

I find this so interesting!! There have been so many reports of eye glow and where HM says it was so dark with no apparent ambient light, it just makes one wonder.
Tapetum Lucidum in primates is only seen in nocturnal prosimians (I think, if I remember right) and even then, they still require some sort of light for their eyes to glow.

It is freaky that they moved upwards HM. That took guts to stand there feeling like that and seeing that!

This is a something I have run into as well ML. It seems to defy explanation..personally I hate that lol.

Redwolf

Well, what if...and again, this is just an if....it's a communication method? What if, because they are active during the night, they have developed a way to signal each other using eye shine. If I can self-illuminate my eyes, then I must be a sasquatch too, right?

The area where we saw the "eyes" was 1000 acres of private land; up against several thousand more of virtually vacant land (can't be too detailed sorry). If it was a sasquatch Montra and I saw, it likely wasn't that familiar with humans or human behavior...maybe we had confused it with the call blasting. What if it self-illuminated its eyes to see if we were also a sasquatch? We couldn't do it back...so it left.

The worst part of this is that I regret not just stepping forward and grabbing a handful of what was there...then maybe we'd know more than we do...of course, I might not be here to be discussing it right now.....

Oh wow, that is an interesting point and it could be a possible explanation.

hmmmm much to ponder!

Thanks HM

RW (kicking herself for not being there! )

Well this kind of hits home.
At the time I was in my early to middle teens and the sister I was with was four years younger.
We had been playing back by the pond, and like a lot of kids do, didnt pay too much attention to it getting dark, until it was time to walk back,lol!
Part of the path led through woods, we came up on the entrance and not far in, saw a pair of big glowing red eyes. The only light to speak of was probably a few stars, maybe not even that as I remember it getting very black very fast!
My sister said "Whats THAT?" I told her it was a "deer" and wouldnt it be so much more FUN to take the long way around by the paved road. We walked through the alfalfa field ( now fenced for cattle) and did just that. I kept having this hair raised up on the back of my neck feeling that something was pacing us through the woods but didnt see or hear anything else.

Hairy Man
Were you tempted to flash a light on?If you were that close to a Sas could you have verify it was By walking towards it?I know the feeling you folks had in that area very well.To bad That you could not put your fear aside and walk up to it to see what reaction it would do.As it seems the creature was not being aggressive.If it was I really do not think you all would have been able to get that close.It seems you all had a good time.Did you make some Wooping sounds to it to see if it would communcate with you all?Man I wish I could have ben there.Putting your fear aside on these creatures is the hardest thing one can do.I am looking forward to my next encounter it's a rush that gets my blood flowing.I am glad that the trip you all had was worth every cent.I hope on your next encounter that you place that fear aside and have an upclose in your face encounter of the freindly type.
Mark A

This might be interesting for some interested in nocturnal eye shine:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/framed.ht...cturnaleye.html

Looking for explanations....still.
Jan

Nice link. Here's another, not specific to BF, but maybe similar principles at work?

http://www.anomalist.com/features/motheyes.html

I have also done that in caves. Where I am from in Indiana has some caves around. When I was younger and would go up there for the summers I would always try to get at least a day or 2 caving in. Some of my cousins know them as good as anyone.
Anyway it can get real scary if you turn off the lights deep in a cave. I feel sorry for anyone trapped in a mine or something as it must be hell.

I've also been 250 feet deep, at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. You don't know dark until they shut the lights off down there, and it IS a little freaky!

I wonder whether the suspected loss of visual actuity due to good night vision (less cones for detail, more rods for low light vision) might cause the sasquatch to move its head from side-to-side in order to enhance its perception of the image it is viewing (the observer).

Also notice how the use of binocular vision gives the ability of animals (including us) to see in 3D and to discern the distance of the object of their focus. Maybe an animal at night moving its head from side to side would make it clearer to understand the distance. This gives them a further spacing to their eyes.

If you move your head from side to side while looking at an object in the distance you will see that the closer objects move more.

By the way, I also have the theory that the visual ability of sasquatch includes frequencies into the infrared. Thus it can see the glow of cameras outfitted in such fashion, and hence its seemingly magical ability to avoid being photographed.

Irish, interesting points on the moving side to side. They are likely correct, as many animals employ the same tactics(deer, turkeys, just for a couple, bub and weave their heads a bit when trying to discern something). More to the point..Owls do this almost constantly, in their effort to make out distance and depth of field in the very low light conditions they tend to be out and about in.
Which brings up another thought.
Given that owls eyes reflect red, and they constantly move their heads back and fourth(at least, when trying to make something out), and they can see with light levels so small as to be undetectable to us....I think they are a strong candidate for what is being seen. My reason is that IF they can see in such small ammounts of light that we would percieve it as pitch black..then very possibly, their eyes are of such efficiency that they may also REFLECT that tiny bit of light back in a sufficiently concentrated level that we might actualy be able to see it even though the ambient light that is the source of the reflection is so minute as to be undetectable(to us)...thus, the red self glowing, bobbing eyes might be explained. The efficiency of their eyes to gather minute levels of light for visual use is unquestioned...I think it may be possible that they also relect that now concentrated light back just enough that a dim, red glow is aparent if they are looking at you. Again, the movement of the eyes back and fourth would also be explained, as this is very common to owls..particulary if they are trying to make something out in the dark.
Just a thought.
oh...and the fact that they may also make many of the sounds sometimes associated with sasquatch may further enhance the illusion...just another thought
Of course..it's easy for me to speculate, not having experienced such a thing, and I am by no means making any claims to have solved the mystery..just tossing out a possible solution.

Just to clarify, there ain't gonna be any primates that have eyes that glow (self-illuminating) by themselves. It's eye shine or it ain't.

Unless someone wants to explain to me they physiological logic behind any creatures eyes needing self-illumination...

Well, it wasn't eye shine..and they glowed. You may not choose to believe me or Kathy M. or Montra or any of the others that have seen this bizarre phenomenom, and that's fine, but I know what I saw. I am not a newbie, I have a lot of experience in the woods, especially at night. I do not believe it was an owl, there would not have been enough light to illuminate the tapetum in an owl. The elk nearby did not have eye shine until I shined them with my flashlight, they were about 75 yds closer than the red eye glow.

Perhaps one day you will see it for yourself and understand what we are talking about. I know it's weird and seems to defy explanation...but as I stated before, so does the very exsistance of this animal. Trust me..I am an exptremely logical person and I wouldn't be putting my reputation on the line unless I was sure of what I saw (hubby saw it too btw)

oh, and Kathy M. did describe her views on "physiological logic behind any creatures eyes needing self-illumination", in an earlier post. It was an interesting view on the subject and worth contemplating.


Redwolf

Well lets look to the Electric Eel for a minute. That's a pretty bizzare adaptation. An animal delivering an electric shock might seem a pretty strange thing till you saw it in action, I wouldn't believe a claim like that till I saw it in action. The same could be said about self-luminating eyes. Is there anything in Nature that could explain self-glowing eyes?

-Sarge

Red, like I said..I was not there, and am not at all questioning what you saw.
I just think it possible that if owls can see in levels of light undetectable to us, then maybe their eyes are so efficient that they can relect that light back in sufficiently concentrated levels as to be detectable.
As for comparison to elk, I don't think elk have near the night vision of owls, so maybe they have considerably less reflection(assuming that the tapetum is less efficient in an elk, thus, their less effective night vision).
Like I said..just an idea to describe the indescrible, and again, I have no doubt you are telling the truth about what you saw..I am just postulationg a possible explaination.
May well be wrong..but I do think it has merrit.

I like the owl explanation, and the idea that the eye might concentrate light so much that the reflection is visible. The opinion of an experienced owl keeper would be useful here.

The only other explanation I can think of is that the eyes are actively amplifying the received light, just light night vision equipment. What if somehow a layer behind the retina released light when it received small levels of light - that released light would pass back through the retina greatly enhancing the animals night vision, though probably in a monochrome and low-contrast fashion. The waste light would then pass back out of the eye, causing the eye to glow. A natual laser.

I know this is far fetched, but we are constantly discovering amazing adaptions in the natural world - there are few engineering problems that haven't already been solved by nature.

Or, one could ask: Is there anything in nature that makes self-glowing eyes impossible? I don't think so. Nearly anything is possible (I'm not talking about shape-shifting, teleportation, or dimension-hopping here ). You're right Sarge, who'd have believed eels could do that without seeing them firsthand? And the platypus... 'nuff said there. IF the possibility exists, and using Nightwing's and Gee4orce's theories for reference I think it might, then who's to say it's not possible?

I am sorry I came off so testy NW. I was up too late and cranky. I should know better than to send email in that state..sorry.

Yes, your idea has merit. It could have been an owl, and you are correct about the elk vs owl tapetum..no comparison lol. doh!

Do I think I saw an owl? No. I know that what I saw swayed from side to side, then became still and stayed in one spot for at least ten minutes, if the head ever turned or the eyes blinked, it must have happened when I dropped my light . I went back to the area and found no scat, so that wasn't a help.

I don't mean to be a crank, I know from experience that if you see something that defies rational explanation, you need to be prepared to face the music so to speak.

Redwolf

Hi Redwolf,
I just want to take a moment to try and explain where I am coming from on this glowing eyes thing...
When discussing BF and it's attributes I try to stay as close as I can to my personal gold standard...Primates and primate behavior (including humans).
I don't doubt for a minute that you and Kathy and Montra and many others have seen and descibed the "glowing eyes". And that your observations come from a personal experience with the phenomenon. Your conclusion that this is related to BF can be argued...but there seem to be a sufficient number of reports that actually link a visual of BF to this sort of thing so for purposes of seeking an explanation for it, let's do assume that it is BF, and that the seeming "glowing eyes" have been observed.
What I am trying to do is find an explanation that fits within known physiological attributes of primates (not eels or aliens), some of whom are nocturnal.
Now it is a stretch to consider BF have a nocturnal eye structure because to the best of my knowlege none of the great apes are so equipped. But for a moment let's assume that BF is a primate and it is nocturnal and that it's eyes are adaped to a noctural environment.
It then follows (see the link that I posted earlier on this thread) that their eyes are able to use ambient light that we simply can't see by reason of eye structure. Their eyes are able to use this light and reflect it. The variation of intensity or glowing might be related to the amount of blood in the eye or the contraction of the eyelids or both. Perhaps the creature is squinting its eyes or varying the opening in order improve its ability to see you?
Because BF is an unknown, I think we absolutely need to ground it in known and observed animal behavior and physiology. I am reluctant to start speculating on additional unkown or physiologically impossible attibutes to explain the eyes thing or other behaviors at this point in time.
To do so lessens the possibility that BF even exists, IMHO.
Jan

JanV,

I understand completely where you are coming from. It is possible and still very extraoridinary for a creature to take a ambient light source undetectable by human eye, and reflect it back with such magnitude.


Redwolf


(edited for misuse of commas)

Yes, Redwolf. I think the magnitude of the "glow" is an issue that strains my hypothesis of the reflective power of the nocturnal eye.
It would be an interesting experiment to try and duplicate the conditions - range, darkness, size and brightness of the "glow" you observed to try and determine the amount of light needed to reflect to the degree that you observed.
Are you game to try something like this? It would be fun to see what we came up with.
Jan

Oh, how I love to see discussion regarding all the possible facets of nature…

But what I love most of all is seeing those who have had very real experiences, sharing them with us.

And while I see some cautioning to not attribute the phenomena of red glowing eyes to sasquatch, for there is no precedent in the animal world for such nonsense, I can’t find anywhere that anyone makes the assessment that it had to be a sasqtch...

If we all wanted to think in a box, there are plenty of nice ones behind Wal-Mart… just pick one and climb in…

But if anyone wishes to discuss all the possibilities of nature, with an open mind, then I’m certain there will be many willing participants…

I too have seen glowing red eyes… on three occasions… and while I had no knowledge of sasquatch at that time, I was very curious to discover the source of the illuminated eyes…

I’ve seen glowing red eyes remain stationary for almost an hour, approx. eight feet from the ground, in a spot where there were no trees at all.... And while I could not illuminate the source of the glowing eyes with my cheap flashlight, the eyes did not reflect back at me when I shined my light at them… in fact, as the ambient light was improved with my light, the eyes seemed to become less bright, but returned to their original brightness upon turning the flashlight off.

While I agree there is almost always some sort of ambient light available to those who have adapted to utilize it, the idea of a “Hubble Telescope” type of light gathering, reflecting and magnification system in a mammal’s eyes is every bit as much a reach as saying a primate’s eyes have to ability to be self-illuminating.

The fact is that we just do not know what or how an animals eyes can grow to a bright reddish color… but the fact remains the phenomena is very real, like it or not.

As scientists, the bigfoot researchers of today are quite well aware of the possibilities presented here… plus many more, I venture to guess…

Bioluminescence… or a very efficient form of light gathering… who knows? No body knows for certain… for now… but I do know the ones who are risking their own personal safety to find out… and for those people, I am grateful.

And for those who would ever suggest they further risk their lives for your own amusement… shame on you. You go first, how about that?

While I’m not certain what the cause, I do know it is very real… and for those of you that think it’s just not possible… I ask you to please keep an open mind as you read some rather interesting links regarding scientific research done on the subject…

Now I’ll sit back and see how many people don’t even bother to read these links, yet will come and profess how wrong RB is because he says bigfoot’s eyes glow in the dark… just like the big bad boogeyman’s…

But what about another game animal being the cause of the eye shine? Well, I guess… but I’ve never had an elk or deer come sneak into a place just about 15 feet from where people are sitting and talking in the dark… and make so little noise walking… unless he was wearing sneakers… and was very lazy…

Links for the open-mind, if interested:


http://www.herper.com/Bioluminescence.html

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0807623.html

“Different organisms produce different bioluminescent substances. Bioluminescent fish are common in ocean depths; the light probably aids in species recognition in the darkness. Other animals seem to use luminescence in courtship and mating and to divert predators or attract prey.”


“Red fluorescence from chlorophyll.”

http://golgi.harvard.edu/hastings/dino.html


“BIOLUMINESCENCE, namely the ability to emit light, has originated and evolved independently many times in many different organisms; the different systems are thus biochemically distinct and have many diverse functions.”

“CIRCADIAN (daily) CONTROL represents a very fundamental yet still very poorly understood feature of higher organisms. Jet lag is a symptom of the disruption of our circadian system. Indeed, most organisms--and even individual unicells and some bacteria--possess a temporal control mechanism over many biochemical and physiological processes.”

http://mcb.harvard.edu/hastings/Images/ressum.html


“A Japanese team at Osaka University produced the first glowing mammals - a litter of mice.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/gene_sa..._gallery2.shtml


gWIZ Luciferase Mammalian _Expression Vector


“The results described above led us to investigate the effects of PFT-á on firefly luciferase in vitro. Using protein extracts from human foreskin fibroblast (HFF) cells transiently transfected with PG13 luciferase reporter plasmid, we exogenously added different dilutions of PFT-á and analysed their activity in a luminometer (Figure 3A). …A more accurate analysis was not possible since our equipment only measured total and not the rate of light emission. It can therefore be concluded that PFT-á inhibits the production/emission of light and not the _expression of active luciferase.”

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2199/4/9

Hey RB!
I am not sure if my comments are the reason for the "wal mart box" remarks or the annoyance I sense from you post. I certainly hope not.
Personally, I have great respect for those who have come forward and described what they saw. Kudos to them! Nor does it seem to me to be disrespectful to them by trying to analyze the situation and attempt to come up with theories about what might be happening.
I wanted to explain the framework that I was using to ground my ideas about what is happening. Personally, I think it is necessary to start the process by stating what I think BF to be. Mammal, primate, etc. And then to look for scientifically plausible explanations.
So while I am aware of bioluminescence, gene research, ect. (Thanks for the links). I tried to start from what is known about primates, what is known about nocturnal vision in primates and extrapolate from there.
I don't think this approach is unfair or unnessarily restrictive, either. In fact I think it is the best chance we have at explaining what is happening. It may turn out to be a completely new physical adaptation, but I won't go there until I have tried to explore the known ones.
We can agree to disagree on the approach, the methodology, and the conclusions, if you like. That's fine by me. But please don't assume any other motivations. I value what Kathy, Montra, and Redwolf have shared. I value them. I am just enjoying the opportunity to think 'out loud' on this facinating subject. I certainly hope that I haven't offended anyone by my speculations.
Jan

Hi Jan!

Nope... I don't believe for a minute you're a box thinker...

That post was made for the sake of posterity...

Many years from now, school kids will continue to read my posts as homework assignments...

And they’ll still be wondering how one human can be so damn smart.

Jan… please understand… I owe it to the children.

Thanks Red. I really didn't think you were upset..but figured a more thorough explaination may be called for all the same.
Had another idea also.
One way I can see it being possible that the eyes are indeed "self" glowing, would be the incorporation of bioluminous bacteria into the eye lining, or, area around the iris. While there is no(that I know of) precedent for this in the mammal kingdome..I think is is much more likely then postulating that some internal mechanism for bioluminescens evolved(as in firefly).
I SWEAR that some place, I read of very rare occasions where some type of bacterial infection in humans caused minor bioluminesence of some areas of the of the body, or organs.
If that is the case..then while it would take some doing, I can see the possibility of some animal species getting "infected" at some point in the eye lining, and after that, developing a type of sybiotic relationship over time.
More ideas from the peanut gallery
Edit: Thought I would add this link discussing the emerging concern of bioluminescent bacteria as a human pathogen.
While in these two cases, the results to the person infected were not pleasant..it Does show that it is possible for bioluminescent bacterium to infect, and establish themselves, in a mammilian(indeed..primate) host.
I still think the owl idea is more likely..but it does give one pause to think!
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no2/02-0222.htm

A glow-in-the-dark fungus

Probably the coolest thing about Armillaria species really has nothing to do with pathology. Its mycelium glows in the dark! The mushrooms do not glow much, if at all, but if you open a piece of wood with advanced decay caused by Armillaria, and view it in the dark, you stand a good chance of seeing the luminescence. It helps to let your eyes adjust to the dark. The amount of light varies greatly from different pieces of decaying wood. It's not likely to blind you, but some pieces are quite bright. Other fungi glow, including in some cases the fruitbodies, but Armillaria is certainly the most common and widespread luminescent fungus.

It certainly is a wondrous thing to see in the night, bringing a strange mix of delight and spookiness. So it is easy to imagine strange and magical things behind it. Glowing wood has indeed found its way into folklore and mythology. It has been termed "fairy fire" but is more commonly called "foxfire" in modern times (is that derived from "faux," or false, fire?). Aristotle called it a "cold fire". It made a brief appearance to lend an eerie air of dread to a scene in the oldest surviving piece of English literature, Beowulf (see below).

Beowulf and Armillaria
[I]. . . it is not that far hence
in milemarks, that the mere [swamp] stands;
over it hangs frost-covered groves,
tree held fast by its roots overshadows the water;
there one may every night a horrible marvel see:
fire on the water; not even the wise of them lives,
of men's sons, that knows the bottom.
Though the heath-stepper harrassed by hounds,
the hart with strong horns, seeks the forest,
put to flight from far, first he will give up his life,
existence on the shore, before he will leap in
to hide his head; it is not a pleasant place!
translation © Benjamin Slade 2002

. . . Not far is it hence
in measure of miles that the mere expands,
and o'er it the frost-bound forest hanging,
sturdily rooted, shadows the wave.
By night is a wonder weird to see,
fire on the waters. So wise lived none
of the sons of men, to search those depths!
Nay, though the heath-rover, harried by dogs,
the horn-proud hart, this holt should seek,
long distance driven, his dear life first
on the brink he yields ere he brave the plunge
to hide his head: 'tis no happy place!
translation from The Harvard Classics, Volume 49 by Frances B. Grummere, presented on the web by Erik Max Francis

It is fun to speculate what selective advantage luminescence may confer. Some have suggested it may attract animals that serve the fungus in some way. Others have suggested some physiological role in metabolizing damaging waste products. Also, keep in mind that not every character has a 'purpose'. If it is selectively neutral, or a byproduct of some advantageous trait, it may persist in a population of fungi indefinitely.[/I]

But I yet to read one good explanation of why any creature (especially a primate, nocturnal or not) would need glowing eyes.

Let's review the function of the eye. It collects light and creates an image from that collected light. Having a light source in or near the eye would defeat the purpose of collecting external light. All the idle chatter about bioluminescence is nice but irrelevant. Heck, even the part about eels is irrelevant. Electrical signals run through the body, for a creature to amplify this is not illogical, heck, it's not even thinking outside the box.

I have this feeling that this conversation going along the lines of a , but with red glowing eyes... wait the blob does have red eyes!

Why, the better to see you with my dear.

Ooooooo, Jaylee.............. Creepy!!!!!

But, with this statement..you're ASSUMING that bigfoot is just like every other primate. Until we study a bigfoot up close, we can't accurately make a statement such as that.
Just my thoughts...and 2 pennies.

Uffda

I remember once in South Dakota being attacked by what sounded like an elephant heard at night with multiple sets of red eyes coming our way fast. We ran and scattered. It turned out to be a bunch of cows chasing the dog we were with away but it was pretty scarry for a bit there. The reflecting layer, the tapedum lucidum, is a thin membrane behind the retina which reflects light to give the light sensing cells in the retina, (especially rods) to get a second chance of detecting the light. Humans actually have an anti-reflecting membrane behind the retina so that light does not reflect. If we did not have this non reflecting membrane, there would be a slight blurring of our day vision. Bigfoot apparently are nocturnal and have the reflective, (not glowing, eyes). Did you ever notice devils have red eyes. I have wondered if this might have come from legends from our nocturnal hairy hominoid neighbors having red reflecting tapedum lucidum.

RB,

While debates pertaining to red glows and other aspects of alleged sasquatchian biology inevitably devolve into unsolveable impasses, I think I do have an answer for your dimming glow observation.

Turning on the flashlight produced a more powerful light source than that of the glow, causing your eyes to accommodate to that source. If it had been even brighter, chances are the soft glow would have (apparantly) vanished. It’s akin to barely being able to see the moon when it’s up during daylight hours.

That’ll be two cents.

My thoughts:

The transport of something glowing in the dark can have several explanations other than glowing eyes.

Small rodents moving fungus, wood or worms might be one of them.

Distance is very hard to judge at night, especially with point light sources with out a well lit frame of reference. A light source originating from another arm in our galaxy, showing through trees and reflecting off of night dew or spider webs can be shocking.

It seems to me that for the eyes to have the ability to glow in the dark, the liquid inside of them would have to be the mechanism. I think that would degrade the transparency thus reducing the ability to see properly.

The theory that this might be a communication device, or a lure, comes from the marine environment where bioluminescence is very common when compared to land based animal and plant life. I have heard Matt M speak of this before, in fact I have been told that he once built a hat that had fiber optics projected out the top to simulate the theory that these glowing things people are seeing actually are Sasquatch. I guess the intent was to attract them at night.

What other purpose would glowing eyes be for? I can't think of any.

What other animals have glowing eyes? I can't think of any. Usually the eyes are pretty important and need to be protected, not made into a target. A lot of times markings on other parts of the animal that look like eyes are produced to misdirect or distract would be attackers. I think there is even plants that mimic eyes.

What does the color red signify in all of this? I don't know. Evil. The devil. Red is not infrared. Red is one of the last colors one can see as it gets darker and darker. It is the shortest wavelength of the visible spectrum. ROY G BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). It is used to detect doppler effects in star movement. The opposite of red is cyan. Red is made from yellow and magenta.

What could be an alternate explanation? Cosmic rays striking the human eye (reported, tested and verified on the Apollo flights to the moon). Optical illusion. Insects. Plant life. Near-infrared illumination.

Is this related in any way to the theory of Sasquatch seeing into the infrared? First off, there is no natural infrared light at night. 99.9999% of all infrared light comes from the sun, and it ain't out at night. Some objects can absorb heat during the day and release it at night but that isn't infrared light. Snakes cannot see infrared. There may be a few insects that can see it but most insects seem to have developed more for the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. Most animals that are nocturnal over-develop smell and hearing over a more elaborate visual device.

What use or advantage would there be for a natural infrared system? None, without an illumination source to go along with it. Fog can be penetrated more. With a source and a detector a life form could take advantage of something that does not have the same ability.

What life form can detect infrared light? Quite a few mammals but that is only because of a tolerance band surrounding the visible spectrum, i.e. bleed over.

Giving the Sasquatch red glowing eyes at night or the ability to see into the infrared is akin to applying it supernatural powers.

I think that's a bit disingenuous - we can't just ignore certain aspects of a witeness report just because it doesn't fit our preconceptions.

I have read a considerable number of reports that mention glowing red eyes, some of them where the eyes were definately in a Bigfoot's head at the time ! How this happens is a separate issue from the fact that it does happen.

Now, consider this. I have read another anecdote of someone witnessing a red flash in a human's eyes (here on this forum). I have also personally experienced the 'seeing red' sensation, where the 'red mist' decends on your vision - now this could somehow be extra blood flow into the retina (although, why that should suddenly cause my vision to go red is beyond me - the light doesn't pass through any blood vessels as far as I know), but what if it is involuntary bio-luminescence ?

Such a flash or red light during a state of extreme anger could be some kind of warning display. I wonder if any research has ever been done on this ?

Human eyes reflect red in flash light ('red-eye'). The common explanation is that this is the reflection of light through a layer of blood at the back of the eye. What if it's something else, related to the glowing red eye phenomena though ?

One thing is certain - 'seeing red', 'the red mist' and other such phrases are common speech. Dangerous or fantastic animals are oftern (historically) described as having glowing red eyes. Why ?

Hey, don't know!!! Even that pig in the Amityville Horror had red glowing eyes, mentioned several times in the book. But maybe that's going into mothman territory?
I would like to mention the deer liver that BF supposedly eats. This liver I think would be rich in vitamin A, which would at least be a big aid to night vision. Also, the idea of nocturnal animals having larger eyes (to see better) might just expose more of their tapetum (or other internal structures) to an observer. A big enough eye may be efficient enough to "glow". I think a good diet & good physical condition might be important factors as well..."vitality".
What is this glow? I don't know. Consider the long time BF has probably been here, & the time it has had to adapt ever better to its night hunting routine. This includes eyesight. A super specialized night seeing eye may just have different physiology. And imagine, at its height, what it can see, that we could not.
There is also a BFRO report, I believe from Ohio, where a witness describes a BF doing the "searching" motions with its head, as discussed earlier. I will try to find it. nb: if the searching motions are done in daylight, it may just mean that the daytime vision is not as good, due to the emphasis on night abilities. My .02

Here is that account. The behavior is described in the follow up portion of the report.
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=6900