In 1971, Ron Morehead and Al Berry set up camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains to record evidence of Bigfoot. Morehead was a believer. Berry was a skeptic looking to debunk a hoax. On the tape, the two can be heard whispering to each other before distant howls begin. They call back. More sounds follow — grunts, knocking, and a rapid-fire vocalization that Bigfoot enthusiasts have dubbed "samurai chatter" because it sounds like dialogue from old Japanese samurai films. The Sierra Sounds have been circulating among cryptozoology communities ever since.
Retired U.S. Navy cryptographic linguist Scott Nelson analyzed the recordings and concluded: "It is definitely a language, it is definitely not human in origin, and it could not have been faked." No formal scientific study has ever been conducted on the tapes. Berry died in 2012; according to Morehead's blog, Berry maintained to the end that "he thought it would have made the story even more interesting if he could have discovered how anyone could have pulled this off." Morehead still describes himself as an "adventurist" and remains active in the Bigfoot community.
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