Florida Teen Fires Shotgun at 14-Foot Skunk Ape in 1982 Everglades

A Florida witness is sharing his jaw-dropping encounter from over 40 years ago, and the details are absolutely chilling. This interview, found on the Creek Devil YouTube channel, features a man named Dave recounting a night in 1982 that changed everything for him. Dave was just 16 years old at the time, out in the southeast part of the Everglades with two buddies doing what plenty of South Florida kids did back then, hunting gators at night. Around 2:30 in the morning, after pulling up to a canal with no luck, they turned around to head out. That's when things got weird. Driving down a road lined with towering Australian pines, Dave noticed red eye shine up in the trees. In South Florida, the only thing that shines red in headlights is a whippoorwill, so his first thought was just birds. But as he got closer, he realized what he was seeing was no bird. The silhouette was massive, hulking, pitch black, and described as being every bit of 5 and 1/2 feet wide and 13 to 14 feet tall. The way he described it, it looked like a child hanging from a playground pole by one hand, swinging around, except this was enormous. Dave pulled over, and the three of them got out with a small flashlight to look for tracks. The road was made of shell, powdery and bright white, so any tracks would have been obvious. There was nothing. But as they walked, Dave heard something moving alongside them through the Brazilian pepper bushes, an invasive species that grows in hollow, straggly clumps and serves as trailways for all kinds of wildlife. His buddies kept walking while Dave stopped. That's when he saw it, crouched down in the shadows, what he described as looking like a pumpkin sitting on top of a bale of hay. He started stomping his foot, trying to get it to move, and the thing started rising up. Then it let out a sound that Dave, a world traveler who had been to Alaska and everywhere else, had never heard before. It started as a low, guttural roar like a lion and escalated into a high-pitched scream, all in one massive shout. He compared it to that cartoon image of a lion roaring so hard it blows your hair back. Dave had a shotgun loaded with an alternating buckshot-slug pattern and fired two rounds right at it. What happened next was something out of a horror movie. The Brazilian peppers exploded as if two elephants were fighting inside them, trees shaking from bottom to top. He fired three more times and everything went dead silent. The three of them got in the truck and left. They never went back, and they never really talked about it. Sadly, both of his buddies have since passed away. Dave also mentioned a local character they called "Shaky Dave," an old timer who used to tell wild stories about a skunk ape coming into his camp, trying to steal his food, and even breaking the wooden propeller on his airboat. The Skunk Ape, Florida's own legendary hairy hominid, has been part of Everglades folklore for generations, with sightings reported throughout the swampy regions of the state. What makes Dave's account stand out is the sheer size of what he saw and that sound. Florida doesn't have bears in that part of the Glades, and nothing native to the area produces a roar-to-scream vocalization like that. The Everglades remain one of the most mysterious and unexplored ecosystems in North America, a vast wilderness where reports of unknown creatures have persisted for decades. This is one of those interviews that really sticks with you. Dave's calm, matter-of-fact delivery combined with the absolutely terrifying details of what he experienced makes for compelling listening. Anyone interested in Florida cryptid reports or Everglades encounters should definitely check out the full interview on Creek Devil's channel.