The problem with soundblasting

**This was originally posted on 05 / 17 / 2012 on my old blog.**  

Photo by ashley.adcox - Flickr.com

    Practiced by the BFRO and popularized by Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot, sound blasting, or "call blasting" is a research tactic that is now becoming more widely used. But does it work?

    The answer to the above question, as much as it pains me to say, is a blurry "we're not sure." Some researchers claim it returns results, saying the calls encourage  sasquatches to respond. Others are not so confident.


    To use a popular example, sound blasting was practiced in every episode of Finding Bigfoot and met with mixed results. Sometimes there was a response, sometimes there wasn't. But this doesn't prove or disprove the effectiveness of the tactic. In fact, it only serves to highlight exactly how unsure researchers are as to the effects of sound blasting.

    In my personal opinion, I think call blasting is a strategy best avoided. As mentioned in North American Great Apes' article on research methods the problem with it is three-fold:

1. We do not know for sure if the sounds being blasted are actual bigfoot recordings.      

2. Assuming the sound is from a bigfoot, we do not know what message each sound is supposed to convey. For all we know we could be telling them: “Run away!”      

3. It is possible that bigfoots can tell the difference between a real vocalization and an audio recording.

    If anything, I think it is most likely that sound blasting merely alerts any bigfoots in the area that humans are nearby. Generally, it appears sasquatches are excellent at detecting intruders in their environment, but just in case one of the daywatchers got lazy and didn't notice the group of human investigators tromping around in the woods, lets blast some recordings of what may or may not be bigfoot calls.

    On the flip side, perhaps alerting bigfoots that humans are around isn't a bad idea. As mentioned in the Vehicular Observation Blind blog post, playing on the curiosity of North America's great ape may be exactly what researchers need to do in order to have more successful expeditions.

    Until further study of these animals is conducted, solid evidence achieved, and behavioral patterns well documented, the bigfooters of the world will have to continue call blasting, or not, based on their personal opinions and experiences.

    Thanks for reading,

 - A.Z.

**Update: Username TKW posted the following comment on Bigfoot Evidence's article on this post. I found it insightful and worth adding.**

"I think a 4th reason would be having 2+ groups howling at each other and believing the other is the real thing.
This in turns could generate false reporting, hoaxers going out of their way to howl back, hyper-sense of reality and suddenly every thing becomes a Sasquatch as the night gets darker, hikers getting the crap scared out of them and reporting on forums of what they heard, etc."