What is hiding in the impassable swamps of Florida? This question is asked by the inhabitants of these places, where in the midst of stiflingly humid heat and natural wildness, with insurmountable swamps, a haven of bloodthirsty caimans, it is very difficult to believe that you are just an hour's drive from Miami.
Photos of a strange creature in the Florida swamps of the Everglade
Photo by Dave Shealy
Local Indians from the Mykosukk tribe have long argued that a kind of half-human creature of huge growth and completely covered with hair lives in the swamps. In the 60s and 70s, some strange sightings were even recorded that reinforced the ancient legend.
But it wasn't until 1997 that the number of alleged encounters with this strange creature began to multiply, and his fame spread beyond the strip of mangroves and swamps that separates the lands of Lower Florida from the thriving civilized places of Cape Canaveral and Miami.
Dave Shealy
Promotional video:
Dave Shealy is convinced of the existence of the "stinking monkey" (skunk monkey - Everglades Skunk Ape), as this creature from the swamp is usually called, since at the age of nine he saw him with his brother twenty-five years ago.
Thanks to the fact that in the village of Ochopi there was a small souvenir shop where he was able to buy a camera, the passionate adventurer managed to take no less than twenty-seven pictures of this mysterious creature.
It all happened on September 8, 1998. “Then I was at my post next to a tree, where I spent two hours a day for the last eight months, hoping to catch the creature. Suddenly I saw someone approaching me. At first I thought it was a man, but then I realized that it was actually a "stinking monkey"!"
According to Dave's story, he observed this creature from a distance of 50 m. It was bipedal, covered with hair, had the face of a child and was very tall - about 2 meters.
Dave assures that at that moment he felt no fear, as he had been looking for this meeting for a long time and had thoroughly prepared for it. He had to arm himself with patience and scatter seeds around him on the ground in the form of bait, which, apparently, were the creature's favorite delicacy.
Photo by Dave Shealy
“They prefer the large lime fruit seeds, about the size of a dollar coin, because they are soaked in water and grow all over the hills in the area. Probably this year I collected a good few quintals of these seeds."
The day after a remarkable encounter with the strange creature, Shealy patiently surveyed the entire area in search of traces. And he found tracks of two types, one of a large size, which, according to his calculations, correspond to a creature weighing 175 kg, and others, smaller, probably belonging to a cub weighing 70 kg.
These are the tracks of slightly curved paws with four toes. Dave estimates the area is home to between nine and twelve of the species, which can be seen in groups of three to four.
Stinky Monkey Video by David Shealy from 2000
SICKNESS ODOR
To date, Shealy's testimony and photographs are only the last link in the mystery, which is associated with a creature that roams only in the swamps of Florida, and looks like a gorilla or a large monkey with a flattened muzzle, a little more than two meters in height, with broad shoulders, thick hair, sometimes reddish in color, and more or less steadily moving on two legs.
One of the most characteristic features of this creature is the sickening smell that it spreads around itself, which, in fact, explains its colloquial name - "stinking monkey".
For the Mykosukki Indians, the existence of this animal is something legendary, but at the same time as real as the caimans or mosquitoes that swarm the Florida swamps. Many stories are told about this creature, whose appearance is allegedly always preceded by a terrible stench, and about its red eyes sparkling in the night.
But when at the end of the week the stream of curious and seekers grows with a request to take them to look at the elusive beast, the Indians say that she should be left alone.
The mystery of the Florida swamps, or "swamp monkey", became known in the 70s of the XX century, when numerous testimonies appeared, for example, from Michael Bridges, who, along with a dozen other tourists, watched from the deck of the ship as a hairy creature of two and a half meters tall with an elongated head.
“She had many human traits, but the gorilla has the same, although the creature was much taller. This coat was dark orange in color and had a disgusting, skunk-like odor,”said Michael Bridges.
One of the most notable meetings took place on July 21, 1997, with the chief of the local firefighters of Ochopi, Vincent Doerr, who even sent a photo of this creature to the authorities.
“I was driving when I saw a tall brownish creature crossing the road some hundred and fifty meters ahead of me. It moved with long, human-like steps. Then it disappeared into the forest, - says an eyewitness and clarifies: - It was not a bear, I'm quite sure.
The guide Dow Roland, who takes tourists on excursions through the swamps, also met some strange creature one spring together with eight tourists.
“We saw him about a hundred meters away; it looked like a typical bigfoot or someone wearing a gorilla fancy dress. The creature was almost two meters in height and was covered with thick light brown hair."
A photograph of a strange monkey sent anonymously in 2000 to the Sarasota Sheriff's Department, Florida. This is by far the most famous photograph of the Florida Skunk Monkey, although its authenticity has not been verified.
GORILLA SUIT
Swamp Monkey or Tourist Duck? Opinions are divided on this issue. Ron Clarke, head of the natural resources department at Big Cypress Reserve, thinks it's pretty clear.
"It seems to me," he says, "that someone is just playing a trick on tourists."
Other experts consider it ridiculous to suggest that someone is wandering in gorilla clothes in the stifling heat through swamps teeming with poisonous creatures.
Believe it or not, since the spring of 1997, new reports of encounters began to appear, and many curious people began to roam even in the vicinity of Miami and Fort Lauderdale with a load of lime seeds as bait for the mysterious creature.
To explain the increased frequency of meetings with this animal, David Shealy put forward a new version:
“In the spring of 1997 there were a lot of mosquitoes; it became a real disaster that could force this creature to leave the most inaccessible areas of mangroves."