I read about this ape that closely resembles bigfoot but roams around Southeastern parts of the United States, around swamps and large vegatation areas. The only apparent distiction between sasquatch and the skunk ape is that the skunk ape is said to be smaller about 6 foot 5 and is orange (hair) and really long hair it has the same stench (maybe stronger as it is said it can knock you out cold) it ha red glowing eyes and apparently eats out of trash cans and such maybe were its getting its smell from if anyone has any sightings or reports of this creature please repley with them.

Skunk Ape = pretty much bigfoot. Pretty cool, actually. Here are some supposed pictures of him - I apologize if these are proven to be hoaxes, I'm looking around and so far nothing says they've been proven false.

Thanks for that i know that photo has not yet been proven real or fake it was sent to a sheriffs department who were baffled about what it was.

Your welcome. Yeah, I just read up more about it and it sounds fascinating. If only the person who took the pictures had left their name when they sent the letter with the photos...

The photos are kind of creepy, no? I love your icon/avatar, by the way.

Thanks and yeah it is kind of creepy i'll try to find more about it too.

Okay, I know this is off-topic but I was typing quickly and suddenly coming from upstairs this baby-toy sounding wind-up tune of "happy birthday" began to echo around my house. It's coming from upstairs but I don't dare go up there.

Oh, and don't forget this video. It came out all fuzzy for me. You?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFbBNG5Ze14

A note here upon the Stench of the Skunk Ape...a very high diet of Folic Acid rich vegetation

A Nocuous Very strong odor or stench, would be due to the moist and humid climate of its natural habitat, as acrid urine and waists are clinging to its body hair, the overwhelming stench of its urine is most likely due to its eating grasses and shoots of vegetation as some are very high in folic acid and trace elements such as zinc, manganese, iron, and calcium which when humans ingest their urine becomes very strong in odor when evacuated, so it is very highly probable that this Skunk Ape is a Vegetarian and is eating Reads and wild Asparagus, and water born plants…

Pavot

Huh, interesting. I've never heard that theory before, but I suppose it would make sense. I still don't quite get how people can't seem to believe in Bigfoot/Skunk Apes. We have scat, footprints, sightings, pictures, videos, lairs, sound recordings, hairs, DNA...all we are missing is a body, which would be extremly hard to find.

Yea that makes sense, also the damp humid clymate would probably help create the stench too.

Valid suppositions. A human fault, anthropomorphising, ie: assigning human traits to animals, would try to clean up the perhaps accurate picture you posted about the reported odor. A more positive portrayal wouldn't include embedded feces and whatnot. I postulate bacteria grow within the dense hair of the creature, with a similar horrid odor. The concept begs the question, does an intelligent species dispose of their wastes in a sanitary, discreet manner? I'd like to think so, but believe there are certainly intelligent contradictions to that desire.

i'm pretty sure that pic was shown to be a hoax, its from an exhibit or something

I have been reaserching and i found out that the skunk ape was found during the medieval as a story by hunters who claimed to have seen a mighty beast with a foul odour several men went to hunt the creature they were asleep when the tench woke them up all died except one who told the story to other people.

A medieval Florida legend?

I saw that on a show, can't remember the name right now. But it was in the 1800s I think. A hunter was attacked then a group went out to hunt the thing down and most were killed. It was written in a newspaper at the time, this is how the story survived.

Not medieval then is it?


I would be happy to say that beyond all reasonable doubt that there is no such thing as the skunk ape and 19th century newspaper reports are generally not reputable on such things.

Ok, it was Monster quest. The articles were, Arkansas- 1850 and Tenn.- 1934.
Swamp beast

What makes the Skunk Ape so unbelievable? We have yet to find many creatures in this world...

haha I had to laugh at that.

Here's the letter that accompanied the photos, just so anybody who is interested could have a gander.


Whether or not this is a hoax, I couldn't tell.
It is very interesting though.
My grandfather was born in 1907, in Esto Florida, he lived in the swamps and slews of Florida and south Alabama his whole life.
He was a quiet religious man who never swore or took a drink, unlike his son or his granddaughter for that matter.
He told me about skunk apes back in 1982, before all the hype and crypto stuff, before the internet even. (can you imagine)
He didn't tell me to scare me or to joke around. He was telling me about things that he had seen on his land and things that he thought I would see (we'd just moved here) living on his land (1500 acres mostly swamp) on the FL, AL line. He wanted to be sure that I was safe. He told me how to avoid them. (He also told me about beavers and panthers and bobcats and wild dogs and wild pigs.)He was very matter of fact and while I had never heard of skunk apes before, I had no reason to question him, I was only 14.
The next time I saw anyone besides him, mention the skunk ape I was 21, and there was a write up in a local newspaper of someone who thought they'd hit one with their car in Malone Florida.
So yeah, I find the whole thing quite plausible.

Very plausible. Obviously an escaped Orangutan.

Yes, little ones in really remote places. Most new species found are in fact ones that were previously thought to be a subspecies of another species.
What makes the skunk ape unbelievable you say - NO EVIDENCE WHAT SO EVER!

Well, there is some evidence. Maybe anecdotal at best, but there is a history of anecdotal evidence that has been proven years later to be accurate. To accept every anecdotal claim as fact would be folly but to dismiss every anecdotal account would be folly as well.

It is beyond reasonable doubt that there is nothing there.
For a start the complete lack of biological impact.

Skunk Apes/Bigfoot have reasonable evidence. We have sightings, pictures, videos, scat, hair, DNA, lairs, sound recordings, footprints, and bodyprints. The only thing we are missing is a body which would be ridiculously hard to find considering:

1. Mice bury their dead, and many other creatures do as well. I think that perhaps maybe Skunk Apes/Bigfeet do, too. We really have no idea the habits and lifestyle of these creatures, and if they were semi-intelligent, burying there dead seems highly likely.

2. Skunk Apes/Bigfoot are ridiculously rare, so we would be lucky if one would even die around your life span. If the creature was alone, or they didn't bury their dead, the creature would probably not have even been found for a long time, considering the secluded areas these sort of creatures live in. The bones could have even fallen into a swamp, for all we know.

3. Predators would probably quickly get to the body, wripping it apart and destroying it into seperate bones. Bones, especially small ones, are pretty overlooked. By then they would either be washed into water, buried under earth from rain and mudslides, hidden under roots and trees and other areas, and completely lost all together. That with the fact that we would be lucky for one to even die in the first place, it would be ridiculously hard to find a body.

So we probably need to find some sort of bone-detector, and then lives would be much easier, especially when searching for dinosaur bones.

I think this is the reason why I find it so hard to believe that bigfoot or Skunk apes are terrestrial flesh and blood creatures..

there has been no evidence to suggest that they have ever existed on the fossil record...otherwise their presence could still be authenticated without the need for a visual sighting.

Paleontologist's and Natural History researchers take their work very seriously, and are not part timers. To 'overlook' the existence of a creature (despite over 200 million years worth of Bone matter has been classfied and labelled) is silly at best. Paleontology has been able to plot the evolutionary path of mammals over 65 million years ago, yet we believe they are unable to find the remains of a creature that exists today?

And lest we forget, we are not talking about a creature that inhabits areas devoid of humans; quite plainly (simply because we have visual sightings in the first place) they inhabit areas frequently travelled by humans.

I do not think this is implausible at all. No doubt this is a one of creature that has either been released, or escaped. As it is one of a kind, it no doubt has very little impact, mostly stealing food from porches and the like. This is not a new creature/species, breeding population, nothing like that, more like an ABC. Simply an escaped pet of sorts. When it dies, no more skunk apes will be reported, although it is plausible the skelton will be found. I have never been to Florida, but I understand it has quite some vegitation and places for a sinlge escaped animal to hide, but it is no more than that. The picture reveals an Orangutan. I bet it would be a sorry and cranky specimen too surviving like that. This is no Biff, or relation. It may actually exist from what I understand, although if we have any members from Florida, I would be very interested to hear what the townspeople think of the legend.

Cousin Biff? Nahh. Just a monkey. oo oo.

i think its a rich orangutan that can afford to go to florida for the winters

Boy, if the smell doesn't knock me out cold, the very site of him would definitely knock me out. Very eery!!!

All what you have listed as evidence does not stand up to scientific scrutiny sorry.
There is no viable evidence, please do not try an explain zoology to me as it is my field of study. All of this has been discussed before and has shown to be nonsense. Feel free to look at the Big foot threads in here and see that.

If I was you, I would avoid the Orangutan enclosure at the zoo then.

Well, you learn something new everyday.
I never heard this before. That is remarkable.

I don't really know much about the 'Skunk Ape' as it's quite a bit further south than my stomping grounds.
Forgive my OT interruption, I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I recently learned that armadillos can survive further north than mid-Alabama, and now I learn that 'mice bury their dead', I love Mother Nature, she's always full of surprises!

I'll step back and let you all continue on with your discussion.




Edited becuz I left out half a sentence. lol

Armadillos have been extending their range north for hundreds of years. They're now not unusual in the southern parts of my state, and a carcass was discovered near Orchard, Nebraska, in a haystack. It had evidently taken refuge there to take advantage of the warmth generated within.

I never said it would stand up to scientific scrutiny, I just said that we have many pieces of information that point to Bigfoot being real. And I would like you to give me sources, links, or reasons how all of these have been proven to be nonsence. I didn't know that all videos, pictures, sound recordings, scat, DNA, hairs, foot prints, lairs, ect, ect, was proven to be nothing more than hoaxes and misunderstandings.


Haha, and it is remarkable that mice bury there dead. I knew it even before I heard it elsewhere since I have owned mice most of my life, and if you have a giant cage filled with a considerable amount of bedding, it is often hard to figure out whether one of your mice is hiding or his companion noticed he died and buried him. (Not a happy thought.)

Normally i,m a skeptic but its my 400th post so im going to be naughty what if bigfoot is a carrion eater and tbey consume their dead?

http://www.itsnature.org/legendary-creatures/skunk-ape/

Abit more info here

"In 2000, two photographs of an ape, said to be the Skunk Ape, were taken anonymously and mailed to the Sarasota Sheriff's Department in Florida. They were accompanied by a letter [3] from a woman claiming to have photographed the creature in the palmettos at the edge of her backyard. The photographer claimed that for three nights the ape had entered her yard to take apples from a bushel basket on her porch. She was convinced it was an escaped orangutan. The police were called to the house continuous times but when they arrived the 'Ape' was gone. The pictures have become known to Bigfoot enthusiasts as the "Myakka skunk ape photos".[4]

Loren Coleman is the primary researcher on the Myakka photographs, having tracked down the two photographs to an "Eckerd photo lab at the intersection of Fruitville and Tuttle Roads" in Sarasota County, Florida. [5]

A later investigation led by the TV series Monster Quest shows that the photographs were most likely not of a real animal."

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Ape

It's probably nothing, but it still deserves investigation, since alot of people have said that they've seen it.

Been to Myakka plenty of times and never once saw or smelt a skunk ape. I was disappointed.

Well considering its name starts with "skunk" thats probably a good thing

Haha! Yeah, you're actually one of the lucky ones!

I feel sorry for the poor people who have, supposedly, seen the Skunk Ape!

Yeah, spose, did see plenty of armadillo there and white tailed deer and wild pigs and alligators.

Funny, I actually posted that once on another bigfoot topic. Congratz on your four hundreth post, by the way.

Can you offer a link offering credible videos, pictures, sound recordings, scat, DNA, hairs, foot prints, lairs? If one source was verified, this debate would not be happening. As far as I know, everything available claimed to be Biff proof is inconclusive. Inconclusive does not = Biff. Most examples are quite old, as are the results of the testing carried out on them, new testing has proven such samples to be hoaxes. One such case earned press attention in mid-2005 when the alleged Bigfoot hairs were identified by University of Alberta geneticist David Coltman as originating from a bison.

Mice it seems do indeed bury their dead on occassion, however, it is not a regular occourence. After reading that snippet of information, I went to All About Mice, and emailed the moderators, who by the way were very polite and helpful, (I must have a better look around there), and it went like this



Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent Not a viable option to keep a global population of Biffs covert. Nor could this account for accidental death or disease. Even if the odd Biff was a canibal, this eat/bury the dead theory accounts for zip. Even though Mice do on occassion bury and eat their dead, we have quite a catalogue on this tiny mammal, why nothing on an 800 pound 7 foot primate? I cannot fathom how every Biff carcass would vanish upon death, along with all traces from all time, even coproliths. Much as a new primate would be heartily welcomed into the hominid family tree, this one is pure legend. The Skunk Ape is just a runaway.

i happen to live in the southeastern USA. near pensacola, fl to be exact. there are rumored to be in this town about half an hour from where i live. my friends and i refer to it as the "Skank" Ape because of its dirty smelliness.

Any local stories you could share?

Whoops! sorry about that didn.t realize can you ever forgive me madam

WOW iv,e always found it fascinating that you can have such bio-diversity so close to a population centre, its a shame that we can,t learn to work with nature as apposed to working against it

well, personally when my friends and i went up to chumuckla, near milton to visit Coon Hill Cemetary, we heard swinging noises in the outcropping of trees, now i hear that its the sound of someone that hung themself, but it could be skunk ape because at that edge of the cemetary it smelled a lot differently than the rest

Be worth taking a camera to the area. INVEST IN ANTI SHAKE AND A DECENT FLASH LOL.

I would expect this creature would have a habitat, I would start by looking at the local water sources, and surveying those. All animals need water. Surely a large escaped Orangutan would be fairly easy to track once on the trail?

Yes, surely a large escaped orangutan would be fairly easy to track once on the trail.
I'm not really sure why anyone would think that one escaped orangutan would be the cause for these sightings or stories.
This is nothing new to the people who live in this area, I'm in south AL on the Florida state line and the older gents around here tell of sightings as far back as the 1930's. (I won't include my grandfather's first sighting in 1917.)
I've also read of sightings in the everglades as far back as 1971, so for a single escaped orangutan to cover the ground between the Florida, Alabama line in the 30's to the everglades in the 70's and to Sarasota in 2000, is pretty amazing. Considering that orangutans only live 35 to 40 years in the wild, this would be an amazing journey and an amazing life span for one orangutan.
Anything is possible I suppose.

Have you seen the pictures of the alleged ape? Like this one?

Click to view attachment

That is an Orangutan. Biff stories were popular in the 50's and 60's, that's when the most wild tales of abduction were told. A combination of story, ironically supported by an escaped animal?
The evidence tells the story. This looks just like an Orangutan. It looks nothing like Mrs. Patty Gimlin. Even 2 escaped Orangutans are more likley than one Biff.

Not anything is possible.

BTW. Nice Avatar.