A                                 B                             C                                    D

Above are two thermal images from a recent Daily Mail (U.K.) article. Thermal cameras capture heat signatures and at first glance both figures look human. However, it is claimed that the image on the above left is of a giant man-like creature known colloquially as a Yowie but otherwise is undiscovered and unknown to science. The image on the above right is a thermal of one of claimant's team members as a comparison.

 

Thermal cameras can reveal a surprising amount of information. For example, clothing, which can affect how heat is distributed and dispersed, is visible to varying degrees on the human subjects to the right whereas the "Yowie"  (above) shows no sign of that (although the figure is mostly obscured by foliage from mid-torso down.) If the human comparisons (right) were also similarly obscured by foliage clothing would still be visible on the upper torsos of A and B whereas C and D would appear "unclothed" (i.e. bare skin indistinguishable from areas of clothing) and comparable to the "Yowie" in the lack of visible detail.

It should be noted that the thermal images of the figures in the comparison (right) were not taken standing side-by-side at the same time. The images were taken separately, possibly at different distances, and then digitally cut/pasted into a single picture for the purpose of comparison. Furthermore, how settings are adjusted affects image quality but that will be covered next in more detail.

So, if areas of bare skin are sometimes indistinguishable from parts covered by clothing in terms of heat signatures, then the human-like "Yowie" thermal image could simply be a regular human rather than some giant human-like mystery species.

 

Coming next:

The Issue of Image Quality

Details of the environment - tree trunk, foliage, ground - are visible in the thermal comparison (right) but are completely absent in the original "Yowie" thermal image (left). Why?

 

UPDATE  --  1 February, 2022

Note that links to the "Yowie thermal" videos are now unavailable. Why were they removed? Is it an acknowledgment that Yowies weren’t actually captured on thermal video? Is it an attempt to avoid further scrutiny? Is Big Brother responsible? Or have the rights been sold?

 

At any rate, removing the original videos makes further analysis impossible. I will wrap up with the points of suspicion:

 

 

The “Yowie thermal” video was suspicious for a number of reasons:

- the thermal camera had it’s settings altered to record heat signals as white-hot (which limits the amount of visible detail available about the heat source) while restricting the ambient surrounds to a sea of violet (again restricting the amount of visible detail about the terrain).

- the thermal camera was handed to a novice cameraman (ie someone who has never used the device before), the cameraman was left on his own, and 20 minutes later began capturing the very human-like thermal images (said by the Yowie Hunter to be Yowies).

- at one point one of the “Yowies” appears to be hugging a tree. It is claimed the first Yowie pretended to be a tree in a bid to hide from the researchers. 'It's doing what Yowies do, they all hug a tree,' he said. 'This one here is hugging the tree so he blends in so Buck [Buckingham, who was taking the video,] can't see him.'” There may be several thousand documented examples of Yowie encounters – to the best of my knowledge there are zero examples which describe a suspected Yowie to be “hugging a tree”. This new Yowie meme was apparently adopted after watching a somewhat ambiguous thermal video of a bear in the act of climbing a tree filmed in Mississippi by US Bigfoot enthusiast, Angela Ashton (see below), which was interpreted as a Bigfoot hugging a tree for camouflage purposes.

- the subsequent investigation returned to the site the following day in daylight to determine the specific location the Yowies were standing. A particular spot as being the correct location but when thermal video footage is lined-up against the daytime comparison photographs the corresponding environmental anchors fail to match. Furthermore, no accurate measurements of the site were taken – heights and distances were simply estimated.

- the wrong location combined with lack of accurate measurements lead to the erroneous conclusion the figures were 8ft tall. Subsequent claims that the thermal images displayed non-human or primitive features do not stack up -- when the thermal image is lined-up against a particular crew member in a similar pose it provides an almost identical match.

 

- when given the opportunity, reasonable questions about the irregularities of the thermal video were not answered. Instead, the response was abusive personal messages. That is not how research works.

 

- no independent expert opinion was sought nor has an independent expert, biologist, or academic expressed the slightest interest in this "evidence" which, if genuine, would be a game-changer -- an unknown and previously undocumented Australian primate.

___

“Hugging a tree”

Ashton was conducting research in the forest ... when “with the camera in the black and white setting, she saw two Bigfoot in the tree line about a hundred yards away. Upon seeing her, one disappeared, running in a zigzag pattern, while another did what Bigfoot and Yowies do; it hugged a tree to disguise itself, so it couldn’t be seen...or so it thought.”

"When Angela first showed me this image, I was staggered; I was amazed. This, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the best still thermal images in the world.”

[He] responded to those who don't believe the footage could be real by saying, "I couldn't care less if people refuse to acknowledge [Yowies'] existence. I'm not here to convince them, I'm here to provide the facts."

https://www.singularfortean.com/news/2021/5/25/australian-yowie-research-releases-thermal-footage-of-alleged-hairy-humanoids

Angela Ashton’s thermal video depicts a bear in the process of climbing a tree and erroneously interpreted as being a Bigfoot hugging a tree supposedly for camouflage. Ashton's thermal video subsequently inspired the purchase a new model thermal in order to film the Yowie.

The Springbrook "Yowie thermal" video at one point depicts a human-like figure apparently in the act of hugging a tree. “It's doing what Yowies do, they all hug a tree”. How was this conclusion reached? Prior to this incident there are no instances in which Yowie witnesses have supposedly observed a Yowie to hug a tree – not even by the claimant nor on any of the claimant's own websites.

 

 

-- Ed, Yowieocalypse.