- LAKELAND -- Urban legends
are supposed to be legends and that's all. But if you ask Jennifer Ward
about the Florida skunk ape, she will tell you it stepped out of the mists
of myth and into reality.
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- "I never thought anything like that was out there
before," Ward, 30, said Friday. "But I know there is now."
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- Ward's encounter with the hairy creature came in August,
about a week after Hurricane Charley, along a rural stretch of Moore Road
as she was driving home from a friend's house. Her daughters were asleep
in the back seat and it was approaching dusk.
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- "I noticed something in the ditch. I looked over,
and I guess it noticed me. It rose up," she said explaining that the
animal had been crouching when she first saw it.
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- "Its eyes went from serious, maybe it was getting
frogs -- it was focused on something," she continued. "When he
saw me, he was as surprised as I was. I slowed down to almost a stop; I
didn't stop because I was scared. It was almost dark, but I could see it
and get a good look."
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- Ward said the creature was 6 to 8 feet tall and covered
with hair about 2 inches long. There was white around the eyes, but she
did not notice a nose or ears. She said the lips were full with the texture
of a dog's paw pad. Its hands were drawn up next to its body.
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- At first, Ward only told friends and family about what
she saw. She acknowledged that it took considerable time for her to decide
to go public.
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- Florida skunk ape sightings have been reported for more
than 200 years, according to Scott Marlowe, co-founder of Pangea Institute
in Winter Haven and instructor of an upcoming college course on cryptozoology,
the study of hidden animals and the possibility of their existence.
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- He said there have been about 75 reported sightings of
the skunk ape in Florida in the past 20 years. This Southern relative of
Bigfoot gets its name for the awful stench often associated with it. Ward
said she could not remember an odor, but that may have been what first
caught her attention.
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- Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, would not comment about whether she thinks the
sighting was genuine but said her agency has received no reports of such
creatures.
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- Marlowe is searching the area of Ward's sighting outside
Lakeland for footprints and hair that may have been snagged on a branch.
He said the increasing development in Florida means man and beast will
cross paths more often.
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- "With so much encroachment, it's almost inevitable
if the thing exists, we're going to find it," Marlowe said.
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- The skunk ape makes its winter home in the Everglades,
Marlowe said, but may move about seasonally.
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- "I suspect they migrate," he added.
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- Loren Coleman, author of the 2003 book, Bigfoot! The
True Story of Apes in America, is considered the leading cryptozoologist
in the world and has been tracking Bigfoot-type sightings for 45 years.
He said weather events, such as hurricanes, often result in sightings.
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- "Hurricanes and tornadoes stir up wildlife. They
travel to get settled," Coleman said in a telephone interview Friday.
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- "Florida is the only subtropical state, and [there
is] very great habitat for any kind of primate. It's comfortable and supportive,"
he said. "Even through there are population centers, people forget
there's lots of wild land in-between."
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- As far as Ward, she said she drives a little slower now
so she can look around, and she keeps a camera in her vehicle. The Lakeland
woman said she hopes her report does not stir up any craziness among people
looking for the creature.
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- "I have the feeling they do watch a lot," she
said. "I wish I could see it again. I want people to see what I saw."
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- Copyright © 2004, Orlando Sentinel
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- http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/s
fl-skunkape1120,0,5841156.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
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