“I fish for gar in the river and I bring my camera to take pictures of the birds and what not," Rodriguez said. "I heard a squishing sound, looked over and saw this thing walking through the water and crouch down in the duck weed. It did not look like a guy in a suit — it was definitely an animal. I took this picture and got out of there as fast as I could.”

“I’ve heard of Skunk Ape prints around Green Swamp [in Florida], but never anything like this. My whole life, never seen anything like it.”

The uncanny clarity of the image and the strangely jagged line where the beast meets the water drew instant suspicion, and it was suspected that the picture had been digitally manipulated.

Ben Hansen, lead investigator of the Syfy Channel’s “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files” series, had this to say.

“It’s a relief to finally have a clear picture of the creature. Every other photo and video we get is usually too blurry or the Bigfoot too obscured in brush to allow for any useful identification. Thanks to the clear photo, I’m excited to announce that the photographer has captured a real-life... gorilla in a Bigfoot suit!”

“To be more precise, the face of a gorilla that has been digitally added to the photo with editing software. Although I originally suspected the creature suit was actually in the water when the photo was taken, I started to notice shadows in front of the Bigfoot that appeared to be an inconsistent length and shape with the rest of the photo.”

“Additionally, there appears to be some heavy digital editing touch-up to the fur around the face and where the body meets the water. I’m now leaning more toward believing the whole creature was pasted into the image and then branches and twigs were added in the foreground. The branches also could have really been in the scene, but they were later edited as separate layers so Bigfoot looks like he’s now behind them, sitting in deep contemplation.”

“The white stripe down the middle of the head and chin is a nice touch," added Hansen. "If it’s a Skunk Ape, why not make it look like a skunk, right? In reality, I have yet to come across a story with any merit where witnesses describe the Skunk Ape with an actual white stripe like a skunk.”

Rodriguez, of course, insisted that the photograph was genuine.

“I did not Photoshop this at all. Believe me or not,” Rodriguez said. “When I plug in my memory card, it asks to import and opens in Photoshop. I just changed the name and saved. It seems like people get publicly crucified for coming forward with this kind of stuff.”

Rodriguez continued to say that this "debunking attitude" almost caused him to not come forward at all. There's serious room for doubt in that statement, since it seems unlikely that any photo so painstakingly altered wouldn't be released by those who took the time to make it.

The photograph may have been fabricated by three men that the Florida chapter of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BRFO) suspect hoaxed the Lettuce Lake skunk ape video released around the same time. According to the BFRO, Matt McKamey, Justin Alan Arnold, and Andy Stern are friends and bandmates who conspired to create a handful of skunk ape hoaxes in early 2015. These hoaxes were likely done to take advantage of the media exposure created by the television show Finding Bigfoot, which was filming in the area at the time.