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Skunk Ape / Fouke Monster / Boggy Creek / Myakka

There are a few threads about skunk apes, certainly (may well get the merging irons out :)) but I think the Myakka photos merit their own thread, in the same manner as the Patterson Bigfoot film has its own devoted thread.

Whilst merging if I spot any posts relating to this I'll copy them over.
 
Bad news for the Myakka photos

I remember reading on the X-project message boards (where I was once a frquent poster) about a possible crack in the Myakka photos' armor. Someone there by the name of Paulnib68 posted a link to some taxidermist's showpiece that bore an uncanny resemblance to the Myakka skunk ape photos. It was in a very similar pose, it's proportions were very much the same, and it shared the same orangutan-like features, though it wasn't just a mounted orangutan.

Unfortunately, the link no longer functions and I can't find the pictures anywhere. I emailed Paul recently and he had this to say:

"I'm looking for it. Been awhile, and I can't remember
who supplied me with it originaly. I know it was on a
BF dedicated forum I used to frequent at the Bigfoot
Internet Library, but it appears the owner George
Karrass has removed it and the forum there.

I seem to recall something about the second photo
being of a disply at a museum that very very closely
matched the Myakka photo, Ripleys of Ripleys Believe
It Or Not museum I think. If I find it I will forward
it to you."

If anyone else has seen this picture or has any leads, let me know.
 
Umgowa!

This may or may not have a connection but in the 1930-40's most of the Tarzan movies were shot in, guess where.... Sarasota Florida. During that time and quite a few years after there were claims of strange creatures, including ape/human creatures, roaming the area. Turned out some of the animals including some monkeys had escaped during filming. I believe they were thought to be all accounted for.
In my outside observing humble opinion the Tarzan animal "scare" set the stage for the skunkape. The happenings in the 30's got the locals looking in the woods, for things that were actually there. Years later people are still looking in the woods for creatures but have forgotten what started the tales of the monkeyman.
In the 40's people would tell stories of these ape creatures, that they were real and that they eventually caught them, but that they turned out to be from the Tarzan movies.
In later generations the stories were re-told, and re-told but every generation told less of the story.
Today the story is that these are real skunkapes proof being there are documented stories that go back to the 30's and they actually caught one of them back then.
 
Believers, skeptics celebrate legend of the skunk ape

By TRACY MIGUEL, [email protected]
June 13, 2004

The second annual Everglades Skunk Ape Festival attracted more than 100 believers and skeptics to a day of live music and food at the Trail Lakes Campground in Ochopee on Saturday.

Tales of South Florida’s skunk ape, a homegrown counterpart of Bigfoot in the Northwest, have circulated locally for decades.

The festivities began Friday night with live bands and about 75 people.

"It’s mainly about having a good time and a way for people to talk about what they have seen," said Collier County’s skunk ape expert and host of the festival, David Shealy.

Despite never having seen a skunk ape, Naples resident Ron Mitchell said there was great music and food.

"This really is Southern hospitality in Southwest Florida," said Mitchell, who was visiting the festival for the first time.

The event was a fun way to spend Saturday with family and friends, said Jonathan Thompson, who had camped at Trail Lakes Campground before.

Shealy’s first sighting of the skunk ape was 30 years ago. He was 10 years old, and he and his brother, Jack, were out hunting when they saw it.

Since then Shealy has devoted his time to showing his videos and pictures of the skunk ape to the public.

In the past, Shealy has appeared on TV shows such as "Inside Edition," "Extra," and "Unsolved Mysteries."

The skunk ape has characteristics which make it different from Bigfoot. It weighs about 300 pounds, has reddish-brown hair, is 7 feet tall and eats beans, said Shealy.

The skunk ape also has a distinctive odor.

"It smells like boiled eggs, toilet, dog breath, and paper bags that stick so much," said 12-year-old Hannah and Dylan Ward, 6.

Yet Shealy isn’t the only person who claims to have seen the skunk ape in the Everglades and Big Cypress.

"It sounds a bit stupid, but in the beginning of August 1998 I saw something strange and amazing, like a bear and half man, that walked like a monkey when I was camping here (Ochopee)," said Jurgen Hartmann, from Heidelberg, Germany.


Many first-time guests enjoyed their visit to Ochopee.

"This is Florida, a neat thing to come to and meet nice people," said Ryan Larry, from Naples.

The festival included live music by Hot Country and Southern Impact and a Ms. Skunk Ape contest, won by Missty Haney.

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_2959312,00.html
 
Skunk ape a chimp?

Bigfoot sighting reaching Silver milestone

By Jason Cannon

CLANTON - Many things have changed in Chilton County. Things have come and gone, including what could be Chilton County's first and only documented 'bigfoot' sighting.

It's been almost 25-years since the original report was filed in the fall of 1960 but that hasn't stopped Bigfoot spotters and researchers from around the country as citing the events around Walnut Creek as a legitimate and marvelous occurrence.

"There's a Southern version of bigfoot that is much like a chimpanzee," said Bigfoot researcher and Professor at the University of Southern Maine, Loren Coleman. "It runs around in the bottom lands and is much more connected to the creeks and swampy areas."

Two years ago, Coleman penned a book about Bigfoot and has devoted a portion of it to the uniqueness of the Clanton citing.

"At a time where people in the 50s and 60s were talking about Bigfoot being just a giant that looked like a human, this was extremely important because it shows they were more ape like creatures in the south."

Coleman said the prints left behind at the Clanton scene proved the creature was more ape than man.

"It's a very general kind of creature that's much different than the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot that's 8-to 9-feet tall and stands upright."

Also, the southern version is often referred to as a booger, a swamp ape or a skunk ape and only stands around 4-feet tall.

According to reports, including those of witness Reverend E.C. Hand of the Refuge Baptist Church, the creature was seen along Highway 31 where it crosses Interstate 65 - just south of town. A few more were filed from two-miles west.

The report said, "Large and small tracks were found as if there were at least two individual animals."

Then Sheriff T.J. Lockhart and Deputy James Earl Johnson investigated the scene and according to the report, described the prints left behind as "the strangest things I've ever seen."

Lockhart and Johnson also took a concrete mold of the prints.

The prints were described as "about the size of a person's foot but looking more like a hand."

The cast was on display at the courthouse for many years but in August 2002 the Sheriff's Department discarded it.

"That's why the cast was so unique is that is actually proves that the southern 'bigfoot' was much more like a chimpanzee than a human."

Coleman said one theory is that the chimpanzees were brought over during the African slave trade and allowed to run wild.

He added there have been reports filed about similar creatures for about 250 years across the south.

However, there have been no other documented sightings in Chilton County since 1960.

clantonadvertiser.com/articles/2004/07/07/news/a-news.txt
LInk is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted in full above) can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004110...tiser.com/articles/2004/07/07/news/a-news.txt
 
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Published Saturday, November 13, 2004

Our Own Loch Ness Monster?

Woman's Sighting of Ape-Like Green Swamp Creature Among the Theories Studied by Cryptozoologists

By Gary White
The Ledger
[email protected]

When Jennifer Ward drives through the Green Swamp these days, she makes sure she has a camera in her car. She hopes she'll get the chance to capture for others an image is already seared into her memory, and she knows only a picture will persuade others that she really did see something bizarre one evening a few months ago.

"I've heard about Big Foot and stuff," Ward says. "I didn't really think it existed, but I'm convinced now."

Ward, 30, was driving on Moore Road in northern Polk County a few days after Hurricane Charley's passage through the area when she glanced to her left and saw something she says has haunted her ever since. She describes it as a creature with a human form that was covered in dark hair or fur and had whitish rings around its eyes.

Ward says the mysterious animal stood erect in a drainage ditch along the road, and she estimates its height at 8 feet. Based on her description, it might have been foraging in the ditch when she surprised it.

"It looked like it was doing something; it was focused on something," Ward says. "Whenever it saw me, it probably took on the facial expression I had on because I was dumbfounded. It just watched me as I drove by." Asked if it might have been a bear, she replied, "No chance at all."

Ward says she didn't stop because her two daughters were sleeping in the back seat and she feared the animal might attack her Toyota 4Runner if given the chance. She went back to the scene later to search for hair or footprints, but she didn't find any conclusive evidence.

Since the fleeting observation, Ward has obsessively tried to convey to others what she saw. She has filled a drawing pad with sketches of the animal, though she says she lacks the skill to depict it precisely.

"I can't seem to get it off my mind," Ward says. "I hope to see it again some time."Ward doesn't seem surprised that others, including family members and friends, have received her story dubiously. She says her daughters make jokes about the sighting even as they tell her they believe her. Ward's husband, Richard Furnari, an amateur archaeologist who has accumulated bones of prehistoric animals, would like more evidence to support his wife's claim.

"She swears to it," Furnari says. "I was skeptical at first, but . . . I'm certain she saw something. I don't know what."

Ward found an enthusiastic ally in Scott Marlowe, an archaeologist and instructor with the Pangea Institute, an educational entity based in Winter Haven. Marlowe already knew Furnari, who donated a collection of fossils to Pangea Institute earlier this year.

Marlowe has long had an interest in cryptozoology, the study of legendary or unconfirmed species. Upon hearing of Ward's experience, he told her about a long-rumored creature known variously as the Florida swamp ape or Florida skunk ape.

Reported sightings of swamp apes have been arising for years, and in 2000 someone anonymously mailed photos to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department purportedly of the creature taken in the Myakka River area. But Ward says those pictures and other sketches Marlowe showed her didn't match the animal she saw. Marlowe, for his part, suspects some claimed swamp ape sightings actually involved escaped or released orangutans.

Marlowe will teach a class in cryptozoology for Florida Keys Community College next year. He says he would welcome any confirmation of Ward's claim.

"At this point there's been a single sighting," Marlowe says. "I would be really interested to hear from anybody (else) who had a sighting of that. One of the things I will be doing with my class next summer is taking them out on a field study where we actually try to go after a cryptid (unrecognized) animal."

A few animals have made the transition from fabled to confirmed status -- perhaps most notably the coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for 60 million years before one was found alive in 1938. Marlowe says it's conceivable a mystery animal could live deep in the Green Swamp and might have been driven from its normal range by a hurricane.

"We haven't seen anything conclusive to substantiate this sighting, although I do believe the individual (Ward)," Marlowe says. "These things have to be approached very, very carefully."

Source
LInk is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted in full above) can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004120...dll/article?AID=/20041113/NEWS/411130309/1021


Published Thursday, October 28, 2004

Four Corners
Forrest S. Clark

If You're Looking to Get Scared, Then Look No Further Than Green Swamp

By Forrest S. Clark

Now you see them, now you don't. They are the ghosts of lost souls in the Green Swamp, that vast mysterious place on the doorstep of Four Corners. Folklore has it that a hunting party got lost many years ago, and each year comes back to haunt the swamp.

Then there is the legend of the driverless car that cruises up and down U.S. 27 on Halloween. Watch out for it. It was seen last year and is sure to turn up this year. Watch out for . . . no driver in a speeding car.

And how about that story of the haunted orange grove on U.S. 27, where shadowy figures have been seen lurking in the trees?

But most scary of all is the Clermont monster that has been seen rising out of the lakes around Lake County and Four Corners. It is unofficially known as the Loch Ness monster of Four Corners.

There are haunted houses in Clermont and the Four Corners, and even a few haunted shops in the shopping centers on U.S. 192.

However, do not worry, because the authorities are on the lookout.

Remember the story that crops up every year about the lost couple with the infant child? They were spotted in a citrus grove shed by some workers, but when deputies checked out the location, they could find nothing.

How about this one: A driver relates that one dark night while he was very tired while driving down U.S. 27, he saw a man standing by the side of the road waving frantically and pointing down the highway.

The driver said as he passed this figure, he recognized it as his father . . . who had died 15 years earlier.

A short distance down the road, a huge tree had fallen across the highway. The driver had to hit his brakes quickly to avoid hitting the tree. This saved the driver's life. He looked about . . . but he did not see his father again.

Is it true?

The Green Swamp, which cuts across Lake and Polk counties, is the most likely haunting place for ghosts and spirits. Driving along State Road 33 on a dark night is a daunting experience because even the trees appear like specters standing on the side of the road.

Keep away from the swamp if you are trick or treating because you may get a treat you were not expecting.

A famous environmental leader and park ranger who did not want his name used in print told me the strangest story of the Green Swamp.

The ranger has been known to camp out alone in remote places like the Everglades, the Ocala National Forest or the Green Swamp. One night, the ranger told me, he was camping in a secluded and remote section of the swamp. Around midnight, he became aware of a strange glow coming close to him from the forest. He got up to check it out. The glow continued for hours.

Finally, unable to restrain himself, the ranger started sloshing through the swamp in the direction of that bizarre, eerie glow.

The glow became brighter as he got closer to it, and soon it lit up all the cypress trees around him. He had to slosh almost knee deep in the swamp as he made slow progress toward it. As he advanced, the ranger noticed there were water moccasins and other creatures in the swamp water. He realized he wasn't alone, but he didn't stop; the ranger knew he had to find that mysterious glow, so he continued on. As he neared the place where the glow was coming from, he spotted a strange sight.

A huge tree, maybe 150 foot tall, was glowing in the night, sending off a light that could be seen for miles. It was not a fire; but the entire tree was clearly outlined in a yellowish phosphorescent glow. He stood before it hypnotized by the sight, transfixed and in awe.

To this day, he cannot give a detailed, scientific explanation of the reason for this natural -- or should I say unnatural -- sight. As he approached that tree, a wind engulfed him and the glow became brighter until it was like being there during daylight.

The ranger swears the story is true. He remains convinced the tree was not on fire, but rather possessed by some otherworldly light. He will not admit it, but this light seemed to him to come from another world.

The lesson is clear. Do not venture into the most remote places in the swamp, especially on Halloween . . .

. . .because the spirits will get you if you don't watch out.

The swamp is not the only haunted place in Four Corners.

On quiet nights in the Lake Louisa State Park, the sound of airplane engines can be heard. There are no aircraft that can be seen flying above, but the sound has been reported anyway. About 60 years ago, a World War II military fighter plane crashed in Lake Louisa, and the pilot was killed. Some old timers say that pilot is still haunting the lake, and his spirit is still there.

Some say it is merely the swish of the wind in the cypress trees bordering the lake.

But others are not so sure.

Stranger things happen in Four Corners.

If you see that driverless car, do not try to stop it. Report it to the Highway Patrol. Let them take care of it.

And be careful on Halloween to drive safely with both hands on the wheel.

Have a scary Halloween and be kind to the ghosts.

Do you believe?

Last modified: October 26. 2004 3:40PM

Source
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Marlowe will teach a class in cryptozoology for Florida Keys Community College next year. He says he would welcome any confirmation of Ward's claim.

"At this point there's been a single sighting," Marlowe says. "I would be really interested to hear from anybody (else) who had a sighting of that. One of the things I will be doing with my class next summer is taking them out on a field study where we actually try to go after a cryptid (unrecognized) animal." ..Now thats cool! wish I was near the keys! I'm near the Myakka River area just down the road..but Rowdy won.t go further than 25 feet from the dirt road into the woods..hhhha ammm ..he probably smells something...the troble with the Myakka River area is Swamp,snakes and of course alligators..its hard to see very far in front of you befor your on top of a critter..and dogs smell real good (border collies especially) and I won't go in there along and I can't get anyone to go in with me ,,damn monster right here and nobody gives a crap to go look for it! oh well..I drive by the area real slow sometimes and ther are back roads you can cruz on..also abandon homesites and streets that were put in in some areas where they were going to put homes and never did..and its all over grown and the Myakka River runs along some of these weird (no body around ) areas..really spooky!! rowdy just hangs his head out the window and sniffs ..sniffs ,,,
 
More on the Green Swamp ape:

Published Wednesday, December 29, 2004

`Ape' Sighting Draws Interest

By Gary White
The Ledger
[email protected].

If the Green Swamp ape actually does exist, its ears must be burning.

Lakeland resident Jennifer Ward went public in November, sharing her description and drawings of a hairy, human-shaped creature she claimed to have seen on the edge of the Green Swamp in August. Ward's tale has reverberated through cyberspace, with links to the original Ledger story and a subsequent Orlando Sentinel article showing up on such sites as Paranormal News, Dr. Mysterian and American Monsters.

Ward has drawn attention from groups that probe the existence of unconfirmed creatures, and she has appeared on three radio shows to discuss what she saw.

"I'm not real surprised people are interested in it," Ward says.

Ward, 30, has discussed her experience with radio hosts at stations in West Palm Beach, Iowa and Jacksonville. She was joined by Scott Marlowe, an instructor with the Winter Haven-based Pangea Institute, which offers classes in archaeology and other areas. The mother of two says disc jockeys at one station treated her story as comedy, and one at the Iowa station questioned her sanity.

"I'd probably think it was real funny, too, if I just heard about it," Ward says. "I just said I can't help what I saw and I can't help what other people think, either."

Marlowe says the disc jockeys seemed prepared to ridicule Ward but seemed impressed by the obvious sincerity in her voice.

"When Jennifer begins to talk, you can tell she's not fabricating this," Marlowe says.

Ward was driving along Tom Moore Road north of Lakeland a few days after Hurricane Charley in August when she saw something in a ditch beside the road. She describes a two-legged creature about eight feet tall and covered in dark fur with light rings around its eyes. She says it seemed to be foraging.

Ward, who had her two daughters in her car, says she watched the creature for 30 seconds or so before driving on. She examined the scene later but found no conclusive evidence of any beast's presence.

Since Ward's story appeared, several neighbors have told her they have seen or heard something strange in the Green Swamp, and she has learned people living along Rock Ridge Road talk about a "gray ape." But none were willing to speak publicly about their experiences.

Several readers also contacted The Ledger with descriptions of unfamiliar creatures, though only one agreed to be identified.

Carol Gill of Davenport says reading about Ward's experience evoked memories of a night nearly two decades ago when she and her ex-husband were fishing and rabbit hunting at night in northeast Polk County. Driving in their truck, they came across what Gill recalls as a fleshtoned animal about 5 feet long that raced before them at great speed.

Gill, 48, says she first thought it was a hog but noticed it loped more like a kangaroo.

"I just freaked out, telling my husband, `Let's leave,' " Gill recalls. "He was just trying to maneuver the truck and get a good spotlight n it. . . . It wasn't my imagination or anything."

Gill says she hasn't told many people about the experience, and her ex-husband now lives out of state. She drew comfort from hearing about Ward's sighting.

"There's somebody else that's seen something too out there," Gill says.

Ward's claimed sighting has boosted interest in an online cryptozoology class Marlowe is scheduled to teach next semester for Florida Keys Community College. Marlowe says he has received inquiries from as far away as New Jersey and Australia for the course, which will explore rumored or unconfirmed species.

Not everyone, though, is encouraging Marlowe's pursuit of what he considers scientific truth. Marlowe says he has received "hate mail" both from creationists and evolutionists who question the existence of an unconfirmed species of hominid.

The story also has drawn attention from the nation's foremost cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman. The Maine-based author of such books as "Cryptozoology A to Z" has discussed the matter with Marlowe and says he hopes to explore the area and interview Ward during a visit next spring.

Coleman says creatures identified as skunk apes or swamp apes have been spotted in Florida at least since 1960. He estimates there are 20 legitimate sightings a year, though he says most remain unreported because the witnesses fear ridicule.

"It certainly sounds like it goes within the context of other stories from Florida," Coleman says of Ward's claim. "I find this a credible story. It needs more investigating. I'm hoping the article will bring forth people who are seeing these things because they fail to report them."

Marlowe prepared a map of swamp ape sightings in Florida since 1982 that shows Polk County among seven counties with three or more observations. He says the map suggests Polk could be the final stop in a southward winter migration for the creature.

While Marlowe hopes to conduct an academic survey of the southern Green Swamp some time next year, he says others have been searching the area in a less rigorous way.

"I've noticed the number of people cruising up and down Moore Road seems to be higher," Marlowe says.

Could the rumor of a swamp ape some day draw people to Polk County just as the legendary Loch Ness monster provides a tourism draw for northern Scotland? Jackie Johnson of the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce says she hasn't received any calls about the creature and doesn't anticipate a marketing campaign.

"I don't know that anybody is seriously considering it from a Lakeland standpoint," Johnson says. "The idea of Lakeland being associated with swamps -I'm not sure how we could use it."

Source
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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well I'll tell you

yet again I drove throught the Skunk ape area going down to my brothers( for x-mas,) house in Punta Gorda (Ft. Myers area) went by the Myyaka River , etc..and as far as you can see its like Prehistoric land! lakes, rivers, streams, by George ! they're is creeping things out there!! It is a creepy area!! I am a brave warrior, but would have to take a (few) trusted partner (s) ( with a large hand gun or three) before I spent some quality time roaming the many miles of jungle!! :shock:
 
Skunk ape movie to debut in April

By Neil Pascoe 01/06/2005



This isn't a chapter out of Campfire Stories, like Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil or the Abominable Snowman in which the unexplainable continues to somehow appear and reappear in various "sightings" around the globe. While most people poo-poo such claims, Nate Martin of Marco Island believes in one special creature of his own, the Ochopee skunk ape, located right here in Collier County.

Martin has spent the last six years of his life shooting, editing and producing his very own full-length feature film on the skunk ape.

"I guess I became interested in this about six years ago when I spent some time at a camp and festival ground owned by a guy named Dave Shealy out in Ochopee," Martin said. "He began telling me about his encounters and adventures with the skunk ape in the vicinity in and around Ochopee."

The setting is perfect for such a tale, as Ochopee makes up approximately one square mile on Route 41. It lies east of Everglades City and is nestled in the Big Cypress National Preserve. Neighboring areas include the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve and the Miccosukee Indian Reservation. South from there is Everglades National Park. We're not talking beautiful downtown Burbank here.

As Martin puts it, "If you blink going through Ochopee, you'll probably miss it."

Martin calls his skunk ape project the Sasquatch of the South.

"It's smaller than a Bigfoot," Martin said, "but it appears like a Bigfoot ­ kind of like an ape-man, only with big feet. Its defining characteristic is its distinctive smell. It's terrible. It smells like 100 skunks along with the dung of a goat."

"A lot of local people over there say the reason that he smells like that is because he lives in alligator holes underground, and the sulphur deposits along with methane gas contribute to his aroma," Martin said.

According to Martin, the skunk ape's coat of four-inch long brown hair absorbs the sulphur and gas smells.

The skunk ape legend is an ancient Seminole Indian belief which Dave Shealy has carried on. Shealy is a 40-year skunk ape tracker in and around Ochopee, gathering many witnesses' interviews. Together with Martin's filming and Shealy's actual skunk ape footage, The Ochopee Skunk Ape movie will debut in April at the Bombay Club on Marco Island.

"The star of the movie is obviously Dave Shealy, but the co-stars are all about 75 years old and are old full-time mullet fishermen, crabbers and locals who have claimed to have seen the skunk ape," Martin said. "It's a full-length, 90-minute documentary movie but with a twist. The twist is that it's exciting, adventurous yet comical as well."

The film, which Martin narrates, is basically Shealy's true-life story and his experiences with the skunk ape during that time.

"Basically, I just follow Dave through the swamp, filming what we see and encounter along the way," Martin said.

Adding to the suspense was a 15-second sighting of the skunk ape as it ran through Shealy's campground three weeks ago. A University of Minnesota faculty member captured the ape on film and gave Martin a still photograph of the incident.

As for Martin's venture into undertaking a feature film, he admitted to having no experience.

"Actually, I received training in music engineering," he said. "And on that note, I decided not only to write, produce and record the whole soundtrack, but I also engineered, mixed and mastered the whole thing myself. I pretty much wrote the movie, produced it, directed it and edited it."

Martin started filming the movie about a year ago while writing the script along the way. He filmed over 30 hours of tape that was left on the cutting room floor as he honed the finished product.

With a backer providing the needed funds for full-scale production, Martin hopes to have about 1,500 prints of the film ready for commercial distribution before April.

"My first guaranteed showing is going to be at the Bombay Club at 9 on April 13 and 14," Martin said. "Then I'd like to proceed to the various film festivals such as the World Film Festival in Naples, Sundance Film Festival, and Cannes, France, with it. I want to go all the way because I really think I have something of interest that people would like to see and learn more about."

Shealy has appeared on such national television programs as Inside Edition, Unsolved Mysteries, The Pulse with Diane Sawyer, and on the local news a number of times as well.

"I think this is a story and a film of great public interest," Martin said, "And I'd like more people to be aware of the skunk ape and just what it is."

Just remember to wear a clothespin on your nose if you happen to meet it up close.

----------------------
©Marco Island Sun Times 2005

Source
 
The Skunk Ape

If these pictures are of a real creature, Loren Coleman's comparisons to the Sumatran Orangutan seem to point to a new breed of Orangutan:

lorencoleman.com/myakka.html
The embedded link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040602225240/http://www.lorencoleman.com/myakka.html

Apparently, the name Skunk Ape has been made because the ape smells like a Skunk. Well there's one thing if you are visiting the Florida Everglades, you can smell him coming!

The main difference here is that it's fur is grey, as opposed to the Sumatran Orangutan, which of course is a reddish brown.

Also, the creature seems to stand upright better than the Orangutan can. The pictures are intriguing, I'll admit, but I can't shake the feeling that they are a hoax. 50% of me believes that the pics are real, but 50% does not.

However, these guys have some video footage that they claim to be a Skunk Ape: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16359562&BRD=2256&PAG=461&dept_id=455823&rfi=6 , and they will be giving it a showing on April 14th. If anybody lives near the Goodland area in Florida, maybe you can go and see the video and let's us know what you think.

I'll be keeping an eye on this one I think!
 
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Thanks for the updates Tony. I did search for threads on the Skunk Ape here, but didn't look past the first page, LOL! :roll:
 
There is at least one Skunk Ape fan site:

http://www.floridaskunkape.com/

A lot of similar bigfoot/sasquatch creatures are also reported to be super-stinky, for some reason. Which is odd, because while most wild animals can be a bit musky, most aren't ordinarily make-you-gag, godawful stench-ridden smelly. Perhaps one could imagine that skunk apes deliberately cover themselves with the dung of other animals to conceal their own odour, in the fashion of wild dogs and other canines...

:confused:
 
That hydrogen suphide smell is a commonly reported facet of several sorts of unusual events. Which could indicate that some of these anamolous animals are not exactly the physical creatures they seem to be.
 
I'd love to see it restored, the pan and scan public domain copies floating around do the photography no justice at all.
 
Anybody seen the BOGGY CREEK films ?

Fouke,Arkansas is home to the
Fouke Monster (a.k.a: the BOGGY CREEK MONSTER )

seen all these films & enjoyed them all .

So if your a BigFoot fan/believer & you've never seen these I'd suggest you make up a big bowl of popcorn & watch these

www.foukemonster.net
 
Anybody seen the BOGGY CREEK films ?

Fouke,Arkansas is home to the
Fouke Monster (a.k.a: the BOGGY CREEK MONSTER )

seen all these films & enjoyed them all .

So if your a BigFoot fan/believer & you've never seen these I'd suggest you make up a big bowl of popcorn & watch these

www.foukemonster.net/movies.htm

The 'Legend of Boggy Creek' is certainly a good one to watch particularly as some of it's actors are actual witnesses to the creature and it's filmed in some of the locations where sightings took place.
It used to be available on YouTube but has recently been restored to 4k an re-released so it now vanished from there.
 
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