Yowie Hunter in Close Encounter

D’Aguilar National Park - 11pm, Januray 25, 2021.

The Yowie Hunter heard something “bipedal” approaching in distance. Unable to see anything in the dark, he looks through his FLIR camera (but does not turn on its thermal imaging function) and sees a pair of eyes “huge and glowing” in the distance. The eyes disappear briefly as whatever-it-is looked away but the Yowie Hunter was then able to take a snapshot when it briefly resumed its gaze before disappearing. “I saw the yowie standing beside the tree prior to it hiding and looking around the tree—there was no question about what I witnessed.”

Did he see a Yowie? The Yowie Hunter claims to a have seen some sort of giant hairy man yet, via his own camera, we are able to see exactly what he saw—a pair of glowing eyes (“eye-shine”) in the distance beside a tree. There is nothing objective in the image to indicate that the eye-shine came from a giant hairy man—that part came from Harrison’s imagination.

There are a couple more problems with the “Yowie eye-shine” image. Firstly, when superimposed over the daytime comparison picture it shows that the eye-shine is in front of, not beside, the 2^nd more distant tree. The creature, then, is beside the closer tree—a perspective which makes closer objects (eye-shine in this instance) appear to be larger particularly if he thought the eyes were actually further away.

Secondly, there is a problem with the eye-shine itself. The eye-shine effect is caused when light reflects of a layer of tissue behind the retina (known as the tapetum lucidum) in some animals which increases the light available to the photoreceptors allowing for superior night vision. Humans and apes don’t give off eye-shine and if the Yowie exists as some sort of undiscovered man/ape then it, too, would not give off eye-shine. There are plenty of animals in D’Aguilar National Park which do give off eye-shine like koalas and possums.

Conclusion: Ambiguous noises and sights are often attributed to ghosts and spirits when one is searching a supposedly haunted house. Similarly, ambiguous stimuli is also attributed to the mysterious when seeking mythical giant hairy ape/men in the bush after dark. This is known as legend tripping.

The eye-shine photographed appears to be from a mundane creature (most likely a possum) on the trunk of the closer tree which would make it seem both tall (8ft above the ground) and large (closer than thought) when viewed at a distance in the dark.

On the A.Y.R. Facebook page the eye-shine is described as "heat glow" suggesting that the heat glows white through the eyest similar to the thermal images of the dog and the man. The obvious problems with that rationale is that eyes aren't the only things glowing (i.e. giving off white light) and far more is visible than just the eyes in the thermal comparisons.

An A.Y.R. representative also dismissed claims that the eye-shine was from a possum claiming the Yowie Hunter actually saw a large ape-man peering out from behind the tree and stating that the eyes would have been smaller if from a possum.

Looking through the camera, the Yowie Hunter saw exactly what the picture photographed—a pair of eyes reflecting in the distance. Harrison may have imagined that he saw a huge ape-man but that is not the same thing. Finally, A.Y.R.’s position on the apparently large size of the eye-shine fails to take into account that the creature seemed to be closer to camera than their estimates. Eye-shine that is closer only APPEARS larger than if it were further away.

Content removed 25/02/2022

Note: The YowieOcalypse website will no longer provide analysis nor comment on the claims and "evidence" by a particular individual and his/her "research group."

However, if you have any questions about such "Yowie evidence" I am more than happy to answer private enquiries from interested individuals, independent researchers, and journalists. There are many inconsistencies.

Questionable claims and evidence deserve to be questioned and I encourage those with a genuine interest in the Yowie phenomenon to take a closer look at what is going on. Future cryptozoological conferences provide wonderful opportunities for anyone to question the so-called "Yowie experts" on the inconsistencies of their claims and evidence.