SKUNK APE

Opening

The skunk ape is Florida's version of Bigfoot: a tall, hairy, upright animal said to live in the Everglades and the state's southern swamps, and named for the rotten smell witnesses describe. Scattered stories go back to the nineteenth century, and the modern wave began in the 1960s and 70s. The best-known evidence is two photographs mailed anonymously to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office in December 2000, showing an ape-like figure at night by a palmetto thicket near Myakka River State Park. The sender was never identified, and nobody has been able to test the photos against an original.

Timeline

1818Local newspapers report a "man-sized monkey" raiding food stores near what is now Apalachicola, in the Panhandle.

1929 to 1963Scattered stories: a creature said to shake the Perky Bat Tower in the Florida Keys and drive away its bats; the "Bardin Booger" of Putnam County from the 1940s; a creature said to pound on a man's vehicle for half a mile in Suwannee County in 1942; a family in north-central Florida who said one peered through their window at night in 1963.

1960s to 1970sSightings of large hairy creatures are reported in Dade County and elsewhere in south Florida. A rash of reports in Broward County between 1971 and 1975 makes the name "skunk ape" stick. In Palm Beach County, two sheriff's deputies say they fired at an ape-like creature that had been stalking them.

1977A bill is introduced in the Florida legislature to make harming "anthropoids or humanoid animals" a crime. It doesn't pass.

2000Dave Shealy, who runs the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee, releases photographs and video he says show the animal in the Big Cypress area.

December 2000The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office receives an anonymous letter with two photos. The writer says the photos were taken at a relative's house, where the animal had been coming to take apples left out on the back porch. The letter goes to cryptozoologist Loren Coleman and is widely published as the "Myakka photos."

2000s to presentOccasional new photos and videos, none tested, and a steady tourist trade in Ochopee.

Key figures

Dave Shealy is the case's most visible promoter and witness. He runs a research centre that is also a roadside attraction.

The anonymous Myakka letter writer supplied the best-known photos and never came forward.

Loren Coleman published and promoted the Myakka photos, and has said they deserve serious attention.

Physical and documentary trail

The sources: the Myakka photos and letter, Shealy's photos and video, and decades of individual reports. No body, bones, or tested hair or DNA.

The Myakka photos show a figure with reflective eyes, lit by flash. Without the original camera or negatives, there's no way to check size or distance.

Things you might not know

• It is named for the smell. Witnesses describe an animal 5 to 7 feet tall with mottled reddish-brown hair and an odour like a skunk's.
• The National Park Service calls it a hoax. The service's position goes back to a 1998 BBC News report.
• A fire chief photographed something in 1997. Vince Doerr, chief of the Ochopee fire district, said he took a picture of a dark upright figure after it crossed the road in front of his car.
• Fifty more reports followed in two weeks. After Doerr's photo, over fifty people reported a hairy creature in Big Cypress National Preserve.
• Bait stands were raided. In July 1997 David Shealy reported that his lima bean bait stands had been emptied and surrounded by strange tracks.
• Most of Florida has reported one. Sightings have come from 48 of the state's 67 counties since 2010.
• It helped fight a pandemic. When COVID-19 arrived in 2020, the Gatorland theme park used the skunk ape's famous smell in a social-distancing campaign.

Competing explanations

An unknown great ape. There's no fossil or modern evidence of apes in North America, and a breeding population would need to be large enough to leave remains.

An escaped or released captive primate. Florida has a long history of exotic pets and roadside zoos, and an orangutan or chimpanzee on the loose could produce a few real sightings. It wouldn't explain decades of reports.

Costumes, hoaxes, and misidentified bears. Florida black bears stand upright and live in the same habitat, and the investigator Joe Nickell suggests a bear with mange, which loses much of its fur, could look strikingly ape-like. People have faked Bigfoot sightings with costumes, and the anonymous Myakka photos have the classic features of a hoax that can't be checked.

Later life of the case

The skunk ape is a fixture of Florida roadside culture, and it appears on TV monster-hunting shows that re-run the same material.

Finding

No physical evidence, and the best-known photos came from someone who wouldn't give a name. Bears, escaped animals, and hoaxes account for the record without needing a new ape.

What still will not resolve: who took the Myakka photos, and what's in them.