What you're about to see may be dangerous, illegal, unethical,
petty, misguided, immoral, and most definitely stupid.
But it's also all true.
Sort of.
This was my first time going to the Everglades.
I'd heard tales about this mystical creature that lives out there.
I didn't really believe it, but then I heard it.
I tried running...
but it found me.
I'm right there face-to-face with the creature.
I realize I don't have any tools to dispatch the beast
but a little gas station knife.
I'm Travis. I live in Sarasota, Florida.
I'm really just kind of a blue-collar guy. I do what I can to get by.
I'm originally from Atlanta, Georgia.
I moved down to Florida in about 2017.
I felt like I was drawn to this place, like I'm Sicilian,
I don't know if it's like the color of the water,
but I don't know, I felt like I was always,
like, genetically destined to be here.
Florida can definitely be hard to meet people.
About 80 percent of the population is 60-plus.
It can be hard meeting people your age.
The only place I was able really to meet people
and socialize was at the bars.
You drink to socialize, and you socialize to drink.
Hi! Hi. Cheers!
You kind of find yourself in a cycle, and there's so many people you see
that are kind of trapped. You don't want to end up like them.
Like I said, there's not a lot to do here in Florida,
really, if you're not drinking.
So, I thought I'd try this sober bar called Manna Tea.
'Cause it kind of offered like a dive bar atmosphere.
You could still meet people and not have to be getting drunk all day.
And that's actually how I found Roman.
He's kind of like a rockabilly kind of guy.
He's quiet. He's kind of a mystery.
Hi, I'm Roman.
I don't know if that's just because he's an Aquarius...
-I'm an Aquarius. -...or that's just who he is.
Kombucha?
When I first met him, I was like, "I think
that we're definitely gonna be friends."
-I think... -That we are definitely gonna be friends.
-You took the words right-- -Out of your mouth.
-Yeah. -I do that.
And then kind of bonded.
Favorite incense?
-Nag champa. -...champa.
Favorite moon phase?
-Waxing gibbous. -Waxing gibbous.
Holy shit.
From there, the conversation just kept flowing.
What's your go-to chakra?
-Heart. -Same!
-Do you think that plants can talk? -Bro, I don't think.
I can hear them.
Stop playing with me.
I think we both bonded over
-our love of plants... -What's your stance on ficus?
-Underrated. -...and herbs.
-Favorite tea? -Reishi-chaga.
-Mixed with a little bit of local honey! -Local honey!
-Mushrooms. -Check this out.
Dude.
Roman had set up these trips a couple times a year
to go down to Big Cypress and look for the Skunk Ape.
Skunk Ape?
It's real.
Skunk Ape, it's like a swamp gorilla,
sort of like a Sasquatch of the Everglades.
It lives in the swamp and smells like a skunk.
Like a stinky Bigfoot...
as the locals say.
Well, it's supposed to be big, and hairy, and scary.
It's the Everglades' Skunk Ape.
A search for the old legend of a South Florida swamp monster
is getting new life. So, is it real or is it a hoax?
I really think that the Skunk Ape is the bridge to the unknown, to God,
to our true instincts, to our primitive purpose on this planet.
I'm Connor Flynn and I'm a Bigfoot researcher.
I came down to Florida to specifically hunt the Skunk Ape.
If you're gonna be down here looking for Skunk Apes,
this is what you wanna look for,
-right here. It's the distinct four toes. -Wow.
They're not as big as the Bigfoot.
Instead of 800 pounds, they're more like three or 400 pounds.
I'm Dave Shealy. I'm the lead researcher here at Skunk Ape Research Headquarters.
My family moved to the Everglades approximately 1890.
When I was young, people talked about the Skunk Ape.
When I was ten years old,
I was out hunting with my brother, Jack, and we saw one.
About 100 yards away, it was walking across an open field.
It looked like a man, covered with hair.
And people ask me all the time, "Well, why didn't you shoot it?"
We had a gun, we were hunting, we could have.
But we were always taught,
"If you're gonna shoot something, ya eat it," and we weren't gonna eat that.
-It's crazy, isn't it? -Yeah.
Even today, I've seen it so many times,
and every time I watch it, I'm like, "Oh, my God."
It's amazing. Wow.
I have a lot of disbelief in a lot of things,
but also I believe in a lot of the magic at the same time.
You know, it's an old forest. Who knows what's hiding out there?
So when he first said, "Let's go find ourselves a Skunk Ape,"
I was all for it.
Hop in.
I had never been to Big Cypress. I'd never really been to the Everglades.
I figured, "What's the worst that could happen?"
There have been several people come up missing here in the Everglades.
People just disappear around here.
I was here to see what Florida had to offer.
You know, you don't know if you're gonna get bit by a snake,
or grabbed by an alligator, or maybe a shark will get you,
but honestly, that's what I was in it for.
Its beauty and its danger.
I'm telling you right now, if you're gonna go in the Everglades,
you better be careful.
Roman has a lot of camping experience.
I did kind of feel out of my element.
You all right?
Yeah, just about got it.
The ground's not stable.
I think he just keeps me around for, like, comic relief.
We're getting ready to go look for the Skunk Ape.
-Hey. -Roman turns to me and says...
Want some mushrooms?
He knew I wanted some mushrooms. I definitely wanted some mushrooms.
I definitely want some mushrooms.
We headed out right after the sunset.
It's the best time. It's like when all the reptiles
and stuff are just waking up.
Roman goes into it like an eager explorer. I'm more nervous.
Roman explained all the signs we were looking for.
Rule number one, follow the stink.
Smells terrible.
"The foul smell, the tufts of hair."
"And that, like, and the weird knocking noise."
Rule number two, listen for strange knocking noises.
Knock, knock, knock. That's a warning.
Rule number three, speak its language.
The Skunk Ape uses samurai chatter
to confuse and disorient people in the swamp.
And Roman knew some Skunk Ape call that was supposed to lure 'em out.
That's the kind of person he is. Surprises me all the time.
You try it.
Some people say, "It's like the voice of God hitting you."
It's a deep, deep tone that just takes you over.
But it also might be a way they communicate.
I'm gonna do some hums and see if we can lure something in.
"The frequencies are just pure chaos."
The frequencies are just pure chaos.
If you piss off a Skunk Ape,
they will kill you. You will not get out of the woods alive.
We walked for miles.
We had traveled so far, and we had found nothing.
Hey, you all right?
If I die, just drag me somewhere soft.
But tell everybody that I fought really bravely.
Tell them yourself.
-God, you're so awesome. -So are you.
You start, you know, hearing things in the woods.
You don't ever feel like you're alone out there too.
You always feel like you got eyes on you.
So, you're seeing a patch of hair and you start really believing
that you're going to run into, like, a giant swamp gorilla.
It smelled terrible, like rotten eggs and garbage.
Even if we don't run into this swamp gorilla,
I'm just happy we're here together.
We heard that weird knocking sound, plain as day.
It's him.
I thought, "There's got to be a logical explanation for this."
There's gotta be a logical explanation for this.
Maybe that knock sound is an alligator snapping its jaws closed.
Then I heard something else.
Hearing that made my blood go cold.
Hey, hey, hey. You okay, buddy?
I had taken those mushrooms earlier
but I didn't really think they were doing anything.
But it hit me all at once.
Hey. Buddy?
And everything kind of zooms out and I realize, like,
"Oh, no. I really am tripping."
Oh, no. I really am tripping.
That's when Roman shoots me the biggest grin and says,
"You know it's close."
It's close.
Everything just like stretching and I'm getting tunnel vision.
It just... everything just zooms out.
It's close.
I was thinking to myself, "What in the world?"
What in the world?
If you encounter the Skunk Ape, you have to remain calm.
Just like other predators, if you run,
it's going to chase after you just based on instinct.
I didn't know where Roman had gone at this point.
I was tripping pretty hard.
Roman?
And that's when I saw it.
The Skunk Ape.
Holy shit.
He was about ten feet away from me.
Sasquatch is known to have some special abilities.
Some are a little bit more natural, like echolocation,
but they also are said to have telepathy and mind-speak.
Like you're standing there looking at it...
and its lips don't move.
But in your head, you hear, "I am the keeper of the woods."
I am the keeper of the woods.
-Your lips didn't move. -Nope, that's mind-speak.
Some campers have experienced
these creatures entering their mind with special messages, warnings.
You should really open a savings account.
You're losing so much money just using your checking for everything.
-What? -You should also routinely check
your moles for discoloration.
You got one on your shoulder that seems iffy.
During mind-speak, the Skunk Ape's gonna look straight into your soul.
-Am I funny to you? -Bro, that smell is crazy.
Am I a clown?
If a Skunk Ape charged me, I would hold my ground.
You gotta handle it like a bear. It can destroy you anyway.
You're not gonna outrun it,
so you might as well look it right in its eyes.
Well, I'm sure my eyes popped out of my head.
And so I'm sitting there realizing I'm face-to-face with,
you know, what I thought I wanted for so long,
except now it's trying to kill me.
How dare you come up in my house smelling all fresh and clean?
I didn't think I was gonna have like a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde moment,
but I kind of went, "Not today."
Not today, bro!
I realize I don't have any tools to dispatch the beast
but a little gas station knife.
Suddenly, Roman ran up.
Travis!
Roman! I got the Skunk Ape!
That's when I realized...
That is not a Skunk Ape, that is a Burmese python.
It wasn't a Skunk Ape. It was a Burmese python.
And I'm thinking, "Uh-oh, this is not good."
This is not good!
I was so high, I had been hallucinating the whole thing.
The snakes are an invasive species
that have wreaked havoc on the Everglades ecosystem.
Members of the public are encouraged to kill them on sight.
They have bone-crushing strength.
You get one of these big snakes wrapped around your neck,
it's not that they're choking you, they're breaking your neck.
Honestly, it felt unreal at that moment because the snake's rainbow-colored.
And all of these things are happening and I can't tell,
is this the snake or is this real life?
I was starting to feel like I was in big trouble.
The python tried to bite me a couple times.
They have some mean teeth on them.
Roman's looking at it and he's like trying to figure out
which end he wants to grab it from.
And he's like, grabs it by the head. That's when I go with the folding knife.
I go, like, full Rambo.
Definitely turns out a gas station knife is more dangerous than a python.
Yeah!
I was so excited.
So I take the snake and I hoist it over my head
like a WWE championship belt.
I think that's when me and Roman really bonded.
I don't know, I think that we both have something
that we're looking for inside of us.
And I think that we kind of find it in the deepest part of the woods.
It wasn't what we set out to find, but it was quite an adventure.
It was the end of the journey.
So we go into Everglades City
and someone pointed me down the road to Dusty Crumb.
I'm Dusty Crumb, and I'm the baddest-ass python hunter in the world, son.
We're at the world-famous Wildman's Pizza, Pasta & Pythons in Everglades City.
Everglades is a crazy place, man.
One of the things they do there is they'll trade you a python for a pizza.
I'm the first place in the world to accept python as currency.
What we do is skin all the snakes, turn them into leather,
then we can make any kind of products you want.
Belts, boots, wallets, purses...
python CD covers.
We've made python pizza before, it's pretty good.
It looked just like gator meat.
It tastes like alligator without the fish taste.
It's got a good flavor, but it is chewy.
I didn't want a pizza,
but I wanted to know how to preserve my snake.
I went to Dusty Crumb and I'm like, "I did it. I got myself a seven-footer."
He was so nice, he walked me through everything I needed to do,
how to preserve python skin.
You do gotta cut around the cloaca here, or you know, the butthole.
Once you get the head started,
you can just peel him off like a pair of socks.
I didn't skin it right there in the gift shop, but I took it home.
Honestly, I never stopped believing that a swamp gorilla
was going to be what we found behind that next tree
or under that next rock.
Society would not be the same if they knew there was another species of human beings.
They're the true Earthlings. They are the closest to God we ever get.
People go to church four times a week
and you can get closer possibly to God out here in the swamp.
We went out looking for this mystical creature.
We found something real instead. I think, to me, that's the magic.
I was thinking about how far we had gone to get there.
It was really about realizing the end of a journey.
You know, standing on top of the mountaintop,
achieving your dreams in a weird way, even if it's just holding a big snake.