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The Myakka "Skunk
Ape" Photographs
By Loren Coleman
Two remarkable new photographs of what may be a Florida Skunk Ape
have been discovered through an interesting chain of events by
Sarasota resident and animal welfare specialist David Barkasy.
Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America overviews how
these photographs were taken, how this find surfaced, the first
reactions and analyses, and some tentative conclusions. For the time
being, certain supportive notes will remain, here, available and
online
Here is the December 22, 2000, letter signed "God Bless. I prefer to remain
anonymous" mailed to the Sarasota Sheriff's Department.
Newspapers in Florida, the
Art Bell show, and other radio programs during mid-February,
decided to talk about the Myakka photographs. The hope is that the
woman photographer will be identified.
In the meantime, meaningful analyses of the eyeshine, the pupil
diameter, the dentition, the tongue, hair color, and exhibited
behavior of this apparent primate is taking place.
These Coleman enlargements
and details were created from the first generation color
prints scanned by David Barkasy of the Sarasota County
Sheriff's Department's originals. These prints show forehead
lines, yellow canines, fingernails, hair, and other
significant details. Copyright 2001 by David Barkasy
and Loren Coleman
 
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At right: A young male Sumatran
Orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus abelii, American Museum of
Natural History. |
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Below: Concurrent with my thinking, Tony Scheuhamme, a biologist
with the Canadian Wildlife Service, pointed out some features on a
good photograph of an orangutan by Denise McQuillen. This is not to
say the Myakka photographs are of an orangutan, but it certainly
assists in identifying features that are found on a known anthropoid
that appear to exist on this one too.
The Myakka ape head closeup Copyright
2001 by David Barkasy and Loren Coleman. Compared with a
Sumatran Orangutan's head, photograph at the Cincinnati Zoo
by Denise McQuillen, 1999; Reprinted with permission.
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Could this be a "Skunk Ape." an as yet-undiscovered large
anthropoid, per the "Unknown Pongid" type discussed in The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery
Primates Worldwide
(NY: Avon, 1999)?
See more on Skunk Apes in Cryptozoology A to Z and Mysterious America: The Revised Edition
The Myakka Ape Photographs are only the most recent of a long
history of Skunk Ape and related mystery anthropoid reports. I have
files, and letters from people that lived along the east-central
coast of Florida (mostly in the Holopaw-Brooksville area) who
related to me their series of encounters with apelike animals,
especially during the 1963-1968 period. We should not be surprised
that the Everglades may not be the key to solving this mystery, but
the Myakka area may.
More illustrative material Update 26 February 2001
Myakka Investigation
Update 20 June 2001
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We are following leads to attempt
to discover the photographer.
(Photo credit: John Mackinnon's In Search of the
Red Ape (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974).
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Myakka Investigation Update 7 July 2001
East County Observer 07/12/01
Tracking Myakka's wily Skunk Ape
A lot of people have sightings, but they sit on them because they
don't want to look like idiots.'
By Mischa Vieira
It's been nearly nine months and there's been no reappearance of the
Myakka Skunk Ape. At least no official reports.
This past February newspapers throughout the Southeast caused a
supernatural frenzy when they ran stories about the appearance of a
smelly ape nearly seven feet tall in a backyard east of I-75 in
Sarasota. Some writers quickly dismissed the idea of Florida's answer to
Bigfoot. Others used the opportunity to tell a few jokes, and some
suggested, mockingly, organizing a search (i.e. hunting) party to find
the animal that resembles an orangutan.
One local man has done just that.
The search
David Barkasy is on the prowl. Barkasy was one of the first people
to see the photographs of the ape last fall after they were mailed
anonymously to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. Since then, his
curiosity has been in overdrive.
"It's the possibility of finding something new," Barkasy says of his
search for the skunk ape. "I don't know if there's something out there,
but the more I hear, the more interested I get."
Barkasy, owner of reptile wholesaler Silver City Serpentarium in
Sarasota, has made more than 30 nighttime trips to the forest east of
the interstate hoping to find this legendary creature that was first
reported in Lakeland in 1947. Barkasy and friends strung apples (a
favored food of the ape according to some reports) with fishing line
between trees and sat in the dark waiting for something to happen. Some
nights nothing. A few nights they were chased out of the woods by
something in the bushes.
"We would sit back and make bird calls, and a few times you'd smell
something like dead animals and then we heard palmettos breaking. It
could've been a bear or coyote, but who knows?" Barkasy, a former
mechanical engineer, says.
On his last expedition Barkasy was told to leave the forest by a
state ranger. It turns out the land he was on is owned by Southwest
Florida Water Management District and managed by the Myakka State Park.
For the men to be there after hours, they need special permission from
Swiftmud, which Barkasy hasn't obtained yet, but says he intends to do
in order to install motion cameras in the area.
"I want to know what was out there chasing us out of the woods.
There's not too many animals that'll stalk you."
Loren Coleman, a noted cryptozoologist (hunter of hidden animals)
who has studied the Myakka case, fully believes what was photographed is
not a costume or a fake, or even an escaped zoo animal. He's bent on
finding the photographer, so he can figure out where the citing took
place and examine it.
Barkasy is helping. He's discovered that the photographs taken last
fall were printed in December 2000 at the Eckerd photo lab at the
intersection of Fruitville and Tuttle Roads. He wants to find the
elderly woman who took the pictures, but who prefers to remain unknown
because she doesn't "want any fuss or people with guns traipsing around"
her house.
It seems the legend of the foul-smelling primate will have to remain
hidden a while longer, if not forever, without the help of people who've
made contact with it. Barkasy believes the number of people who've seen
this creature is actually greater than one would think.
"Working with animals I hear a lot of things. Cub scout leaders
camping on the Manatee River have told me stories, so have hunters,"
Barkasy said. "A lot of people have sightings, but they sit on them
because they don't want to look like idiots."
Excerpts from the photographer's anonymous letter sent to the
Sheriff's office:
"I heard the orangutan walk off into the brushes. It had an awful
smell and was making deep "woomp" noises."
"For two nights prior, it had been taking apples that my daughter
brought down from up north off our back porch."
"We live near I-75 and I'm afraid this orangutan could cause a
serious accident if someone hit it."
Myakka Investigation Update 25 August 2001
SARASOTA HERALD TRIBUNE
[Manatee Edition] 25 August 2001
State officials trying to identify big cat.
Myakka City, Florida
State Fish and Wildlife officers are trying to figure out what kind
of big cat attacked a horse in Myakka City on Thursday.
Officers took a plaster cast of a cat's paw print, left behind in
the mud, Fish and Wildlife Officer Jeff Babauta said.
"It's hard to say what it is right now," Babauta said. "It's
definitely bigger than a bobcat. It could be a young panther. We don't
know right now. The print was not that great."
The print will be analyzed by a Fish and Wildlife expert. A panther
in this area would be a rare find. Babauta has never seen one in his in
the area. A resident spotted the cat, but couldn't say what it was,
officials said.
The print will be analyzed by a Fish and Wildlife expert. A panther
in this area would be a rare find. Babauta has never seen one in his in
the area.
Source: UMI
Copyright 2001-2002 Loren Coleman
Thanks to David Barkasy, Hawk Spearman, Rich La Monica, M.K. Davis, and
David Bittner for photographic assistance, from which enhancements and
analyses were done. Details and enlargements, analyses and the text are
copyrighted. Please contact
Loren Coleman for permission to reprint. Thank you. |
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