There are reports all over the world of mysterious creature sightings and on some rare occasions,
we are fortunate enough to see creepy photographs of those creatures. Very often, the sightings
turn out to be a hoax or an everyday creature photographed out of focus, but sometimes these
creatures are spotted by dozens of people who all insist that they truly do exist.
5.
The Skunk Ape
Since the mid-1700s, the Seminole people of Florida have spoken about a creature that they
called “Tall Man”, now known as the “Skunk Ape”, a term that was coined in the 1960s.
When residential construction began in the area in the 1970s,
more sightings of the creature were reported, most of those in the Palm Beach County area.
Described as being around 7 feet tall with reddish-brown hair and weighing an
estimated 400 – 500 pounds, the Skunk Ape is said to smell strongly of a wet dog,
a skunk, rotten eggs or any combination of the three.
The very first published report of a Skunk Ape sighting occurred in Suwannee County east of
Tallahassee in 1942. A man reported that he was driving down the road when the creature
jumped onto the running board of his car. He claimed that the creature clung to the
side of his vehicle for half a mile before jumping off and running back into the woods.
Another sighting in 1957 came from three men that were hunting in the Big Cypress National Preserve
eat of Naples, nearly 400 miles away from the first
sighting. All three men reported that the Skunk Ape invaded their camp site and since then,
there have been hundreds more sightings of the creature.
Dave Shealy, owner of the Skunk Ape Research Center in Ochopee, says that
he saw one of the creatures for the first time when he was 9 years old.
His father had found a set of massive footprints not too long before
and on this day, Dave’s brother spotted it first while they were hunting in the area.
He describes the creature as looking like a man, but completely covered with hair.
On the 9th of January, 1974, Richard Lee Smith reported to police that he had struck
something with his car while driving near the intersection of US Route 27.
He thought at first that he had hit a tall man wearing dark clothing,
but to his surprise, a 7 foot hairy creature stood up, roared at him and charged his vehicle.
He immediately took off, but for the next few hours, reports came in of sightings of a limping
giant walking along route 27. Police investigated and a patrolman reported seeing a hairy creature
limping along the road before disappearing into the brush.
But sightings still occur today. In 2000, an anonymous letter was mailed to the Sarasota
Sheriff’s Department containing two creepy photographs of what the sender believed to
be an escaped orangutan that had stolen apples from their porch. When the photo
was inspected more closely, it was found to depict a primate that looked nothing like an orangutan,
but something more akin to the Skunk Ape.
4.
Maryland Goatman
The legend of the Maryland Goatman originated from two different tales.
The first claims that it was once a man, but after his flock was destroyed by teenagers,
he went mad and transformed into the legendary beast.
Another claims that a scientist working at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
was performing research on a goat when one of his experiments backfired and
he was transformed into a half-man, half-goat.
The creature is described as having the face of a human, but a body covered in hair. On its head
there is said to grow a pair of horns with which it aggressively attacks vehicles that
drive close by. Some legends hold that it walks with an axe in hand,
looking for any unsuspecting prey that may come across its path.
A man only known as Ryan claims to have had one of these mysterious creature sightings
with two creepy photos as proof. He was attending the GRC Summit in the District
of Columbia and on the 23rd of March, 2016, he was playing tennis at Montpellier Park.
As he was packing up to leave, he and his friends saw something at the edge of the forest at the
park’s border. He quickly took out his phone to take a photo and as he got ready to do so,
the creature stood up on two feet. This surprised him as he was sure that it was a goat.
A few moments later, it dropped down to all fours again and disappeared into the thick woods.
Ryan says that he was about 30 yards away from the creature and even from that distance,
he could tell that it was about 7 feet tall when standing on its hind legs.
When he recounted his experience to others later on, they told him about the legend of the goat
man and he contacted a Baltimore news agency, but was told that it looks like a bear holding a goat.
Ryan insists, however, that what he saw was neither a bear, nor a goat.
3. O’Hare Mothman
The first reported sighting of a Mothman occurred on the 15th of November, 1966. Two couples,
Roger and Linda Scarberry along with Steve and Mary Mallette
reported to police that they saw a large grey creature with glowing red eyes in
the headlights of their car while driving in the TNT area of Maryland.
At first they didn’t know what to make of it, but when the creature started following their vehicle,
they noticed that it had a human body with ten-foot long wings.
Over the next few days, more sightings of the creature were reported with two volunteer firemen
describing it as a large bird with red eyes. George Johnson, the Mason County Sheriff at the
time, stated that he believed the creature to be a large heron called a shitepoke.
One man went as far as to blame the creature for a buzzing noise
coming from his television and the disappearance of his German Shepherd. On September of 2020,
a United States Postal Service veteran of 15 years reported that she was walking to her
car after finishing her shift when she saw a man in an oversized coat staring at her.
When she unlocked her vehicle, the headlights fell on the man and she realized that it was,
in fact, a red-eyed creature standing about 7 feet tall and what she thought was a
coat was actually a pair of wings. The creature screeched at her,
ran towards her and took to the sky, causing her to flee in her car.
But in 2016, a man from Point Pleasant managed to capture a creepy photo of the creature. He was
driving along State Route 2 when he saw something jumping from tree-to-tree next to the road. He
pulled over to take some photos and realized that it had human legs and wings with pointed tips.
Some people believe that sightings of the Mothman are a bad omen
and that disasters are imminent after each sighting. Many have claimed that
the Mothman was seen right before the collapse of the Point Pleasant Silver Bridge in 1967.
2. Hook Island
Monster
Hook Island is located off the coast of Queensland Australia and is known for being an
excellent snorkeling and diving destination, due to the colorful coral growths that are
found there. But it also has a mysterious legend connected to it, that of the Hook Island Monster.
The first sighting and photograph of the monster was reported in March of 1965
by a man named Robert Le Serrec. The previous year, he and his family were on vacation
with a friend on the Whitsunday Islands, part of which is made up by Hook Island.
The family was out on the water in a motorboat and as they crossed a bay
off the Coast of Hook Island, they spotted a dark shape under the surface of the water,
close to the bay floor. Upon closer inspection,
they saw that it was a tadpole-like creature, partially covered with sand.
They estimated that it was at least 30 feet long and as they approached,
Robert managed to get the mysterious creature sighting on camera. Summoning all his courage,
he ventured into the water to try and film the creature but as he got closer, he realized that it
was much bigger than they thought at first and he estimated it to be at least 70 feet in length.
He thought that the creature might be dead as it wasn’t moving,
but as he approached, it opened its huge mouth and started swimming towards him.
He noticed that the creature’s tail was damaged, possibly by a ship’s propeller
and that the head was at least 4 feet from top to bottom with jaws of about 4 feet wide.
He also claims to have noted that its skin was similar to that of a shark
before he swam back to the boat as quickly as he could.
He and the rest of the crew then watched in astonishment as it swam away and left the bay.
Many people believe that Robert faked the photo and that he was, in fact,
a known conman who was wanted by Interpol, but many others hold fast that the monster
is indeed real and still swims beneath the waters of Hook Bay to this day.
1. Tianchi Monster
A local tourist in the Changbai Mountain claims to have been lucky enough to get a
creature sighting caught on camera in 2005. 52-year-old Zheng Chanchun was
hiking on the western side of the mountain with his daughter and son-in-law when they
saw a strange black object break the surface of the water in the middle of the lake below.
He shouted out that there was a monster in the water and says that all the tourists
in the area stopped to stare at the creature swimming in the calm lake.
He immediately grabbed his camcorder and managed to capture the sighting on film.
He says that, when they reached the top of the mountain at around 10am, the lake was covered
with a thick fog and they were unable to see the water. Shortly after, however,
the fog suddenly gave way to sunshine and that is when thay spotted the creature in the water.
In the footage, which lasts for about a minute, a black
object is seen breaking the surface of the water three times in roughly the same area.
Each time, it can only be seen above the water briefly and after it dives
down for the third time, it disappears and does not breach the water’s surface again.
He described the creature’s head to be about the size of an ox and noticed that, every time it
surfaced, it caused huge ripples in the water, suggesting that its body must be massive. The
lake is about 1,200 feet deep and legends of the monster date back to over a century ago.
Over the last 20 years, there have been more than 30 reported sightings of the Tianchi Monster and
many photos as well as videos have been taken. But none are as clear as the footage taken by Zheng.
The closest was a 20-minute video taken by a reporter from a local TV station.
He was on top of the mountain to film the sunrise when one of his guides spotted
something in the lake. When he zoomed in, he realized that it was not one,
but six of the creatures swimming together. He says they watched the creatures frolicking in
the lake for about an hour and a half before they dove beneath the surface and swam away.
He described them as having fins
that are longer than their bodies and that they could swim as fast as a yacht.