Friday, July 08, 2011

"Searching For Bigfoot" Comes To Florida

Saga Magazine 1973
I recently got the opportunity to work with Tom Biscardi - the worlds self-proclaimed best Bigfoot hunter - in the Green Swamp of central Florida. (Many of you may remember in 2008 when those two law enforcement officers in Georgia claimed to have a Bigfoot in a freezer and swindled Biscardi out of $50,000 for something that turned out to be a monkey suit frozen in ice). Tom has been looking for Bigfoot since he was a young man and I remember an old Saga Magazine article about him when I was a teenager. He is still at it, and has collected important DNA that is currently being analyzed to prove that an unknown primate exist on the North American continent.

Tom caught up with me at a meeting point at the north end of the Green Swamp which is part of Richloam track of the Withlacoochee State Forest, and I took him to an area that has been known as a Bigfoot active area for some time. Tom travels with his research team and a trailer full of all kinds of high tech gadgets such as thermal night vision cameras, sound microphones, and computer imaging radar. He does not play around. We went miles deep into the swamp looking for evidence of animal tracks that could be where the big guy is hanging out looking for a food source. We found such an area near a prairie with high grass and pigs running around and clear deer tracks. This is where we decided to do our 'night operation.'
Tom doing an introduction for his upcoming movie about Bigfoot

Tom and I checking out the target area
 About one hour before sunset we set out into the swamp and that is when Mitch saw something moving in the Palmettos and went searching. Since we had already set up the camera traps in the area where the thing was headed, our search yielded a possible print. We believe it was because it was in the area where we saw the movement.

A possible skunk ape footprint we found after we saw movement

One of the cool things about digital technology is the development of all kinds of high-tech gear. Tom has a thermal imaging camera which is used by the United States Military to see in the dark. We used this camera, and others, to peer into the dark in the Green Swamp to see what we could find. We did see several coyotes move across the plain, but on this night, no Bigfoot. That is how this kind of research goes. It is a waiting game, I did have a lot of fun and this was unlike anything I had ever done. 

A night optics camera that can see in the dark

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