The Skunk Ape: Florida's Answer to the Abominable Snowman

Times Online ^ | February 18, 2008 | Jacqui Goddard

[SteveH]

February 18, 2008

The skunk ape: Florida's answer to the abominable snowman

Jacqui Goddard

Deep in the swamps of Florida, something is stirring. Witnesses to its haunting presence speak of howls in the night, unexplained footprints in the mud and glimpses between the trees of a fiery-eyed creature that reeks of death.

Now, a 30-strong team from The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) has embarked on an expedition to try to flush out the mighty skunk ape - the Sunshine State's answer to the abominable snowman. They have thermal imaging equipment, video cameras and microphones poised to capture the secrets of the hairy, 7ft-tall hominid with yellowing teeth and dubious personal hygiene.

“We have to keep these expeditions low-key because unfortunately the subject is still a little stigmatised,” sighs Matthew Moneymaker, head of the BFRO, as he drives to the expedition's secret base camp in southwestern Florida.

[skr]

Is this a South Florida legend? I’ve lived in NW Florida (including in a town formerly known as Boggy Bayou) since the sixties and have never heard of this.

Hirsute, gamey creatures could also be explained by tramp hippies in Florida for the weather.

[varon]

in 1975 another was seen tottering along a roadside with an armful of stolen corn.

Well, there you go, there's the answer. The skunk apes are nothing more than moonshiners not wanting to be seen or caught!!!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Must have been reading some of the old books by Ivan T. Sanderson.

[crusty old prospector]

We also have the Chupacabra. The Skunk Ape has been around for decades but was mainly invented to explain South Florida smells (probably actual skunks) more than anything else.

We used whatever we could to get the girls to cuddle closer to us when we were parking. For us, it was the Hog Valley Monster. Half-man, half-hog. Don't know how geneticists feel about that one but it worked for us.

[uglybiker]

Kucinich!

[BerryDingle]

[GOPJ]

This is a stunt to sell foreclosed condos. I bet the expedition has to sit through a presentation at their base camp.

Now that would be really scary...

[Eleutheria5]

It’s a hermit, fond of streaking in the swamps and farting up a storm.

[fso301]

Florida has long had a problem with exotic species being released or escaping into the wild. In the case of Rhesus monkeys, a feral population exists in the State. It’s not out of the question for other released/escaped primates to be roaming the wilds.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[yarddog]

A close relative of my Brother-in-law, his name was Ricou Browning or something similar, was the professional diver who played the creature from the Black Lagoon.

[matthew fuller]

" hairy, 7ft-tall hominid with yellowing teeth and dubious personal hygiene. "

Cynthia McKinney, you come home right now!

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Please put me on that list if you would.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Correct, you had his name right. He still appears at conventions and signs autographs to this day, as far as I know. On land, The Gill Man was played by one Ben Chapman.

[I Drive Too Fast]

Hmmmmmmm. Janet Reno is from Florida. Could she be skunk ape?

[Joe Brower]

I remember all the stories around the campfire about this critter when I was a boy in Sarasota county in the 70s.

We camped a lot, in a lot of places. We never saw one.

Florida Freeper

[Ditter]

Those are certainly interesting pictures did you take them? Where?

[Kimmers]

giggle.....thank you, you have more skills than I