In 2000, two photographs of an alleged ape, said to be the Skunk Ape, were taken anonymously and mailed to the Sheriff's Department in Florida. They were accompanied by a letter
from a woman claiming to have photographed it on the edge of her backyard. The photographer claimed that on three different nights the ape had entered her yard to take apples from a bushel basket on her porch. She was convinced it was an escaped . The police were dispatched to the house numerous times but when they arrived the 'Ape' was gone. The pictures have become known to enthusiasts as the "skunk ape photos".
Actual photograph
although reports from the Florida Everglades are particularly common. It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it.
Reports of the Skunk ape were particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s. In the fall of 1974, numerous sightings were reported in suburban neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida, of a large, foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, which ran upright on two legs. The creature later proved to be an Everglades bear, after a deputy sheriff accidentally struck it with his vehicle.
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