Skunk Apes and Napes – Florida's Hairy Bipeds

Southernmost Bigfoot Sightings in the Everglades Began in Mid 1970s

Nov 15, 2009

Small hairy hominids resembling chimpanzees, Napes, were seen in Florida long before the Skunk Apes were. Neither cryptid has been captured or killed.

Accounts of hairy hominids are universal and reports of sightings come from all continents except for Antarctica. It’s rare, possibly unique, that two species of Unknown Mysterious Animals, believed to be related, have been witnessed in an area as small as Florida.

What are Napes?

The term "napes" was coined by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman for these malodorous small North American apes. The chimpanzee-like cryptids have been sighted in Southeastern and Midwestern states since the 1800s. Reports before WWII and up to the early 1970s in Florida are believed to have involved these hairy bipeds.

Napes usually walk on all fours leaving knuckle-prints with their hands. Apes aren’t native to the Americas. There are people who think these animals are feral chimps or their descendents that were set free or escaped from captivity.

Some cryptozoologists believe that North American has a species of undiscovered apes. Napes have a different appearance than chimps and have frequently been seen swimming. True chimps are very poor swimmers because their body structures make it impossible for them to float, so they try to avoid the water.

Description of Skunk Apes

Males are up to seven feet tall and can weigh more than four hundred pounds; females stand up to six feet tall and weigh as much as two hundred and fifty pounds. Both are covered with reddish-black fur. Castings of their tracks show they have four toes.

The stench they emit smells like rotten eggs, methane or a mixture of rotten eggs, moldy cheese and dung, according to accounts. It’s postulated the reason for the odor is that they live in underground caverns and former alligator dens filled with swamp gas and decaying animal corpses.

Skunk Ape Encounters

Witnesses have reported seeing the cryptids throughout Florida for about thirty decades.The majority of confirmed sightings are in the Everglades. Most are those of an individual animal, but there are increasing incidents of witnesses seeing several of them traveling together in groups called troops. These cryptids are elusive and will swim and climb trees to avoid detection or capture.

A Skunk Ape was seen lumbering by a road with an armful of corn. A group of hunters were startled one night by one of these hairy bipeds falling through the roof of their cabin. The critter dove through a window and loped away. There have been incidences of hunting camps allegedly being destroyed by Skunk Apes, but there are no documented incidents of these cryptids attacking a person.

Evidence of Skunk Apes’ Existence

In additions to tracks, they have left droppings behind. Analyses of their scat show they are omnivorous.They eat birds, fish, reptiles, eggs, mammals including deer and boar, ferns, cabbage palms, acorns and other vegetation.

There’s a fuzzy videotape of a Skunk Ape jogging past a campsite in Ochopee. In 2000, the Florida Collier County Sheriff's Office received two photographs from a local homeowner, showing an ape-like creature in her rural garden. A accompanying note asked if someone lost an orangutan which, according to some accounts, these cryptids resemble.

Until one is captured or killed, there is no hard scientific proof of their existence.

The copyright of the article Skunk Apes and Napes – Florida's Hairy Bipeds in Cryptozoology is owned by Jill Stefko . Permission to republish Skunk Apes and Napes – Florida's Hairy Bipeds in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.