'Dave Shealy is founder of the world’s only research center dedicated to the skunk-ape (the 7-foot tall, 450-pound apes that supposedly stroll through Florida reeking of rotten eggs). He’s spent much of his life trudging through the Everglades looking for signs of the creatures and has even gone so far as to call for the state of Florida to pass a law outlawing the hunting of them.
This guy is nuts, right? No matter your answer, he’s not the first person to try this with the skunk apes, and certainly not the first to push for government protection of a cryptid (an animal whose existence can’t be proved with scientific certainty). In Florida, the US, and even elsewhere in the world, individuals, politicians, and organizations have fought for legal protection for cryptids.'
