Comments on: Details On Alabama “Gorilla” Sighting

By: Pam

Pam — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:23:03 +0000

Depending on the age of the children, they may only describe something they’ve seen that they can relate it to. If you’ve never seen a bigfoot, but you’ve seen a gorilla and it looks similar to a gorilla, that would be how children would be likely to describe it. Or they’re silly kids making it up. Or they saw a gorilla.

By: Mïk

Mïk — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:42:27 +0000

It’s not outlandish to have schoolchildren identify a gorilla. It also is not outlandish to have the whole bus jumping on that bandwagon. The ‘Mob effect’ would definitely be a factor in the reports given.

6’4″ is not too small for a skunk ape, is it? They are the smaller of the ‘Bigfoot’ (we definitely need a respectable name for these animals…) species being reported. Alabama would be a good locale for that kind of sighting. So, those children might’ve had a squatchy (Yeah, i hate it, too) encounter.

Next few days are gonna be interesting…

By: Midwestern72

Midwestern72 — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:03:26 +0000

Locals report a huge invasion of Federal agencies, helicopters and special forces teams over the last two days. All this for some “ape” on the loose?? Something is very fishy here. Especially since that all local zoos have reported nothing is missing! Sounds like a Squatch sighting to me.

By: Travis Vaughn

Travis Vaughn — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:39:04 +0000

Newbern resident Audra Smith McKinney is given credit by the Tuscaloosa News for the gorilla poster. I’m sure it is supposed to be humorous.
Along the same lines, someone created a Twitter account for the gorilla.
I received a report last night (Monday) that several volunteer fire department members and others had gathered at the store in Newbern and were searching. By the time I got over there, no one was really out and about.
I’ve also been told of a similar sighting in southern Perry County last year. Many people think there are some exotic animal farms around, but I have no evidence of that.

By: David-Australia

David-Australia — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:51:07 +0000

“You know this just might me a person in a gorilla suit…”

So it WAS you?

By: Rob008

Rob008 — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:14:16 +0000

You know this just might me a person in a gorilla suit. Have you seen how cheap they are on ebay now. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

By: AreWeThereYeti

AreWeThereYeti — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:12:25 +0000

I have to second Hapa on this one – to a point.

With the popularity of Bigfoot in modern culture it would, indeed, be surprising for the alleged creature to be ID’d by the children as a “gorilla” if, in fact, it in any way resembled a sasquatch.

I’d also posit that, in the past, while out-of-place exotic animals were often attributed to Carnival or Circus escapes/crashes, most old-time stories about crashed circus trains were just that – stories. However, in modern-day America, the prevalence of unregistered exotic “pets” makes it much more likely than an abandoned or escaped animal is on the loose.

These days all it takes to procure an exotic (i.e., illegal) animal – be it a snake, gator, monkey, big cat, ape, etc. – is simply a willingness to flout the law and enough money to pay the freight. Then, when those cute little critters get too big/expensive/dangerous, they escape from substandard enclosures or are released into the wild by their owners – in neither case is the release, intentional or not, likely to be reported to the authorities.

Can we be certain that a “gorilla,” rather than some kind of crypto, is at large in Alabama? No, of course not; unless “something” is captured/shot all we can do is speculate. However, combine the childerns’ descriptions with the likelihood of an unregistered escaped “pet” and I think you have a more plausible case for an out-of-place ape than a sasquatch or it’s ilk.

To put it another way: if you had to put money on it, and assuming “something” was actually captured in this case, which would you consider the more likely suspect: chimp/ape or sasquatch/nape? I know what my money’d be on…

By: Champ Voucher

Champ Voucher — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:11:32 +0000

Wow ! 6 foot 4 inches tall. That would make it the tallest Gorilla since “Gargantua the Great.” Maybe it’s Gargantua Jr. ?

By: Hapa

Hapa — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:54:09 +0000

Its interesting that all the school children said it was a “Gorilla” instead of a “Bigfoot”. If it looked anywhere near like the latter, one would think that at least a few of the kids would describe it as a Bigfoot.

Either this is an escapee Gorilla, or perhaps a NAPE.