Over the years and even recently, I have heard people talk about the population of bigfoot. Some think that bigfoot population is dwindling down and some even think they are about to go extinct. So, all that got me to thinking about the many factors that can cause extinction. Lets look at a few that may or may not effect bigfoot and see if we can make some assessments.

Changes in Habitat - Destruction of wildlife habitat can result in a species going extinct. Things like deforestation, development of highways, dam building, urban development and other factors can cause havoc to wildlife. Destruction of habitat can lead to starvation of a species, make them a target for predators, or possibly cause them to die of disease. A species experiencing destruction of habitat must adapt to the changes or move to a different location. This is only some of the possible things that could happen. But would this apply to or effect bigfoot to the point of extinction? In my opinion, I would say probably not. As most of us know, bigfoot is extremely intelligent and would probably just move into a better area. The food source might be a bigger factor in the case destruction of habitat when it comes to bigfoot. But with the intelligence level of bigfoot, I would assume bigfoot would manage to find something. Another point to consider in destruction of habitat, to me, would be the rate of destruction. Of course a very fast, rapid destruction would probably be more devastating to all wildlife. In my are, in days gone by, strip mining and logging disturbed wildlife but the effects seemed to be only a temporary. If bigfoot had to move to another area due to habitat issues, could this be a factor in more sightings? I think it would.

Hunting -  While legal hunting can play a factor, it's the over hunting, poaching and commercial hunting that causes the most problems. Commercial hunting is hunting done for fur/pelts, tusks, horn and other parts. A good example is the hunting of Rhinoceros. Rhino's are/were hunted for their horn. The western black rhino was declared extinct back in 2013. It was due to poaching and a lack of conservation. Now, when it comes to bigfoot, we currently don't have a major problem with people hunting and killing them. Oh yes, some people hunt them and hope to kill one but nothing has come of it so far. There are numerous reports over the years of people shooting bigfoot, but in almost all cases it was a random chance encounter. So I think we can conclude that hunting of bigfoot is not a problem in the bigfoot going extinction theory.

Predators - Natural predators normally kill off the weak, wounded or sick prey, but it can play a part in the extinction of wildlife if a population is already low. But far worse is the human predator factor. Humans tend to take stronger and larger animals, which can really hit wildlife hard and make a species weaker. But neither of these would seem to pertain to our buddy bigfoot. As far as we know, bigfoot really don't have any natural predators. I would assume, new born or very young bigfoot could be prey for mountain lions or something but I would also assume they are well guarded.

Pollution and Disease - Pollution can have negative effects on habitat and animals. This would include plants and trees which could be a food source, among other things. But water pollution would have a bigger devastating effect in most cases. A damaged local water supply could lead to many factors which could result in a die off.  Insecticides and pesticides can be dangerous as well. But this type of problem is rarely seen in mountainous areas so the effects would be very rare and limited and probably not great enough to wipe out a whole species. Disease can be something very unpredictable. It may come from stagnated or polluted water. It could be introduced by a lower prey species. But generally cases of disease doesn't wipe out an entire species. So these factors probably would not play a major role in the dwindling or dying off of bigfoot.


Now, there are also other factors that can lead to extinction, but most are so rare and devastating nothing could be done anyways. For example, rapid climate change or abrupt climate change. Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse was a minor extinction event that occurred around 305 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. It altered the vast coal forests that covered the equatorial region of Euramerica (Europe and America). This event may have fragmented the forests into isolated 'islands', which in turn caused dwarfism and, shortly after, extinction of many plant and animal species. Another possibility is a major meteorological event. Plus I'm sure you can think of other things that can cause or lead to extinction but would it really effect bigfoot in a major way? Probably not.

So, after reviewing this information and thinking about the idea/theory that bigfoot is going extinct, I have concluded that most likely this is not true. And if they are going extinct, then it must be due to some outside factor that we don't know, understand or have thought of. I know this may not be a popular opinion that I have about it bigfoot not going extinct. But if you look at the sighting data, there seems to be a general overall uptick in sightings. You would think, for a dwindling population on the verge of going extinct, sightings would be way down. But that doesn't seem to be the case at all. Having more bigfoot sightings would seem to suggest there is a more robust population.

Of course, we don't know much about bigfoot. We don't know what or if they have a breeding cycle, how long pregnancy last, how long they live and many other things that could play a factor. I would assume, and I really don't know, that bigfoot have similar breeding cycles and pregnancies to humans. In Bonobo apes, the gestation period is about 240 days for pregnancy and that is comparable to humans at 280 days.

So, what might cause some people to think that bigfoot is going extinct?  While I can't really answer that for sure, I can offer a guess. Maybe a person does have less sighting in their area than in days gone by. This could lead them to believe bigfoot is dying off, but it really could only mean that the bigfoot have moved to another location. This would seem to account for the raise in sightings in other locations. I know in my area of Kentucky, there seems to be an increase in sightings. It could be due to a few factors. For one, the lack of logging and coal mining in my area many have led to an increase. Maybe, the increased destruction of habitat in other locations drove bigfoot  into our area.

My final assessment, opinion, would be that bigfoot is not about to die off or go extinct. That bigfoot has been here a long time and it will continue to be here for a long time.  That it is very hard to put a number amount on bigfoot. We really don't have any way to determine just how many bigfoot are out there.  We could make a guess, but it would be just that, a guess.  



Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.


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