Yes! In this edition of the Paranormal Alphabet we reach the letter S where we will be going over another type of big-foot hominid bipedal cryptid ape-like creature. Yeah. But this is an interesting one and it has a very cool picture associated with it which can be seen featured at the top of this post, which many believe could be of the Skunkape which roams in the South-Eastern parts of the United States of America. Actually, all of these bigfoot type cryptids are quite interesting in my eyes, but this one especially is, not quite sure why.
The creature is most commonly reported in the US state of Florida in swampy areas such as the Everglades, but has also been claimed to roam around states such as North Carolina and Arkansas from time to time among a number of others. Skunk Ape is one of the creatures more common names but it has also been called many other names such as the Myakka Ape, swamp cabbage man, swamp ape, stink ape, Florida Bigfoot, Louisiana Bigfoot and so on.
You may be thinking, wow, they sure like to insult this creature with names such as skunk, stink and cabbage, but the reason for this is that the creature is meant to really stink bad, like, really, really foul and is one of the easiest ways to identify that the or a Skunk Ape is nearby, due to the sheer stench of it. Although a bad stench has also been reported in encounters with other bigfoot and apemen cryptids, it is reportedly the Skunk Ape’s most defining feature and winning attribute (if you could call it that) over the other bigfoots and apemen out there, it could potentially even be a defensive mechanism, to drive off anything potentially aggressive as well as marking its territory and keeping intruders out.
There were various reports of the creature, primarily from Florida, during the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. A wild-Boar hunter in the Everglades came across what he first thought was a bear that was squatting in 1957 only for it to slowly stand up, reaching a staggering height of about 8ft, the hunter understandably ran back to his truck.
In Davie, Florida in 1969 a man saw what he described as a smelly bigfoot that was growling in an abandoned guava orchard. Another man nearby also described seeing a large black bigfoot move by some dogs, through an orange orchard, swung through the trees and dived into a canal.
In 1971, Crystal City, Florida, four men described seeing four man-like animals that were on an embankment outside of a large forest. The creatures were furry and had long arms and large heads that were unusual to their body size, they were observed picking at some plants.
An article from the BBC in March 6th 1998 talks about the Skunk Ape, comparing it to the Yeti from the Himalayas and calling it the “abominable swampman” and described it as a 7-foot-tall gorilla-like creature that was lurking around the Florida Everglades.
The BBC noted a number of rather ballsy tourists would even leave bait out in hopes of capturing a sight of the stinky ape. They also mentioned that several tour guides had claimed of spotting the creature and that it had reddish fur (which is unique as most described encounters had either black or dark brown fur). The article goes on to say that the US National Park Service has dismissed the creature as a hoax but that American tribes in the area insist that it exists.
A man called David Shealey is featured in the article who has been searching for the Skunk Ape since he had last claimed to have seen it 25-years ago. In his searches since all he had found were large footprints. The BBC went on a small search with this man in the Everglades and it wasn’t long before they found a large fresh footprint. Many skeptics have said that David Shealey simply promotes the existence of the creature to sell branded Skunk-Ape related merchandise in the area to tourists.
As well as that many skeptics believe the same is true of tour guides.
The article goes on to feature an alleged photo of the Skunk Ape, showing what appears to be a furry bipedal creature within the middle of a grouping of trees, taken by a fire-chief who said that it took long strides kind of like a man and in answer to skeptics, said that it certainly wasn’t a bear as, “bears don’t go on two, they go down on all fours.”
The creature itself didn’t really rise to much wider prominence until possibly one of the clearest ever photos of a possible bigfoot came out, although the taker of the photograph it must be stressed didn’t believe it was a cryptid. It was the year 2000 when Sarasota County police in Florida received a letter from an anonymous woman that had two photographs attached, showing a large ape-like creature among some shrubs, and the woman claimed that it was an escaped orangutan that had been stealing apples from her back-porch for three nights.
The photo was found to have been taken near to the Myakka River which is where it got one of its other names from. So, was this the Skunk Ape that had been plaguing areas such as the Everglades with reported sightings? Or was it a different creature altogether, perhaps it was an orangutan? Maybe it was simply a hoax and if it was real, this sure had to be one iron-courage woman to have tracked it down and took a photo of it like this, given the size and likely strength of this ape, it likely would have been easily able to severely injure or even kill the woman if it was real.
If the photo is of a Skunk Ape rather than just an orangutan or hoax, then clearly the creature is pretty big and wide with thick darkish fur, which isn’t typical of a usual orangutan which does have much lighter reddish fur, the creature in the photo also looks much larger than a typical orangutan as well, but it could be the trick of lighting and angles or simply a person sitting in a suit. Also notice in the photo the glowing eyes that some animals can get from the flash of a camera or bright lights, this should not be possible if it was a usual orangutan as most primates lack a tapetum lucidum, a layer of tissue behind the retina that can reflect light, although there is the “red-eye effect” that can sometimes happen in photos under certain conditions, it isn’t the same effect as reflective light caused by the tapetum lucidum as seen in this picture. It also means that if it was a hoax the pranksters would have gone to some interesting lengths to make it seem as authentic as possible
We have to ask why the woman was anonymous and didn’t come forward, it could potentially be she simply didn’t want her name and information out there, perhaps not wanting ridicule. But it can also be a red flag of a hoax for laughs without the pranksters identifying themselves. Whatever it is, it is still nonetheless a very good set of pictures.
A more frightening string of incidents occurred within Campbell County, Tennessee, according to two articles October 20th and 22nd 2003 by the local WATE 6 news website which can be found on the Wayback Machine. The articles talk about six cats and one dog having been mysteriously killed with over 100 other pets reportedly missing over the last three days and people had been claiming to see an ape-like creature in the area, and some witnesses said it had a bad stench. One witness, Donna Keathley, said she startled the creature and that it then threw a kitten at her.
some cryptozoologist investigators believed it could be the Skunk Ape, while other residents have said it could be an orangutan, possibly one that had escaped from a circus that had been in the area recently, although authorities didn’t have any reports of a missing exotic animal.
The situation was so serious that Animal Control officers were searching the county and a monkey-owner called Jerome Love even had to answer a summons over the incident with his Macaque Monkey named Mugway, which some had accused of being the culprit. Many residents were also ready to shoot the creature on sight if they were to encounter it, fearing it could pose a danger to kids with Halloween around the corner.
Many skeptics have said that wildlife such as black bears are likely responsible for many of the sightings of the Skunk Ape and similar creatures due to the similarity in size, fur colour and behavior among other similar traits.
So, who knows, is it widely mis-identification? Is it a bit of both? Are there possibly some escaped primates out there being mistaken for the Skunk Ape? Could some of them be hoaxes and pranksters or people claiming sightings and promoting the creature’s existence for touristy and monetary gain? Or could there actually be some undiscovered ape-like creature roaming around out there in small numbers? The fun of it is that we don’t really know and that’s what makes it a continuing mystery.
Sources
WATE 6 – Search underway for Loose Primate in Campbell County – October 20th 2003
WATE 6 – Is a Skunk Ape Loose in Campbell County? – October 22nd 2003
The above articles can be found using the Wayback Machine Internet Archive.
BBC News – The abominable swampman – March 6th 1998
Skunk Ape Cryptid Wiki
Skeptical Inquirer – Tracking Florida’s Skunk Ape – July 14th 2014, by Joe Nickell
Next up will be T where we talk about the Thunderbird!
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