More Musings on the Jacobs Case

I was talking to a friend last night about the new blog and my analysis of the Jacobs photos. He raised an interesting question: "How do we know the BFRO has really shown us all the photos that were on the camera?" I addressed the Internet rumor that perhaps the BFRO was holding back the "really good" bigfoot photos, but did not consider the other alternative - perhaps the BFRO is holding back photos that show the mother bear more clearly? Maybe. But that's wild speculation... still, after their smear article on the PGC I'm not sure how much integrity they have.

What circumstantial evidence do we have that there might be other photos on the camera?

The camera used to obtain the Jacobs photos is identified as a Bushnell Trail Sentry, of the type that can be purchased at WalMart. (I don't get any money if you click this link and decide to buy a camera from WalMart - FYI.)

According to the Bushnell web site, the cameras keep track of their activity in a log-file.

"Any time that the PIR senses motion it counts it as an event. Events are recorded to SD Card in a text file. Events are recorded continuously during operation."

Where is this log-file, BFRO?

There are three settings on the camera for how long it will wait between photos to re-detect and snap a picture:

"Camera Delay: Three-position switch allows the user to select preference of camera delay – 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes."

Here is the list of photos taken (that the BFRO has released), plus the time-stamp on each:

http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/more_cubs.jpg - 20:02:16
http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/mama_bear_cropped.jpg - 20:02:55
http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/jacobs_photos_bear_cubs.asp - 20:04:23
http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/jacobs_photos_creature_image_1.asp - 20:32:05
http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/jacobs_photos_creature_image_2.asp - 20:32:41

The time-stamp gap between the first two pictures and the gap between the last two pictures tells us that the setting on the camera has to be set to 30 seconds. (First gap is 39 seconds & last gap is 36 seconds)

If the camera is set to 30 second intervals did the bears really only trigger five total shots over this time-frame? We may never know for sure. Hard evidence is critical for claims of the type that the BFRO is making. If the scene of a bigfoot sighting were treated more like a crime-scene then evidence such as log-files, multiple photographs of the site, maps, hair samples, saliva samples from the salt-lick, and many other steps should have been collected to give the most accurate understanding of what was observed.

-DA