Yowie Attractants

[Shazzoir]

Hey team,

Whilst many people have come across a Yowie unintentionally, some folks made of sterner stuff actually go out there trying to find them, or so I've heard

TopEnder mentioned in a thread a while back about the use of infrasound, but the thread sort of petered out, and I was wondering if any more was done about testing this method.

Whilst pondering this, I wondered if any of the following could be possible methods of luring a Yowie to a spot where it could be observed...

1. Salt lick or mineral block as used for livestock and cattle. I've read Australian soils contain low levels of trace minerals necessary for animal and human health, the most well documented to be selenium. Apparently, it's most notable in areas with basaltic or granite substrates, particularly in humid, high rainfall areas. (source: http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/agric/acpa/pe ... lenium.htm). It's probably not hard to imagine that unless they live in a coastal area, that sources of salt too, might be highly sought after

This might mean that our Yowies living in these sorts of areas may be attracted to some kind of mineral block, of the type supplied to cattle and livestock (e.g. http://www.agriproducts.com.au/agri/bee ... block.html)

Having a 'feeding station' with salt/mineral blocks might just result in the block being carried away, but if there was some means of fixing it to a tree or something, they might come to it regularly. They might also just push the darn tree down, and carry IT away too!

2. There was some talk in previous threads about the use of other attractants such as cooking bacon, fish, or the use of 'second hand' tampons (trying desperately not to lower the tone, here!). Has anyone thought about 'marking their territory' with urine on a regular basis in the areas they frequently search in? I'm talking about copying the family dog here, like, a squirt here, a squirt there. Might require some pretty good internal muscle workouts, but if PC exercises are good for the girls, there might also be benefits for you boys!

3. Tape recordings of children playing, or a baby crying. If Yowies and LHM are as curious as they seem to be about littlies playing, could this be used to draw them a bit closer? I read the story about the Yowies (I think) being fascinated by the tiny TV some group left on during the night part of their campouts. The one night they didn't turn it on, sticks and things were tossed into the camp, so the crew turned it back on. Supposedly, the Yowies then sat back and watched SBS leaving the researchers in peace for the rest of the night! Maybe getting Yowies addicted to Australian TV isn't such a good idea after all.... (kidding!)

Has anyone tried any of these things? Were they successful in increasing the number of visits to an area, taking the 'will we or won't we see one tonight' out of the equation?

Or would this be like releasing state secrets? If so, no probs, don't respond, I'll not be offended.

Kind regards,
Shazz

[Jo Blose]

Shazzoir,

Cooking of meat has been a tried and tested winner, as has smoking the occassional cigarette, whistling a tune, and presenting a tray of fresh fruit particularly bananas. Also, don't forget the peanut butter!

I wouldn't bother with playing tape recordings as I'm certain their sensitive ears would pick up on the EMF (electro magnetic frequencies) not only distinguishing it from fresh sounds, but perhaps also being unpleasant to their ears and repelling them.

Other winners may include attending your chosen spot with an absence of soap, shampoo, and deodorant scents, as well as being in clothes not fresh out of the washing machine and smelling fabulous!.... In other words, aim to smell neutral or slightly like a hobo.

Another sure fire attractant which has been unwittingly proven by teenagers making out in their cars by the bush, time and time again, is....... doing like they do on discovery channel...! ...or perhaps doing so just before visiting your hotspot and thereby giving off resultant pheremones and all manner of natural odours!

Of all these things, perhaps the greatest attractant (and skill) is the ability to not move or make a sound once in position...

Rest assured I haven't given away anything here, which hasn't been touched on at least sometime in the past 8 years on this site... Just a healthy recap...

[topender]

Thats what i love about this site...people reading each others minds, Shazz, i have checked out the infrasound angle through the science and psychology dept at work, apparently 18.5 hz sound can produce some interesting results, such as a study done by G Beemin 1994, which produced some interesting results when 18.5 was used on animals, result was that about 50% of species exposed to it froze on the spot it appeared to produce intense fear in the subjects, in humans it has produce intense nausea, confusion and fear .

i have also been checking out the pheremone idea, it seems to be a popular source of attractant, theres a Dr in the states that has produced a small disc inpregnated with Human and Ape female pheremone, i am trying to email him to find out the chances of purchasing some of the discs which are hung in trees, odour then carries on the breeze etc etc

I find it interesting that i have read account after account where bigfoots and yowies are attracted to teenage girls, one interview i did up here near darwin was a case where " something" was coming to a young teenage girls window at night something BIG and STINKY, short story...she left the NT a s a p and now refuses to discuss that period of time...SO, i think they can smell hormones / pheremones etc...and they LIKE IT ALOT ..randy buggers.

In the meantime i'll keep frying up the bacon

cheers all you Chrismassy folk

[Yowielover1]

Maybe Byteman's thread on "Any ladies up for a yowie hunt?" was purely to use them as an attractant.

I would rather fry the bacon than put any ladies through a scary yowie encounter any day.

[TWMcCallum]

I tried bunya cones with some success. The cones were hung from a tree in an old hay net, and left overnight. Next morning the net was checked and found empty, some thing had carried the cone off. I can't think of what else it could have been since the cones were hung out of reach of roos or pigs, and what could carry off a 6 kilo cone.

[Shazzoir]

That is good to know, TWMcC,

It's almost Bunya Pine Cone season now (Jan to Feb), so was this a very recent experiment?

I'd imagine it would take a very dextrous hand to remove a Bunya cone from a net, without leaving shreds of stuff everywhere, which you might expect if it were a known Cockatoo feeding area.

This goes back to my idea that if the Yowies in SEQld shared food sources with the aboriginal peoples of the area, that it might be fair to assume there could be a lot more sightings in Bunya groves over the next few months. According to what I've read, many aboriginal tribes converged on Bunya groves at 'harvest' time, to feast on the nuts, some travelling from hundreds of kilometers away. It's reasonable to expect Yowies to know when the nuts are ripe, and to perhaps do the same?

I read the last few years yields of Bunya nuts has been a bit poor, no doubt due to the drought, but this year might be better.

Anyone in a Bunya nut growing zone?

Kind regards,
Shazz

[stickyfingers]

...welcome to AYR and the forums TWMcCallum ... enjoy and participate as much as possible my friend... cheers... Stickyfingers.

[Yeti]

Fire is certainly one of the better attractants, not a bush fire but a small contained campfire (attended).
The smell of the cooking and the odour of the burning timber will draw them in, these animals will find you, you won't find them.
Maybe the animals are drawn to the fire because it has the ability to destroy there habitat and are curious as to what it is.

This is just a quick account of something that happened in one of my research areas regarding fire. I wasn't connected to this but it happened to a mate.
He and his brother were out in this area doing a bit of spot lighting a few years ago, they had planned to stop the night and had a fire going. They left the area to do a bit of driving around and on there return found that the fire had been totally destroyed, the timber had been pulled out and was spread out over the area. What ever had done it obviously didn't want the fire going.
They shone the spottie around and picked up a set of red eyes, they fired a gun shot in the air and watched these red eyes run away.
If this was a Yowie that had done this, the only reason for it to take this action would be to stop the fire spreading into its habitat.
This is exactly the same spot that I had seen a Yowie a couple of years before.

[TWMcCallum]

Hi All

The bunya cone experiment was carried out by me about a year ago. On the first evening we set the net up the cones totally disapeared, a thorough search of the surrounding forrest failed to turn up any trace of the cones. On subsequent repeats of the experiment I felt it was black cockatoos that raided the net as the cones were devouered on site and the chewed husks were scattered on the ground around the net. I compared these chewd husks to ones found under a bunya tree that I knew was being fed on by cockatoos and the way the husk was opened was almost identical. Once the cockatoos started to raid the net I abandoned the experiment as it was obviouse that the cockatoos were returning each evening for a feast on my bait.

[flashtimmy]

peanut paste is great when its used properly, i got one to come close to the camp site it at kilcoy, same with meat cut offs from the butchers, you know the bad meat that is soaled in blood and fat.

if you ask butchers they most likely will give it to you cause it costs them to get rid of it.

also toys, i know what your thinking. but this is for the young yowies, it works, my sister left a blinky bill koala stuffed toy up in the back corner of the kilcoy camp site, we told a person who was going to the site couple days later to just look out for it, he did it, was found on the steps of the cabin with the signs of chewing/sucking on the hair. so mummy yowie and daddy yowie werent happy with baby yowie and made him/her return it. LOL

[TWMcCallum]

Hi All

Another device that I have tried is one of those tiny music box mechanisims with a little crank handle. I mounted one in a tin box that easly fits in my pocket. During some of the excursions that I made to Springwood, I attempted to use it to attract some interest. The sound travells quite a distance in the cool night air and does not seem very threatening whilst being strange enough to create intrest. It has not worked up to date, but then again may be there were no yowies around either.