Yowiehunters Forum

No exciting news to report from Noojee last weekend, guys, although I picked up a nasty lurgy about a week before, so I didn't get out into the forest as much as I'd planned due to feeling a bit weak and wobbly. The open fire and the proximity to the fridge were strangely more attractive...

Chewy, I did a night walk to the trestle bridge, but my gang were so noisy and they insisted on torches all the way (they don't share the yowie interest, but they indulge me sometimes), but it was impossible to really hear or see anything. I did the walk up to the Toorongo Falls and Amphitheatre Falls, too. It's pretty much lush temperate rainforest there (at least I think that's the scientific term) and always seems to be dripping, muddy and wet, even in summer. Do you know where I mean? It's beautiful to walk in, but it's hard to imagine enjoying existing in that kind of damp, mushy humidity, but then I'm not covered in long, thick hair. Thank god.

I was thinking as I squelched through the forest about yowie habitat and if they preferred inhabiting wetter or drier areas in any given forest, or both. Access to a source of fresh water would be an obvious reason to inhabit an area, but would high humidity bother them or not at all. Would they bed down in a place as wet as that, or find a drier spot a few kilometres away and just go down for a drink?

Would they have different kinds of pelts depending on the climate (temp and level of humidity) just like other mammals?

Would the colour of their pelt be related to the colours of their surroundings? Like polar bears and grizzlies?

The climate and the type of forest growing along the Great Dividing Range varies so much from south to north. That would have to influence the development of certain characteristics, like thickness of pelt or perhaps even foot formation (three-toed or webbed), wouldn't it?.

And, not including the little hairy man for the moment, does that mean different species of yowies might exist or are they the same species, but different races, like we humans are?

Are these dumb questions? Didn't pay attention in my biology basics class at high school. Was too busy reading books about bigfoot and UFOs under the desk

Hey Jezebel

I was thinking of sending you a PM to ask how your weekend went now I don’t have to, sorry to hear about your cold.

Jezebel wrote: I did the walk up to the Toorongo Falls and Amphitheatre Falls, too. It's pretty much lush temperate rainforest there (at least I think that's the scientific term) and always seems to be dripping, muddy and wet, even in summer. Do you know where I mean?

Yeah I know where you mean, have done that walk myself.

Jezebel wrote: I was thinking as I squelched through the forest about yowie habitat and if they preferred inhabiting wetter or drier areas in any given forest, or both. Access to a source of fresh water would be an obvious reason to inhabit an area, but would high humidity bother them or not at all. Would they bed down in a place as wet as that, or find a drier spot a few kilometres away and just go down for a drink?

Well without really knowing where they would bed down for the night, I am sure they would be intelligent enough to know they are going to get wet in certain areas and be dry in others, so I’d say they just find a place that’s suits them.

Jezebel wrote: Would they have different kinds of pelts depending on the climate (temp and level of humidity) just like other mammals?

I’d say yes, but as far as I know we haven’t done a feasible study to say long hair is pinpointed to this area(s) and short hair there. I think it just varies.

Jezebel wrote: Would the colour of their pelt be related to the colours of their surroundings? Like polar bears and grizzlies?

I’d say yes again for most of the time. Although there are sometimes cases where this is not the rule and there colours vary from their surroundings. It may also depend on seasons coming out of winter for example there coat may be a bit white, you could also factor in age, hair turning grey, all kinds of different factors could be an influence on colour variation.

Jezebel wrote: The climate and the type of forest growing along the Great Dividing Range varies so much from south to north. That would have to influence the development of certain characteristics, like thickness of pelt or perhaps even foot formation (three-toed or webbed), wouldn't it?.

Yes I agree

Jezebel wrote: And, not including the little hairy man for the moment, does that mean different species of yowies might exist or are they the same species, but different races, like we humans are?

Defiantly different species

Jezebel wrote: Are these dumb questions?

No there not dumb, there good, you have asked some intelligent questions.

Of course once you get into the paranormal these opinions fly out the door.

It’s not easy being a Yowie investigator because to be honest we know so very little, we can only really go off of witness report’s and our own experience’s to collect and gather information.

Hopefully one day we will find the answers but I somehow doubt it will be in this lifetime.

relates to the age & grey thing..... siiiigh

Never be afraid to ask a Dumb question , but always be afraid of receiving a Dumb answer !





I AM NOT LOST I AM WHERE I WANT TO BE ............

Evening friends. Cheers for your replies.

NoPolys - I feel your sigh and am just starting to understand your pain. : )

Al - Thanks, good point. But sometimes I feel that no matter how much I've read and thought about and questioned and investigated, I realise that there's so much, much more to know. The great thing is that others know a lot more than I do, so I can ask my dumb or not-so-dumb questions and get definitely-not-dumb answers. Perfect. : )

Chewy - I'm planning a trip up to Thompson Dam one weekend in September when it's a little warmer and drier. I'll access it from Thomson Valley Rd. I haven't been that way before. Any tips?

And Chewy, thanks for your answers.

I wonder if their hair is like a golden retriever's double pelt, with a coarser outer layer and a softer inner layer? Or more uniform in texture but varying in coverage. Maybe they get a winter coat, and then molt in summer like a lot of mammals do. That would make sense with what we know of biology, but then again, as I have a feeling many things exist that don't make sense to us yet, it's hard to apply the scientific "facts" we know and expect them to be reliable when it comes to things we know so relatively little about, like the yowie.

I just had a thought which might be my silliest yet, but I wonder also if they are ticklish like we are? Have you ever read anywhere that other primates are ticklish? I wonder if their feet and rib area ticklish like ours...

The going grey with age theory also makes sense, as we are not the only mammals to turn grey in their later (but still youthful - wink, wink, NoPolys ) years.

Jezebel;

I've tickled chimps...... but never a yowie. I would imagine their feet are not too ticklish as they take a lot of what we would call abuse with a lifetime of bushing it barefoot.

I read an email report to one of the people who contributes to this site which stated that a submitted hair sample was somewhat consistant with guard hairs on other known animals, as I recall, it was different enough to be classed as unclassified (this is a good thing). The emails were posted on a North American site.

And sadly, while I can still walk a kilometer or two, I don't do it as quickly as I did 30 years ago !!! I think the grey hairs (the little that is left) slow me down !!!!

Good luck on your proposed trip Jezebel, and remember... Lots of Pics and a measuring stick !!!!

cheers

NoPolys

You've tickled a chimp?!! Please explain! Did the chimp giggle?

And good point about the feet - they'd be pretty leathery and tough, so probably not much soft, ticklish skin.

Just googled guard hair and bigfoot and came up with an excellent description of sasquatch hair from the BFRO website. Have pasted it below...


Hair

The sasquatch is covered with hair, not fur. Fur has guard hairs and an undercoat, while primate hair consists of one type of hair alone. The sasquatch, being a primate, does not molt its hair, but it is replaced one hair at a time, hence is not found in wooly batches.

Color of the hair ranges from black or dark (50%), through various shades of reddish-brown and gray to white. The body can have varicolored patches of hair. Older animals have increasingly grey hair, though color does not appear to change from childhood to adulthood. Hair is variously glossy clean and shiny, fluffy, or dirty, matted and unkempt ("angora goat dreadlocks"), probably a function of native curliness, age, or of recent immersion in water or lack thereof. Females have been reported to be cleaner than males.

Hair length ranges from 3" to around 2’ (15" longest measured in hand, longer observed in the wild). There is no taper or color banding other than graying with age. Long hair covers the head and, almost invariably, the ears; very short hair on the face; occasional reports of heavy hairiness in male faces ("mustache" and "beard") vs. no facial hair in females; long hair across the top of the shoulders (once described as "bouncing like a cape" ); long hair on the forearms ("like a spaniel"); different orientations of hair on back; breasts in females hair covered (contrary to a mistaken claim in the literature); long hair on buttocks, sometimes overhanging them; groin with enough hair to obscure genitalia; and long hair on the calves (like "bellbottom pants" in a sasquatch observed standing in snow). The hair stood visibly on end in situations where the sasquatch appeared frightened.

Under the microscope (Fig. 2), the average diameter of hair is 65 µm (40-90 µm), these values derived from 15 separately collected samples in four States. The cortex has a uniform reddish tinge plus fine pigment granule distribution, whereas the medulla is absent. Intense efforts at DNA analysis of the hair have been uniformly negative, possibly a function of the lacking medulla. Most human hair (Fig. 3) has a medulla, if only fragmentary, but fine blond hair occasionally looks similar to sasquatch hair. Hence, there is no absolute distinction that can be made. Hair from other forest species, like rodents, carnivores, and ungulates can be differentiated without question.


It's plausible that yowie hair fits the same description, in which case it answers my questions.

Food for thought...

Jezebel wrote:Chewy - I'm planning a trip up to Thompson Dam one weekend in September when it's a little warmer and drier. I'll access it from Thomson Valley Rd. I haven't been that way before. Any tips?

Take a 4x4 if possible and then hit the creeks beds looking for any signs

West of Thompson Dam to North west.

Thanks Chewy. I'll keep you posted. : )

By they way, do you find that other people think you are crazy when you mention an interest in the yowie/sasquatch phenomena?

It's amazing how many people are quick to judge and dismiss even the possibility that there might be an "unknown" species of animal out there. I find I choose carefully who I talk to about it now, as I got tired of the ridicule. Not nasty ridicule and usually kinda joking, but still ridicule nonetheless. If I mention that I'm actively searching and researching, it usually gets raised eyebrows in disbelief and the usual arguments against ie. there's no hard evidence, no dead or live body, and therefore can't possibly exist. Such arrogance to believe that if humans haven't captured one, then they're simply not out there.

But I've mentioned it to a couple of Aboriginal people and they took my interest very seriously. After reading Paul Cropper and Tony Healy's book on the subject though, I think I understand why.

Jezebel wrote: By they way, do you find that other people think you are crazy when you mention an interest in the yowie/sasquatch phenomena?

Hey Jezebel

I don’t bring the subject up often with people I don’t know and only really discuss the subject with people I believe to have an interest in things paranormal that being spiritualism, UFOs etc. the subject seems to go down better with open-minded personalities. Just my experience.

The hard part is knowing how to pick your targets, and open their minds, he he he.