[Josh]
The fire crackled low, spitting embers into the thick Florida night. Her tent pitched deep in the Ocala National Forest, where the cypress and palmetto pressed close like silent lodgers, and the air hung heavy with rot and humidity. The swamp itself seemed to breathe slow, wet, and watchful.

Then the smell hit. A nauseating wave of pure filth slammed into you without warning. It was overpowering like a skunk that had been rotting in roadkill and spoiled meat for days.

A stench burned your nostrils, clawed at the back of your throat, and made your eyes water instantly. Your stomach twisted as the foul odor wrapped around the campsite like a living thing. Only then did you notice the sounds begin.

The usual nighttime chorus of frogs and insects had gone completely dead. In their place, a low, guttural, grunt, half human, half something that had never learned to speak. It rolled through the trees, far too close.

Then the footsteps followed. Thud, thud, thud. Wet snaps of branches and the slow crunch of leaves under immense weight, too deliberate for a deer, too upright for a bear.

Your flashlight trembled in your hand as you swept the beam toward the treeline. There it was. Just beyond the firelight, partially hidden by moss-streaked limbs, stood a figure.

Five and a half feet of matted, mottled, brown, reddish hair that clung to its body like decaying swamp vegetation. It stood, hunched on two legs, powerful arms hanging low with fingers too long. Its face remained swallowed in shadow, but two small, dark eyes caught the light glinting with cold intelligence.

Awareness. The Skunk Ape. Things are about to get strange.

Okay.

[Molly]
I wanted to open it before all the shit happened. Sorry. Okay.

[Josh]
How are we squeaking?

[Molly]
You're squeaking. I'm not. Hello, all you ghouls and goblins.

Welcome to ConspiriWeird, where we talk about conspiracy theories and all things weird. I'm your host, Molly. And with me is...

Josh. Hi.

[Josh]
Yo.

[Molly]
Sorry it's been so long. We took the summer off to hang out with our kids, but we're back with a vengeance. Yo.

Yeah. So today we're going to talk about the Skunk Ape, but before we get to the Skunk Ape, we're going to talk about snacks. What are you snacking on?

[Josh]
Reese's.

[Molly]
Peanut butter cups. Two peanut butter cups. Yeah.

And I have a Snickers bar and a crisp Dr. Pepper.

[Josh]
I have a not so crisp Pepsi.

[Molly]
Yo, if Dr. Pepper could sponsor us, that would be wonderful.

[Josh]
If Dr. Pepper could just get an IV set up for my wife when she's at home, that would be perfect.

[Molly]
Basically.

[Josh]
IV of Dr. Pepper.

[Molly]
All the time.

[Josh]
At all times.

[Molly]
At all times.

[Josh]
Because that's basically it.

[Molly]
All the time. And I would also like to throw out there, if you could, if you would like to join our Patreon, we're adding more little mini episodes called Weird After Dark. Yup.

We're going to have a book club. And we also, I will also do monthly tarot readings one-on-one with you.

[Josh]
If you subscribe to our $5 a month monthly.

[Molly]
Yes.

[Josh]
Patreon.

[Molly]
Patreon. You get a whole bunch of stuff. It'll be fun.

[Josh]
Yeah. Yeah. So today we're talking about the skunk ape, which is also known as the Florida Bigfoot.

It's a large, hairy, human-like cryptid that inhabits the swamps of forests of Southeastern U.S., mainly Florida.

[Molly]
AKA my ex-boyfriend.

[Josh]
What? You like him stinky?

[Molly]
He was kind of stinky. Anyways.

[Josh]
The skunk ape is usually described as a bipedal, walking on two feet, human or ape-like creature, basically like Sasquatch. Approximately though, five to seven feet tall. So some accounts, most accounts of Sasquatch have been taller, you know, like six, seven foot, definitely taller.

The accounts of skunk ape have been five to seven feet. So he could be a little smaller compared to Sasquatch, but still he could, could be tall.

[Molly]
You have never seen me and skunk ape in the same room together.

[Josh]
I hope not. And covered in mottled, mottled. Mottled.

That's a word right there. Mottled. Brown, reddish hair.

Like, yeah. Okay. It is often reported to be smaller in stature compared to traditional descriptions of Bigfoot from Canada in the North U.S. Its foul odor said to be similar to a skunk gives it its name. Stinky. Now Sasquatch is also said to be stinky, but I mean, you live in a forest without showers all your life. And I have hair all over you.

[Molly]
And I have been around skunks and they.

[Josh]
Well, that's their mechanism. But then again, ferrets stink all the time too. And they don't.

I know.

[Molly]
Skunks are so cute though.

[Josh]
They are kind of cute. Descriptions of the skunk ape in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida folklore date back to the time of the first European settlers. A newspaper article from 1818 reported a story from what is now, oh boy, these names, these, these Native American names, Appalachicola, Florida, about a man-sized monkey stalking fishermen along the shore and raiding food stores.

Sightings have continued since the 1800s. According to Dave Shealy, who established the skunk ape research headquarters, local Native American groups around here, the Seminoles and the Miccosukee tribes, they've known and told stories about the skunk ape for centuries.

[Molly]
Now we're going to get into the sightings now. This is obviously not all the sightings, but these are the ones that are usually talked about the most. So in 1929, an alleged sighting occurred at the famous newly constructed Peak Bat Tower in the Florida Keys.

Perky. Oh, Perky. Sorry.

Perky Bats. Perky Bat. Witnesses stated that an unknown ape-like creature was drawn to the construction site.

After the tower was stocked with bats, the creature shook the tower, driving the bats off before running back into the woods. That's kind of rude. What did the bats ever do to you?

That's what I want to know. In 1942, a man in Suwannee County reported a similar creature rushing out from the brush line while he was driving down an isolated road. It allegedly grabbed onto his car and beat on the door and running board for half a mile before letting go.

Oh, boy. Yeah, that would be really scary.

[Josh]
Yeah.

[Molly]
Beginning in the 1940s, there were numerous alleged sightings in a small community of Barden and Putnam County, Florida, of a creature known as a Barden Booger.

[Josh]
Barden Booger. What did that mean? The Barden Booger's coming.

[Molly]
That's not even scary. I know. In the 1960s, there was a rash of sightings in central Florida, particularly around Marion County and Atkaloocha County.

I probably said that wrong. One notable 1963 report involved several members of a family who encountered an ape-like creature near their rural home, including an instance of it approaching a window to appear inside at night. Yo, could you imagine, like, looking at your window before going to bed and just seeing a hairy face staring at you?

Yeah, no.

[Josh]
No thanks.

[Molly]
No thanks. And between the 1950s and the 1970s, reports of the skunk ape were particularly common during this period. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has archived hundreds of alleged sightings across almost every county in Florida.

One of the earliest well-publicized sightings happened in 1957, when a pair of hunters claimed the creature invaded their camp. Note the BFRO itself was founded in 1995. I was only five.

It's a good year.

[Josh]
In the 1970s, two Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies reported that an ape-like creature stalked them through the grove. They fired at it with their firearms. The deputies later followed a trail of footprints and recovered hair snagged on a barbed wire fence that had been pushed down.

Between 1971 and 1976, a bunch of sightings occurred in and around Broward County. Eyewitnesses described nocturnal encounters with a five-to-seven-foot ape-like creature with red or black fur. These incidents were heavily covered by local and Miami newspapers and helped popularize the skunk ape name.

Reports claimed the creature stalked people, invaded homes, and killed livestock, including a bull and a horse.

[Molly]
You know how hard it is to kill a bull? Like, just like as an individual with no weapons.

[Josh]
They're huge. I mean, even surviving gunfire. They're huge.

After an officer reported hitting the skunk ape with his car, search parties were formed to hunt it. No evidence or body was ever found. Probably hit a boar.

[Molly]
Like we've done multiple times. Once. I hit one once and you hit one once and the girl I grew up with down the street, she hit one once too.

[Josh]
Okay. I'm still mad I didn't get to make bacon out of it.

[Molly]
Right.

[Josh]
Um, in the 1960s, I'm sorry, 1990s, several Everglades wildlife tour bus operators and their guests reported sightings. In July, 1997, operator David Shealy reported that wildlife bait stands loaded with Lima beans had been raided. He noticed strange tracks around them and baited more locations.

Multiple witnesses soon reported skunk ape sightings. Shealy and others attributed the increased activity to high seasonal flooding, which forced animals onto higher ground. Operator Steve Goodbread and Don Rowland also reported sightings along with some of their guests.

Both noted that the 100 degree weather, rural location, and high humidity would make a hoax unlikely.

[Molly]
But what I want to know is why Lima beans, those are like the least like good beans. There's so much better beans out there.

[Josh]
I think it just happened to be a Lima bean thing. And then they saw it get raided and they just said, well, he likes Lima beans. Let's do more Lima beans.

[Molly]
You know what?

[Josh]
Baked beans are better than Lima beans. Like, yeah, but you can't really, you're not going to leave baked beans outside. Lima beans at least can like sit outside.

Can they? Well, more than baked beans. And you have all the bugs on them.

[Molly]
But they're, they're going to be on any kind of food.

[Josh]
The dry food over wet food is going to be, you know, not all Lima beans are dry.

[Molly]
Some of them.

[Josh]
Okay.

[Molly]
Well, I think if you will argue about beans later.

[Josh]
In 97, a photo of a dark, upright figure in the swamp was taken by Okapi Fire Control District Chief Vince Dewar. He claimed it was the skunk ape after he saw the creature cross the road and stopped to take the picture. Within two weeks, over 50 people reported sightings of a hairy creature in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

That's crazy. It's crazy is how many people are documenting this.

[Molly]
Yeah.

[Josh]
Way more than we're hearing about Sasquatch.

[Molly]
Yeah.

[Josh]
Crazy.

[Molly]
We haven't gotten to Sasquatch.

[Josh]
No, but we're looking into it. Okay.

[Molly]
So in 2000, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office received two anonymous pictures depicting a large, hairy ape-like creature. The letter's author, an older woman living near I-75, said the creature had been stealing apples from her porch. What is with people in Florida leaving food outside?

[Josh]
They're well, there's still plenty of people even on our block that don't stay inside because they don't have AC.

[Molly]
Fearing it might be an escaped orangutan that could harm her family, she snapped the photos, which does make sense because we have a chimpanzee rescue around here. And if they escape, that would be really like, they can kill you. Anyways.

[Josh]
Except you'd be the one going up for hugs.

[Molly]
I would.

[Josh]
We're not going to.

[Molly]
I actually had an interview there. Yep. And I got the job, I had to turn it down.

Anyways, the images dubbed the Myakka Skunk Ape photos remain polarizing and heavily debated. A common criticism is that the creature closely resembles a Bigfoot statue from Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. So now we're going to get into explanations of what it could be.

Most reports in alleged visual evidence are likely hoaxes or fabrications.

[Josh]
Yeah.

[Molly]
Yeah. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickel has suggested some sightings may be American black bears possibly suffering from mange. Others are likely misidentifications of wildlife.

The U.S. National Park Service considers the skunk ape a hoax. Boo! I want to believe.

[Josh]
Dave Shealy, who we mentioned earlier, was a well-known Floridian researcher of the skunk ape. He first saw it in 1974 at age 10. A few years after, his father found a set of footprints.

While hunting with his brother in the swamp behind their house, now part of the Big Cypress National Preserve, his brother spotted it first. Shealy recalled, it was walking across the swamp and my brother spotted it, but I couldn't see it over the grass. I wasn't tall enough.

My brother picked me up and I saw it about a hundred yards away. We were just kids, but we'd heard about it and knew for sure what we were looking at. It looked like a man, but completely covered with hair.

They stared in shock until it started to rain, causing the creature to hurry away. Oh, even Stinky Bud over here doesn't like the rain. In the decades since, Shealy has pursued the skunk ape relentlessly.

He has seen it on three other occasions, written a field guide, investigated sightings, made TV appearances, and established a skunk ape research headquarters on his property. In July 2000, he captured one of his encounters on video. The grainy daytime footage, shot from hundreds of feet away, shows the creature moseying through palm trees before breaking into a long-limbed run across the open swamp, as if it were being watched.

As if it were aware it was being watched, Shealy estimated its speed at 22 miles an hour in water over a foot deep something. Many viewers believe it looks like a man in a gorilla suit. Critics note that no respected biologist or scientific institution recognizes the skunk ape's existence.

Bob DeGrasse, a public affairs officer with the Preserve, stated that while people report the creature, there has never been a verified sighting by the National Park Service staff. Shealy counters that remains decompose quickly in the swamp, and that much of the 2.2 million acres of protected land is rarely visited, allowing reclusive animals to go unnoticed.

[Molly]
They also conduct a yearly skunk ape investigation that I really do want to go to, but we did miss it this year, unfortunately. But maybe next year we can go and we can get an Obio Weird After Dark episode. That would be fun.

I think they do like a whole camping thing and like go looking for it. I did ask if she did have any more information about Native American legends, because I do try to get as much history as I possibly can when I research these things. I know that they're very private and they don't like to talk about their stuff to outsiders.

And she basically said the same exact thing. They're very private and they don't like talking, especially to us white folk, because of the past, which I totally understand. We did horrible things to them, so I totally get that.

Marie did want people to know that this isn't something new that just randomly popped up recently. The Native American history that we do know goes back to the 1800s, long before AI. She said that it can be frustrating that people claim to be experts and haven't been out to the woods.

She just wants the truth to be out there. Marie and her team have been researching the Skunk Ape for over seven years with the Mid-Florida Bigfoot Research Team. They do have a Facebook group that we are going to put up on our social media, and I do encourage everyone to go follow them and support them.

And just be nice to everybody, please. Be respectful.

[Josh]
Do your research.

[Molly]
Fun facts. Fun facts.

[Josh]
Fun facts. Nope, that's copyrighted. Copyrighted.

In 1977, a bill was proposed but failed to pass. In the Florida state legislature, that would have made it illegal to take, possess, harm, or molest anthropoids. I think that's supposed to be anthropods?

[Molly]
I don't know.

[Josh]
Or humanoid animals. Yeah. The Skunk Ape has been widely adopted across Florida as an unofficial mascot for wilderness and rural culture.

And Dave Shealy calls himself the Jane Goodall of Skunk Apes.

[Molly]
I love Jane Goodall.

[Josh]
Except he's never been able to touch Skunk Ape. Meanwhile, Jane Goodall was hanging around, loving on, loved by Okay, so do you believe that the Skunk Ape is real? Well, you know my stance.

It's hard to believe it's something you've never seen. However, with as many accounts going back as far as they go, I wouldn't be surprised if it was real.

[Molly]
Yeah. So if you ever did encounter it, what would you do?

[Josh]
Depends how close I was encountering it. If it was at a great distance, I'd look and try to probably take a video.

[Molly]
I would try to probably hug it. Probably.

[Josh]
Yeah, okay. You'd probably be like, oh, you stink too bad.

[Molly]
No. No way. Okay.

Will you travel to the research facility with me and hang out?

[Josh]
The woods?

[Molly]
Well, go, go. Go with Dave.

[Josh]
Research Center. The woods. The swamp.

[Molly]
So is that a maybe?

[Josh]
That's not really a research center.

[Molly]
Is that a maybe?

[Josh]
Yeah, it's a maybe.

[Molly]
Do you think it's just AI?

[Josh]
No.

[Molly]
So you do think that the pictures and everything is real?

[Josh]
Well, people can still photoshop stuff. They've been photoshopping things since before AI was a thing. Very well, too.

[Molly]
No, I'm just like saying in general. Do you think that the pictures are fake AI photoshop, like in general? Or do you think that it's actual?

Probably fake. It's real.

[Josh]
Or. Or what? Real, but not what they think it is.

[Molly]
Okay, so final thoughts. What do you think it is? And say your final thoughts.

[Josh]
Skunk it.

[Molly]
What is it?

[Josh]
Skunk it.

[Molly]
Okay, so you think it's real?

[Josh]
I think something like it's out there, for sure. Because I mean, I think we have accounts in Canada for like, for, you know, for Bigfoot, even Northern US, Northwestern US for Bigfoot, or Bigfoot like. And skunk ape is basically just the swamp version of Bigfoot.

And then we even have accounts in China, and across the world, just of the same creature. Ape like creature. So yeah, I think whatever this species is, probably is real.

Just extremely elusive at this point in time.

[Molly]
Yeah.

[Josh]
Likely. But I've never seen it, so I can't really account for it. But considering how many people have seen and reported it for so long across the world, it makes sense that it could be real.

[Molly]
My final thoughts. I think it is real, of course. I would like to go out there and I would like to hug it and take care of it.

Even though it's probably older than I am, I feel very maternal towards this creature. And that is my thoughts.

[Josh]
If you would have a, you would have a cryptid sanctuary, if you could.

[Molly]
I would. Come to my house.

[Josh]
Like, I'm going to buy the next, like, you know, 100 acres of swamp and forest. And then all my cryptid friends can hang out in there. And live there.

[Molly]
Come to my cottage.

[Josh]
And to say hi.

[Molly]
And say hi. And I will give you.

[Josh]
And take pictures.

[Molly]
And I will give you lima beans because apparently you like them.

[Josh]
Because apparently you like lima beans. All right. I think that's about it.

[Molly]
I think that's about it. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, let us know.

[Josh]
If you have any sightings.

[Molly]
Let us know.

[Josh]
Let us know. And until next time.

[Molly]
We love you. Stay weird, y'all.

[Josh]
We want to thank you for tuning in. You can find us on all your favorite social platforms by searching ConspiriWeird, posting photos and details from each episode. Please consider keeping our tummies full by donating to the Snack Fund.

Donations will be given a shout out on the podcast. Special thanks to Audionautix.com for the theme music. And remember, question everything.