For the actual photograph, see the new posting, “New Photo: Is It A Skunk Ape?“

What if Florida’s supposedly identified but uncaught and out-of-place “apes” are really unknown anthropoids, cryptids all?

As I’ve said and written for years, the recent questionable testimonies and fake photographs by certain people of Pacific Northwest Bigfoot-styled hairy hominids (upright, 7-8 feet tall, human-like) in Florida, which are being called “Skunk Apes” probably have little to do with the actual “Skunk Apes” of the Sunshine State.

Specifically, the traditional “Skunk Ape” sightings, ape-like footprint finds, and knuckle prints, mostly discussed from the 1940s through present, are of unknown anthropoids (not hominids), variously described as running on all fours, around 4 to 5 feet in height, and visually compared to chimpanzees and orangutans.

This is not the first time that the initial reports used one of the known great apes to describe the unknown. See my discussion of the Florida’s Holopaw “Gorilla,” for example, from the 1960s, and Broward County’s 1971 “chimpanzee’s” knuckle prints, in Chapter 11 of Bigfoot!. It will not be the last.

Today, thanks to our friends at The Anomalist , I am alerted to a breaking news story about a sighting and photograph (unpublished, as far as I have been able to discover) of a “chimpanzee” in Santa Rosa County, Florida.

This is encouraging to learn, for in the midst of the hoaxed cases of recent decades, eyewitnesses are still seeing the “real Skunk Apes.”

Chimp Spotted in Santa Rosa County

A Santa Rosa resident called on sheriff’s department investigators last week to help identify a mysterious intruder that looked remarkably like a chimpanzee.

The resident spotted what appeared to be some type of monkey in a nearby field on Thursday. She was able to take a photograph of the animal prior to it leaving the area.

She took the photograph to the Gulf Breeze Zoo, where officials verified that the animal was a chimpanzee. Zoo officials took a count of their chimpanzees and all were accounted for.

Zoo officials, as well as the sheriff’s office, want the public to be aware of the dangers if they encounter this animal. Chimpanzees can be very aggressive and vicious, causing great bodily harm to humans. If this chimpanzee is spotted, the public is urged to not make any attempts to approach the animal and immediately contact local law enforcement so that the appropriate agencies can be contacted to apprehend the animal.

To report further sightings, call the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office at (850) 983-1100.

Source:
November 6, 2006
Emerald Coast
Sandestin, Florida
The Walton Sun
Santa Rosa Beach, Florida