Before I started to frequent this board it seems I had heard very little about Bigfoot and his "Wood Knocking" ability. If you do a search on "Google" for "wood knocking Bigfoot" you receive 764 hits which is a very small return for a subject on a search engine of this size.

First the data:

Several years ago while trapsing around further up the mountain behind my house, I heard some possible wood knocking, at least as best I can tell by the descriptions of it that I've read. At first I thought maybe it was one of several species of woodpeckers that I've seen on the property. After a while I thought it was strange that I was only hearing series of single, double and triple knocks and no familiar staccatos of continuous knocking for several seconds that woodpeckers usually make. Out of curiosity, I picked up a stick and started to tap it against a fallen tree that I was near using series of single, double and triple knocks in no particular order. For several minutes it seemed that whatever was making these sounds further up the peak to the north would answer my knocking with it's own series of knockings. I figured then it wasn't a woodpecker, but, due to the time of year, rut season for deer, I thought maybe it was a Buck using his antlers against a small tree or some branches. After a few more exchanges of knocks, I stopped with the thought if it was a buck, he may be viewing this a challenge. Since I was unarmed and there wasn't any good place to hide out of the reach of pointy antlers in this location, the last thing I needed was a big old buck full raging hormones charging down the hill at me.

Now the questions:

Are there any actual recordings of supposed wood knockings online that I can compare to what I heard?

Has anyone ever witnessed a bigfoot in the process of wood knocking, or is this an assumption of what's happening due to it occuring in proximity to a sighting?

Good question.

Anybody out there have an answer?

Funny thing......i was just about to post the same question.......i've been around the bigfoot question for a long time and never heard anything about wood-knocking until about a year ago....i collected sighting snd track reports from somewhere near 200 people and had my own sighttings and ZIP tree knocking...... no it's almost mandatory....."I heard this tree-knocking, saw some tree limbs that were broken......there had to be a bigfoot there.......


How many sighting reports have tree knocking associated with them?

As a birdwatcher I will tell you that woodpeckers will make single, double, triple or whatever number of knocks. It's also possible that you only heard the loudest knocks and not all of them. Among other things, they do use the knock to communicate their presence to each other.

That it seemed to respond to your knocking could have been that it indeed was reacting to you or it was coincidental. It's easy to fall into confirmatory bias with the interpretation that it was trying to communicate with you. You knock, it knocks, you knock, it knocks...sounds like it's talking to you right? You can't know that though. It could be completely oblivious (or not caring) to your knockings, and its own knockings simply fall in between yours. One might even think that any knockings that came after their own were intended to communicate to them.

If Bigfoots do use wood-knocking what would its purpose be, and how would it function in a forest filled with knocking woodpeckers?

BEH,

Do you know of any audio samples of woodpecker "knocking" for comparison purposes?

Maybe some of us need to try to duplicate the knocking sounds, share audio samples, and see if anybody comes close to what people claim as BF related knocking.

Document what method was used to create which sample and the conditions - distance, vegetation, species and condition of tree hit, baseball bat, limb, nerf bat, weather, etc - then use as a sample base to compare sounds. It may not prove or disprove bigfoot, but it may eliminate categories of sounds and sources or explain some otherwise unknown causes.

If we don't know what noises a bigfoot would make maybe we can create a catalogue of known sound sources. Everything that goes bump in the night can't be bigfoot.

I agree Baboon_Extra_Head regarding the woodpeckers. The point I'm trying to make is that just because someone hears knocking sounds in the woods, it could come from several totally common sources, why is it being assumed, if nobody has ever witnessed it, that Bigfoot is the source. What evidence does anyone have that Bigfoot may even use wood knocking as a means to communicate or anything else. Is there evidence that maybe apes use wood knocking in this way?

Some people see a light in the sky and automatically it's a UFO. Or hear a sound in a darkened hallway and automatically it's a ghost. Since I did not see the source of the knocking I can't say what it was. The only thing I can do is evaluate evidence from all sources of what it may have been. IF someone has a recording that sounds like what I heard, and if someone can specifically say they saw a bigfoot making that sound, then I may want to consider that as a possibility. If it is a possibility than maybe I'd want to concentrate a bit more in that area in my searches for further evidence.

My question is simple

Does your area or state have Nocturnal Woodpeckers?



Robert

OH/PA Bigfoot Researchers Sound Page

I came across this page with a lot of interesting sounds on it from a OH/PA Bigfoot Research Group. One of the sounds they have is of gunfire from .7 miles away. Due to the location of the shooter and the listener's positions, the surrounding foliage and geography it sounds a lot like wood on wood. They also have sounds they thing may have been mistaken for bigfoot howls etc. Pay special attention to the sound under "Couldn't be a Coyote or Dog could it?" that's labled raspy coyote. This sounds a LOT like some of the sounds I've heard played on the Coast-to-Coast show attributed to bigfoot.

This only furthers the case that a number of reported sounds may have common origins and not a lot of emphasis should be put on them as evidence at this time. IF and WHEN someone can actually provide a recording of a sound they actually saw a bigfoot create, either by vocalization, or physically manipulating objects then we can begin to rely on sounds as evidence of their presence in specific areas. Until then I will simply treat sound recordings as a curiosity and not as proof or evidence.

Or for that matter nocturnal ones that shake trees when they hit them.

We have a slew of wood peckers around here, and am very familiar with the sounds they make. Different peck sounds depending on what their working on, lol, telephone poles, barn, trees, even one time on the eave of my mobile home. But I have also heard the unexplained wood knocks on several occasions, the sounds are definately different from the woodpecker sounds, also the knocks in question were heard usually from 11pm at night until roughly 4am. What we have heard were not just one knock but in episodes of three and four knocks. I do have a recording of these knocks (the night they were recorded, we did "NOT" hear them in person but the recorder that was set up picked up the sounds) but the knocks are similar to what we have heard. After the recording is cleaned up, I'll make the knocking episodes available for comparisons.

The only source I can come up with with regard to documented wood knocking being associated to sasquatch are the Sierra Sounds CDs, recorded around 1974. The specific volume I'm thinking of is Vol. 2. There are recordings on that disc taken by Ron Morehead and in several instances the creatures are producing rhythmic wood rapping sounds.

Of course this assumes that the sounds on those recordings are genuine and are indeed sasquatches. I know there is an ongoing debate over that issue, but what's new?

I seem to recall, also, reading of this behavior in Raincoast Sasquatch by Alley, but I'd have to go through it again and see if I can locate the accounts (unless my memory is faulty )


The wood knocking on the Sierra Sounds CD is very clear and Ron states that it was common to hear this as a first response to their entering the area during those two or three years when encounters persisted.

I was always of the impression this was an attempt by the squatch to help convince you to "find the door"

Middle of night, extremely loud and close wood knocking is a fact.
I have no idea what does it.....but, I know that it happens.

I heard wood-on-wood pounding a couple times recently. Something did it.

Unless it was nothing but b/s in some guy's backyard...

I know you all tied to duplicate the knocking sound you heard on your trip but did you get any recordings?

No, but there almost certainly would be woodpecker recordings on the Internet.

The largest North American woodpecker is the Pileated. They are crow-sized and make a ridiculously loud knocking that you would swear is a human hitting a tree with a bat or something.

Woodpeckers would not be knocking at night, but might right up to about sundown.

The only meaningful confirmation of a BF knocking would be a video of one actually doing the act w/sound (which would be a simultaneous confirmation of BF's existence and his sound-making). Otherwise, accounts of knocking cannot escape the possibility of mistaken source, exaggeration of the account or outright fabrication of the incident (hoax). Simple recordings of knockings in the wild mean nothing as real evidence. It would be one of the easiest hoaxes to pull off besides verbal or written accounts where the is no given physical evidence whatsoever. I cannot imagine anyone listening to a knock recording and saying, "That's not a person hitting a tree with a log, that is a BF hitting a tree with a log." Wait...yes I can imagine that

^^^ Agreed.

While it may be an established fact that something is making loud knocking noises in the woods at night, it is not an established fact that it is Bigfoot making loud knocking noises in the woods at night no matter how likely a suspect we might want it to be.

What is making those noises is a puzzle in and of itself. Maybe there is an undiscovered species of nocturnal woodpecker waiting to be named Baboonus Extra Headi out there!

Anyway, cataloging known knock sound noises, while a pain in the ass, might eliminate some suspects.

I wonder if Gorilla's are Chimpanzee's do any thing similar to knocking. Maybe Bigfoot is pretending to play the drums.

Nope, my fault.

I'd shut the recorder off after we weren't getting any response to the call-blasting. Live and learn, right? I can tell you that it was EXACTLY the sound, as loud if not louder, then the guys were making with their wood-knocking right there at the fire where we were sitting. That's as descriptive as we can get, because that was it exactly.

I would also add that Stacy, Rabid and I all agree totaly that we do NOT know what did this...we are not for a moment claiming it is a unequivicably sasquatch.
We have eliminated a number of the "usual suspects" in our minds...but in the end, there is simply no way to ID something that is not seen, and leaves no physical evidence other than a possible impact point on a nearby tree.
It was, however, a "you have to be there" moment to appreciate the nearness and magnitude of the knock, if ever there was one!
I am not trying to speak for the others who were present, but I do belive that they would agree.

You didn't happen to record the duplication effort did you?

No.... didn't think of it, but I'm not sure what the point of that would be...

edit for idiocy!
posted in wrong thread

Q,...interesing idea, but like Stacy, not sure what it would accomplish.
I don't thing that the volume or "nearness" would translate well to a tape...and thus, it would not really show what we experienced.
However..may be something to think about.

Two points:

1. Those of us who have never heard the sounds would have a much better idea of what you're trying to describe - particularly nice in this case since the original sound was fresh on your mind. I suspect it sounded nothing at all like a woodpecker!

2. It would establish at least one known source of a sound that could duplicate what you heard. If you know that an adult human male can duplicate the sound "exactly" by hitting a large tree with a large limb as hard as he can, then when you are searching for corroborating evidence of BF as the source of the sound you also need to make sure you are not inadvertantly overlooking evidence of an alternative explaination. In other words we need to also keep an eye peeled for evidence of adult human males with big sticks in the area. (I said STICKS guys, sticks.) After all, human males of all ages have been known to do some pretty silly things for no apparent good reason. .

[edited for clarity]

Good point, both.
You are quite right..it was not a woodpecker!
and Second...it certainly is "possible" it was a human..but given the circumstances, as unlikely as the alternative, we feel. The closeness of the event, the extreme difficulty of getting that close without alerting us, and the location and timing of the event, would seem to "almost" rule out the human factor.
However your point is a good one...that the possibility of human interference needs to be considered at all times.

Just to clarify here. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not even trying to imply that a human agency was involved in your paarticular case. Based on your desciption of the circumstances in the thread about your expedition it seemed unlikely that a human agent was involved. I can however understand how naive or less meticulous individuals could walk all over and ignore evidence of an alternative source of the sound because they were focused only on looking for evidence of Bigfoot.

No problem Q, didn't think you were implying that..but, even so, the possibility cannot be discounted unless we had seen the big guy him(or her)self.
I still cannot belive I didn't put up the cameras that first night.......

Could've been your knees hittin' against each other...

Woodknocking seems like a logical way to show your fellow bigfoot that you are one bad mfer. The number of reports is also interesting and seems to confirm it as a likely behavior. The problem is that there are just too many things which could be making the sounds including people, especially people with axes, or trees moving in the wind. If you had a perfect recording of bigfoot knocking wood on wood, that is all it would prove, that the sound seemed to be wood on wood. I am no expert, but I believe there are ways to recover fingerprints from wood so if you could find the actual knocker, there might be some real compelling evidence there in my opinion.

Nightwing by admitting you don't know what actually created the sounds you heard, adds credibility to your report, and accents your honesty and integrity.

ouachita brings up a good point, that what we really need is a recording of some alleged "Wood Knocking" so that members of this board as a whole can evaluate it's merit. Once all possible natural sources are ruled out, we can use the sample as a standard to judge the merit of other submitted "wood knocking" samples, and as a tool in questioning possible witnesses of an encounter. At the moment we only have "it sounds like wood hitting wood" to go on, with no correlating descriptions of things like cadence and patterns. Things like this must exist, if in fact it's being used as a method of communication.

Before we can judge the credibility of numerous reports where "wood knocking" is the only evidence submitted, we have to first of all be able to define "wood knocking", and secondly establish a strong relationship between "wood knocking" and the presence of a bigfoot simultaneously.

I often wonder how many people realize how powerful of a presence this board can be in the bigfoot research field, with such a large member base and diversity in personal knowlege and experiences.

I also have read many reports considering wood-knocking and rock-clacking which is why, for about a year now and twenty times out in the middle of nowhere,
I always try it.

You may have heard, through the tumult, that I said I had what I consider to be a shocking success recently.

I always try to find, or sometimes cut, a sizeable log. The goal is to mimic what a bigfoot may be doing. I figure this large strong creature isn't using a small stick.
I use a log about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long and about 4 inches in diameter. It's all I can handle and generally not for long. Make sure it's good, solid wood with little or no bark on it, or be sure to hit with a portion that is bark-free if you can. Bark or soft, decaying wood tends to muffle the sound a good bit.
Find a tree, if possible, firmly anchored in rock. Find a portion of the tree with little or no bark to strike with the log. You'd be amazed at how loud and resonant this can be.
I generally strike five or six times at about one second intervals which is a comfortable swinging pace anyway. Usually, I will then wait about 7 to 10 seconds, and do it again. By this point, I'm tired and my hands, wrists, and arms hurt a little anyway.

I also always try rock-clacking with as big as rocks as can be handled. Sometimes it's two rocks, one in each hand. Other times, I use a big rock in both hands and hit a rock on the ground.
The sounds are loud and sharp and carry far.
I don't doubt that this is a probable form of remarkably effective communication over significant distances.

Good post!! I'm actually thinking of trying this when I'm out in the field next. Thanks for th ideas.

Chimps drum the butress roots of tropical trees with their hands and their feet. Chimps and Gorillas beat their chests - which is surprisingly wooden sounding.

However, I think the key question I've never really heard answered is the cadence of the beats. Surely, woodpeckers will beat much faster than the alleged sasquatch beats ? And I would have thought that the cadence of woodpecker knocks is pretty much consistent, and possibly fixed across each species.

The wood knocking on the sierra sounds CDs is not a woodpecker ! It's too slow (about 3 beats in a second), and extremely loud, and has the wrong quality to it - there's a real CRACK! to the sound. Unless there's a nocturnal 8' tall woodpecker that we don't know about ?!

Just like many of you, "wood-knocking" is a recently learned of occurance as well. Only 6 months ago did I come across a BFRO report that mentioned it, as "Bigfoot drums." The report location was somewhere in Oregon. From what I remember the witness had a stump nearby and would occasionally beat the stump with a large wooden hammer made of a sturdy branch, and a piece of a small log. Pretty much a Pioneer-style mallet.

This is one of the occurrances that further causes me to reconsider a location in the Sierras I had once scouted for scat or other sign, as during one of the three nights I was camping there, I woke up at roughly 2 in the morning to urinate, and while urinating, I heard "WOK! WOK! WOK!" and then a half a minute later, a distant "BAK! BAK! BAK!" I dismissed them, at the time, as some odd animal noise.