Lot's of controversy surrounding this one. The picture was taken in the year 2000.

Some say it is an obvious hoax, others say it is a real photo of the Florida skunk-ape, an orangutan-like version of Sasquatch. They supposedly have very long brown hair, semi-Orangutan like features and are reported to smell terribly.

These two pictures were snapped by a woman in Sarasota, FL who was concerned over an ape-like being visiting her families property nightly. One night she heard 'whoomp' sounds coming from outside and she stepped out and snapped a picture of the yard. She claims she had no idea the Ape (or animal, as I will refer to it from here) was that close,

here is the first picture



According to the woman (who remains nameless to this day) she completely surprised the animal and the first picture reflects this.



The next picture was snapped a split second after, and the ape is obviously aware of her presence, surprised, etc. and stands up before moving away. She said on this second flash she realized how tall it was (it was over 6-7 feet crouching) and she went back inside.

She took the photos and sent them to the police department asking them to look into this case of a missing orangutan. She wanted to inform them that there was some kind of ape on the loose and she was worried about her safety. The photos were passed around the police department as a joke for a while, and nobody looked into it seriously. She then sent the photo to Loren Coleman (Bigfoot and Crypto enthusiast/author) who pretty much made the photo famous. To this day he is the one who investigated into the picture and has examined it with other professionals.

Key points

1) The animal is startled in the first picture and there is extreme flashback (reflection) from the eyes. Coleman and a researcher who was in contact with him during this research theorized that the pupils in the animals eyes were dilated in the first pic and

2) The pupils SHRINK in the second photo. They refract only half as much light, and the creature stands up in this photo to reveal its teeth. Another researcher (I believe a primatologist?) called Coleman to talk about this feature. It is common among apes to reveal both sets of teeth this way when in 'extreme fear or anger'.

To this day the Myakka Ape photos are controversial and well known. Almost EVERYONE dismisses it as a hoax, but as I have read how the case was investigated... I'm curious. This looks like a hoax only because it is so incredibly close. It is a stereotypical 'moneyshot' of a Sasquatch, except this is a Florida Skunk Ape variety and the 'money shot' was never sold! Only reported to the police.

If it hadn't been for the research of others into this photo I wouldn't have any reason to believe it was a valid print. Now I am more inclined to believe that the reason this picture looks too good to be true is because it may be a real Florida Skunk Ape.

Is this really what Floridians see when they sight a skunk ape? I believe I'll ask creekfreak, as he had a daylight sighting of a skunk-ape which he described having long brown hair and giving him a 'face' of surprise when he saw it.

And of course I would be remiss not to give the link to LorenColemans investigation. http://www.lorencoleman.com/myakka.html

Some real conclusions can be drawn from this photo should it be authentic...

Seven Pages HERE from the Greatest Hits section. Enjoy!

Ah, thanks :biggrin: I need to use search more often

They was taken for that show freaky links way back when if I remember right. I have said that the pictures was fake from the start while others have said they could be real. To me they are not even a good fake.

What makes these photos such an obvious fake? I guess i don't see it. The only thing that seems oddly strange is that there is an uknown "APE" pictured here...

It looks fake. Ever since i have seen those pictures i believe they are fake. I mean, why was she out there are such a time (in the night) with a camera and happened to see the Skunk Ape? Or in this case an Orangutang.

I mean, it doesnt look too much like an orangutang though. Thats the thing.

50/50 is my answer.

Whats up with the palm fronds stuck to the top lip like a bad Groucho Marx mustache play? Its in both pics, and once you notice it, it begs the question WTF?

Haha, oh my God, I didn't notice that! :new_lmaosmiley: :new_thumbsupsmileyanim:

Jesus, it's the only thing I can see now. If someone asks me what's in that picture I'm going to have to say: "Why, a broken palm frond curiously suspended in mid air by an unknown agent... What? Is there something else?"

I thought someone said it was eating the palm fronds, is that correct?

Pictures don't get much better than this, it's big, with eye shine, in your face. Why are these fake?

But why is he eating palm fronds? Wasn't part of the story that she (the lady that took the pics) left apples out for him? And I don't think mature palm fronds would be good to eat... maybe the hearts of young palm plants, ala an artichoke.

If he is eating the palm fronds, why do they look like they are so awkardly stuck to the face? The first pic looks somewhat better, like they could be in the mouth, but the second one is harder to justify.

I must admit though that the eye shine is somewhat compelling.

Anybody got notions on how that could have been faked?

Right, I would never use palm fronds in the mouth when trying to fake a photo, this must be real. :biggrin:

Seriously though, the eye shine is exactly the type of unpredictable thing that you would try to avoid in a staged photo. I have always thought these photos looked pretty good, but the body looks too long for an Orangutan. Bigfoot in an Orangutan mask?

cool pics, at least they are not blobs

First off, she wasn't out in the woods with a camera at night, she walked into her backyard with the camera because she heard something out there. She was curious and thought it would be worht photographing. She was right.

I don't see why everyone thinks these photos are fake. They look pretty damn real to me. It's rather sad that when given photos like these, even bigfoot buffs dismiss them immediately.

You don't have to fake the eye-shine. That’s the red-eye reflex all humans display in a photo shot with the iris of the eye dilated, as it is when you are in the dark. Underneath the retina there is a reflecting layer to which the sensory cells are attached. The colour comes from the retina being very well perfused (blood!!).

I always enjoy discussing these photos, simply because they are so good, or bad depending upon your point of view. As is the case with many things, the details get a bit distorted over time.
According to the original report on Coleman's website, he was contacted by David Barkasy. It is still not entirely clear to me how Barkasy got involved, but the claim is that he obtained them from the Sarrasota Sheriff's office. They were sent to the Sheriffs office anonymously by a little old lady (as indicated in the letter). Because the report was anonymous and had no address, no action was going to be taken on the report of a 'who lost an orangutan?' The pictures were taken in her backyard as the result of visitations on previous nights. Whether the photos are authentic or not, one tid-bit that often gets overlooked is that at no time did the original witness believe that what she was photographing was anything other than a loose monkey. Albeit, a big monkey.

The skunk ape angle was added by Barkasy, Coleman or a combination of the two.

If this is a hoax, I would like to know what the hell the hoaxers were thinking. It is only by absolute sheer chance, that this event found it's way to crypto enthusiasts who were willing to make the leap that it's an unknown primate - which was apparently never the goal of the (if this is the case) hoaxer.

Has anyone said that this is an Orangutan? It appears to be way, way too tall for that. Can someone show a picture of an Orangutan with these dimensions?

Initially I thought it was an orang, now I think it's someone in an orang costume. If you look at the face in both pictures the open mouth looks identical. I would think in one of the picts the mouth should be closed, or a little less open. I think this points to it being a mask of some kind.

When I orginally read this years back, I read that the plants are palmettos.

For those in the south east, are these palmettos? And, can they give us any indication of scale?

Palmettos vary in height, but average around four feet.

The berries are used to make an herbal suppliment that helps to shrink enlarged prostate glands.

The trunk of the plant is an excellent food source, called "swamp cabbage" in the south.

Probably more than you wanted to know.

Boing :laugh:

I've noticed some mouth changes in the two photograph.The mouth position appears slightly different, interesting.

I hate to ask, but will someone go calculate the average width of a palmetto leaf? There are a bunch of them in this picture. We could get a very accurate height for the figure.

Then, we could compre the width of the face to the height versus some real Orangutans. Will someone also go measure a few Orangutans? I also need metrics on height versus face size. Thanks.

Perhaps, but I think it's more likely just the different angle of the head. In the second photo the top of the head is angled back more, so you can see more into the open mouth.



Again, they vary in size. Older palmetto fronds on very large mature plants are about 2 1/2 feet (30 inches) across, but that is a very large one. The average is about 20 inches.

I'll go measure my orangutan right now. I'll be right back. Gotta catch him first.

I animated the photos (click to see the animated .gif) and here's the letter (I cropped the white space off it).

tirademan

look at the arm length and hands. seen these before never gave it much thought.now I wonder.

Read the links that John provided and look at the gif that Tirademan provided. Watch the palmeto fronds...all of them. Watch them closely.

VERY nice tirademan! On the palmetto leafs I need the short dimension, the width, the length is too difficult to measure. Please Rob, you are closer, I hope... We could get a very accurate height on this figure!

I'm more interested in it's teeth, it looks like it has fangs on the bottom, what's an Orangutans teeth look like compared to this?

it looks like the grass is stuck to the roof of its mouth.

I dunno about that because it looks like it has a pair of them, take a look at it's teeth on the left of the photo.

My first thought upon seeing these photos was that the second one shows an angry or startled animal. I find these photos very convincing, and I'd like to know how it compares to other's sightings.

Hello, This is my first post


In 1986-87 My cousin and I had a close incounter with an animal very similar to this picture. I lived in Weston,CT. Our house backed up to Devils Den Nature Park.

As I was about 14 at the time, and into camping and hikeing, I spent many days beating trails into the woods around my house. We had a trail that went for close to a mile stretching from a small swampy area on one end to a Large natural Rock ledge on the other.

My cousin and I were in the yard, overlooking the woods and trail, and We heard what we though was my friends old dog dragging something down the trail. We both ran down the hill and into the woods to see what was up. What we saw instead was an animal about the same size and shape as the "Skunk Ape" shown here. Its fur was grayish, and it was obviously wounded. It was dragging a leg real bad. At one point as it passed us it was about 30 feet from us, and even with a bad leg that thing was moving fast. it never looked at us or made any noises, and after our inital fright we follwed the trail it left. because of its dragging leg it ruffeld leaves all the way down the trail to where the rock ledge was.

At that point We were too scared to start climbing it to look into all the nooks and holes in the rock. but two days later armed with a bb gun I did.. I found nothing.

Anyway Thats my story, I Always wanted to share it with some Big Foot hunters, but It never matched any bigfoot decription I've ever seen. When I saw the photo of the"Skunk Ape" I couldn't belive it. Its an almost Exact match.

As A side note, Devil's Den has a legend that a Half Man Half goat like creature roams its lands. Maybe I saw the Creature decribed in that legend. But to me it was more half man half gray ape. maybe only 6 1/2 to 7 foot tall, and not huge in size. maybe 200 to 250 pounds.

Has any one else seen something like this ?

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/myakka2002.htm

RayG

-------------------------------
According to a Primatologist in Japan, currently working in Bhutan, the Myakka photograph is a costumed individual. She identified the draped haired costume as an older model Taiwanese-made suit made of imported yak hair and the white hair or collar in this model was made up of illegally obtained African colobus hair; they said the costume has been revamped to move away from the use of real hair years ago and is now made of faux hair in China. The teeth were classic resin mold found in many other ape and monkey costumes; the reflective eyes, probably something similar to reflective 3M tape easily ordered on the Internet and else where.
Something else quite curious, I have in my possession a photograph of author’s two sons standing behind a palmetto plant peering over the plant in the same manner as the Myakka individual. Co-incidence? I don’t know, but really odd.

PLEASE post it!

I can't find any tangible evidence of the Japanese money suit!

I've seen that. It's Coleman's sons standing on the approximate spot where the picture was taken.

That picture could establish the standing height ofthe figure... or are you saying this is a known fake?

As I said in an earlier post, the approximate height of mature palemettos is 5 ft.

Here is a funny quote about evaluating photographic evidence. The big problem with these photos is is that they don't look like a normal bigfoot. If you are like me, and not quite sure what a normal bigfoot looks like, then you might find this a bit circular...



And in full:

http://www.bigfootproject.org/articles/eval_sas_photos.html

More from Bobbi Short's excellent Bigfoot Encounters website. This blurb was prepended to the original newspaper story from 2002:



Which investigators? What ape suit? I have emailed Mitsuko Choden for more details. If this photo is a hoax we should be able to follow up on these claims & put this one to rest. Can anyone shed some light on this?

So, Alton Higgins believes all bigfoot should look exactly like the P/G bigfoot? Odd, since so many reports describe them differently.

He does make a good point about this particular case though when he says,"The 'Context' component of the Myakka photos is, as far as I know, completely lacking. For example, no investigators were able to conduct any kind of search of the anonymous photographer’s property to determine if corroborating evidence existed. "

That has always struck me as odd, added to the fact that the person reporting this has always remained anonymous.

Someone somewhere has already done his. I saw a picture of it on the internet, but can't remember where. The costume I saw was jet black, not brown, but the face and teeth were almost identicle to the Myakka ape.

Was there not a discussion on this before where a photo of a hairy monster from "Ripley's Believe it or Not" which was shown to be remarkably similar? I seem to recall it on this forum and the general consensus was that the similarities were hard to dismiss as just coincidence...as pointed out by a series of red and yellow lines....

These photos are widely referred to as a hoax all over the place. But I'm pretty good at finding things on the Internet, and I can't find any actual evidence that shows this. So I want to put equal effort into evaluation and debunking, either way. I'm a little intrigued that the anti-bigfoot people think it is a hoax because they don't believe, and that the pro-bigfoot people don't like it because they don't see what they expect, and so nobody supports the pictures.

Here are three things I would like to see:

1) the letter from Mitsuko Choden in 2006

2) the pictures of Loren Coleman's sons standing in the palmettos

3) any picture of a convincing Orangutan suit

We should post all these things right here in the thread as evidence...

I could not agree more. :appl: Let's air this thing out.

Let the airing begin ...

I hope the costume Ms. Choden was referring to is better than this, but hey it's great footage:

Japanese Zookeepers chase fake orangutan

Here are the pics of Coleman's sons frolicking amongst the palmettos.

http://www.lorencoleman.com/myakkaillos.html

Thanks for the link! OK, that one is down. This is Loren & David Barkasy taking some photos with palmettos for the purpose of determining scale. It is not indicative of a hoax, this is part of their investigation.

And the scale work done earlier remains consistent, the figure appears to have an arm length of almost 4 feet. However I read on the Internet that an adult Orangutan can have a reach of seven feet, so stay tuned...

Yes, Jaylee is right on, if you watch the palmettos in the foreground you will see they change angles, as the photographer is taking a pic from a different angle, getting a little closer and a little lower. Also watch the mouth, it never changes position as in opening or closing, the angle of view changes but that mouth is in the exact same position and the leaves are stuck on the top fangs, they are not actually being eaten but instead just stuck to the subject's mouth, for display rather than function.

Here are the entire photos, you can see the camera angle change as the person steps back and looks down a little. The figure has a palmetto branch in its left hand, the right hand pulls back. Some leaves are rustling. What is wrong with this?

Click to view attachment