FINDING BIGFOOT: Bigfoot Hoedown

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 1/27/2013

The team heads to West Virginia to investigate some (need I say "blurry") photos of a supposed bigfoot in the treeline behind someone's back yard.  (What the team calls blob-squatchy.)  The photo was taken 7 years a go by a kid (then 10), who leads the group to their first night investigation.  After that, the show follows the usual format with Ranae staying out for solo camping while the rest collect town-hall interviews and talk to witnesses -- one of whom has some hair samples they found on a fence after a sighting.  On their second night hunt, the team decides to use animal guts as bait -- which makes Cliff and Bobo squeamish, but not Ranae, who's been a vet tech and "seen far worse."  That night, they hear strange screams and something takes their bait.  Sadly, their bait cameras malfunctioned, and the hair sample proved inconclusive - both of which are mentioned in captions after the show's end, rather than in the show itself.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Bigfoot Merit Badge

Animal Planet - 1/20/12

The team goes to Colorado to investigate a 1962 bigfoot film.  Ranae hopes that, while they're there, recent wildfires in the area may have driven sasquatch out into the open.  The film in question seems to show a dark figure jumping from rock to rock in a snow field in the Rockies.  Frankly, it looks to me (and Ranae) like a human trying to stay out of deep snow.  The son of the original filmographer says the film was taken on a scout camping trip by his father, who said it was a "big animal."  Bobo's recreation seems to indicate the rock jumping could be done by a human.  Cliff is still leaning toward it being a bigfoot, though even Matt disagrees.  (Everybody but Ranae usually errs on the side of bigfoot.)  The usual night investigation, town hall, camp out (Matt), witness talks, and second night investigation follows.  As "bait" for the second night hunt, the group decides to use a troop of Girl Scouts.  Despite the inherent cuteness, no sasquatch are lured into the open.

(Edited to correct date & filmographer.)

FINDING BIGFOOT: Bacon for Bigfoot

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 1/13/2013

Wild hog deaths lure Matt, Cliff, Bobo, and Ranae to the swamps of Louisiana near the Toledo Bend Reservoir.  This show starts with the town-hall meeting (in this case a Southern cookout), but otherwise runs to form: talk to initial witnesses, night hunt, single camp out (Bobo), talk to witnesses, second night hunt.  A local bow-hunter and his wife saw bigfoot on his property, and they're good enough witnesses that Ranae professes to being stumped as to what they saw. "It wasn't a person, and it wasn't a bear."  Two Justices of the Peace are also credible witnesses.  To attract sasquatch, the team puts up a pig pen in the woods, on the theory that bigfoots like bacon -- but none take the bait, and, at show's end, we get the usual platitudes about bigfoots being in this place, without any actual additional evidence.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Squatch Spies

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 1/6/2013

The group returns to Washington's Olympic Peninsula to investigate recent "sasquatch calls."  This show follows the familiar formula: talk to initial witnesses, night hunt, town hall meeting/single camp out, talk to witnesses, second night hunt.  I note that the show has recently switched to investigating calls (audio recordings), which may mean that they've run out of even vaguely plausible videos.  The witnesses in this case are members of the local Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), with whom Matt, Bobo, and Cliff (at least, if not Ranae) are already familiar.  The believer members of the team are optimistic about getting thermal or other evidence here.  Because there are so many witnesses in the area, the ones in this "town hall" have been pre-screened by the local BFRO -- and one has several really clear pictures of footprints "a lot bigger than a person" -- two different size tracks.  (Too bad they didn't have casts.)  Matt speculates that it was a mother and young, 13 1/2" long for the longest track and 2" smaller for the other.

In the second night investigation, they get the use of a FLIR (thermal imaging) truck with a huge mast that can scan for miles around the vehicle.  They also have an electric ATV-like chase vehicle.  But despite the best equipment they've ever had, they come up with even less than usual.  Bobo notes that this is the first time he's been "shut out" when searching on the Olympic Peninsula.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Australian Yowie

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 12/30/2012

The team -- Matt, Cliff, Bobo, and Ranae -- go Down Under to look for the Yowie, the bigfoot of Oz, recently seen in the tropical forests of Australia's Gold Coast near Sydney.  Once on the other side of the world, the investigation follows the show's usual format: talk to a witness, night investigation, town hall & camp out, more witnesses, and a second night investigation.  The first person they talk to is Gary Opit, professional field biologist. He is an impressive witness (even to Ranae) and knows the local wilds.  He saw a possible Yowie in the forest, but found no physical evidence.  On one of their night investigations, Ranae, Bobo, and Cliff hear claps, knocks, snapping trees, and a strange growling howl -- but nothing definitive.  This is their best evidence, though on their final night investigation, Bobo thinks he hears someone (or something) talking in an unknown language.  He believes it to be a Yowie, and the believers in the group declare the beast to be real.  We don't get Ranae's opinion (as the show often ends on an up-note for believers).  Basically, this two-hour episode is just a super-sized regular show with an exotic location.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Bobo Marks His Turf

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 12/23/2012

The team goes to the northern New Mexican mountains for the usual tromping around, town hall meeting, talking to witnesses, and talking among themselves in the dark.  You know the drill, so here's the things worth noting....  The "evidence" is a thermal image of a figure in the forest that some say might be bigfoot.  I think it's more likely a human (as does Ranae), but the team hopes to recreate the situation to determine the figure's height.  The believers believe that the recreation shows a bigfoot, Ranae remains skeptical (and so do I).  Later, Matt (often the noisiest of the group), jumps down Bobo's throat when the big man uses the radio after a call-blast and "steps on" a "return call."  When camping, Bobo decides to drink a lot of water and mark his turf by urinating -- I guess in hopes of pissing off (so to speak) the local bigfoots.  None show up.  Later, part of the group goes ballooning to look for sasquatch (and nearly crashes).  And a "figure" separate from the treeline on the team's thermal imager turns out to be ... a tree.  So, more stories & looking, but no more evidence -- par for the bigfoot course.