The Skunk Ape

Place : Several sightings occured near Ochopee in the 729,000-acre Big Cypress National Preserve, a portion of the Everglades which is considered a Wildlife Management Area. This large swamp is home to two other monstrous creatures, the Giant Gator (an alligator the size of a small island), and the Gatorman who is half-pygmy, half-alligator. A stuffed Gatorman used to be found in Washington state museum (if you have a picture please send it).

Description:. Legend goes that the skunk ape stands more than 7 feet tall, weighs more than 300 pounds and is the color of brown swamp mud. It has a mostly vegetarian diet and loves to steal pots of lima beans left to soak by Everglade hunters. Yet the ape has also been said to kill a deer, split open its belly and eat only the liver. Skunk ape hunters would entice the monster with livers.

Sightings : During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s the State of Florida was the setting for a series of encounters between people and an ape-man like creature that soon came to be known as the Skunk Ape. Because of the creature supposed ape-like appearance and its odor which was described as being similar to that of a skunk, it was called Skunk Ape.

The first of these sightings occurred in Marion County in 1977. Thereafter, sightings occurred in Lake County in 1980, in Broward County in 1980, in Citrus County in 1983, in Volusia County in 1989, and in Collier County in 1993 and 1997. Some of these sightings were only of footprint evidence although several of the witnesses claimed to have seen the animal itself.  

More recently in July 2000, a creature was seen by several witnesses included the local fire-chief, two tour guides and their tour buses filled with tourists, a local realtor, and a young couple.

The famous pictures of the Florida Skunk Ape in Sarasota County, Florida (above), which were supposedly taken in early autumn 2000 are probably faked.