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Creatures, Myths & Legends

Are bears to blame for sightings of the Yeti?

By T.K. Randall
November 29, 2017 · Comment icon 49 comments

Does the Yeti roam the Himalayan wilds ? Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Jaikumar2000
A new study has determined that relics from the creature are actually the remains of three bear species.
Believed to reside in the remote mountains and forests of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, the Yeti has long remained a spiritual and cultural staple for the people who live in the vicinity of the Himalayas.

Sometimes referred to as the Abominable Snowman, this elusive ape-like hominid became a major part of Western popular culture after climbers reported finding trails of large footprints in the snow during expeditions to climb some of the most treacherous and remote mountains on Earth.

But is there really an undiscovered species of giant ape roaming the Himalayan wilds ?

Charlotte Lindqvist, associate professor at the University of Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, recently led an effort to study an assortment of alleged Yeti artefacts including teeth, hair samples, fecal samples and bones.
By reconstructing the complete mitochondrial genomes of each specimen, her team determined that they were all from types of bears - the Asian black, the Tibetan brown and the Himalayan brown.

"Our findings strongly suggest that the biological underpinnings of the Yeti legend can be found in local bears," said Lindqvist.

The team's research however doesn't entirely disprove the existence of the creature.

"Scientific work can help explore myths such as the Yeti," she said. "Even if there is no proof for the existence of cryptids, it is impossible to completely rule out that they live."

Source: The Guardian | Comments (49)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #40 Posted by Sakari 7 years ago
Thanks,but no thanks on the pic. Not on here much anymore.  
Comment icon #41 Posted by Carnoferox 7 years ago
Genomic evidence indicates that they are closely related to both Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, meaning that their morphology would not have differed from either species all that much. Certainly not enough to appear like how a yeti is typically described.
Comment icon #42 Posted by Myles 7 years ago
I think the time devoted to the belief plays a big factor too.   If someone believes in bigfoot for no real good reason, but still devotes allot of time reading and studying it, they will believe in a much stronger way.
Comment icon #43 Posted by Sir Wearer of Hats 7 years ago
Speak for yourself, I happen to be an aspidastra that has gained sentience and purchased an Internet connection.
Comment icon #44 Posted by DieChecker 7 years ago
I'd tend to agree that the Nepalese don't completely believe the Yeti to be a spiritual being. They do believe it is a supernatural being though.  This couldn't have been influenced much by Bigfoot, because bigfoot wasn't a "thing" of pop culture until the 1970s, whereas the Yeti came into pop culture in the 1950s with Hillary. However the locals had been telling British explorers of a man-bear back into the 1920s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeti Also, earlier explorers doubted the locals, who insisted that it was a bipedal ape like creature.  
Comment icon #45 Posted by Merc14 7 years ago
Interesting that they have so much physical evidence, relatively speaking, to analyze yet people hunting the far more accessible Bigfoot running around North America can't come up with much of anything more than some hair both fake and real, albeit from common animals.  No teeth, no bones, no skin etc. yet they have managed to find all these things in the far reaches of the Himalayas.   Something to bring up the next time a footer leads you down the "You never see a dead bear in the woods." logic trail.  
Comment icon #46 Posted by stereologist 7 years ago
The funny part of the never seen a dead bear in the woods comment is that I have. But if people don't believe you it is not hard to find news articles about bear feet being found and shown to the police because people thing it might be a human hand. https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/6763426-bear-paw-temporarily-mistaken-for-human-hand/  
Comment icon #47 Posted by TripGun 7 years ago
I used to work at an ski lodge in Vermont and we were haunted by the ghost of Bigfoot. Luckily a savvy group of mystery solving kids were passing through and found out that a neighboring lodge owner was trying to scare away all our business.
Comment icon #48 Posted by oldrover 7 years ago
I saw a documentary about this when I was a kid, I think they were using transparent skis to make it look like it could fly, scared me to death. Really, it did scare me to death. 
Comment icon #49 Posted by Night Walker 7 years ago
... and they would have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids.


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