The Skunk Ape is Florida’s version of Bigfoot: a large, hairy, upright ape-like creature said to live in the swamps and forests of the southeastern United States, especially the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. It takes its name from its reported smell, often compared to a skunk or rotting garbage. Reports go back to the nineteenth century, peaked between the 1950s and 1970s, and continue today, and the creature has become an unofficial mascot of rural Florida. No body, bone or verified specimen has ever been found, and the National Park Service, which manages Big Cypress National Preserve, regards the Skunk Ape as a hoax. The likeliest explanations are misidentified Florida black bears, escaped exotic animals and deliberate fakes.[1][2]
| Region | Florida (especially the Everglades and Big Cypress), also Georgia and Alabama |
|---|---|
| Reported height | About 5–7 ft (1.5–2.1 m), shorter than western Bigfoot |
| Reported appearance | Upright, ape-like, covered in reddish-brown to black hair |
| Distinctive trait | A strong, foul smell |
| Peak of reports | 1950s–1970s; ongoing |
| Best-known advocate | Dave Shealy, Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, Ochopee |
| Official view | Not verified by park wildlife staff; considered a hoax by the National Park Service |
| Leading explanations | Black bears (some with mange), escaped primates, hoaxes |
What the Skunk Ape is said to look like
Witnesses describe an upright, ape- or human-like animal about 5 to 7 feet tall, covered in mottled reddish-brown or dark hair, usually seen briefly at night or crossing a road. It is often said to be smaller and leaner than the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest. Dave Shealy’s field guide puts its height at six to seven feet and claims that it spends about half its life in trees. Above all, witnesses describe the smell, an overpowering odor that gives the creature its name.[1][2]
Earlier versions of this entry described glowing eyes and clawed footprints up to 17 inches long. These are not consistent features of the reports and have been removed. Shealy himself has described four-toed footprints.[2]
Early reports
Stories of hairy wild men in the southern swamps are old. In 1818, newspapers reported a story from the area that is now Apalachicola, Florida, of a “man-sized monkey” raiding food stores and stalking fishermen. Cryptozoologists have also claimed that the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples tell of a hairy giant called Esti Capcaki, but that claim has not been backed by any documented source, and should be treated with caution.[1]
Several regional stories from the twentieth century have become part of Skunk Ape lore:[1]
- 1929, Sugarloaf Key. An ape-like creature was said to have shaken the newly built Perky Bat Tower, driving away the bats placed there to control mosquitoes.
- 1940s onward, Bardin. The small Putnam County community gave its name to the “Bardin Booger,” a local hairy monster.
- 1942, Suwannee County. A driver reported that a creature ran out of the brush, grabbed his car and beat on the running board for half a mile.
- 1957. Hunters claimed an ape had invaded their camp.[2]
The 1970s wave
The term “Skunk Ape” became widely known in the early 1970s, when a wave of reports from 1971 to 1975 in Broward County and surrounding areas was covered heavily in Florida newspapers. Witnesses described nighttime encounters with a 5 to 7 foot ape with dark red to black hair. Reports claimed that the creature had entered homes, followed people and killed a farmer’s livestock. One police officer said he had hit it with his car; posses went out to look for it, but found nothing. In Palm Beach County, two sheriff’s deputies reported that an ape-like creature followed them through a grove, and that they fired at it, then followed footprints and found hair on a barbed wire fence.[1]
In 1977, a bill was introduced in the Florida legislature to make it illegal to “take, possess, harm or molest anthropoids or humanoid animals.” It did not pass.[1][2]
Dave Shealy and the Everglades
The Skunk Ape’s best-known modern advocate is Dave Shealy, who runs the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, a gift shop, campground and tour base in Ochopee, on the edge of Big Cypress National Preserve. Shealy says he first saw a Skunk Ape in 1974, at the age of ten, while deer hunting with his brother in the swamp behind his house, and that he has seen it several times since. He photographed a figure from a tree stand in 1998 and filmed one in July 2000, and he estimates that a family of 6 to 12 animals lives in the area.[2]
In 1997, Shealy and others reported that lima bean bait stands had been raided, and a flurry of reports followed. A tour bus group reported a seven-foot, red-haired ape, and Ochopee fire chief Vince Doerr photographed a dark upright figure crossing a road. Within weeks, dozens of people had reported sightings in the preserve.[1][2]
Critics have pointed out that Shealy runs a business built around the Skunk Ape, and that his 2000 video was released shortly before a hearing on a tourism grant he had applied for. A Naples Daily News columnist compared the footage to the famously bad film Plan 9 from Outer Space. Shealy has also claimed that a government helicopter watched one of his sighting sites and that federal agents confiscated a hair sample, but has offered no proof of either.[2]
The Myakka photographs
The most famous Skunk Ape pictures arrived in December 2000, when an unsigned letter and two photographs were mailed anonymously to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. The writer, claiming to be an elderly woman, said that an ape-like animal had been taking apples from her back porch near Interstate 75, and that she feared it was an escaped orangutan. The photos, which show a large, hairy animal on a deck, became known as the “Myakka Skunk Ape” photographs. The cryptozoologist Loren Coleman and a Canadian Wildlife Service biologist agreed that the animal looked like an orangutan, while Shealy thought it was a Skunk Ape, though with longer hair than he had seen. The photographer was never identified.[1][2]
What do the experts say?
A spokesman for the National Park Service told Smithsonian magazine that no Skunk Ape sighting had ever been verified by the preserve’s wildlife staff. The skeptical researcher Sharon Hill described the evidence as extremely weak and almost entirely eyewitness testimony, and the zoologist Roland Kays pointed out that sightings alone are useless as evidence for a new species. Joe Nickell has suggested that many reports are Florida black bears, some perhaps suffering from mange, which can make a bear look strangely bald and ape-like.[1][2]
- Black bears. Florida black bears live in the same swamps and forests, stand up on their hind legs, and leave footprints that can look humanlike when the front and back prints overlap.
- Escaped primates. Florida has many private animal collections and primate facilities. The Myakka animal looked like an orangutan to experts.[2]
- Hoaxes. Costumes, faked prints and staged photos have long been part of the Bigfoot world, and the Skunk Ape has commercial value.[1]
- Expectation. Once a creature is famous, any dark shape glimpsed in the swamp, especially with a bad smell from rotting vegetation or an animal carcass, can be read as a sighting.
The Skunk Ape in Florida culture
The Skunk Ape has become a cheerful symbol of wild and rural Florida, appearing on roadside signs, souvenirs and in advertisements. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Orlando’s Gatorland used the Skunk Ape’s legendary smell to encourage social distancing. Conferences, runs and festivals celebrate it, and similar southern swamp creatures include Louisiana’s Honey Island Swamp Monster and Arkansas’s Fouke Monster.[1]
Our assessment
The Skunk Ape is a durable piece of Florida folklore with genuine witnesses, but no physical evidence. After more than half a century of searching in a heavily visited state, there is no body, no bones, no verified hair or DNA and no clear photograph. Black bears, escaped animals, hoaxes and the power of a good local legend explain the reports far better than an undiscovered North American ape.
References
- “Skunk ape,” Wikipedia, citing contemporary newspaper reports, J. Nickell, the National Park Service, and others.
- Joseph Stromberg, “On the Trail of Florida’s Bigfoot—the Skunk Ape,” Smithsonian Magazine (6 March 2014).
Correction note (October 2026): This entry was rewritten from documented sources. Earlier versions claimed the Skunk Ape was part of Seminole oral tradition and described glowing eyes and clawed tracks; these claims are unsupported. The illustration above is an artistic impression.