“Bigfooters” Know-It-Alls During Ape Investigations
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 15th, 2007
The unfolding story of the sightings and examination of “orangutan sightings” in Florida has taken a new twist.
Apparently, at least one self-proclaimed “Bigfoot investigator” from an unidentified “Bigfoot research group” is messing with the local authorities in Florida. I’ve never found it an effective forensic interviewing technique to use terms like “Bigfoot” with local wildlife or law enforcement officers, let along eyewitnesses, in terms of gathering primary information.
Let’s be frank. That’s just not good form, and totally unscientific to boot. Take what people say as their experience of the animal being seen. Record it, ask more questions and walk away. Hey, that’s why it’s “ethnoknown.” If it’s being called an “orangutan,” a “swamp ape,” a “skunk ape,” a “monkey,” or whatever, just listen. Phoning up and throwing around terms like “juvenile Bigfoot” is just not cool.
Below is one of the latest articles updating the continuing search for this “red ape” in Florida.
Then, if you go all the way to the end, you will also find a link to a local news video interview of the officer who was an eyewitness to this “orangutan,” and footage of the original eyewitness too.
An orangutan sighting has Baker County residents going ape, and now Fish and Wildlife officials are hoping to lure the animal out of the trees using a secret weapon: doughnuts.
Although the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission can’t confirm it was an ape, some people reported seeing a “big orange ball of fur,” said Karen Parker, Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman.
Some think it’s just a spider monkey or a squirrel. Others are seriously investigating whether it was a “baby Bigfoot.”
One thing is for sure, the animal is still on the loose and it apparently has a hunger for jelly doughnuts.
On Oct. 30, Fish and Wildlife investigator Ken Holmes said he got a call about the animal stealing the sweet snacks from a bear hunter who lives near Macclenny. Holmes looked into the tall pine tree and saw something moving around but couldn’t confirm if it was an ape, squirrel, monkey, raccoon or even a cat.
So Holmes decided to lay doughnuts at the base of the tree to lure the creature out. The animal left but wasn’t seen or captured.
Earlier this month, Baker County Animal Control received a report of two men seeing an ape in a tree off Harry Rewis Road in Macclenny, Parker said.
Tina Thomas, an animal control officer in Baker County, said she saw an orange-colored ape sitting in a tree that was “much larger than a spider monkey.”
“I wouldn’t have believed it, but I saw it with my own eyes,” she said.
On Wednesday, Holmes received a call from a Bigfoot research group asking about the animal. The researcher said there are reports of juvenile Bigfoots in Florida. Holmes said he answered all of his questions but “almost wanted to correct him that the proper term in Florida is ‘skunk apes.’ ”
“I can’t confirm that it wasn’t Bigfoot,” he said. “That’s one possibility. It’s just not a possibility I’m exploring.”
Holmes said he isn’t even sure it was an ape in the tree because there are orange-colored spider monkeys. He said it’s illegal to own an orangutan in Florida without a commercial permit, and nobody in the area is registered to have one. The closest zoo is in Jacksonville, and no animals have been reported missing.
If he finds the animal, Holmes said it would not be killed but tranquilized and captured until an appropriate home can be decided for it. He said there is no danger to residents.
This isn’t the first time Holmes has gone monkey hunting in Florida. He said he captured a patas monkey last year, a fast, slender animal known as the “greyhound of monkeys.”
Holmes said as he tried to grab the monkey, the patas drop-kicked him twice without warning. He was able to calm the animal using his old fallback – food.
“Luckily I had a fruit salad packed for lunch, trying to be healthy,” he said. “The monkey took some grapes and he was fine.”“Baker sightings have residents talking Bigfoot; Several in the Macclenny area have reported seeing a “big orange ball of fur” in the trees,” by Adam Aasen, The Times-Union, Jacksonville, Florida, November 15, 2007.
For a New 4 video report on the sightings, click here and find the video on the right side of the page shown.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I agree with Loren. Anyone interviewing these witnesses should be trying to uncover the facts, not going into the conversation with Bigfoot already in their head. I think it is highly unscientific to go to the area with set preconceptions that Bigfoot must somehow be the culprit when to me the preliminary evidence does not point to these sightings being anything other than a primate of some sort. Maybe when people say they’ve seen an orangutan, that is what they really saw. So far the coloring described and the arboreal nature of the creature certainly suggest orangutan to me. I wouldn’t even begin to start stretching out towards unknown creatures as an explanation at this point.
If one wants to approach these cases in a scientific manner, they should go there, interview the witnesses in an unbiased manner (Just LISTEN), looks at the facts, then come to a reasonable hypothesis based on that. There should be no throwing around the term of “Bigfoot” at this stage. This is not only an unjustified and unscientific conclusion, but it could also influence people’s accounts of what happened, basically leading the witness. I say leave all the talk of Bigfoot at the door and find out what is REALLY going on. If the facts point to Bigfoot, then that avenue of inquiry can be made.
Good morning Cryptos…
Nice blogs this morning, two of my local favorite descriptors, “barefoot hillbillies” and “giant screaming monkey men”, both leave little to the imagination especially the latter, though the former is certainly possible in this neck of the woods.
It’s always better to listen rather than waiting to talk. JMHO
live and let live…
ole bub and the dawgs
im still seeing alot new stories on internet about this new florida ape or primate. i realy like the above opinions as well about the ape. im sure we will hear & see more new info about the florida ape situation in the upcomeings weeks. thanks bill
Loren and mystery_man are correct. Although I MUST says that I SOMEWHAT understand where these “researchers” are coming from. Some of the “researchers” are not as knowledgeable of the various species of cryptid “apes” out there and so they make they tend to put these sightings all under one heading. I.E.-“Bigfoot.”
Still bad science, but human nature tends to oversensationalize. Sad but true.
When I think of this it reminds of the various sightings of “Big Bird” in Texas and other places. Due to the descriptions made by witnesses, the creature is described as a “pterodactyl,” even though (as Ken Gerhardt points out) not all pterosaurs ARE pterodactyls. For that matter, pterodactyls are NOT dinosaurs, but that’s another story.
BTW, if you good folks don’t already know, the next MonsterQuest is about Big Bird.
There are two vids on the web, not sure how old either one is, that have interesting correlations to the myakka photos and baker co. reports that can be read on msn. one video is from Land O’ Lakes, which is not far from the Sarasota area where the 2000 photos were taken and you can hear a breathless cameraman as the image zooms in on a stand of trees. something large is staring at him and then moves away. the north florida video has two guys shooting video of undeveloped property and they spot something that appears in the sunlight to be covered in long, reddish brown hair moving away very fast, tearing into denser foliage that tangles up the two guys as they try to pursue it. If you pause the video at the right time, as the figure comes out from behind a stand of trees, you can easily make out swinging arms, its back and the shape of its head, but you have to be quick. All these accounts and images, from the recent Baker co. ones to the anonymous Myakka letter point to an orangutan initially, but the woman in the letter noted the immensity of the creature in her backyard was beyond an orangutan’s size and the Florida Fish and Wildlife officer summoned to Baker co. would not say conlusively that what he observed through his binoculars was an orangutan despite its acknowledged resemblance to one. the size of the figure in the photos and in the two videos, along with the ability to stand upright, despite the fur color correspondence, could point to something other than an orang or a really well done hoax. the photos and vids also call to mind sightings from Duval County in 2000 when security guards on southside blvd. in jacksonville, a heavily forested area, reported a very tall red brown hominid that was averse to being approached, emitted hair raising cries and tore a branch off a tree that was later found to have protruded from the trunk at a height of nine feet. if someone knows that the two florida vids are hoaxed let me know so i can put these speculations to bed.
p.s. if anyone has checked out the anonymous vid sent to the BEAST organization of something with short redbrown fur and a very ape like appearance sitting in the middle of a trail by a creek eating nuts out of its hand while some dude with a Bronx accent yells ‘that ain’t no bear! call the authorities!’ and knows this is fake, again i would like to know because i can hardly believe someone in a costume could reproduce the dexterity the creature exhibits with its hands and the fluid motion of its head turning back and forth as it looks around. this vid is pretty compelling and if faked, is well done.