So You Want To Hunt The Yowie? - Part 1 - How?

The Yowie by Allen Douglas Studios

So You Want To Hunt The Yowie?

I’ve always been interested in a good mystery and when I first saw the Patterson/Gimlin film as a youngster I was hooked on the idea of Bigfoot. I was even, happier when I found out that this was a worldwide mystery with the Yowie being Australia’s own particular brand of beastie. Having grown up in North Qld country areas and having heard of family members and acquaintances who have had their own sightings, I was keen to see if I couldn’t help join the many people already gathering data and maybe do some searching myself.

But how to go about it and how serious was I?

Let’s be honest and say right up front that this topic is relegated to the realm of pseudo-science at best and sheer fabrication at worst. Not unlike other subjects such as UFOs, Alien Abduction Phenomena, The Bermuda Triangle and the Paranormal, Cryptozoology is not well regarded by mainstream science. Like some of the other topics just mentioned, it is also subject to amateur (non-scientific) investigation methods, wild speculation with little or no evidence, flights of fancy and outright fraud for personal gain. To do serious research in such an environment is like walking through a minefield blindfolded.

From my previous hobbies and investigations in other fields I knew very well that science can be a demanding task master. Professionals in many scientific fields are also human with careers to protect and families to feed just like the rest of us. The best way to kill any chance of professionals taking this search seriously would be for me to charge off into the bush with a GoPro and an iPhone, take some more blurry shots, point to some indisputable anecdotal evidence like tree breaks, foot prints, stone cairns and stick tepee’s, then get a gig on TV claiming that I have discovered something akin to the Holy Grail and expect the scientists to jump on board.

All I would accomplish is to ensure that no professional in any related field would want to touch anything I was involved in. I’ve seen it before in archaeology and this is no different. I’m not saying that the things mentioned above are not worth recording and investigating, but those things alone can be also attributed to any number of other causes. To put it simply, we must first prove what these signs are NOT before we can begin to consider what else they might be. Jumping to unproven conclusions will just doom the entire enterprise.

If that sounds like a lot of boring (and expensive) data collection, analysis, and hypothesising then you are right. I realise that to do anything like this is hard work and if I'm not prepared to study, learn/develop skills and commit then maybe it is best if I don’t even start. Another “Man vs Wild” wannabe could only do more harm than good.

If, however, I was willing to have a go then what would be involved? What skills would I need short of becoming a biologist or zoologist myself, something I have no immediate desire to do?

I’ve spent the last couple of months buried in this topic and have discovered that for the amateur cryptozoologist it is certainly as Ray Doherty said in his blog, “we must, through our own initiative and expense embrace and become, at some level,  a Primatologist, Anthropologist, Biologist, Geneticist, Photographer, Outdoorsman, Trackers[sic], Botanist” (Doherty, R. (26 April 2015). Survivor Man: Bigfoot. [Blog] The Australian Yowie Project). A “jack of all trades” capable of bridging the gap between the pseudo and the scientific by learning enough of the knowledge, field craft and laboratory methods used by professionals to be able to talk with them at their level. This may go a long way towards breaking down the barriers that have been erected against the existence of the Yowie.

In the next few posts I will be listing some resources for study, equipment choices, and skill development for those who might be interested. I understand that the many who have gone before me, know all this and more. This is merely my perspective as a beginner. 

Until next time....