Is a Skunk Ape (Bigfoot's Relative) Loose in Campbell County (TN)?

WATE-TV/DT Knoxville ^ | 10.30.03 | VINCE LENNON

[mhking]

CAMPBELL COUNTY (WATE) -- A new theory emerged Wednesday as a crypto-zoologist weighed in on sightings of a possible primate in Campbell County.

A Crypto-zoologist, someone who studies uncataloged animals such as skunk apes, accompanied a 6 News crew in Campbell County Wednesday.

Myakka "skunk apes" have been spotted in the southeastern United States since the 1940's.

Local crypto-zoologist Chris Dotson contacted 6 News after seeing the stories on Campbell County primate sightings. "The animal people reported seeing is not a pet."

Dotson took the skunk ape photographs Wednesday to people who've claimed to have seen the primate in the LaFollette area. Dotson's convinced that what people are seeing is a skunk ape.

"We need to capture this thing the best we can," Dotson said. "People need to stay away from it, allow experts to come in who have some knowledge of large primates like this and trap this animal."

Monkey owner Jerome Love answered a summons at the Campbell County Sheriff's Department with his Macaque monkey "Mugway." Love wanted to prove it's not his animal that's loose. "If it's a monkey that's killing these cats, it's not this one and I'm tired of it."

6 News is hearing more accounts from Campbell County residents who say they've seen the creature. Some date back 35 years. However, many people are hesitant to talk, for fear of being labeled as crazy.

In all, six cats and one dog have been killed in the last three days. And there have been a number of sightings within the last 48 hours. The warning still stands though for people not to try approaching the animal, but to report it to local authorities.

Crypto-zoologists believe there could be hundreds of skunk apes across the Southeast.

[mhking]

[Bob J]

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[RedBloodedAmerican]

Bob! You alright?!

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[quidnunc]

Naw, that's just Jethro.

The boy ain't over-partial to water — either drinkin' or bathin' in.

[BenLurkin]

[BenLurkin]

SKUNK APE

[dandelion]

Mmmmmmboy... them there's good eatin'...

[StatesEnemy]

Steve Irwin's got nuthin on the 'Skunk Ape Hunter'

[governsleastgovernsbest]

people who've claimed to have seen the primate in the LaFollette area.

One of them LaFollette boys is cookin' up that dal gurned moonshine agin.

[Tennessee_Bob]

This is just up the road a piece - maybe 30 miles as the crow flies.

[Rocky]

My thoughts exactly. Anybody seen Al Gore lately?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Nah. I'm thinkin' we found Elvis.

Seriously, however, what's interesting is the way that this TV station treats skunk apes as a documented species when,in fact, it's pretty much a bigfoot style urban legend.

Just another example of shoddy tabloid local TV journalism

[Husker24]

Crypto-zoologists believe there could be hundreds of skunk apes across the Southeast.

WTF?.....

[Tennessee_Bob]

Well, something out here is eating house pets.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

That may be, but normally a new organization that ISNT the Enqurier doesn't assume it's a possibly fictional creature.

If anything, the logical assumption would be that it was an escaped exotic pet. After all, NYC had a man with a tiger in an apartment. And they found an alligator in a pond in Boston this summer.

In neither case did the press at first assume we were dealing with bogeymen or lake monsters.

[redangus]

I was just in TN for a week and heard one of the greatest quote from the public I have ever heard. A woman in Campbell county was asked about the possibilty there was a "skunk ape" killing pets in her neighborhood. Her answer to the reporter was, "all I know is that we have our guns ready and if this ape comes back here and bothers our pets there is going to be one dead monkey". I loved it. You don't mess with these peoples.

[pawdoggie]

When I was in the Army there was a skunk ape from Tennessee in the bunk below me. Fortunately the guys threw a "blanket party" and showered him down with long-handled scrub brushes.

[blam]

[gbunch]

Rare daytime photograph of a pair of skunk apes
outside Mos Eisley, Tennessee.