The Skunk Ape is an unusual cryptid. For one thing, there are actual photographs of it, taken by an anonymous photographer who has never come forward (but who did send them to a newspaper as part of the Myakka Skunk Ape Letter). For another, it is one of the most commonly reported cryptids, usually seen in northern Florida (where Myakka lies), or less often, in Arkansas or North Carolina. (For the record, none of these three states border each other, and there are no reports from the states in between, so if the skunk ape is real, there may be three separate populations of it.)
The Myakka Skunk Ape Letter was typed by a person or persons claiming to be a female senior citizen living near Myakka in Sarasota County, Florida. In it, the writer describes the ape as seven foot tall in a crouching position (which would make it the tallest hominid known to science), and expresses fears about the creature attacking people (fears which have yet to materialise). It remains unclear whether the letter and its accompanying photos are fakes or not, but the lack of other confirmed sightings of the Myakka Skunk Ape in the Twenty First Century argues against their veracity.
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