FINDING BIGFOOT - Swamp Ape

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 6/10/11

Matt Moneymaker and the BFRO head to Florida to try to figure where southern bigfoots live, and if they're different from the others.  (Note the assumption bigfoot is real.)  They talk to some homeowners who think bigfoot is visiting their back yard.  They have track casts and also claim that the beast vandalized their birdfeeder (Moneymaker claims bigfoots like food that humans leave out) and broke their fence top (climbing over).  They also claim bigfoot came onto a deck and  left a greasy handprint on the glass door.  Ranae recreates that using Bobo's hand, but the witness is unimpressed; Ranae remains unconvinced.  So they do a night stakeout featuring the usual fake bigfoot calls and listening for knocking.  They hear knocks, growls, and other things that make them think bigfoot are around -- well, all except maybe Ranae -- but the cut out anyway.  Then they have a meeting with Seminole Native Americans, who advise leaving the sasquatch alone.

Naturally, they keep hunting -- now in south Florida -- talking to other witnesses and doing more recreations.  As often, the witnesses are sincere, but the evidence slim.  They call in some RC drones to help survey the Everglades for possible places to stake out for bigfoot; naturally the stakeout must be done at night and include howling.  They find some deer, and a "mysterious" thermal hit, which they first claim is larger than a deer, and then claim is about the size of Matt.  It then "ran off into the woods."  Unfortunately, the editing of this segment doesn't show the "creature" running, just the people reacting to it.  Which makes me think they've cheated this, and it was just another deer.  A more reliable show would have included that footage, even if it was just a false alarm.  The BFRO think bigfoot is real, and their show is designed to reinforce that -- without doing any really hard science to back up their presupposition.  My proof of this?  They have "bigfoot fact" quizzes -- which implies that both 1) bigfoot is real, 2) we know enough about them to have facts.  Here's one:

Do you know why skunk apes stink?  Because they hide out "in air pockets of underground alligator dens, and their fur absorbs the pungent methane."

IAbsurd!  n my opinion, this show could use more hard science -- including camera traps and long-term follow-up investigations -- and less wishful thinking.  Perhaps we could have Fact or Faked or Destination Truth re-investigate the "facts" on this show.