Smelly Bigfoot: The Skunk Ape

From Stephen Wagner,
Your Guide to Paranormal Phenomena.

Compelling sightings, yet the mystery remains

IN AUGUST, 2004, Jennifer Ward was driving on a rural road in Southern Florida. She had just been visiting a friend and, as the sun was setting, she was now on her way home with her two daughters asleep in the back seat.
Something on the side of the road caught her attention. She suspected it was an animal of some kind, but could not tell what. She slowed the car to a crawl to get a better look. It appeared to be crouched in a ditch on the roadside. It was something large. Something she had never seen before.

As she neared it, the creature noticed her and stood to its full height – on two legs. It was the last thing Jennifer expected to see. “When he saw me, he was as surprised as I was,” she told the Sun-Sentinal. “I didn't stop because I was scared. It was almost dark, but I could see it and get a good look.”

What Jennifer described was a mysterious creature that has been seen in virtually every state of the Union, but has never been scientifically classified.

It stood six to eight feet tall, she reported, and was covered in dark hair about two inches long. The area around its eyes was whitish and its full lips had the color and texture of the pad on a dog’s paw.

Jennifer Ward had a chance encounter with Florida’s version of Bigfoot – the Skunk Ape, a name it earned because of its powerfully foul odor, which is said to be a cross between a skunk, rotten eggs and cow manure. Her highly credible sighting is one of the latest in a long list of Skunk Ape sightings that date back more than 200 years. In the past 20 years, there have been about 75 reported sightings. Several photos and even videos alleged to be of the elusive creature have also been taken.

The Skunk Ape is thought to dwell in Florida’s swamps and Everglades. Researchers suspect that the individual Jennifer encountered may have been displaced by Hurricane Charley, which recently had ravaged the area.

Despite the number of sightings – the largest number of Bigfoot-type sightings outside the Pacific Northwest where Sasquatch resides – the rangers who regularly patrol the large nature preserves are skeptical about the existence of the Skunk Ape. So far, no rangers have officially reported any sightings.

David Shealy, a Skunk Ape researcher and lifetime resident of the Everglades thinks otherwise. He believes he has evidence in the form of a plaster cast of a large Skunk Ape footprint and a reddish hair sample that was found in a broken branch seven feet above the ground. Shealy also runs a small roadside “zoo” and a gift shop stocked with Skunk Ape memorabilia, so he may have a vested interest in keeping the creature alive in the minds of the public.

Skunk Ape Sightings

There was a wave of sightings in the 1970s, all consistently describing the animal as reaching about seven feet tall, weighing about 300 pounds or more, and to be foul-smelling. (Although Bigfoot or Sasquatch is also said to be bad-smelling, the Skunk Ape’s odor is particularly offensive.) Sightings became scarcer over the following 30 years and then escalated again in the 2000s, with most sightings coming out of the Ochopee area. A group of people taking a guided tour of a swamp area claimed to have seen a large, hairy ape-like creature walking along the banks of the swamp. Soon after, a local fire chief named Vince Doerr said he saw it crossing a road near his home, and before it disappeared into the swamp, he managed to snap a photo of it. Because the creature is some distance away in the photo, it is considered interesting but not conclusive evidence. In fact, Doerr himself later stated that he suspected it was just someone in a gorilla suit.

One highly doubtful bit of lore about the Skunk Ape is that one was captured alive by the U.S. Army and held captive (for unknown reasons) in a secret vault at Everglades National Park. According to the story, the powerful Skunk Ape smashed its way out of its concrete prison and escaped back into the wild. This time it’s the story that skinks; not even avid Skunk Ape advocates put much credence in this tale.

The best evidence for the existence of the Skunk Ape came in 2000 when several photographs were mailed by an anonymous source to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. Known as the "The Myakka Skunk Ape photographs," they clearly show a large ape-like creature. Noted cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, who has thoroughly analyzed the photos, points out the details of forehead lines, yellow canines, fingernails and hair – all clearly visible.

The photographer still has not been identified. So although the photos are compelling and Coleman does not think they are part of a hoax, they still are not proof positive.

Jennifer Ward’s account of her sighting is also highly compelling, and adds yet another piece in the hairy hominid puzzle.

The Bigfoot Enigma

And what a strange puzzle it is.

There have been thousands of reported sightings of Bigfoot-like creatures over the decades, many by highly credible witnesses. Yet virtually every one of those sightings happened spontaneously – that is, unexpectedly – by campers, drivers, loggers, hunters, hikers, etc. Those who go out expressly to find the creature never see it. There are footprints, hair samples, and controversial photos, film and video. Yet park rangers and others who routinely patrol the areas where sightings are said to occur never encounter them.

What is the nature of this beast that it can appear (and smell) so distinctly to so many good eyewitnesses, yet completely evade capture, clear photography (with the possible exception of the Myakka photos) and high-tech detection equipment?

Is Bigfoot a figment of the imagination? Or is it an intelligent creature that has shown great skill (or luck), so far, in keeping its identity secret from those bothersome humans out there?