Johnalewis74's Blog
Johnalewis74's December 2007 Entries
Last Post 251 days, 7 hours Ago
Dec 30, 2007 | 2:31 PM PST
The Myakka "Skunk Ape"
Photographs
by
Loren Coleman
The best evidence for the existence of the Skunk Ape came in 2000 when several photographs were mailed by an anonymous source to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
Here is the actual December 22, 2000 letter signed "God Bless. I prefer to remain anonymous" mailed to the Sarasota Sheriff's Department:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Enclosed please find some pictures I took in late September or early October of 2000.
My husband says he thinks it is an orangutan. Is someone missing an orangutan? It is hard to judge from the photos how big this orangutan really is. It is in a crouching position in the middle of standing up from where it was sitting. It froze as soon as the flash went off. I didn't even see it as I took the first picture because it was so dark. As soon as the flash went off for the second time it stood up and started to move. I then heard the orangutan walk off into the brushes. From where I was standing, I judge it as being about six and a half to seven feet tall in the kneeling position. As soon as I realized how close it was I got back to the house. It had an awful smell that lasted well after it had left my yard. The orangutan was making deep "woomp" noises. It sounded much farther away then it turned out to be. If I had known it was as close to the hedge roll as it was I wouldn't have walked up as close as I did. I'm a senior citizen and if this animal had come out of the hedge roll after me there wasn't a thing I could have done about it. I was about ten foot away from it when it stood up. I'm concerened because my grandchildren like to come down and explore in my back yard. An animal this big could hurt somebody seriously. For two nights prior, it had been taking apples that my daughter brought down from up north, off our back porch. These pictures were taken on the third night it had raided my apples. It only came back one more night after that and took some apples that my husband had left out in order to get a better look at it. We left out four apples. I cut two of them in half. The orangutan only took the whole apples. We didn't see it take them. We waited up but eventually had to go to bed. We got a dog back there now and as far as we can tell the orangutan hasn't been back.
Please find out where this animal came from and who it belongs to. It shouldn't be loose like this, someone will get hurt. I called a friend that used to work with animal control back up north and he told us to call the police. I don't want any fuss or people with guns traipsing around behind our house. We live near I-75 and I'm afraid this orangutan could cause a serious accident if someone hit it. I once hit a deer that wasn't even a quarter of the size of this animal and totalled my car. At the very least this animal belongs in a place like Bush Gardens where it can be looked after properly. Why haven't people been told that an animal this size is loose? How are people to know how dangerous this could be? If I had known an animal like this was loose I wouldn't have approached it. I saw on the news that monkeys that get loose can carry Hepatitis and are very dangerous. Please look after this situation. I don't want my backyard to turn into someone else's circus.
God Bless
I prefer to remain anonymous.
Known as "The Myakka Skunk Ape Photographs" they clearly show a large ape-like creature. Noted cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, who has thoroughly analyzed the photos, points out the details of forehead lines, yellow canines, fingernails and hair... all clearly visible. The photographer still has not been identified. So although the photos are compelling and Coleman does not think they are part of a hoax, they still are not proof positive.
Newspapers in Florida, the Art Bell Show, and other radio programs during mid-February, decided to talk about the Myakka photographs in hopes the woman photographer would be identified.
Newspapers in Florida, the Art Bell Show, and other radio programs during mid-February, decided to talk about the Myakka photographs in hopes the woman photographer would be identified.
These Coleman enlargements and details were created from the first generation color prints scanned by David Barkasy of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department's originals. These prints show forehead lines, yellow canines, fingernails, hair, and other significant details.
Copyright 2001 by David Barkasy and Loren Coleman
The Patterson film of Bigfoot:
To view this film, go to:
http://www.angelfire.com/n Below: Tony Scheuhamme, a biologist with the Candian Wildlife Service, pointed out some features on a good photograph of an orangutan by Denise McQuillen. This is not to say the Myakka photographs are of an orangutan, but it certainly assists in identifying features that are found on a known anthropoid that appear to exist on this one too. The Myakka ape head closeups: Copyright 2001 by David Barkasy and Loren Coleman Compared with a Sumatran Orangutan's head, photographed at the Cincinnati Zoo by Denise McQuillen, 1999 East County Observer 07/12/01 Tracking Myakka's wily Skunk Ape A lot of people have sightings, but they sit on them because they don't want to look like idiots. By It's been nearly nine months and there's been no reappearance of the Myakka Skunk Ape. At least no official reports. This past February, newspapers throughout the Southeast caused a supernatural frenzy when they ran stories about the appearance of a smelly ape nearly seven feet tall in a backyard east of I-75 in Sarasota. Sone writers quickly dismissed the idea of Florida's answer to Bigfoot. Others used the opportunity to tell a few jokes, and some suggested, mockingly, organizing a search (i.e. hunting) party to find the animal that resembles an orangutan. One local man has done just that. The Search: David Barkasy is on the prowl. Barskasy was one of the first people to see the photographs of the ape last fall after they were mailed anonymously to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. Since then, his curiosity has been in overdrive. "It's the possibility of finding something new," Barkasy says of his search for the Skunk Ape. "I don't know if there's something out there, but the more I hear, the more interested I get." Barkasy, owner of reptile wholesaler Silver City Serpentarium in Sarasota, has made more than 30 night-time trips to the forest east of the interstate hoping to find this legendary creature that was first reported in Lakeland in 1947. Barkasy and friends strung apples (a favored food of the ape according to some reports) with fishing line between trees and sat in the dark waiting for something to happen. Some nights nothing. A few nights they were chased out of the woods by something in the bushes. "We would sit back and make bird calls, and a few times you'd smell something like dead animals and then we heard palmettos breaking. It could have been a bear or coyote, but who knows?" Barkasy, a former mechanical engineer, says. On his last expedition, Barkasy was told to leave the forest by a state ranger. It turns out the land he was on is owned by Southwest Florida Water Management District and managed by the Myakka State Park. For the men to be there after hours, they needed special permission from Swiftmud, which Barkasy had not obtained, but says he intends to do in order to install motion cameras in the area. "I want to know what was out there chasing us out of the woods. There's not too many animals that'll stalk you." Loren Coleman, a noted cryptozoologist (hunter of hidden animals) who studied the Myakka case, fully believes what was photographed is not a costume or a fake, or even an escaped zoo animal. He's bent of finding the photographer so he can figure out where the citing took place and examine it. Barkasy is helping. He's discovered that the photographs taken last fall were printed in December 2000 at the Eckerd photo lab at the intersection of Fruitville and Tuttle Roads. He wants to find the eldery woman who took the pictures, but who prefers to remain unknown because she doesn't "want any fuss or people with guns traipsing around" her house. It seems the legend of the foul-smelling primate will have to remain hidden a while longer, if not forever, without the help of people who've made contact with it. Barkasy believes the number of people who've seen this creature is actually greater than one would think.
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Mischa Vieira
"Working with animals I hear a lot of things. Cub scout leaders camping on the Manatee River have told me stories, so have hunters," Barkasy said. "A lot of people have sightings, but they sit on them because they don't want to look like idiots."
http://www.freewebs.com/ja
cksbromeliads/
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Dec 23, 2007 | 5:54 AM PST
Tags: Tropical Plants , Bromeliads
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
the
Boardwalk Tour
and
Ghost Orchid
A two and one quarter mile raised boardwalk takes visitors through several distinct habitats found within the 11,000 acre Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, including the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in North America.
This natural system is managed by the National Audubon Society to maintain the native plants and animals found here and to preserve the natural processes that has been occurring here for thousands of years. The aerial photo below shows a view of the boardwalk area.
The boardwalk begins in pine flatwoods at the Blair Audubon Center. A little bit futher along, a spur leads to the site of an old 'plume hunters camp' that is also in the flatwoods. Oak and hardwood hammocks dot the area.
Long ago, most of Florida was open pine forest and these were created and kept open by periodic natural fires, so the plants growing here need to be able to recover quickly after the burns. Although at a higher elevation than the wetlands, the general lack of topography gives an advantage to plants that can also withstand occasional flooding.
Southern Slash Pine, Cabbage Palms, and Saw Palmetto dominate the area, and a host of wildflowers are in bloom throughout the year. Wildlife in the pine flatwoods varies with the seasons. When the palmetto berries ripen in the fall, deer, raccoons, and occasionally black bears are drawn to the abundant food supplies.
Cardinals, woodpeckers, vireos, mockingbirds, and red-shouldered hawks are seen and heard throughout the year and are joined seasonally by the migrating warblers, towhees and buntings. Wood Storks and swallow-tailed kites soar overhead during their spring and early summer nesting seasons.
The boardwalk trail continues across and along the wet praire. It is a type of marsh dominated by grasses, sedges and rushes, with sand cordgrass being the most common. The time it is flooded during a year is short compared to other wetland habitats. It is slightly lower in elevation than the pine flatwoods, and a combination of nutrient-poor soils, fire, and flooding help keep this grass-dominated praire from becoming a pine flatwood or a cypress swamp.
During the spring dry-down, herons, egrets and ibis forage in the grasses while hawks hunt the edge of the pond cypress. Wood Storks soar overhead and the occasional sand hill cranes move into the pine flatwoods. As the summer rains begin, deer move into the praire to feed on the fresh growth and the calls of the frogs are everwhere. The swallow-tailed kites are skimming the tops of the pine trees searching for food.
During the fall when water levels are at their highest, alligators move throughout the grasses and a variety of mammals cross the praire, frequently using the boardwalk to reach the ripening berries and figs in the cypress forests.
Pond Cypress is a natural buffer between the bald cypress forest and the wet praire/pine flatwood. It serves as an ecotone (an area where two different habitats meet), creating an environment where wildlife from both the wet praire and the bald cypress forest mingle.
Pond cypress are smaller than the bald cypress that are more commonly found deeper in the swamp. Although stunted by the nutrient poor soils on the edge of the praire, these pond cypress trees are well over 100 years old. Scientists are not in total agreement whether pond cypress and bald cypress are two distinct species. DNA testing suggests they are, but they are known to hybridize. Superficially, the pond cypress has a slightly different appearance.....the bark is more deeply ridged, the needles spiral around the stems, and they grow in much closer proximity to each other.
Understory plants include sawgrass, ferns, air plants, wax myrtle, strangler fig, and a viriety of flowering plants ranging from water lilies and pickerel weed to wild iris and the bladderworts.
Standing like sentinels guarding a fortress, bald cypress trees dominate the swamps of South Florida. The old growth bald cypress trees here at Corkscrew are 600 years old and reach heights of 130 feet and more. They comprise the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in North America.
Swamps develop over time under the right conditions. As organic (peat) soils accumulate, trees begin to have an advantage over other wetland plants. Because the peat may be only several feet deep, mature cypress trees rely on an extensive system of horizontal roots; cypress 'knees' grow up from the roots to provide the extra stability necessary to have weathered hundreds of years of storms and hurricanes.
Natural cavities in the old growth trees provide homes for barred owls, screech owls, wood ducks, raccoons, and other cavity nesters, while pileated, red-bellied, and downey woodpeckers excavate their own holes. Because the cypress trees lose their needles for several months during the winter, light filters down to the forest floor enabling a rich diversity of understory plants to thrive. Epiphytic orchids and bromeliads grow on the pond apple trees, ferns colonize fallen trees and establish themselves on the cypress knees, and red maples take advantage of breaks in the canopy.
Less than a half mile into the cypress swamp, a bordwalk spur gradually rises to an elevated observation platform overlooking the central marsh, which is encircled by the old-growth cypress forest. In South Florida, sawgrass marshes dominate. The soil is organic, built up over hundreds of years from dead plant material......peat. Typical marsh plants are sawgrass, pickerel weed, cattails and bulrush, although the costal plain willow is colonizing the area. Periodic fires help restore regular marsh vegetation.
During the spring, wood stork nesting colonies can be spotted with binoculars and spotting scopes in the tops of cypress trees on the north and west edges of the marsh.
Swallow-tailed kites, vultures, anhingas and storks catch the thermals to soar high above the marsh while vireos, cardnals, and blackbirds search for food among the plants. Raccoons hunt along the ground while alligators and otters are in the wetter areas. Queen butterflies use the twining White Vine as a nectar source and larval plant, while Viceroy butterflies prefer the willow.
The Lettuce Lakes along the boardwalk trail are in the bald cypress forest, but when water levels are too deep, no trees can grow. These deep, treeless channels within a swamp are called sloughs (pronounced slews).
The deeper water and open skies attract a variety of wildlife, especially during the spring when shallower ponds elsewhere begin to dry up. Although they are lakes, the water surface is often covered with a mat of floating vegetation, primarily watter lettuce and frog's bit, which provides shelter for crustaceans, fish, small reptiles, amphibians and insects. These in turn are prey for the larger animals, notably alligators and wading birds.The floating plants are themselves food for turtles and a variety of insects. Open benches and benches under rain shelters allow visitors to rest and enjoy the show.
The boardwalk begins and ends at the Blair Audubon Center, which since its opening has served as the model for other National Audubon Society Centers in the United States. In addition to serving as the entrance to the Sanctuary and the boardwalk, it houses the Swamp Senses Media Theater, a tearoom with a food service counter, two fully equipped classrooms, a foyer featuring paintings, sculptures and photography by regional artists, and the Nature Store. The store has field guides, books, optics to rent or purchase, and tons of photographs.
During the late fall, winter and spring, bird feeders placed at the start of the boardwalk attract thousands of birds such as buntings, cardnals, woodpeckers, chipping sparrows and towhees. Native plants in the adjoining butterfly garden and around the Living Machine, draw hummingbirds and butterflies throughout the year.
Ghost Orchid...
Natural Range:
The Ghost Orchid is native to Southwest Florida and Cuba. In Florida, its range is very localized in swamps in the Fakahatchee, Big Cypress, and Corkscrew areas of Collier and Hendry Counties.
Status:
The Ghost Orchid is an endangered species. It is illegal under both state and federal laws to remove or relocate.
This Ghost Orchid is growing on the trunk of a 400-500 year old Bald Cypress tree. The previously highest known location of any Ghost Orchid in Collier County was in the Fakahatchee Strand at 23 feet. This plant is approximately 45-50 feet above ground. Tipically, 1-2 blooms appear although there may be as many as 10, and occasionally a plant will bloom twice in the same season. This orchid bloomed three times between July 7 and October 15. The first time, it had 12 blooms at the same time, the second time it had 10 blooms at the same time, and the third time it had 3 blooms at the same time. A Ghost Orchid has not been observed from the Corkscrew boardwalk for at least 12 years. It is estimated that this plant is 30-35 years old.
Habitat:
Ghost Orchids are found on trees in hardwood hammocks, sloughs and cypress domes. Host trees include pop ash (most common), pond apple (second most common), and bald cypress, maple and oak. Epiphytic on other plants, and leafless, the photosynthesis occurs through the roots. The roots are gray-green and typically about 20 inches long. Seeds are dispersed by the wind and must land on rough-barked trees. Germination does not occur unless a particular fungi is present where the seed lands.
Blooms appear May through August, rarely in other months, and heaviest blooming is in July. Typically, there are one or two blooms per plant, but there can be as many as 10. The flowers are white to creamy green colored and usually 4-1/2 to 5 inches in size. Ghost Orchids are infrequent bloomers with flowers not appearing for years between seasons when they do not bloom. Flowers open in succession, usually 1 to 2 at a time and the individual blooms last 10-14 days. The orchid is nocturnally fragrant and the lower lip produces two long, petals that twist slightly downward, resembling the back legs of a jumping frog, hence the common name, 'Frog Orchid'.
Pollination:
Ghost Orchids are not self-pollinating. Pollination is done by the Giant Sphinx Moth, the only local insect with a long enough proboscis (4-5 inches).
notes:
The Ghost Orchid received its name because the plant has no leaves (only roots) and when it blooms, the flower appears to be floating in mid-air. The epithet lindenii in the scientific name is derived from its discoverer, the Belgian plant-collector Jean Jules Linden who saw this orchid for the first time in Cuba in 1844. It was the subject of Susan Orlean's novel "The Orchid Thief", but she has never seen one in bloom.
Commercial propagation of Ghost Orchids illegally removed from the wild rarely survive. When grown commercially, they must be propagated from seed, a process that takes 7+ years.
Hours of Operation
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
is open for visitors every day of the year except during violent weather.
Hours
October 1 thru April 10: 7:00 AM to *5:30 PM
April 11 thru September 30: 7:00 AM to *7:30 PM
*Note:
Entrance within one hour (4:30 PM October - April 10,
or
6:30 PM April 11 - September of closing is not allowed:
there is insufficient time to be out of the sanctuary by closing time.
All visitors must be off the boardwalk before the closing time unless a special program is being conducted by the Corkscrew staff. No individual is allowed on the boardwalk after dark. This regulation was established for the protection of wading birds that roost or nest near the boardwalk. Any disturbance of these birds at night might result in nest failure. This regulation applies each month of the year.
Location
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is located northeast of Naples, Florida, in Collier County. It is at the end of Sanctuary Road West, north of Immokalee Road (County Road 846), approximately 15 miles east of Exit 111 on
I-75. Visible, brown informational signs along Immokalee Road assist in finding the Sanctuary.
DO NOT take Exit 123 (Corkscrew Road)!
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
375 Sanctuary Road West
Naples, Florida 34120
telephone: (239) 348-9151
fax: (239) 348-1522
http://www.freewebs.com/jacks
bromeliads/
