I've tried to find an answer to this on the internet without much success. Maybe an animal expert or someone could explain why this is....

Why do deer (and the occasional Bigfoot) jump out or cross right in front of a vehicle? I can understand they need or want to cross the highway, but most of the time (from my personal experiences), the deer will jump out directly in front of a car and theres not another car for miles. Why not wait another 1 second for the car to pass to jump across the highway? It would sure save on car repairs and personal injuries, plus the deer would live to see another day.
And, if we talk about Bigfoot sightings along highways, the same thing applies. Although no reports have come in from a Bigfoot roadkill, most of the sightings along roads occur on lonely stretches of highway, with no other vehicles around..just the vehicle in question with a Bigfoot jumping across in front of it. It's almost as if they (bigfoot) wants to be discovered. Surely they could wait another second or two to cross the road. Wait until the vehicle is safely past them, then take their time crossing the road.

Uffda

There are a few reports of a Bigfoot being hit as far as I know. I remember reading about one case of a truck hitting a Bigfoot in British Columbia. The driver didn't dare to stop until he was miles down the road where he spotted some damage to the hood. He was shaken up so carried on driving as far as possible from the area as he could. This was at night I believe.

I can never understand why a Bigfoot would want to cross 'just' before a motor vehicle' comes along. Especially at night. Headlights can be seen a long way away. Anybody who has been walking on lonely forest or mountain roads at night can vouch for that. On foot you can spot headlights from miles away, much better than you can in a car. While a Bigfoot isn't Einstein, it's obviously more intelligent than a deer or a bear and I would have though it would be intelligent enough to stay away from vehicle headlights, which can hardly 'surprise' it. I've never been 'surprised' by a car at night while walking along or crossing a road and I've been walking many times along lonely desolate roads at night. It's a strange conundrum to me.

Daylight road encounters should be more understandable but still suprising if one crosses.

It's probably a panic or flight reflex- for some reason many animals just seem to think "It must be safer on the OTHER side..."

-Sarge

I read somewhere that this may be a way for Bigfoot to try to reach out and comunicate in some way or just to get attention,don't know how getting hit by a truck is getting attention,but I read it somewhere.

Do you all remember the car insurance comercal where the two squirels run infront of a car in an attempt to wreck the car then give each other the high five when they succede? Well i think the same goes for deer or elk or the big guy. It is all a big game of chicken and a way to get some entertainment while board out strolling thru mother nature.

I have to tag along with Sgt Fang on this one, it seems to be a panic reaction, and they simply take off in whatever direction they are facing at the time. If they are facing the road, then they simply run in a straight line across the road. Two nights ago, while I was on my way to work, I came across a group of 6 deer standing in my driveway, about 1/2 way down. Each was pretty much facing a different direction, and when I came along the first thing they did was freeze. I, of course, came to a stop about 15 feet from them, and they all took off each in the direction they were facing. None of them took a moment to turn, or look around for a direction to go in, just ran straight ahead.

I see what you are saying when it comes to deer etc, but how can it be a panic reaction from a Bigfoot when it would be almost impossible for something obviously more intelligent than a deer to be surprised and suddenly panicked by a car, especially at night when you can see and hear a car coming from a long way away and surely know it's not a good thing to be near? How can a car with a motor running and blazing headlights at night surprise a Bigfoot? I still don't understand that. They obviously are able to stay out of the way of most humans on foot so a car should be a doddle. Weird!

Perhaps they are crossing the road all the time, and the drivers only see the stupid ones ?

A bit like Wimbledon High Street then!

Heh! That's entirely possible too! Humans do some pretty stupid stuff on their BEST days!

-Sarge

In the case of deer and squirrels and such, I wonder if they really have no idea how fast the car they're trying to beat is actually going. Sure, they must see cars all the time, but do they get that 60 MPH is a lot faster than they are? I dunno. Just a thought.

How that relates to bigfoot, I have no idea. They don't seem to get hit as often, so maybe they're better at figuring that out...

I get the mental picture of three young bigfoot standing beside a dark road. They are waiting for the chance to play their favorite game. They see the headlights coming down the road....closer...closer. They start the count...ready....set....GO! The first two make it safely across but the third and slowest of the three gets hit on the leg by the bumper of the car.

"You big dummy", his partners laugh. "I told you to only take 2 steps to cross the road. That third one will get you every time. OK, that was fun, now let's go see if we can harrass that lady down the road with the goats in the pen. Do you guys remember that really bad scream dad taught us? Woohoo this outta be a blast!"

I agree with Sarge and Moregon.. I think it's panic-related. At the same time, many Sasquatch reports state the animal casually crossed the road and didn't appear to acknowledge the vehicle.

As for deer, they seem to panic. I've had them jump out in front of me as I madly hit the breaks, the deer does a complete turn-around and leaps back in front of me (changed its mind about crossing to "the other side" I guess )

I've also had a small herd of deer (elk have done this too), where I used to live in Utah, that would stand in the road and I'd have to physically get out of my truck to "shoo" them out of the way. They didn't even move when I honked my horn at them.

I've never hit one and would feel absolutely horrible if I did.

I agree. Deer for the most part, aren't the smartest animals in the world. But, a Bigfoot, has to be a lot smarter than they are. And, as MountainLady has said, most of the stories of Bigfoot crossing the road are a casual stride. No hurry, so I don't think the panic thing really applies to them. Maybe they don't recognize vehicles as a threat?

Of course, at night, the deer are blinded by the light, and have no Idea that several tons of steel are hurling down the road on a collision course with them. I would guess they are thinking "WHAT THE HELL??!!". In daylight, I guess they are just so confused by what they see, thay do not know what to think or do. The deer muct be in some sort of panic mode, as several of you have already stated. I can tell you that I have never hit a deer, but came close a lot of times. If at night, my response is to turn out my headlights, and thay have always gotten out of the way immediately. Happens a lot more at night anyway. Never came all that close to hitting one myself during full daylight.
BSF

Edit: The thought of BF crossing in front of a car reminds me of a video I saw on TV some time back about a Rhino jogging along, looking very athletic. A lion started approaching, and the rhino just stopped. and looked over like "Huh, you want some of this?" Guess when you are the biggest and baddest, and know it, you might tend to react that way. Just a thought, for what it's worth.

Interesting deer attack article stag attack from the UK. Not sure it is worth it's own thread, but thought some of you might to look at it.
BSF

I think you are on to a major part of the answer there. Anything large going 60mph at them (especially with blinding lights) is outside their experience and therefore difficult to judge.

From a human perspective, if you are used to hitting slow pitch softball and then try to hit fast pitch hardball, it takes some adjustment. Unfortunately, if you "strike out" crossing the road in front of a 4000 lb vehicle going 60 mph you probably won't get to try it again to get it right.

Might be because of the doppler effect, when the car is approaching at a good clip the soundwaves will get scrunched and the frequency/pitch start to increase. Maybe the continued increase sounds aggressive and forces them into action at the last second or two.

Yes, when you see what one does to a $30,000 vehicle, it does make you feel horrible...

Interesting link thanks BSF. I never heard that on any news here. Imagine getting killed by your own stag!

I was driving the Extra-Terrestrial Highway across south-central Nevada, to the north of Area 51, several years back... a very straight road through some desolate land. It's all free-range cattle country - no fences along the road.

As I am coming down the hill into a wide valley I can see two cows walking toward the road from the right. It appeared to me they stopped and waited for me to pass before crossing the road behind me. Thery reached the side of the road before i passed them.

I've never thought cows to be dumb after that.

I have done my share if deer dodginng by driving 40 miles to work on rural roads. I have been doing this for 9 years now, I leave the house at 2245 hrs and arrive at work at 2345. I usually travel between 55mph and 70mph with the cruise control set at 70. I usually keep my eyes focused as far ahead as possible. I have missed dozens of deer by luck, I've never hit one. When I do see a deer cross the road, I look for a second or third deer behind and I hit the brakes if I see any shadows moving. Last year I saw the car brake about two hundred yards in front of me I saw him swerve to miss a deer, I hit my brakes too and when I got to the spot where the deer were, I screeched to a stop, there were four moore deer in front of me. They were so close that I could not see where their feet met the pavement. They just stood there for a second or so not knowing which way to go. They finally crossed the road in the same direction that the first deer had gone. I sat there for some time rather shaken from the experience. I have a theory that deer see two lights approaching them and interpret them as two seperate objects. They run between them thinking that this will cause confusion from the two objects approaching and that they might escape. It may be a instinctual reaction. I havn't hit one yet, even when on two occasions when deer have run onto a wet pavement and slipped and lost their balance, I didn't have time to react and hit the brakes. They didn't miss a stride, they roled and regained their balance and continued across the road. I play roulette on foggy nights when I drive in thick fog at 60 or 70mph with as little as fo\fty foot of visability. I have a rather unusual habit of counting road killed deer. I start my count every November 1st and end on October 31 the following year. I started doing this when I read that the DNR keeps track of road kills to estimate the heard size in a given area. I plan my hunting in or near areas that I see the highest rates of kills. In 1999 I counted 48 deer on my way to and from work. In 2000, I counted 36, in 2001 I counted 48, 2002 I counted 24, in 2003 I counted 32 and this years count is up to 34 so far with a week or so to go. It is interesting that in 2002 my county opened up its first doe season and the count of road kill dropped that year. There are a lot of road killed deer in WV I don't see because, we have a state law passed a few years back that basically states, if you hit a deer you get to keep it. My son got his drivers license a three years back and the very first night out driving by himself he came home and said "Dad I hit a deer, but it only dented the hood." I went out with a flashlight and took a look, it did dent the hood superficially, but he failed to look at the passenger side, it took out the passenger door and the front fender also and the tire was torn up from rubbing the fender. The next thing I asked him was, "What did you do with the deer?" He said I didn't stop. We got into my car took a knife and a flashlight and went back to the scene of the accident. I thought we might have some deer meat to minimise my loses. Ither was blood on the road but no deer, someone got there before me. The next morning I found the deer's tail sticking in the crome of the smashed door. I still have the tail as a reminder, it is on the bookshelf about three feet from me now.

Not Area 51 cows anyway.

Probably the result of secret government experiments. Wonder how they taste...

Probably like chicken.