John, who is a listener of the show writes “In episode #218 one of the guests mentioned he saw the animal produce the wood knocking sound by rapping it’s knuckles against a tree.
The surprisingly heavy wood knocking sound produced by the fist is likely indicative of unusually high bone density combined with the force a large massive creature can produce.
I once had a 220lb martial art instructor who would casually rap his knuckles on the walls as he walked down the cinder block hallway to class. When he did this it sounded like someone hitting the wall with a sledgehammer. At first we didn’t know what he was doing to produce the sound. When asked, he showed us but no one could reproduce it. When the average person did it, the sound was very quiet and weak, more like a feint tapping, additionally it hurt too much for someone with untrained bones to hit hard enough to be any louder. If you shook the instructor’s hand it felt waaaay heavier than it “should”. His bone density was significantly higher from decades of hitting bricks and heavy objects.
I witnessed this many times after with other highly skilled martial artists who were capable of breaking marble slabs with their bare hands with zero sign of injury. Upon shaking their hands I never ceased to be amazed by the weight of their hands.
Check out “Wolff’s Law”
“Wolff’s law is a theory developed by the German anatomist and surgeon Julius Wolff (1836–1902) in the 19th century that states that bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads under which it is placed.”
Tim G
Very interesting, this community never ceases to amaze me.
Christian L
I agree but I also wonder if they “cup” their hands and slap the trees…..something that big and strong would have a hell f an open hand slap especially w cupped hands.
Knobby
That might be it since according to the show the witness didn’t mention anything about hitting a tree with its knuckles, but it slapped the tree.
Richard C
If you look at the skeletal remains of ancient hominids, the bones are very dense (when compared to ours). Just listening to some of Loyd Pyes talks on the Web explained that for me (I think he’s fascinating to listen to.. wish he was still around). You need dense bones in order to handle the massive Torque generated by such large muscles.
thomas w
I agree with Tim G’s comment above. The knowledge and experience combined with the “homely” feel of this online community from members and guests alike gives me that rare feeling that there are still good people out there who have a place to go and feel welcome, who can share information and not feel the heavy judgmental burden of most online forumns. Tip of the hat to all the good folks here at S.C., and of course our beloved resident leader, Wes. Keep up the good work all.
Knobby
John made an error when he said the sasquatch was observed hitting its knuckles against the tree. The witness said he slapped the tree with his hand. John somehow made an assumption it must have been done with knuckles.
It sounded like a wood knock. That explains speculation that sasquatches must be doing something else besides hitting a tree with a stick because often times a return wood knock comes too fast for a sasquatch to have found a stick to hit a tree. Some speculation is they do it with their body somehow, but this observation might explain what is taking place.
brad b
I can’t wrap my mind around an open palmed slap sounding like a knock no matter how large or bone dense the hand making it. A skeletal hand maybe, but not one with muscle, blood, and skin surrounding the bone.
Scott A
This Sasquatch probably would have clapped his hands together but he used one hand to carry or drag the deer so he clapped the side of the tree with his free hand and the family group was close enough that using one hand was loud enough.
Here is a way to do it with ski gloves.
http://www.thomsquatch.com/2011/02/tree-knocking-101.html
Scott A
I meant to put this on Episode 218. Sorry, folks.
Pat C
Can’t find episodes below 55, where are they?