Whistle While You 'Squatch

Most bigfooters have heard of Dsonoqua, the Wild Woman of the Woods, frequently depicted on totem poles throughout the Northwest. She is most often shown with her lips pursed, as if whistling, and in fact her legends specifically mention her doing just that. I believe, as do many others, that Dsonoqua is a mythological depiction of a sasquatch. Native Americans incorporate more common animals into their mythologies and legends, so it makes sense that bigfoots are woven into this rich cultural tapestry as well.

Few recordings of bigfoot whistles have been obtained. I managed to record whistling in Northern California near the Siskiyou Wilderness Area in 2006 (click HERE to listen). The "Sierra Sounds" recordings obtained by Ron Morehead and Al Berry in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California in the early 1970's are by far the most widely known. They have been analyzed by Dr. Lynn Kirlin from the University of Wyoming who found that these peculiar whistles could have been produced by the constriction of the vocal track, as well as the lips.

When I saw the following article, I was intensely interested. I was aware that bonobos are excellent whistlers, but I was not aware that orangutans also had the ability to produce these sounds. The article not only touches upon the orangutan's ability to whistle, but also on the idea that apes can mimic sounds produced by other species, which is widely reported in the bigfoot literature. Bonnie's (the orangutan) ability to produce whistles could also shed light on the development of language in the human species.

If bigfoots are Gigantopithecines, as has been widely hypothesized, this is even more pertinent to us bigfooters. It is thought that Gigantopithecus is more closely related to orangutans than the African apes.

Native Americans would tell their children to not whistle while walking in the forest at night unless they wanted Dsonoqua to take them away. When I go bigfooting, I often walk in the forest at night, and make it a point to whistle. I would, of course, love to have Dsonoqua come and take me away, but more importantly, I want to draw the attention of any nearby bigfoot. They might think I'm one of them, until they see me. Hopefully, once my cover is blown, the bigfoot would want to try to drive me out of the area with a terrifying territorial display. With a little luck, I'll come back with a thermal video of the encounter, if I survive the initial heart attack.

Enjoy the article, but be sure to click HERE to watch a video of Bonnie whistling.

March 03, 2009
Great Ape Blows Zoo Away
By Larissa von Nyssen

In the Walt Disney movie The Jungle Book, the orangutan King Louie sings a song called “I Wan’na Be Like You.” It’s all about how he wants to be like the humans. It goes: “Oh, oobee doo, I wanna be like you, I wanna walk like you, talk like you, too, you'll see it’s true, an ape like me can learn to be human, too …”

It seems the Jungle King has gotten one step closer to his wish: Bonnie, a brainy 32-year-old orangutan from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., made the news when she taught herself how to whistle!

What makes this so unique is the fact that no one ever taught Bonnie to whistle. “I don’t whistle, but someone at some point in life, whistled while they worked and she just learned how to do it on her own,” the zoo’s Great Ape keeper Erin Stromberg told WJLA-TV. Bonnie doesn't whistle for food or attention; she just does it when she feels like it.

The fact that Bonnie can imitate sounds made by others nixes the idea that orangutans have only a set number of sounds they make as involuntary responses. “Sounds aren’t necessarily all genetic and they can be behavioral or ecological, and also voluntary,” said Stromberg. Bonnie’s spontaneous ability shows that some apes can learn sounds from another species. The finding, recently published in the journal Primates, could give new insight into how speech itself actually evolved.

Orangutans are known to ape humans. Bonnie is very observant and copies her caretakers. She sometimes sweeps up after herself and washes the windows (but she doesn’t whistle while she works). She even chooses to walk on two feet like her human counterparts.

I think this just goes to show how much we have yet to learn about all the amazing animals that share our world. Who knows? We may someday be asking our pets what they want for dinner, and they may just answer us!

Hear Bonnie whistle here