This has been nagging at me for a while actually. I've been cross-referencing Dogman reports on a couple of the American databases and there does seem to be a clustering pattern around old disused rail corridors, particularly in the Midwest. Not sure if its the elevated ground, the tree cover alongside the tracks, or something older about the land those routes cut through.
What I keep wondering is whether the rail lines follow older paths - animal migration routes, ley lines, whatever you want to call them - and the sightings are a continuation of something that was already happening in those areas long before the railways arrived.
Has anyone mapped this properly? Like overlaid a decent sighting database against historical rail maps? I'd be genuinely curious whether the correlation holds up statistically or whether we're just pattern-matching because we want it to mean something. Because I'll admit that's always a risk with this kind of thing.
Anyone had a personal sighting near old track, or know someone who has?