SC EP:1281 A bipedal figure walking through the woods

Nathaniel writes "I've been listening to your podcast for about five years now, and over that time I've had multiple encounters that I've never really known what to make of. Recently I listened to Episode 769 with the wildlife biologist, and the way he described some of his experiences was almost exactly what I've seen. I'm also currently in school to become a wildlife biologist myself, so hearing that episode finally convinced me to reach out and share a couple of my experiences. I have several others, but there are two that stand out above the rest. If you're interested, I'd be happy to share the others another time.

I've spent my entire life hunting and fishing, and I'm currently going into my junior year of college here in Kentucky. During deer season I'm usually in the woods four or five days a week after classes, hunting a large Wildlife Management Area (WMA) surrounding a nearby lake. I'm primarily a bowhunter, and at the time I never carried a firearm because, realistically, this is Kentucky we don't have many large predators that would make me feel like I needed one.

My first encounter happened in late November of 2024, around the end of Kentucky's gun season. I got to the woods around 2:00 p.m., and it took me roughly an hour to hike into my spot. It was about a mile back through some extremely thick, nasty terrain, which is exactly why I hunt there it keeps me away from other hunters.

After pushing through about 12 acres of dense cedar thicket, I reached the entrance to a deep holler. I climbed about 20 feet up into my climber stand and had only been sitting for around 10 minutes when I realized everything had gone completely silent. There were no birds, no squirrels, no movement nothing. The woods just seemed dead.

A few moments later I heard two distinct wood knocks off to my front left. I thought it was strange, but I brushed it off. Then, two or three minutes later, I noticed what looked like a bipedal figure walking through the woods roughly 100 yards away. My first thought was that it was another hunter or maybe a hiker, since I was on public land.

I looked away for just a second to scan the rest of the woods, and when I looked back, the figure was gone. In its place was what I can only describe as an enormous, jet-black wolf or something that looked like one.

I've seen plenty of coyotes over the years, and through school and visits to zoos I've seen wolves as well. This wasn't either of those. It was significantly larger than any co