With Florida seeing a boom in new residents in recent years, many transplants might not have heard of the state’s strangest cryptid.
This creature, known as the “Skunk Ape,” is the Sunshine State’s equivalent of the fabled Bigfoot or Sasquatch, being reported numerous times across the state.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said that reports of the beast claim it’s always accompanied by a “foul smell” — an odor like rotten eggs, moldy cheese or feces.
An FWC spokesperson told News 6 there is no direct evidence that it exists, though its origins could stem from people mistakenly identifying wild hogs or bears.
Despite that, many have touted its existence.
According to the FWC, three of the most recent reports of Skunk Ape sightings have come from the following locations:
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July 2020: Naples, Collier County
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January 2021: Inverness, Citrus County
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February 2021: Seawall’s Point, Martin County
However, Dave Shealy — the founder of the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee — told News 6 that there are other locations where sightings are far more common.
Shealy explained that many of these occurrences happen in Myakka State Park or the Ocala National Forest, but those aren’t the only locations.
“There was a sighting in the Kissimmee area on the marshlands that lay just south of Orlando,” Shealy said. “And so, I’ve been up there quite a bit recently air boating, and that’s a really unique area. I believe that it may hold more than one Skunk Ape up there.”
Shealy has been on the hunt for a Skunk Ape for decades now, alleging he first spotted one when he was 10 years old.
He said he established his Ochopee headquarters to make more information about the elusive cryptid available to the public.
According to Shealy, he managed to capture footage of a Skunk Ape in the Everglades back in July 2000. The video later went viral online.
The blurry, grainy footage shows a dark, bipedal figure in the distance striding through the tall grass of the South Florida landscape. Shealy claims this footage is of the fabled Skunk Ape, though it’s far from definitive proof.
[WATCH THE FOOTAGE BY CLICKING IN THE MEDIA PLAYER BELOW]
“The animal, it’s running in about 2 feet of water, and it’s running as fast as a deer,” Shealy told News 6. “And it’s never been disproven or discounted as a hoax. And in fact, when people come here to see the area, they always leave because it’s just such a treacherous area to even walk in.”
But the place that Shealy claimed is a “hotspot” for Skunk Ape sightings is right by Interstate 4.
“If you’re going on I-4, and you hit, I believe, I-95, make a left and go north,” he said. “Right there — at the end of the I-4 corridor where it hits I-95 is a real hotbed of activity. And it has been for the last few years.”
According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, the mythical beast has been reported in the following areas:
Thumbnail image courtesy of Vivint’s “United Scares of America”
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