Encounter Atlas

Creature index / Hairy hominids

Skunk Ape

Also called Florida Bigfoot, Swamp cabbage man, Stink ape, Myakka skunk ape

Florida's swamp-dwelling Bigfoot, famous for a smell you won't forget.

The Skunk Ape is the Bigfoot of the Florida swamps, named for the overpowering odour witnesses describe. It is usually said to be smaller and leaner than its northern cousin, with reddish or dark hair.

In 2000 an anonymous woman mailed two photos of an ape-like animal in her backyard to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. The "Myakka photos" remain the most famous Skunk Ape evidence, and the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee still welcomes visitors on the Tamiami Trail.

What witnesses report

  • Overwhelming rotten-egg or skunk smell
  • Tracks in swamp mud
  • Shapes crossing roads at night in Big Cypress

Famous cases

  1. 2000Myakka photographs
    Sarasota County, Florida

Seen the Skunk Ape?

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Related

Bigfootaka Sasquatch, SkookumA huge, hair-covered, upright ape said to roam North American forests.Honey Island Swamp Monsteraka Letiche, Tainted KeitreA grey-haired, yellow-eyed swamp giant from the bayous of Louisiana.Fouke Monsteraka Boggy Creek Monster, Southern SasquatchThe hairy creature of Boggy Creek, Arkansas, made famous by a 1972 drive-in hit.Mogollon Monsteraka Arizona Bigfoot, Mogollon Rim monsterArizona's red-eyed, foul-smelling wild man of the pine country.