That’s why no one has ever captured or killed one, or found remains, or even got decent footage of one.
They are obviously telepathic, dispose of their dead in some ninjalike fashion, and emit some kind of energy that causes camerpeoples hands to shake and get crappy footage.
Here’s to you, you magnificent hairy genuises of the woods!
Them, and the jackalope, and the hoop-snake, and the trout-shark, and the dreaded hidebehind – I’ve been stalked through the woods by a hidebehind, and it’s scary! – are all psionic at a low level. They know which direction you’re looking, and aren’t there. Deucedly clever.
However, alcohol has an impairing effect on this. Cryptids are much more likely to reveal themselves to people who are lit up like a Christmas tree. So, if you want to see Sasquatch, hit the old Jim Beam, and your chances skyrocket.
They are also much more willing to reveal themselves to people who strongly believe in them. It’s a matter of simple courtesy.
The best backstory I ever heard was from Six Million Dollar Man. Turns out aliens (humanoids) were studying humanity and they chose to keep their base in the middle of a small mountain. To keep people away, they created a robot Sasquatch to live in the area and scare people away from their location. No one could find him because he slipped into the hidden base when hunters and curious Georges came looking for him.
That was Andre the Giant playing the Sasquatch android.
I opened this thread just to link to that XKCD. (Thanks for beating me to it. :)) And I think Randall’s point is well taken: if Nessie or Bigfoot or the Abominable Snowman really existed, evidence to that effect should be piling up fast in an era where practically everyone carries a cell phone, and practically every cell phone has a camera built in. Instead…crickets.
But do hikers in the Himalayas actually carry cell phones?
Anyway, I think the point is well taken, but I personally just disagree with his use of the word “conclusively.” (And assuming that ghosts must be visible. :))
Nowadays? Probably, since these days, one’s ‘phone’ is only incidentally a phone, and really a whole bunch of different apps in one small, light gizmo. Unless you’re stuck in 2006 like me, and still carry around a flip phone.
But even I would have my phone in my pocket if I visited Loch Ness, for instance.
Oh, certainly, Loch Ness is a no-brainer. I was just questioning the utility of a cell phone on a high altitude climb, considering the lack of electric outlets and temperature.
To me, the utility of some sort of small electronic gizmo for recording the day’s events while on any sort of exploration is pretty obvious, as long as one can keep it charged. And while I’m no expert on such things, I’d guess a small solar panel would do the job in the Himalayas.