Has anyone put together, or considered putting together, a really detailed database of prevailing conditions and biome information for sightings?
By that, I mean the little things, as in the exact type of trees or plantlife prevailing where a given sighting took place, or soil types(indicating a need or preference for some mineral or another), or local crop fields nearby, or soil moisture, or weather conditions. The list could go on. You know, the real small details.
Just wondering, as such detailed information seems missing from nearly all the reports I see.
Example is the recent sighting in my area. The BFRO sight has nothing really usefull to follow up on, beyond the simple story of the sighting. Even if they don't give the location, it would be nice to see a description as follows:
"The sighing took place on the west periphery of a riverine lowland.
Immediate flora included White Cedar, Tammarack, black Spruce, and Red Maple, as well as typical area wetland forbs. Wild rose and blackberry bramble seemed to dominate the immediate area of the sighting.
Soil make up was standard riverine lowland soil consiting of a silt-humus-clay mixture(essentialy, black muck).
The animals crossed a gravel road, from east to west, located approximatley 2.6 miles from the river, crossing out of the low riverine swamp and entering a dryer oak forest.
Sighting took place at 12:45 pm(approximate). Weather was dry bul cool(60° or so), and overcast with low clouds."
Local human population density was moderate, with the nearest home(a farm) being located about 1/2 mile west of the sighting location.
General forest cover in the area was about 60 percent in the immediate(within 1 mile) area, dropping off considerably as one got further away from the riverbottom."

That type of report background information could be gotten relatively easily by an on-site investigation(and I am referencing this post only to such on site investigations), and if enough such reports were compiled, I suspect some common denominators would emerge that could help other researchers narrow their search peramaters.
Prefered food sources, prefered bedding cover, prefered forest types, all would, I think, eventualy become known.
Just a thought to those here who are in the field.
Should I ever get the chance to do some on-site investigation, this type of detail is what I would go for.
After all, you never know what may turn out to be important, maybe turn out to be "the" fact or information that blows the investigation wide open.

Nightwing
Excellent considerations !!!! I would rather prefer that info too, ... BUT ... it does make for rather boring reading to John Q Public.

you can find the predominat soil types at the US geological survey site
http://www.usgs.gov/

also, the predominant vegetation
http://climchange.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/green1.html

********
I found this excerpt while browsing the USGS site:

*Hydric Soil Definition (1994) - A soil that formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part.

Hydrogen Sulfide Odor - An odor similar to rotten eggs.*

Hmmm i wonder how this relates to reports of a rotton egg smell on our hairy friends?

Nightwing, I have thought the same things you mentioned. I have a check list that includes all that stuff. I am still new at investigations into reports of others and have only so far followed up on 2 reports personally and am now working on a meeting for the third, but I do intend to keep references in regards to the details you mentioned. Maybe I will try and put something together to share with you all soon on my measley 3 reports. If not much to go on with those then, I do intend to continue recording this type of information as time goes by and hopefully I will be adding new investigations to it which can be shared in the future.

Nightwing, it would be nice to have that information available. One thing that can come in handy too if you're looking in a particular locale are Soil Survey books. These are produced by the US Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service and are an excellent source of information on a county level. I picked one up from our local agricultural extension office, free of charge and one of the nicest things about it is that it contains aerial photographs of the entire county! The resolution is quite good also. With these books, you can determine the soil type in a very specific area and then get a complete rundown on the types of vegetation that are predominant within that stratum. If you've got an ag extension office nearby, I'd suggest stopping in and seeing if they have any available for your county.

The rotten egg smell often associated with our furry friends is interesting, and having found myself smelling of rank mud on more than one occasion, I think you may be onto something there! Could it be a food source they crave lives there, or maybe good cover, or possibly even that they use the strong smell purposfully, to cover their own scent?
That is exactly the kind of inquiry that having the full details may initiate, and the reason I think the "big" groups are really missing the ball in overall investigations.
The investigating they do seems to consist primarily of visiting or calling the witness and getting a rehash(albiet generaly more detailed) of the sighting. Sometimes, a bit of additional detail as to the area is included, but not much. Although the sighting details are obviously very important, I thing they are really only getting half of the important information available.
If we are going to solve the mystery, then we need to take investigations to the next level.
Look at what zoologists do when studying a new or rare species. The physical description is just the start. They take apart every aspect of not only the animal itself, but where it lives, how it lives, what it eats, ect.
I think that BF investigators need to do the same, and put as much emphasis on the surrounding area and environment, as on the creature itself.
That you guys are already thinking of and doing this, proves once again just how "ahead of the curve" the folks on this board seem to be!

Arky, I cannot wait to see the results you mention. Just think of the database that could be compiled if everyone took your lead, and included all the details in their reports.

I thought this thread belonged in IR&DA (Hooray! A thread for IR&DA!!), but I noticed Nightwing wasn't a member of the Researchers group and therefore couldn't respond to his own excellent thread. Therefore, by the powers invested in me by the State of Confusion, I hereby make NW a researcher. Badabing, badaboom. [Flash of light, purple smoke puff]

Nightwing - Yes
By the way, awesome cross section of potential habitat aspects.
Most wildlife studies do include vegetational, slope, soil moisture content, soil type, all of which base out from cover and food source potential. Usually there are overlays for different areas of the country and it already sounds like you been there done that Great imput.

Nightwing.... in a way, its like all the reports are still unfinished portions of the event and location. If they were followed up or coordinated with someone who could get to that locale, then that information might be more available. Neat stuff.

Just thought I would bring this to the top, as "investigation season" is upon us!
I took a few hours today to drive the general location of the Michigan sightings in Ottawa Co., looking for "likely habitat". Nothing really jumped out, lots of small woodlots and stream bottoms, but no larger blocks of cover seem available. If the sightings were legit(and no compelling reason not to belive they were), then it seems likely this was an example of transients. This, however, is pure guesswork, as there was no detailed information given in the original report that would allow me to look at similar area(no area description). So, I used "common sense" and looked for thick cover, possible travel routs, and so on.
The lack of any detailed information in the original reports I referenced is, I believe, a critical error, in that there was no way for me to drill down to investigate similar terrain, as no description of terrain or flora was given.
I still hope that more detailed information starts to become forthcoming in future sighting reports. Like I said when I started this thread oh so long ago, the derth of catagorized information in most reports is, I believe, holding back general research to a large extent. That info is there, right in front of on-site investigators, it just needs to be compiled and studied.

I got into this discussion a little late, but never mind.

As an Investigator (of sorts), the one thing that frustrates me about all the sightings (and I mean ALL), is that there simply isn't enough detail.

When I go into a crime scene, everything is noted (within reason) - all computer equipment is seized, post-it notes, telephone numbers, the names of the cats and dogs (they are more often than not used as passwords).

When a sasquatch is sighted, there should be soil samples taken, foliage samples, rolls and rolls of film, temperature, altitude, date and time, moon phase, nearest water source etc.

I use an investigative tool called i2, which allows me to make connections between suspects, and start to put together the 'big picture' - with enough information collected from enough sources, sooner or later, a pattern emerges. In my case, it is usually a family of friends connection, but in the case of sasquatch, it could just as easily be a particular fruit or berry.

Who knows what the sasquatch connection will be, which is why I feel that there can never be too much information.

Great post!

Excellent post Nightwing!

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Paul1968uk wrote:

All super ideas. I am an amateur botonist and especially interested in native plants. I haven't really considered soil samples though, soil samples aren't hard to get and test kits are available at many gardening stores for a variety of minerals and soil types.

Nearest water source is another great idea, not only listing the name of water source, but also if that water source contains fish? What type?


Paul also mentioned i2 SW for his investigations, does anyone know of a similiar software for nature studies? Someone has to have thought this up by now. it would be a lot of fun to enter your sas report data into a program and see if a pattern emerges!

Redwolf

I thought I would add something here. If any of you in the NW are looking for an excellent field guide to plants, I highly recommend Pojar and Mackinnon's "Plants Of The Pacific Northwest Coast". It includes Washington, Oregon, BC and Alaska. It's clearly written and easy to understand..pretty darn interesting too.

BTW..who wants to start up this new database?

Redwolf

Nightwing,
If you can give me an addy for a topo map for the general area that you are at I would like to try an experiment. If you can get me a good topo map I will try to find an area that might show some promise based on a theory of mine. I would like to see if it works in an area totally unrelated to where I'm at. If anyone else would like to do the same, please let me know. I'm going to be a bit selfish and not reveal this idea of mine so please don't ask. Thanks in advance. However I would like to try it out. If it works then you have a hot spot to concentrate your research in. goldie

Thanks Goldie. I think the easiest way would be to have you use one of the online map websites such as terraserver. The area(s) I am interested in at the moment are Allegan co. MI., Newaygo Co., Oscoda Co, Wexford Co., Lake Co, and Manistee Co.(I know, odd spread of areas there).
I will, however, try to find the maps and post the links to them here.

Hi Nightwing,
Ok I will play around with this and see what I come up with. I may not be able to see anything in these areas that will point a site out but I will try. goldie