Sybilla Irwin Bigfoot Portrait on Blog

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Bigfoot Sketch by Sybilla Christine Irwin

Sybilla Christine Irwin was kind enough to do a sketch for me. She took multiple still captures from the Bigfoot in the Laurels Video and created this wonderful sketch. I think this is spot on to what the old girl looks like. Over the past couple years of studying the video, it appears that the Bigfoot may be female. I and others who have studied the video think the Bigfoot has a "Old Woman" appearance. You can view more of Sybilla's fine work at:  Sybilla Irwin - Galleries



Actual Still Capture

http://bf-field-journal.blogspot.com/2013/11/bigfoot-sketch-by-sybilla-christine.html

 

Sybilla Irwin is a Facebook Friend of mine and I am a big admirer of her work. She is like Alexis Evans and one of the few artists that is seriously committed to the notion o showing Bigfoots as individuals. In this case I wanted to try some simple mechanical re-orientations of the photographic image (Some touch-up work was required to make the face as legible as before after re-orienting)

 

To me this face has a very distinctively Neanderthaloid facial structure

A sculptured face below

 

[Cover art for a story book about Florida Skunk Apes]

 

Sybilla Christine Irwin We're working on the 2nd book in the series now!

 

October 25 at 11:35am · Like

Dale Drinnon Hey this is great! I wish you luck on that, this is WAAAAYY more authentic than a lot of the stupidity that has been floating around lately. I mean its a kids book, but they really look like that and it seems the reddish ones are the littler ones of the bigger darker ones. Ivan Sanderson remarked on that in 1961

October 25 at 11:41am · Like

Sybilla Christine Irwin Yes...Ronie and I are committed to bringing some real insights we discover through research into our books. Thank you!

 

This is the listing for her book on Amazon Books:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1490949992/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_4Bd4rb0F9KX1A 

Florida Sea Monster Video

Alleged FW Mosasaur...

Neanderthal Skull from Florida

These are two skulls from the Crystal Springs area of Florida, age unknown but of a type prior to the historical tribes of the region. This came out of a series of newspaper articles to be posted at the Frontiers of Anthropology as soon as I can manage to arrange them: the photograph was posted in the Miami Daily News of Sunday, September 2, 1934. The cranium on the right is low and broad with a heavy brow ridge and represents a Neanderthal type: it is a male. The other skull is the more modern type, a female. Both of them may have been killed and thrown into the water as a sacrifice: the bottom of the male skull is broken open, presumably so the brain could be eaten. The Neanderthal type might well correspond to the more human kind of "Skunk Ape", which is also extremely similar to some reports from Texas.

Skunk Ape-More Human Type (AKA Florida Bigfoot)

Skunk Ape, More Apelike type (Myakka Ape, Swamp Ape)
(Statue outside of Skunk Ape Information center in Florida)

An Interesting Florida Bigfoot Case From BFRO

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=36218 Report # 36218 (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Saturday, August 11, 2012.

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Early morning encounter during a rest stop near Florida City

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YEAR: 1995

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Monroe County

LOCATION DETAILS: Pine Forest Habitat on the Everglades National Park Road (first habitat on the right when heading west)

NEAREST TOWN: florida city everglades national park

NEAREST ROAD: everglades national park road

OBSERVED: I worked in a nightclub on miami beach called Warsaw Ballroom on Wednesday night we had a members night free drinks until 1 am with a show after which made it a busy but early night after work i went on a trip to Everglades national Parks city called Flamingo I was out of work by 3 am it took one hour to get to the gate of the park entrance which at that time was open and they didnt charge. Me and my friend arrived by 4 am our plan was to enter the park and go straight across to Flamingo camp out and get up at noon go on a boat tour and hiking tour then stop at the different florida habitats which are on both sides of the road between florida city and flamingo. On the way back to miami the next day, When we arrived at the parks entrance we found ourselves super tired and as we started across we decided to stop at the first habitat called pine habitat and take a short nap well we arrived and parked relatively close to a dumpster at the habitat and the temperature was cool but comfortable so we nodded off being there was no one in sight and it was peaceful. About an hour into my nap i was awakened by my friend who appeared panicked and was motioning me not to make a sound my head was on the glass of the drivers side of the sports car we were in he was shaking and pointing at the glass where my head was touching the window i didnt lift my head i slowly rotated my head around and looked thru the glass which had a metallic limo tint on it the king you can see out but not in and i saw the head and eye of a ape like creature trying to look into the car i got nervous we had a gun in the car which i had a permit for my friend was slowly trying to get it from under the seat but i stepped on his hand and motioned no dont do that the ape-like creature was touching the car and continued to try to see in for a good five to ten minutes i had put a reflector plate that was a lightweight tin foil in the front window as well it was trying to look in the front window it walked over to the dumpster which was about fifteen feet from where we had parked i noticed a really strange odor kinda like a skunk but worse more rotten smelling my friend was holding his nose and about to loose it the creature was nosing through the garbage reaching in it had very long arms and was over six feet tall covered in a reddish brown blondish fur shaggy looking,but very tranquil acting and because i did not see any breasts i assume it was male i really couldn't tell, it didnt find anything in the dumpster it grabbed a McDonalds bag ripped it apart and threw it continuing to lightly pull through the dumpster trash for a good half hour looking back at the car a few times then it started back towards the car i didnt want to spook it or make it jump on my car or anything it started to walk off past the drivers side front of the car through the pines and by this time it still was not daybreak but getting close and it continued walking in the Northwest direction we sat there and watched it walk into the swamp the only camera we had was in a locked luggage in the trunk of the car and my cell phone did not have a camera neither did my friends , we obviously couldn't sleep so we started up the car and went straight to the other side Flamingo. When we arrived we napped in the parking lot of the info center and when it opened i went in found a ranger and told him what had happened along with a female park ranger as well they didn't act surprised and they asked if we had taken pictures i explained why we didn't and they jokingly said you didn't shoot at it did you i said i didn't have a gun but wouldn't that be illegal to shoot at wildlife and they said you'd be surprised how many people do shoot at them they said thank you for reporting it but apparently it was a very common thing they didn't ask for my name or even write the report down. i never filed anything because my mom said people would think i was crazy so i never reported it but it bothered me that i didnt so im reporting it now i assure you i am quite sane and not a prankster if you need any additional info im happy to provide it.

OTHER WITNESSES: yes my best friend at the time and myself and we reported it to two Park Ranger Employees working on the Flamingo end of the park that next morning which was a Thursday morning

OTHER STORIES: No other than the fact the Rangers said it was common place and they even seemed to know by my description which creature i was talking about.

ENVIRONMENT: Natural pristene Florida Pine Forest

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Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator David Bakara:

I spoke with RK by phone and he seemed quite relieved to get this encounter in the public realm. He was surprised at the time how nonchalant the rangers were about their encounter. The driver (RK) was sleeping when the encounter began. He has lost contact with his friend, the passenger, since he moved from the area.

All the windows had limo tint on them which was the preferred tint here in Florida until the authorities outlawed it. You could not see inside from the outside, but your can see outside while inside. In the front windshield was a large reflective panel that keeps out the sun during the day.

RK says that after about 45 minutes of sleeping in their seats in the small Eclipse, his friend in the passenger seat woke him by squeezing his hand and arm so hard, he could feel his fingernails digging in. RK opened his eyes to a look of horror on his friend's face, and he was gesturing to the driver's window where RK was resting his head. RK slowly turned his head and right next to his head was the face of a large apelike creature looking in. RK described the face as huge, with a broader nose than a man, but not like a gorilla. It was hooded as ours is, very hairy except around the eyes and cheeks. He did not see the teeth, but it was smelling and exhaling hard and left its breath on the window. It moved from the window, to the windshield, and back to the window several times. It seemed frustrated that it couldn't determine if anyone was in the car. At one point, it put its hands on the top of the car and gave it a little shake. It finally walked in an upright fashion to the dumpster a few yards from where they were parked. They could see it clearly in the moonlight. RK described it as tall, 6'10" to 7', covered in hair about 4" long, with a neck and built more like a basketball player than a body builder. It was tall and lanky. RK got the impression it was young and under fed. The chest area had a little less hair on it, and RK didn't see any breasts, so he surmised it was a male, even though he couldn't confirm it. The lid to the dumpster was already open and the creature reached in to picked thru what was in there and did nibble on a few items. All the witnesses could see how this couldn't be a guy in a costume as the arms were way too long for a man. After about an hour and a half of watching this animal amble about the dumpster it started to move off into a large prairie on the other side of the road. As it slowly walked, they watched it turn its head and make a scream like a wolf/coyote howl. The other passengers in the car became quite nervous again and thought it was calling others to join it here at this spot. The passenger in the back seat wanted to get the gun and shoot it. RK said no and to just sit still and let it move away. It howled several times as it slowly moved off and out of sight. All the occupants were quite warm in the sealed up car and the windows were beginning to fog up now. They at this time slowly cracked the windows and could really smell it strong now.They found a ranger station and excitedly related the story. The rangers asked if they had a gun in the car and RK answered yes (he had a permit). The rangers asked if they shot at it and they said no. The rangers stressed the point that it was a crime to shoot at any animals in the park. They did take a few notes and said yes, they were aware of the creature, and this was just one of hundreds of reports they get. They told them the Florida name for the creature, the Skunk Ape.

The witness chose this Pete Travers sketch, one that best matches the head and body of what he saw.
About BFRO Investigator David Bakara:

David has three daughters and a wife that shares his interest in research, both having developed a deep respect for nature and knowledge of the outdoors and wildlife. Attended Northern Florida Expedition 2011, 2012 Washington Exp., and 2012 North Florida exp. Prior US Navy and currently works as a Leasing Agent, spending his time off in the woods as often as he can investigating Bigfoot reports.

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• Explanation of the report classification system
• Submit a report for the sightings database
• Please send any comments or inquiries to Contact@BFRO.net

--This report is once again interesting because the Bigfoot in question is lean and rangy and even indicates something in the way of the neck. Once again the face looks strikingly like a Neanderthal and similar reports of this same  type range straight across the Southern United States and Northern Mexico.

  Best Wishes, Dale D.

Giant Anaconda Sighted in Florida

 

I just had this added on my Facebook Wall:

 

Giant Snake attacks truck! Eye witness (TeamTazer) Bigfoot Sasquatch 2012-2013

Published on Dec 4, 2012 by SnowWalkerPrime

Michael Merchant, founder of TeamTazer; interviews witness who survived a giant snake attacking his truck. The witness gives an account of snake smashing head against truck window, and firing pistol at snake with no apparent effect. Remarkable story of, a as yet undocumented species of monster snake living in the U.S. Historical accounts from the turn of the century discussed as well. Amazing eye witness account.

Bigfoot Evidence Neanderthal Report

From Bigfoot Evidence on Thursday, a report of a very Neanderthal-like individual. Florida is one place where you get this specifically (and I'm thinking Texas is another) but the Neanderthal-type reports are scattered all over North America. They are overshadowed by reports of their larger cousins, but their very specificness makes them exciting to hear about.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Report of Bigfoot (Neanderthal-looking man) Slinging Mud at Frog Catcher In Florida

A man in Florida just submitted a report to the BFRO after watching Finding Bigfoot and wrote about an encounter he had with Bigfoot while frogging the day after Thanksgiving (November 23, 1990). According to the report, the man's life changed forever when he locked eyes with a Neanderthal-looking man slinging mud at him in his airboat.

Here's the raw report written by the witness:

LOCATION DETAILS: The Oak's Upper St.Johns River
NEAREST TOWN: Cocoa,Florida
NEAREST ROAD: Marsh

OBSERVED: I was flipping threw the channels last week watching some late night TV when I saw a program called Finding Bigfoot.It brought me back to the day my mind about that giant changed for me.I only told my mom what I saw.It really changed my life about the unknown.I was running my airboat on the upper St. Johns River doing what I like to do best frog gigging on a Friday night. It wasnt the first time I was out on the river at night,I use to run the north and south parts of the river all the time.I still do just at night I make sure I have a running buddy with me.Anyway I was coming up on the oak's.The oaks are located right next to Duda's property.Just a wee south of Lake Winder. I figured I would pull up into the oakhead and drink a few cups of joe before I started to gig.Out of the corner of my eye I saw something bolt into the cabbage palms.I figured it to be a hog,I really did not know what it was the last thing on my mind was it could of been the big guy.Anyway I ran up on dry ground about 15 yards spun my boat around so it was pointed toward the river and shut it down.I just poured a cup of joe when I herd something about 10 yard behind me.It sounded like it was wrestling with a cabbage palm.Or maybe rolling around in a bunch of palms.Then out of know where I herd a thump right next to me boat.I looked but did not see anything then again I herd it behind my boat then something hit my rudders I turned on my head lamp and saw mud on my rudders I then saw a bunch of mud fly over me and hit my bow I shined my light in the direction of where it was coming from and I saw his face.I lost all feeling in my body I just about passed out I was lost I didnt know what to do.I was in total shock.I just about peed my pants I was so scared.I never in my natural born life moved so fast to crank my boat and got the heck out of there.I almost sank my boat when I hit the river. I just went north knowing I would be in the lake.I was scared to drive home so I parked in the middle of Lake Winder and took a few sips of drink to calm my nerves and try to talk my self out of what I saw,I stayed there untill first light.When I got home I went and seen my mom and had to tell her what I saw. I told her the story because it scared me so.I am a man and I am tuff but that scared the living heck out of me.I figured I should share my story just like others are on that tv show.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator R. Monteith:

I spoke with the gentleman for several hours. Although this encounter happened in 1990, he remembers every detail. He claims this encounter changed his life forever. The gentleman has worked at the space center for over 20 years and has gone frogging every Friday night on his airboat even longer. On November 23, 1990, around midnight, he took his airboat to a familiar oak hammock north of Lake Washington and south of Lake Winder on the St. Johns River.

He backed his airboat in as usual, to prevent any other boaters that might come by from blocking him in. He turned off the engine, and while still sitting in his chair, poured himself a coffee. Within a minute’s time, he heard two “plops” that came from the front of his boat. Then he heard a “plop” hit the rudder behind him. He turned on his headlamp to investigate the noise. He noticed mud on the rudder. As he was trying to figure out where the mud came from, another clump of mud went sailing over his head, going through his light beam and hitting the rudder. He quickly turned to see who was throwing mud, and from behind a group of palmettos, standing 30 feet from him was a huge, dark-haired “Neanderthal” staring at him.

They “locked eyes,” looking at each other for several seconds. The witness claims he was so frightened he couldn’t move. He thought how sometimes his engine takes a few times to fire, and he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to get away fast enough. To this day, he doesn’t remember starting the engine, but does remember that once it was started, he “torpedoed” out so fast, he swamped the boat and almost sunk it.

He drove the boat to the wider part of the river, up to the next lake where he remained in the middle until sunrise. He didn’t want to go back down the narrow part of the river for fear the creature might jump on the boat, or grab him as he sped by. For several hours he remained in the middle of the lake, shaking, and trying to talk himself out of what he had just witnessed.

When telling his story, the gentleman was overcome with emotion, and had to stop and begin several times. I cannot emphasize how passionately credible this man is in retelling this encounter some 20 years later.

Although, he only saw the creature for several seconds, he was able to give a detailed description of what he saw. What he saw, ‘is burned in my memory forever;”

-It was approx. 8+ feet tall. (He sits 10 feet up in his chair, and he was just slightly looking down to it.)

-It was more “Neanderthal” than ape or human-looking.

-Its dark brown body hair was darker than its “dark blond” facial hair.

-The shoulders were “as wide as a small pick-up truck.”

-There appeared to be no neck.

-There wasn’t much hair around the checks or eyes, but it seemed to have an 8 -10 inch beard.

-The head was not conical, but very large and oval.

-Facial skin was not black, but darker than tan, and “leathery looking, ruff-like.”

-There was a brow ridge.

-The hair was not tangled or matted.

- It had black eyes, and thin lips with a large mouth.

The witness continues to go out on Friday nights, but will not return to this particular place. He has agreed to take me out to this oak hammock during the day. I will update this report if need be.

Photo taken on this hammock in the swamp, to give you an idea of what the trees/woods look like in the area.

The St. Johns River Management Area that runs through three counties is remote and marshy, with many cypress and oak hammocks. Abundant wildlife exists here year round. Several BFRO reports are currently being investigated in or around this management area.

[via BFRO.net]

 

From the BIGFOOT EVIDENCE site. Please continue to support BIGFOOT EVIDENCE, the one site where the most current news about Bigfoot is being covered!

 

http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2012/09/report-of-bigfoot-neanderthal-looking.html?spref=fb

Bigfoot With Baby Seen In Florida’s Ocala National Forest

Bigfoot With Baby Seen In Florida’s Ocala National Forest

Friday, August 24, 2012 7:48

 

http://beforeitsnews.com/unexplained-phenomena/2012/08/bigfoot-with-baby-seen-in-floridas-ocala-national-forest-2430262.html

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a condensed version of a man’s encounter with a Bigfoot and its baby in the Ocala National Forest in Florida on January 15, 2012. You can read the entire lengthy report (case #34954) at the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization’s website (www.bfro.net). We are using the pseudonym “Doug” for the witness.

 

One of the sandy roads in the Ocala National Forest – The Bigfoot sighting
was about a mile north of the red star on map.

The witness, “Doug,” is an executive for a large multinational corporation based in Orlando, Florida who oversees approximately 1,000 employees. To decompress from work stress, he often heads to the wilder parts of Florida on the weekends to hike or canoe.
On Sunday, January 15, 2012, he drove deep into the Ocala National Forest north of Highway 42 and west of Deland, Florida and the St. John’s River. Ultimately his car got impossibly stuck in soft sand. Calls for help were useless, so he began digging away the sand around his tires with his bare hands. After digging for a while, he stood up to stretch his back. That’s when his saga began.
“When I stood up, a rock pelted me and a shooting pain went through the inside of my left thigh near the groin area, which caused me to jump back and yelp in pain,” he later reported.
“I immediately looked toward the forest on the other side of the road from where the rock came, and perceived movement in the bushes. At this point, I did not see the creature, but did see movement in the branches and leaves of the shrubs, grasses and saw palmetto. The movement was enough to convince me that someone or something was there, and that it—whatever it was—was the source of the rock. . . .
“The sound that I heard was the sound of leaves and sticks being crushed on the ground, as if someone took one step and then stopped. The sound appeared to come from about 15 feet in the woods behind me.”
The next sound Doug said was “similar to what you might hear from a feral cat that is being cornered, only much, much louder and deeper. It then started to alternate between a hiss and a vocalization that sounded like haaaaawwwww. So the sound it was making was a protracted hhhiiiiiissssssssssssssss, haaaaawwwwwww, hhhiiiiissssssssssssssss, haaaaawwwwwwww, with an intermittent deeper gurgling sound interspersed throughout.”
At that point, fear overtook Doug and he jumped in his car and locked the doors. Through the windows he saw the creature about 15 feet into the woods as it rose up from a prostrate position behind saw palmettos.
“I would estimate that the creature was about eight feet tall. It was extremely bulky across the bust, with very muscular arms, and I have no doubt that it could have easily busted out the windows and ripped me to shreds if it so desired. . . .
“I also observed what would commonly be described as a “love-handle” around the side of the belly area and back. The creature’s hair was black and gray in color and was slicked down against the lighter skin, which could be seen in some places through what appeared to be wet hair. The hair was very thick on the arms and shoulders but less so around the side, belly and back areas. . . .
“The face of the creature was a dark grey color, with very large dark eyes. It had a very large mouth with extremely large, fat lips. The nose was human-like, with one exception, which was large, slightly flared nostrils. The nose did not protrude off its face in proportion to a human’s, but was flatter and more sunken. The creature looked like an ape, but with facial features—especially the nasal area—that were very similar to those of humans.”

Description of little Bigfoot
“About one minute after disappearing into the tree line, the creature reemerged, this time walking completely upright on two legs, just like a human. It paused at the tree line for a second, and then took one huge step back across the road.
“The creature, to my shock and horror, was carrying along a “child” of the same creature. It had both arms of the smaller creature grasped in its right hand, and was dangling the juvenile along by its side, with the legs of the smaller creature almost touching the ground.
“The smaller creature appeared to be completely limp from the neck down, but its eyes were open and it was moving its head and looking toward the trees to which it was being carried. After crossing the road, the creature paused at the tree line on the opposite side of the road, lifted the juvenile up onto its hip, and continued into the scrub.
Read more @ http://www.skyshipsovercashiers.com/bigfootet.htm#baby

Mother and Child portrait by Thomas Finley
Original art by Bigfoot Portrait Specialist artist
Made for the upcoming Honobia Bigfoot Conference

 

Commercial Neanderthal Reconstruction Resembles Iceman

http://www.prehistoricstore.com/item.php?item=749

Tyler Stone has recently been running a series of articles on the Minnesota Iceman, Neanderthals and the Eastern Bigfoot, and I came across something else which independantly unites all three once again. This is a half-skull, half-fleshed reconstruction of a Neanderthal's head  which is being offered for sale as a teaching aid through a commercial outlet (The link is provided above) here you can see the face on view of the model and then the views of either side.

The fullfaced version of the reconstruction does have some striking similarities to the "Up the nose" view of the "Minnesota Iceman" as illustrated by Bernard Heuvelmans after he and Sanderson had closely examined it. The full reconstruction is on the left and the Iceman drawing is on the right.

Florida "Skunk Ape" Mockup from The Cryptozoologist's Blog looks pretty close to the Iceman, too.
Below, full-length drawings of the "Minnesota Iceman" by Alika Lindbergh (Bernard Heuvelmans' then-wife and longtime illustrator) based on the series of his photos (Heuvelmans' photo mosaic in Center)

Versions of "Bozo the Iceman" done by Ivan Sanderson and under Bernard Heuvelmans' direction separately for separate publications.

Above, the photo mosaic of Heuvelman's photos in colour, and at right, Alika Lindbergh's reconstruction of what the "Iceman" would have looked like in life.

Two drawings of the more humanlike "Florida Skunk Ape" which resemble the "Minnesota Iceman" and the drawings of Alika Lindbergh quite closely.

http://www.skunkapefiles.com/SkunkApeArt.html

Above, the issue of ARGOSY which originally published the account of the "Minnesota Iceman" with an artist's depiction of it on the cover. And below the cover of Heuvelmans' book, which is quite thorough on the matter and has never been published in English. Boris Porshnev's contribution is a complete rundown on the central-Asiatic Hominins then called "Almases" and which were thought to correspond most closely to Neanderthals at the time. (Heuvelmans gave the name "Homo pongoides" to the Iceman but readily admitted it could be assimilated into Homo (sapiens) neanderthalensis.

Skunk Apes Part 2

Skunk Ape 2   There are more humanlike and more apelike "Skunk Ape" reports. The more humanlike ones are more readily distinguished if you simply call them "Florida Bigfoot" instead because they are really only the local populations of the same "Eastern Bigfoot" common over the rest of this part of the continent. Or you really should call them Shaawanoki (Shah-Wa-No-Kee) in parallel use to the name of "Sasquatch" for the West Coast Bigfoot (Something that is entirely different again). In the book cover illustration at the top left, the Florida Bigfoot ("Skunk Apes 2") are showing the red juvenile phase and darker adults as noted by Sanderson for the Almas=Kaptar category in the book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life in 1961. To quote from that book on the bottom of page 290 :

In the Caucasian region, the males seem to be encountered alone in the upper fastnesses whereas the females, which are readily recognizable it is said by the great and sometimes positively enormous development of their breasts (which, unlike any pongids, are pendant or hanging), show up at lower levels. Then, a Dwarf Kaptar is also spoken of, particularly on the southern face of the mountains, but as one Prof. V. K. Leontiev, who studied this business locally, with consummate discipline, observes, nothing is stated about these beings that obviates their being the young ones or "teen-agers," who also tend to band together and go off on their own. They are said to be smaller than the average man and to be clothed in reddish brown wool as opposed to the other two types—one of which, be it noted, is said always to be a male, while the other is always female; from which one may draw a rather obvious assumption one would have supposed—which are variously described as having dark gray, black, or silvered hair. This change of coat color, from gingery to gray-brown, to gray-black, and finally to white with age, is just as consistent with what is found among other Primates as is the change from shiny black in youth, as displayed by the sad little Jacko of the Fraser River, to brown and then grizzly. One must note that, with increasing age, those of us whose head-hair turns white will find that our axillary and pubic hairs do the same while those who have profuse chest hair will see that it also follows the head-hair in this respect. Thus a venerable male ABSM might be as white as the old chap who paced the truck in Oregon ...and then popped into a lake. If Neanderthalers were hairy, they may well have had a fluffy wool, like that of a baby One-humped Camel as is so repeatedly stated by almost all the Eurasians who say they have met their local small ABSMs, and an "overcoat" of darker hairs like a muskrat and most other mammals of cooler climates, which develops with age, becomes profuse and dominant in the prime of life, and then goes silvery to pure white with age.[Emphasis added by Dale D]

With Skull Comparisons. The brow ridges on this "Skunk Ape" are not so pronounced but the shape and position of the eye sockets is striking. Skull illustrations not precisely at the needed angles, unfortunately

Comparison for limb and body proportions. In particular the long thick thigh and short shins are like Neanderthalers. Original art is by Zdenek Burian, but I have combined two different pieces for the position

Most of the following artwork is from the Skunk Ape Files website, which has a wealth of information, photographs and reports, and most of the material actually describes the more human "Skunk Ape 2" as illustrated here. Most of these works of art were made by Ann-Marie, Emma Carrolls and Melissa. I find there is a strong resemblance to the "Minnesota Iceman" in several.           http://www.skunkapefiles.com/

 A human type Florida Bigfoot track-this one is a little long and narrow: others are shorter and wider, all look pretty close to standard human. The "Ape" tracks have an offset big toe and look very different when you have complete prints to compare

Altamaha-Ha

In several instances of looking up different internet references under one heading, the different sites frequently have small changes in wording to convey pretty much the same exact basic information told over and over again. In this case, the following is a composite of several sites which are all small changes from one another:

There is said to be a creature living in the Altamaha river . The South Georgia coast is characterised by tiny islands, canals, waterways, deep rivers, and lots of inter-crossing creeks and streams. The Tama , indigenous natives to the area, told stories about the animal. According to Jim Miles in Weird Georgia, "Centuries ago, the Tama Indians first told tales of a huge water serpent that hissed and bellowed." The creature is called Altamaha-ha, also known as Altie.
The Altamaha-ha is said to inhabit the Altamaha River and the surrounding waterways and marshes. It takes its name from the River and the extra "-ha" at the end is a Native-Language suffix, not to be mistaken as indicating a joke, BTW. This creature has been once allegedly seen stranded on the banks of the river and trying to free itself franticly, and has also been observed cavorting on the surface. Some have said it approached them in a menacing way and even attacked a boat. It has been described as having a horizontal tail, like that of a porpoise, which moves up-and-down. Its size is commonly said to be around 20 feet (6-7 meters) long, but there have been some smaller creatures seen which are presumed to be youngsters and about 6 feet (2 meters )long, and some sightings say the creature is much larger, up to 40 or 50 feet long and six feet wide. The size of the head and thickness of the neck seems consistently about the same, with a head 2-3 feet long and a neck thickness of 1-2 feet reported at both cica-20-foot and circa-40-foot extremes in size. In appearance the creature is said to possess features resembling an alligator, an eel, a manatee and a dolphin. It is said to have large, protruding eyes and a pronounced alligator-like snout armed with large shining conical teeth. It has a serrated ridge along the back, like a series of small dorsal fins or sawteeth next to each other, and a true dorsal fin which is rather low and set far back. It is very elongated. It is said to be metal grey on top and pearly white on the bottom. There are supposed to be 350 sightings recorded.
In the 1920s, timbermen who rode the river reported sighting a creature , they described as a large snakelike water monster. They were recorded as using the Native term, Altamaha-ha.
In 1935, a group of hunters spotted what they called a "giant snake" swim through the river.
A Boy Scout troop from the 1940s reported sighting such a creature
In the 1950’s two officials from the Reidsville State Prison reported seeing a strange creature. Then there is this from 1969:
On a night in July 1969 , Donny Manning and his brother embarked on his boat on the Altamaha River at Clark’s Bluff. The lights on the house boat allowed them to see for some distance. Fishing for catfish, Donny decided to use an old trick he had learned as a kid which was oatmeal and soda mixed on a three pronged hook. They were fishing in a little depression outside the rough water when something took the hook. It did not act like a regular catfish after a catch. Most catfish would take the hook, run and stop, and turn; instead it ran with the hook. Every once in a while it would come out of the water where they could see it. They say it measured about ten to twelve feet long and at first they thought it resembled a sturgeon, but after a few more jumps, they could tell it wasn’t. Donny claims it had a snout almost like an alligator, or, he thought, of a duck-billed platypus. He says it had a horizontal tail, instead of a fish like vertical one, and it also had a spiny kind of bony triangular ridge along the top of its body. The dorsal fin that was down, but he could see it on the back. The teeth were shining in the light were sharp pointed. The Creature was gun-metal gray on the top and oyster white-yellow on the bottom. It didn’t move along side to side like a snake either, but it moved up and down like a dolphin.” Mr. Manning says he has lived on the water all his life and has seen all kinds of creatures, but this was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. He also claims he was using a salt water rig with a 40 lb. test line and the creature snapped it like it was nothing. Mr. Manning estimates from the way it felt on the line and the way that it snapped it that it was at least 75 lbs.During the summer of 1980 Andy Greene and Barry Prescott reportedly saw Altamaha-ha stranded on a mud bank near Cathead Creek. The creature lay halfway in the water, thrashing and trying to free itself from the bank. They described it as a dark coloured, with a rough skin and that it moved like nothing they had ever seen before. The creature was very large, three to four feet thick (1 meter) and twenty feet long( 6/7 meters). They observed the creature for ten minutes, before it freed itself, submerged, and disappeared.
In December of 1980 Larry Gwin spotted what he thought was Altamaha-ha in Smith Lake, located up the Altamaha River, while eel fishing. He described the creature has a fifteen to twenty foot long and snake-like, with two brown humps that protruded from the water. It disappeared and did not resurface. The creature was spotted several more times in the early 1980s, particularly near Two-Way Fish camp. One eyewitness, Ralph Dewitt, a crab fisherman of fourteen years, described Altamaha-ha as "the world's biggest eel".

One of the most recent reports was from 2002 when a man who was pulling a boat up the river near Brunswick reported seeing something over twenty feet in length and six feet wide break the water. The man reported that the animal seemed to emerge from the water to get air and then submerge again beneath the depths.
The story is popular in the McIntosh and Glynn County areas, which both border the Altamaha River. The local newspaper , The Darien News has covered the story several times .

Sources:
* Wikipedia - http://www.en.wikipedia.org/
* www.Georgiamysteries.blogspot.com/2008/05/legend-of-altamaha
* www.paranormal.about.com/library/blclassic_altamahaha.htm
* www.cryptozoology.com/glossary_topic.php?id=4
* www.biology-online.org/articles/altamaha-ha.html
* Cryptozoology A-Z by Loren Coleman
*Augusta Chronicle: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/031598/fea_floydcol.shtml
*Monstropedia: http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Altamaha-ha

The reconstruction is a bizzare intermediate between a Plesiosaur and a Tullymonstrum, but the Longneck reports are easiest to skim off the top at up to 40 feet long, 6 feet thick with a head 2-3 feet long and a neck 1-2 feet thick: it shows 2-3 humps at the surface, garnished with a sawtoothedridge down the center. Except for the size of the head and neck, these are all easily determinative features of the type. The forefins and tail might be close to what is depicted in the reconstruction, but the proportions of the neck, body and tail would not be.


[Dale's Scale Pasteup Illustrating the common Giant eel and Plesiosaur-shaped creatures described in Freshwater "Monster" reports]

The overall shape of the reconstructed creature seems to be based on a manatee but depicted as much thinner: the jagged back could be based on sightings of alligators. Some of the descriptions specifically allege Giant eels at about 10-20 feet long (Normal-sized eels are also in the river), and presumably the same statements about the head and neck measurements are meant to apply to them also. Of the whole series of reports the Giant eel ones are the least certain, but there is no really good reason to leave them out.


But the basic type of creature that stands out from the majority of reports is a type of Alligator gar, the 1969 sighting by the Mannings being the best one of the series. Unfortunately, the witnesses only got short intermittent views of a twisting and jumping creature and so they were confused about which way was up, and consequently which plane it was undulating in. But the rest of the description matches rather well. Personally I would not compare a creature with all those jagged sharp teeth to a duckbilled platypus under any circumstances, I would have stuck with the alligator headed description.


Memphre AKA Chaousarou (Lakes Memphremagog and Champlain)



"Alligator Gar Fish", Public-Domain Image

The Alligator gar Water Monsters include several historical reports from around Lake Champlain, a creature described by Samuel deChamplain as Chaosarou or gars but twice the size of the commoner ones of five feet long (Longnose gars), hence about ten feet long. That would match an Alligator gar. Around Texas, there are perhaps some errant reports in the Rio grande and other areas, and there are some introduced alien fish reports of Alligator gars including around Hong Kong, where they were introduced by sports fishermen. But the Altama-ha popultion seems to be a relic population of the Atlantic Seaboard from Florida up to the (recolonized reservior) Lake Norman in North Carolina.



I had formerly written a blog about the monster of Lake Nicaragua being an Alligator gar, on the regular CFZ blog. This now seems to be a related but different species (Also sometimes found in the Caribbean Sea)

http://lakenormanmonster.com/sightings.php

Lake Norman is an artificial lake (reservior) but it has a thriving population of outrageously large fishes according to the site on the other end of the link. Along with Alligator gars, there also seem to be catfishes of unusually large size in the lake.


Lake Norman Monstrous Gar

CFZ REPOST: MEETING OLD NIC
Sunday, January 31, 2010



Some years ago I came across a photo of a bull shark that had been caught in Lake Nicaragua and used as a plate in the book A Natural History of Sharks. The shark had teeth marks on its tail and the more I looked at the photo, the more I realized that the pattern of the teeth in the bite mark were unusual. They were set wrongly to be either a caiman or a crocodile on the one hand, or another shark on the other. I went back to get a copy of the photo later but later editions cropped off the unsightly bite mark from the photo. A native is holding up th shark in the photo which gives an exact scale.

The bull shark is known to be a man-eater, and in this case some unknown animal was chasing it and nipping at its tail while it ran away. It seems that the creature, whatever it was, did not get a good enough grip on the shark's tail so the shark got away, only to be caught later by the fisherman.

I did find reference for a porosus croc fighting with a bull shark but this is the wrong hemisphere for those crocs and the toothrow is different, being wider and more divergent in the back and with a peculiar notch in the front, and some of the marks seem to indicate a double toothrow.

Now alligator gars have been found occasionally in the Gulf of Mexico and in Lake Nicaragua, according to the Wikipedia entry, and it seems that although they are usually freshwater fishes they can also tolerate brackish or salt waters. The alligator gar is the second-largest fish known to live in North America, and ten-foot-long specimens are on record, while rumor has it that they can reach 18 or 20 feet long.

They have vicious mouths with a double row of sharp teeth and at times they can be damn near unkillable (they are ganoid fishes and their scales are much tougher than ordinary fish scales, and it is said that sometimes bullets and axheads aimed at them only glance away making sparks)





And so I propose that Old Nic, the monster of Lake Nicaragua, is a large and surly type of alligator gar instead of being a plesiosaur or anything else. The encounter inspired me to make the mockup of the incident which I include below:


[There is a postscript to this: "Retrieverman" said it could not be an Alligator Gar and we had a rather heated exchange about it at the time, but the reference was wrong anyway. It turns out that the gar that lives in Lake Nicaragua-and sometimes in the Gulf of Mexico as well, is a different species but still a known species, very similar to the Alligator gar. And so I'm afraid I must apologise for not knowing that part myself)

Best Wishes, Dale D.