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A multimillionaire is going to hunt for Bigfoot in North America (let's just assume confined to USA). Capture preferred, kill acceptable. What would be the most sensible way to do it (highest success chance, yet still rationally economical)?

(Question partially inspired by the story of Robert Bigelow and the NIDS)

Assume access to only the technology available today (2021) or that at least has applied prototypes existing today. Can hire others, etc.

Brief legal considerations that would have to be accounted for?

Assume nothing about Bigfoot itself other than that it exists and is likely large and humanoid in form. It may have natural abilities that allow it to avoid visual detection, it may have consciousness/intelligence, multiple, hostile, friendly, high physical strength, psychic/telepathic abilities at a certain range, electromagnetic sensitivity/interference, who knows what-else that could help evading human detection (just going w/ the assumption that there is at least one).

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    $\begingroup$ Assume nothing about Bigfoot itself other than that it exists. How can we come with the "best" way to hunt it if we know nothing about it? Or do you hunt ants and sharks in the same way? $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch ♦
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 8:13
  • $\begingroup$ So given all the caveats you add, this sounds a bit like searching for a subject trained to remain hidden even while moving, like a specialist soldier, when you don't even know their rough location except to the continent. I doubt it's possible. $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 9:36
  • $\begingroup$ Imagine BigFoots lived underground normally and the rare sightings were those 1 in a million rare occasions when one or two ventured overground. These would be very hard to find, especially if they became aware they were being hunted or were naturally covert. It was close to impossible to locate underground bases in Vietnam. $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 9:41
  • $\begingroup$ @L.Dutch-ReinstateMonica You're right, good analogy. I added a bit extra to that section to make it a little less like searching for a cloud of mist. $\endgroup$
    – lampShadesDrifter
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 22:21
  • $\begingroup$ @IampShadesDrifter I've got to question the ethics of hunting an ape, exasperated by it being a bipedal and so likely hominid one.. maybe even part of the homo family tree.... This seems extremely amoral and considering the population of bigfoot people bordering on geoncide. $\endgroup$
    – Broken ECLSS unit
    Commented May 11, 2021 at 18:32

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Helicopters with FLIR paired with ground teams. $4mil

My employer used to do aerial imagining for big mine sites, and you can get a helicopter for aerial imaging for around a bulk discount of about \$1500 per hour for big jobs, and IR is one of the services they offer. I'm seeing 1-3k cost per hour estimates for this service around the world in a casual google - especially in police force budgets. So I'm calling it \$1500 per hour.

Big foot is unlikely to be in cities or on water, so your patrolling farmland, wilderness, and national parks. These are typically black at night on IR, with bigfoot showing up as bright white (I'm assuming hes warm blooded).

Your helicopter flies over the park and notes all the bright spots, and the ground team(s) go and investigate them. You'll surprise the odd bear, and the odd hiker, but you'll work through these false positives pretty quickly.

Say 10 helicopters and 30 ground teams working 8 hours after sunset. Per night your looking at 120k for the helicopters, 10k for ground team wages (pay better then minimum wage to get motivated staff obviously) and 15k for jeep rental. Call it $150k per night rounding up cause I may of forgotten something. \$1mil per week.

In that week you've covered about 100,000sqkm of wilderness. In a month you'll cover everything identified as "wilderness" in my causal googling (400,000sqkm). You've probably found him for $4million.

Id expect you to find him in the first few weeks, but if you want to be thoughrough 2 years later (cost 100 million) you've swept the entire USA.

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    $\begingroup$ These are typically black at night on IR, with bigfoot showing up as bright white Along with every other warm blooded creature in the wild. You're going to be very, very busy hunting down false leads. Also IR isn't quite as brilliant and you can hide under cover and not being seen, and at night may creatures do seek cover. $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 9:32
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    $\begingroup$ @StephenG the nighttime flying is especially important and can be much more expensive. What if bigfoot is nocturnal and sleeps in caves? Or covers itself in leaves or something? Maybe it's very well insulated for the colder north, making it hard to spot on IR? The answer is ok, but is missing some points I reckon. $\endgroup$
    – Trioxidane
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 11:42
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    $\begingroup$ Also there might be problems with getting the flight allowance over many areas and privacy concerns as you spy on a large area without proper reason (I don't think you can get the scientific community behind this, even if it could be a treasure trove of extra data not related to bigfoot). It might be more trouble than the answer states, as well as if you miss bigfoot because he was concealed in the trees you simply miss your chance. $\endgroup$
    – Trioxidane
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 11:48
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    $\begingroup$ If he is sleeping in a hole, you'll miss it and spend 100mil for nothing. But scientists will love your data if you're willing to donate them. $\endgroup$
    – Akita
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 18:14
  • $\begingroup$ The idea that you could cover 100'000 km2 in a week is a joke... That is a 100x1000km strip. Meaning in a day you'd have to comb through more than 100x100km. Maybe look up the areas which are covered by SAR operations... $\endgroup$
    – fgysin
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 6:33
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Money incentive

The ingenuity of men is only surpassed by their stupidity. Some quote like that has been said by someone famous, and if it's not, it's still oddly applicable.

Do not underestimate what people do for money. Implement a bounty system. Verified traces can give you 1000 to 10.000 dollar while Bigfoot itself is worth 2 to 10 million or something. Give as much clues as you can, and people will start searching for you. Even sceptics can start searching for fear of missing out. Wildlife traps, methodical and random searches, shares of information on the internet and great trackers. People will do all sorts of things to try to find it without you having to lift a finger. Some people are stupid and just worth the extra eyes and might get lucky, while others are smart and employ advanced information gathering tactics. It is likely also the cheapest, as the whole community can potentially spend much more money that you offer. Especially if you compare it with hiring people.

The proof would be in either capturing it (dead or alive) or a good tip where bigfoot is for a lot of money from which you hire professionals. 90% or more is simply done for you in hopes of winning a lot of money as well as the thrill of the search.

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  • $\begingroup$ One issue with this (ex. the tip + professionals method) is that even if there is a \$10M bounty, it's not like random people/orgs could afford to individually blow \$2M on different methods of attack (even if they were all willing to accept such an bad expected value calculation, which this method would rely on). IMO, the situation is significantly unlike, say, programming bug bounties which are less capex intensive (I'm assuming; I'm not a hunter/tracker/bigfoot-hunter etc) so a larger dragnet of competent people can/would participate in an effective way. A proposal/grant system, maybe. $\endgroup$
    – lampShadesDrifter
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 23:12
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It's a crap job, but someone has to do it ...

OK, the first thing you need to understand is that finding Big Foot(s) requires first of all cutting down that search area and I mean big time.

To do this you need to first of all set up patrols that find and test crap. Yes, I do mean excrement. Their sole function will be to perform a grid search for crap that does not match crap from species they do not know already.

This means collecting lots of crap, noting the GPS coordinates and sending it all in for automated analysis - you're doing this on an industrial scale and you need machines to do the testing.

If Big Foot(s) is(are) out there they have to expel crap sometime. When they do it will come up as an unidentified species. The unidentified ones could just be boring unknown species of something else, but you can do a lot with DNA analysis of those samples and identify which ones are related to known species and have a statistical likelihood of being a Big Foot.

Automated cameras and other search equipment can be used to monitor the entire localized area of interest. These can run 24/7 and computers can analyze images send back. Eventually they'll get a hit.

Now it's carefully trained hunters on the ground who can wait and watch and move in until they get the target.

Just who the hell pays for all this ?

The IRS, meaning the tax payer of course !

Happily these search programs can be funded as part of "normal" wildlife activity. Heck you might even get grants from international agencies to find all those new species they think we're looking for (but don't give a hoot about really). The universities and students will queue up to roam about examining crap, practically for free if you wave some eco-friendly flags at the suckers. We'll lose a few to cougars and bears, but it's not like students are hard to replace by cheap labor, so no problem.

This kind of thing takes time. It's a multi-decade search. But that's the great thing about tax payers - they die and they produce their own replacements, so the money ain't gonna dry up. It's government project so once it's on the books it's virtually impossible to stop and cost over-runs are expected and normal.

Eventually we'll find this Mr. Big Foot and tax that sucker to death. I mean, you knew that was the government's plan all along - grow the tax base.

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The government already knows.

iran rocket site satellite image

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/758038714/can-president-trump-really-tweet-a-highly-classified-satellite-photo-yep-he-can

The US has satellite images that let you count the stairs leading down to a damaged Iranian missile site. There are sophisticated image analysis software programs that let you search for shapes of interest. If there exist infrared images with the sharpness of the Iranian photo, they were not tweeted but there is no reason they could not exist. These images exist, and more. The federal government has known about Bigfoot for nearly a decade.

Bigfoot is interesting. Conspiracy to keep Bigfoot secret is more interesting. The rich man has power and wealth and begins to leverage it. He uses his money to make alliances with elected officials, who introduce him to people who know things, who introduce him to other people. And he learns that you should not roll over logs unless you are ready for what might be underneath.

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    $\begingroup$ This kind of imaging is only done for areas of interest. Why would you scan the fullness of Northern USA several times with such highly detailed photographs is there is little to no information to be gleaned? It costs a bunch and without cause, like a military or scientific installation, there is no reason to do so. $\endgroup$
    – Trioxidane
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 17:10
  • $\begingroup$ @Trioxidane - of course, of course. There is no reason to get such images! No images like that exist. That makes perfect sense; how silly of me. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 18:22
  • $\begingroup$ @Willk, having the sat up there is one thing. Having the cameras operate during the pass over the US is another. And having an analyst look at them in anything like realtime is yet another thing. So the cost would be to get a whole new analysis department, people with extremely high clearances, wo decide not to look at Iranian missile sites and instead wade through loads of false positives from hikers, etc. Perhaps there is a way to make "bigfoot hunts" the standard calibration and training process? "How many deers, how many people in this square mile? What, that blob is neither one?" $\endgroup$
    – o.m.
    Commented May 9, 2021 at 5:43
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No wonder there have been so many forest fires in California lately.

That Richie Mcbigbucks has been trying to flush out the bigfoot he suspects live in those forests.

Thing is, he doesn't even need much money to do that. He hires a professional arsonist (does that exist? It does now!) to start the fire(s) in such a way that it can't be traced back to them. Then he just sits back and waits for the fire to flush out the bigfoot.

His trusty elephant gun by his side, helicopter fueled and ready to go, Richie watches ALL media on multiple big screens, obsessed, waiting for any sign. He has killed all manner of beast all over the world. His home is filled with stuffed heads. Time to move on to the mythical! Bigfoot is next!

It hasn't worked yet... that bigfoot is wily... but one day!

And then... if he gets really lucky... the abominable snowman...

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  • $\begingroup$ Burning up forests could be economically bad, even though it's indirectly. Also, Smokey the bear will be very sad by your idea x). $\endgroup$
    – Tortliena - inactive
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 10:34
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    $\begingroup$ @Tortliena, Bigfoot, Smokey the bear, they're all the same! And as for the economy, do you think someone named McBigbucks cares? $\endgroup$
    – Len
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 14:26
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Get other people to do the work for you.

The fastest way to very publicly issue a 5-50 million dollar prize for a live bigfoot or an intact carcass, preferably with some indications of what tests will be done to assess claims. The rest of your money is spent on experts and tests to assess claims. You will need a special dispensation for you and the prize winner from the government to get around endangered species harm and trafficking laws, so include some lobbying money.

You are going to get a lot of people sent to jail and destroy a lot of nature but you will have your results.

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My best guess would be aerial drone deployed motion activated trail cameras. Thousands of them.

You send them out on a grid and they deploy and remain on station for as long as they can then return to home base to drop off images and recharge. Repeat as needed for as long as needed.

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You don't have to seek him, but only wait for him to seek you, using a suitable bait...

Warning: no serious answer ahead

The problem is that it is difficult to search all the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Canada in order to find a creature that could be the only existing individual of its species.

But you could lure it, if only you could find something tha bigfoot is irresistibly attracted. We know very little of the Bigfoot, but according to the existing footage and photos we have at our disposal of it, we can infer that there is a thing that seems to strongly attract it...

Crappy Low quality photocameras!

Now that everybody has in the pcket a camera that can record a 4k movie with autofocus, gamma correction, night mode and so on, the poor Bigfoot has become even more evanescent. And this is obvious: he likes crappy cameras, but now that humans don't carry them anymore, he has decided to keep us at range.

Search museums, scrapyards and junk shops to gather some thousands low quality photo and videocameras, then place them in some dozens depots scattered through the Rocky Mountains. Obviously, these depots will be full of booby traps, nets and sharpshooter with soporific darts.
The temptations of hundreds of crappy low quality cameras all together will be so strong that Bigfoot will run to them forgetting its usual precaution, and so will be easily captured!

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Build a six-million dollar man.

https://headhuntersholosuite.fandom.com/wiki/Six_Million_Dollar_Man:_Bigfoot_V

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    $\begingroup$ In case the website is no more reachable or people are afraid to click on potentially malicious links, could you sum up the page's content? $\endgroup$
    – Tortliena - inactive
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 10:36
  • $\begingroup$ That is a perfectly sensible thing to ask for. However, brevity is the soul of wit, so for better or worse this shall remain my answer. $\endgroup$
    – dhinson919
    Commented May 21, 2021 at 17:10
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    $\begingroup$ You are confusing being short and being lazy, because you report all the work to the reader. I advise you to take a look at the help center : "Links [...] are encouraged, but please add context around the link so your fellow users will have some idea what it is and why it’s there. I don't ask for a novel, but at least a paragraph to understand what the Six-million dollar man is about. $\endgroup$
    – Tortliena - inactive
    Commented May 21, 2021 at 22:04
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Trained Snow Leopards!

Snow leopard are exceedingly difficult to find in the wild. Film crews may track them for months without a sighting.

Nevertheless snow leopards have been found and filmed.

First catch a male and female snow leopard. Breed them and train the cubs from an early age to perform search and rescue. To begin with, they can find their parents or their human foster parents.

Now set them loose in the mountains where Bigfoot lives. They come back every night to camp for food. Your leopards have cameras mounted on their backs so you can see what they are up to. When they find a Bigfoot they will forcibly "rescue" it and bring it back.

Alternatively just use trained dogs. They will only need a footprint or some dung to get the scent and there you go!

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