The Internet is a great breeding ground for mythical phenomena. Allowing people to pool their collective histrionics about semi-certain sightings of half-imagined creatures has allowed a kind of mass online hysteria to persist. Everyone who has ever seen a strange blob floating in the sea, or a misshapen cloud, or had the prickling sensation of goose bumps travelling up their spine at the rustling of some unknown entity in the nearby shrubbery, can now use the Internet to research the possible causes of their experience. Once they have allocated a culprit to their sensory disturbance, they can use their own experience to fan the flames of conviction surrounding that particular myth or legend.We've all heard of the Bigfoot or the Yeti, America and Tibet's respective versions of a giant wild man. Various footprints, some of them proven hoaxes, some of them not, have peppered media reports for years. Blurred photographs can be found at any number of sites, as can plenty of reports of “actual” sightings.But the strangest story of these ape-like creatures has to be that of Zana the Alma. Almas were the reputed wild men of the western Caucauses region of Abkhazia (if that doesn't sound like something someone made up, I don't know what does). In the mid-1800s, a female of their number was apparently captured, named Zana, and integrated into society.

She was covered in fur, and had a flat nose, and showed feats of outstanding strength. She was also reportedly a bit of a boozehound, and her predilection for the bottle resulted in a number of pregnancies after encounters with a variety of different local men.Unfortunately, her first few offspring died when she tried to wash them in the nearby freezing river, but subsequent children were taken from her and raised by townspeople. Their burly, athletic descendents can still be visited in the region today.

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