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If you look at an 'Earth' map of Illinois there are not many hiding places. My PA has considerably more. It isn't only that; but IL has no hills higher than 1235 feet; so it is much easier for hunters and hikers to enjoy. If there was something there; this is a better chance of finding it!
If you look at an 'Earth' map of Illinois there are not many hiding places. My PA has considerably more. It isn't only that; but IL has no hills higher than 1235 feet; so it is much easier for hunters and hikers to enjoy. If there was something there; this is a better chance of finding it!
Most of the remaining woods in Illinois are near rivers - a lot of the stories I've heard are along one or another river (as is the case with the Marseilles sighting). The legend of Momo in Missouri, for example. Things get wilder when you get to the southern part of the state.
In the 1830s, Illinois was described by European travelers as parklike; it was where the tall grass prairie met the eastern woodlands so you had fingers of the great eastern woods extending into the tall grass prairie; the prairie was considered worthless until the steel plow came along, because there was no way to cultivate it. So people cut down the trees and built their farms there rather than in the tall grass. Once the steel plow came along, it was all she wrote for the tall grass prairie which grew on the rich glacial loess left over from the last Ice Age. Today, the largest patch in northern Illinois is in West Chicago, along a railroad right of way - about 250 acres as I recall. (for those interested in such things, "Where The Sky Began" by John Madson provides a history of the tall grass prairie)
Given how little wildness is left in the upper 2/3 of the state, it's hard to believe a large animal could remain mostly unseen in Illinois; it would be constantly crossing populated areas to get from one forest remnant to another. However - I suppose a large animal might be able to use the forested flood plains to move along the rivers in Illinois and mostly escape detection. Sightings of large animals like cougars, wolves, and bears are rare in northern Illinois.
Most of the remaining woods in Illinois are near rivers - a lot of the stories I've heard are along one or another river (as is the case with the Marseilles sighting). The legend of Momo in Missouri, for example. Things get wilder when you get to the southern part of the state.
In the 1830s, Illinois was described by European travelers as parklike; it was where the tall grass prairie met the eastern woodlands so you had fingers of the great eastern woods extending into the tall grass prairie; the prairie was considered worthless until the steel plow came along, because there was no way to cultivate it. So people cut down the trees and built their farms there rather than in the tall grass. Once the steel plow came along, it was all she wrote for the tall grass prairie which grew on the rich glacial loess left over from the last Ice Age. Today, the largest patch in northern Illinois is in West Chicago, along a railroad right of way - about 250 acres as I recall. (for those interested in such things, "Where The Sky Began" by John Madson provides a history of the tall grass prairie)
Given how little wildness is left in the upper 2/3 of the state, it's hard to believe a large animal could remain mostly unseen in Illinois; it would be constantly crossing populated areas to get from one forest remnant to another. However - I suppose a large animal might be able to use the forested flood plains to move along the rivers in Illinois and mostly escape detection. Sightings of large animals like cougars, wolves, and bears are rare in northern Illinois.
Tallgrass prairie grasses can reach heights of over 6''. They exist all over the state in areas of various sizes. There were areas of several hundred acres within the city limits of Chicago alone. Some are probably still there. That's plenty of cover for large mammals.
Tallgrass prairie grasses can reach heights of over 6''. They exist all over the state in areas of various sizes. There were areas of several hundred acres within the city limits of Chicago alone. Some are probably still there. That's plenty of cover for large mammals.
How tall is BF in the descriptions? How many small planes fly over IL? How many drones in Il? How many trail cameras in IL? Our world gets smaller everyday, if it exist; it's running out of hiding spaces.
Tallgrass prairie grasses can reach heights of over 6''. They exist all over the state in areas of various sizes. There were areas of several hundred acres within the city limits of Chicago alone. Some are probably still there. That's plenty of cover for large mammals.
The dominant grass of the tallgrass prairie in Illinois is big bluestem, which grows up to around 8 feet tall. It doesn't grow tall until midsummer. Plus, its stems don't remain erect in the winter and spring months. That means for a good part of the year there is little to no cover for large animals. The largest restored prairie is the Midewin Tall Grass Prairie in Joliet - plants and animals from the West Chicago Prairie are transplanted to restorations to recreate their ecosystems (which as far as I know remains the largest virgin tallgrass prairie in Illinois - meaning it's never been cultivated). There are a few remnants in Cook County, but as far as I know nothing of significance.
…Illinois has lost 99% of its tall grass prairie … Most Illinois remnant prairies are smaller than 12 acres … remnant prairies tend to be geographically isolated and lack the landscape-scale processes that once helped maintain them …
In summary: you have mostly small (<12 acres) remnants of tallgrass prairie left in Illinois - the largest prairie, Midewin, is being restored to tallgrass prairie, as well as other remnants. A lot of this restoration was inspired by the Madson book I mentioned in my last post - which was published in the early 1980s. What you have in the state is a patchwork of relatively small patches of prairie with large tracts of agricultural land between them. The height of big bluestem (and the corn that has replaced it in much of the state) doesn't provide substantial cover in the winter and spring months. Which means an eight foot primate like bigfoot would have few places to hide for a substantial portion of the year.
My first post here was, of course, facetious, but with an element of truth in it. That particular stretch of real estate along the Ill. R, runs thru crop land and the river and has several trailer camps occupied almost exclusively as week-end resorts for their owners who are in fact rather thirsty, by and large.
I'm quite familiar with the area. There are no tracts of woods more than a few dozen contiguous acres for many miles in any direction, and no remaining tall grass prairie, ie-- no habitat for any large animal to hide in and very few pathways connecting even the smaller areas. ...Also keep in mind that the modern tall grass prairie (ie- corn fields)-- are only tall for a few months of the year & only exist in alternating yrs (corn/bean rotation) and any traffic thru them is readily discerned-- plants are 1 ft apart in 24 inch rows.)
Without even getting into the population biology problems of minimum number of breeding individuals required to keep a population going, there's just not enough adequate habitat anywhere within a 100 mile radius of Chicago for Big Foot to survive.
You'll never find 'em if you're looking in the wrong places.
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