The skunk ape, also known as the swamp cabbage man, swamp ape, stink ape, Florida Bigfoot, Louisiana Bigfoot, myakka ape, swampsquatch, and myakka skunk ape, is a hominid cryptid said to inhabit the U.S. states of Florida, North Carolina, and Arkansas, although reports from Florida are most common. It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it.
Sightings
Reports of the skunk ape were particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1974, sightings of a large, foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, which ran upright on two legs were reported in suburban neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell has written that some of the reports may represent sightings of the black bear (Ursus americanus) and it is likely that other sightings are hoaxes or misidentification of wildlife. The United States National Park Service considers the skunk ape to be a hoax.
Myakka photographs
In 2000, two photographs said to be of the skunk ape were taken by an anonymous woman and mailed to the Sheriff's Department of Sarasota County, Florida. The photographs were accompanied by a letter from the woman in which she claimed to have photographed an ape in her backyard. The woman wrote that on three different nights, an ape had entered her backyard to take apples left on her back porch. She was convinced the ape was an escaped orangutan.
The pictures have become known to Bigfoot enthusiasts as the "skunk ape photos". Loren Coleman is the primary researcher on the photographs, having helped track down the two photographs to an "Eckerd photo lab at the intersection of Fruitville and Tuttle Roads" in Sarasota, Florida. According to Chester Moore Jr., the photographs were taken in Sarasota County near the Myakka River.
References
Further reading
- Coleman, Loren; Clark, Jerome (1999). Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature. Fireside / Simon and Schuster. pp. 224â€"26. ISBN 0-684-85602-6.Â
- Coleman, Loren (2003). Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America. New York: Paraview Pocket Books. pp. 150â€"67. ISBN 978-0-7434-6975-3. Contains primary historical material on apes, Skunk Apes, and the Myakka photographs.
- Coleman, Loren; Huyghe, Patrick (1999). The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide. New York: Avon Books. pp. 56â€"57. ISBN 978-0-380-80263-0.Â
- Matthews, Rupert (2014) [2008]. Sasquatch: North America's Enduring Mystery; Kindle locations 1360â€"1443. Arcturus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78404-107-6.Â
- Newton, Michael (2005). "Skunk Ape". Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBNÂ 978-0-7864-2036-0.Â
- Stromberg, Joseph (March 6, 2014). "On the Trail of Florida's Bigfootâ€"the Skunk Ape". Smithsonian. Retrieved 18 August 2016.Â
