What is the basis for the existence of North American apes?

In the dense forests of the Mississippi River valley and its surrounding areas, people witnessed a large number of apes. Loren Coleman, an exotic animal expert, is a supporter of this view. He called these animals North American apes.

Coleman's view is based on reports from southwestern States that an animal is "like an ape, with hair and no tail." Including some folklore. For example, among the early immigrants, it is said that a group of monkeys lived in the forest around the valley near Scotes, Kentucky. Other evidence includes reports of encounters with gorillas or chimpanzees in the wilderness of North America since the 20th century.

Many people think that these animals escaped from circuses or zoos, but in fact, such escapes are very few. In the 1970s, officials also admitted that there were some wild primates in Florida and Texas. But Coleman thinks that North American apes are another species. They are descendants of an ancient ape, which is similar in size to chimpanzees and widely distributed on the earth. It is said that it was extinct before 10000.

Coleman believes that this ancient ape survived in the North American continent, and they also learned to swim. Judging from the distribution of these animals on both sides of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, he thinks that the way they migrate is not only walking to the forest next to the water system, but also swimming.

Doubts and explanations flooded in, but Coleman still had some good examples, including a very important physical evidence, namely footprints. These footprints look like chimpanzees or gorillas.

Coleman was interested in these footprints, because he found such a footprint on a dry riverbed near Decatur, Illinois in the spring of 1962. Similar footprints were found in Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma.