“Bigfooters” Know-It-Alls During Ape Investigations

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.

Loren Coleman 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.

Email • Facebook • Twitter •