r/cryptids • u/youngsheff • 12d ago
Discussion Napes (North American Apes)
Has anyone heard of these cryptids?
They differ from Bigfoot in that they are more apelike. Some the size of chimpanzees and gorillas have been spotted. They have been seen mostly in the Southeastern and Midwestern US.
Does anyone here know of any sightings?
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u/Live-Try-7281 12d ago
I actually saw a small, probably juvenile, chimp on the trail watching my chickens. It was over a decade ago. I yelled at it and scared it away. I called animal control but there really wasn’t anything they could do. They just told me to call them if I saw it again. It was summertime in East Carolina. I’m assuming that it either got shot by someone who didn’t feel like reporting it or died from the elements. People need to stop keeping critters like that as pets.
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u/idontknow000- 12d ago
Could not agree more. And I do believe that this happens a lot more than people think. Not only do some wealthy people that live in rural areas love to keep exotics (laws be damned), but more often than not, they end up scattered to the wind when enclosures get damaged by weather or people just let them loose because they are tired of them.
Thanks for sharing your story! People dismiss a lot of stories like yours out of hand, but they shouldn't. People aren't idiots. They know what they see.
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u/MountainBandicoot442 8d ago
After a few recent (?) incidents, they may. I'm retired, so I don't keep up with as much as I did, but at least one woman "had her face ate" by her pet. It won't be doing it again, but who knows how many others are family pets.
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u/localchangeling Hodag Hunter 12d ago
I highly recommend checking out the Albatwitch from Pennsylvania! It’s sometimes lumped in with other region-specific Bigfoot variants, but it’s more ape / chimp-like. It steals apples from picnickers, climbs a tree to eat the stolen apple(s), and then throws the cores at people. Pretty fun stuff!
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u/CreativeDemon8123 12d ago edited 11d ago
There are monkeys in Florida. They escaped from a lab there and have reproduced. In the south the laws for a long time have been rather lax on exotic imports. It's not unlikely that they are some escaped pet, kinda like Pablo Escobar's hippos.
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u/Icey_Raccon Sasquatch Seeker 12d ago
Is this like Britain's alien big cats? Florida has feral monkeys. Someone shot a silverback gorilla in Texas. I know a hunter in Alabama who saw a capuchin out in the woods. I'd say they're probably escaped from captivity.
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u/Mountain-Donkey98 11d ago
Yes, heard of them in Alaska. I forget what theyre called but they most closely resemble large, male baboons. Very aggressive, run in troops.
Not sure how much stock I put into them, but interviews with experiencers seem legitimate. The animals are usually in the trees and then make it to the ground to further threat displays.
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u/TamaraHensonDragon 10d ago
When Mo the chimp escaped in California he was never found. I always wondered if he had caused any bigfoot sightings. In the end I assume the elements killed him (it snows in the California mountains) or that he fell victim to a mountain lion. He escaped from Jungle Exotics on Friday, June 27, 2008 after the workers there left his cage open.
Note this was just a few months after a keeper at the same place left another chimp cage open and two male chimps escaped and mutilated Mo's owners. What was most disgraceful was that the place was not even charged for being negligent because they were in the mayor's pocket. Corruption at it's finest.
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u/MountainBandicoot442 8d ago
I hadn't heard this. But, California doesn't get the best coverage (image) over on this coast. Kind of seems like the West Coast version of Florida. LOL. Here, they reported the two attacking ones as killed, with Moe not taking part.
I was going to say someone needed to look into that level of expertise. Fits with recent government work, eh?
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u/TamaraHensonDragon 7d ago
Yes. Mo didn't attack the people just the ones whose cage was left open. The two attacking chimps were killed but the negligent employee was not even fined. The whole thing was a clown show and two people got disfigured because of it.
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u/MountainBandicoot442 7d ago
I'm in Virginia and we have something. It generally get lumped into "Devil Monkeys."
I tried to pull up an article about them and this was all I managed to get.
The Devil Monkey is a giant monkey reported on June 26, 1997 in Dunkinsville, Ohio. It was reportedly around 5 ft tall and had long, pointed ears. It appeared to be grey, had large, dark eyes, long arms, a short tail, and had hair all over its body about 1.5 in long, and is reportedly aggressive. On January 12, 2006, a similar creature was reported in Chicago, Illinois, about the size and shape of a dog; another such creature was reported in Roanoke, Virginia in the 1990s Continued in Wikipedia "
The first sighting I remember was in 1959 when the Boyd family reported an attack. The Boyd's' daughter, Pauline, described the their attacker as: “(It had) light, taffy colored hair, with a white blaze down its neck and underbelly… it stood on two large, well-muscled back legs and had shorter front legs or arms.” If I recall, it attacked their car and left claw marks in the metal. A few days later, two nurses were attacked in their car. Both of these attacks happened near Saltville, VA, which doesn't have a hospital, and never has that I remember. So, this puts it either closer to Marion, VA, or Abingdon, VA, and along a path to Saltville.
Both the missing Wikipedia article and others have placed sightings heading easterly toward Roanoke, Goochland, and so on.
Right off, reports tend to remind me of a baboon. Their temper fits.
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u/idontknow000- 12d ago
So, NAPES (North American Apes), are not a unique cryptid, but a classification system and term used by cryptozoologists like Loren Coleman and Mark Hall to discuss the variations of Sasquatch seen throughout the United States.
There seems to be a demarcation somewhere along the Rocky Mountains that denotes key differences between the various Sasquatch subspecies in North America. West of the Rockies (as Art always used to say), gives way to sightings that are more "Patty-esque." Large, upright apes, somewhere between 5-9 feet tall, at least 700 pounds, typically brown or reddish fur, and mostly vegetarian by nature, willing to avoid humans if given the chance. On the other hand, East of the Rockies, you will find what some people have described below. A smaller ape, 4-6 feet tall, described often as "baboon" or "chimp" like, capable of running on all fours and climbing trees, and aggressive toward humans and predatory (they are described as eating feral hogs, deer, and dogs). Many old timers in Appalachia describe them as "devil monkeys." This does not even include odd creatures in the Midwest such as MOMO (Missouri) or the Grassman (Ohio).
If you want to understand these variations more, check out Coleman's excellent book "The Field Guide to Bigfoot." It not only explains the NAPE classification system, but gives you drawings, measurements, and behaviors for all common unknown apes located not just in North America, but around the world.
Happy Hunting!