Mystery Ape Photo?

When I first saw this, it certainly resembled a chimpanzee walking upright. But where? In the South? From Africa? In a zoological garden setting? Or a wild animal park?

What are your initial reactions? What, totally out of context, do you think of this image?

Now, step back a moment, and begin to realize some of the sketchy details of how this photograph comes to the public.

Let us try to visit the truth about this picture, sort of. Do you remember that $1,000,000 prize being offered by trailcam & binocular manufacturer Bushnell Corporation, in conjunction with Field & Stream magazine for photographic proof of Sasquatch’s existence?

We all hoped it might turn into something worthwhile, but guessed it would devolve into a “fakery” contest, right?

The photograph above, in reality, is the first runner-up in the Field & Stream/Bushnell “Bigfoot” photography contest. The winner is obviously of a man in a suit, jogging and listening to his music. See below.

Here’s what F&S said about this: “It’s one thing to capture a shot of Sasquatch in the wild, but when Erik Stenbakken of Greeley, Colorado sent us this photo of Bigfoot rocking out to his I-Pod we had to give him first prize.”

That Bigfoot costume is even easy to identify, as it is from McAvene Designs of North Hollywood, California. It is the one that Penn & Teller used to create hoax Bigfoot footage for broadcast on their program in April 2006.

But have the contest organizers really enlightened us as to the how, the what or the where of their Photo Winner #2?

The caption simply reads, “Sasquatch Photos Runner-Up: Submitted by Pete Morgan of Bradford, Pennsylvania.”

However, I am interested in where? And how was that image captured? And via a trail camera?

BTW, appearances of apparently very chimplike creatures have turned up in recent years, in California and Florida.

The blurred video capture, below, shows the chimpanzee-like creature caught on tape in Florida, fall of 2006.

I look forward to a fuller revealing of how Pete Morgan of Pennsylvania created the image he submitted to Bushnell.

I found it. The “runner up” photograph is most definitely a bonobo, and is identical to the one from a posting on the Bonobo Hand Shake site here. The author is Vanessa Woods and her blog is about bonobos and the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary.

It was an image included with a brief note there about the topic of “Bigfoot” and what it would look like, from August 2008.

Ms. Woods is associated with the Friends of Bonobos and the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary. Founded by Claudine Andre in 1994, Lola ya Bonobo is the sanctuary of the NGO, Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo (ABC). Since 2002, the sanctuary has been located at Les Petites Chutes de la Lukaya, just outside of Kinshasa in République Démocratique du Congo.

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.

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