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Legend has it that an eight-foot, furry primate exists within the dense forests of the Himalayas in Nepal.  For hundreds of years people have questioned the Yeti’s existence, and the convinced natives, or Sherpa.  Eyewitnesses of the yeti claim it has reddish fur, walks upright, and has conical shaped head.  During the night, it is said that the yeti eats village yaks and goats.  Yet, hardly any solid, tangible evidence of any of this has materialized because of the elusive nature of the creature.  But to rule out the possibility that the mystical creature even exists is equally unsupported with evidence. The question isn’t, “Does the yeti, in actuality, exist?”  The question we should be asking ourselves is, “Is there a possibility that the yeti still exists today?”  Through substantial research,

In a science news article, “Is This the Footprint of Yeti, the Abominable Snowman of Himalaya?” Scientist editor Stefan Anitei explained that evidence involving, so called yeti footprints, was extracted from the banks of Manju River in the Khumbu region.  Josh Gates, host of Sci Fi’s “Destination Truth”, was credited with the rare finding but his excitement was dampened when, after thorough examinations of the print, findings showed five toes existed, when legend has it that the Yeti only has four.  Among this startling epiphany and other erroneous assumptions, in the end, all leads led to dead ends, leaving the mystery still intact.  Some protested the fact that the footprint castings even belonged to the Yeti.  Rumor had it that the ‘mysterious tracks’ might have just been the common tracks of a local mountain bear.  Unfortunately, no clear conclusions were made in this article. 

Convincing evidence can be scientifically tested and proven.  Evidence, such as yeti footprints, is less than convincing because they are rarely accurate.  Gates himself commented on the footprint saying, “And in fact, the prints do not prove the existence of Yeti 100 %. The unfortunate thing about footprint castings is that they are rarely conclusive.”(par.#8) Not only does this statement discredit the witness, it also shows the weakness of the argument.  In this instance the footprints were found in mud.  But as an example of a footprint’s credibility, scientists have proven that footprints in snow expand and lose their true form as the snow melts.  The same theory can be applied to prints in mud, scientists explain, as other elements react similarly after time and exposure.  A mere footprint isn’t going to help prove its existence.

Evidences such as the creature’s palaeontological record is a far more convincing claim.  By proving that apes, such as the Gigantopithecus, in the past actually existed and match the description of the Yeti today, is a more solid approach to the situation.  The Gigantopithecus, according to Jane Christmas of McMaster University[m4] , is an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly one million years to as recently as 300 thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam, placing Gigantopithecus in the same time frame and geographical location as several hominid species. The fossil record suggests that the Gigantopithecus blacki species were the largest apes that ever lived, standing up to 10 ft (3 m) and weighing up to 1,200 pounds (545 kg).(par.#1-2)  Descriptions of the Yeti today are almost identical to the characteristics of the Gigantopithecus millions of years ago.  The claimed height of the Yeti is recorded to be around 8-9 feet tall, with a weight of around 1,150 pounds.  Prof. Igor Kozlov, a renowned scientist of the Geographical Society of former Soviet Union, “firmly believes that the snowman reported from the Caucasus Mountains between Baltic and Caspian Sea and Tyan Shan Mountains on Russian-Chinese Border does exist.” (par.#2) according to a comment he made in the article, “Yeti the Giant Cousin of Ramapithecus.” of the possibility of the Gigantopithecus being the forefather of the Yeti.  After years of research and mountain expeditions Kozlov claims the hundreds of recorded encounters may be of some substance and the link between the prehistoric ape and the Yeti may indeed be true.

Along with the theories of the Gigantopithecus Blacki and origin of the Yeti, Rossella Lorenzi, scientific news editor for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, states in media article #248 that actual DNA evidence from a skin sample and hair follicle have been discovered.  The discovery belonged to a group of British scientists, who were in hunt for the mystical creature.  After careful analysis of the specimens, Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, explained, “It’s not a human, it’s not a bear, nor anything else that we’ve so far been able to identify.”(par.#4)  Could it be that the findings could indeed leads us to the discovery of a new species?  In the past there was speculation that the Himalayan red bear mistaken for the Yeti but the hair follicle found doesn’t match that of the bear.  Editor Lorenzi emphasized this point by saying, “In the past, traces of hair and footprints believed to be from the yeti were in fact from bears, langur monkeys, himalayan goats and pigs. But the British finding raise the possibility that the sample belongs to an unknown species.”  Sykes too, in reaction to the news stated, “We have never encountered any DNA that we couldn’t recognize before.  It’s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn’t recognize before.”(par.#7)

Lorenzi’s article is astounding because it opens the door to a whole new direction in the quest for the truth about the Yeti.  What researchers have been missing up until now is tangible evidence that can be scientifically proven. DNA evidence is the most concrete evidence ever to be discovered on the Yeti’s existence.  Not only did it prove that there is a chance that the creature may in fact be real, but that past presumptions that the Yeti was actually the Himalayan Red Bear are false and now removed from the picture. 

In June of 2000, after an interview with Reinhold Messner, famous yeti hunter and mountain climbing legend, conjectures began to circle around that the Himalayan Red Bear is, in actuality, the legendary Yeti.  In efforts to convince the world that the Yeti is nonexistent, Messner, in his interview, left out many key factors, such as the fact that his stories were based on speculation, that disprove his assumptions.  Messner was interviewed by National Geographic news editors about his numerous, notorious climbs up Mt. Everest without the aid of supplemental oxygen.  As frequently as he climbed the mountain, he searched for the Yeti too.  In one of Messner’s replies to a question about his encounters with the Yeti he stated, “When I saw a yeti for myself that night [in 1986], I was only looking and thinking, What’s that? But I couldn’t see colors or faces. I could only see a shadow because it was very late. When I approached the place where the yeti stood before it ran away, I found a footprint, exactly like the footprints they took photographs of in the ’50s. And I said to myself, “Strange.” They were footprints like those of a two-leg-going animal.”(par.#7-8)  Okay, now this was Messner’s background story before he stated, “I went to Pakistan, and I reached a small village high up in the mountains. Again they told me that 100 or 200 years ago there was a yeti running around, and he stole this woman, and this woman was living two years with the yeti. And I said, “Don’t tell me bull. This is crazy!”  I said, “This animal still exists?” They said yes, there are maybe three or four still. I said, “Where?” Then they brought me there—and what did I find? A Tibetan bear.”(par.#21-23)  After reviewing just the two statements he made we can already see numerous flaws in his story.

The significance of analyzing this interview is to help us understand that evidence proving the Tibetan or Himalayan bear is the Yeti is just as absent as evidence proving the existence of the Yeti. He mentioned that when he encountered the creature it was dark and he couldn’t make out any features besides its height and stance.  It seems convenient to say it was a bear, when all he saw was a towering shadow. To discredit himself further he mentioned the footprints lead him to the idea that a bear might be the culprit.  As explained earlier by Gates, “Footprints are rarely conclusive.”  What about the stories where people pointed to the destination of the creature and all they found was the bear? One or two stories are hardly enough evidence to prove that it is actually a bear.  In short, his ‘Yeti’ encounters could quite possibly be real, due to the lack of evidence otherwise. 

While recorded encounters and evidences have developed over the years about the Yeti in Nepal, hundreds of other sightings and evidences of ‘bigfoot-like’ creatures have been found in other parts of the world.  In China there is the Yeren, Mongolia and Russia, the Almas, and in America’s Northwest, the famous Bigfoot.  What is the significance of the global sightings of the ape-man creatures?  The significance is that it adds witnesses of the creatures and limits the chances that all the evidence is just coincidence.  For example, Yuan Zhenxin, a well-known paleoanthropologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), reported, “Between 1,000 and 2,000 of the apelike creatures roam the forests of central China, particularly the Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province.”(par.#12)  Based also on evidence, such as fossilized molars of a Gigantopithecus Blacki that were discovered on China’s border near Nepal, the Chinese have concluded that there is a possibility of the Yeti’s existence.  Not only ancient molars did they find as evidence, but they have their own set of footprint castings, tufts of hair and alleged sightings.  In Mongolia the Almas have been reported as 5-6 foot ape-like men that were covered in a short, red coat of hair. Legend has it that they roam at night in the dense jungles of Mongolia. Almost all of the stories, whether in Mongolia, Russia, China, America, seem the same.  Each witness claims that it either has red or black hair, depending on its size.  And each country suggests that all of the creatures are cousins. They all claim to say they are elusive and walk on their two hind legs.  If we combine all these witnesses we can begin to see that the Yeti is more than just a myth.  The several million year-old species of ape could very well still be roaming the earth today.

In reflection of all that was discussed, we again need not to ask the question “Is the Yeti real?” We should be asking ourselves, “Is there a possibility that such a creature could still exist today.” Such creatures walked the earth millions of years ago, and could still be walking the earth today. The discovery of the fossil remains of the Gigantopithecus Blacki is the backbone behind the theory.  If that was millions of years ago, how did the species not go extinct?  Not enough scientific evidence has been found to determine the chance of their continued existence today.  In recent years, there was a discovery of, as Wikipedia describes it, the coelacanths, which are related to lungfishes and tetrapods, were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period, until the first Latimeria specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River in 1938.  This proves that basing our theories simply on the idea that a species is extinct, is not evidence.  The lack of evidence goes both ways for the existence of the Yeti.  No concrete evidence has been presented in support of claims against the Yeti.  Yet enough evidence proves that there is a possibility that the mystical creature could indeed exist. 

Work Cited

Anitei, Stefan, ed. “Is This the Footprint of Yeti, the Abominable Snowman of Himalaya?” Softpedia. 2007. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Champkin, Julian. “YETI I’VE CLIMBED THE HIMALAYAS AND MET IT FOUR.” NCF. 1997. Daily Mail. 3 Mar. 2008 .

Christmas, Jane. “Giant Ape Lived Alongside Humans.” McMaster Daily News. 07 Nov. 2005. McMaster University. 4 Apr. 2008 .

Kanti, Ed. “YETI the Giant Cousin of Ramapithecus.” Nepal News. 2002. 19 Mar. 2008 .

Lorenzi, Rossella. “Scientists Claim Yeti DNA Evidence.” BFRO. 06 Apr. 2001. Discovery News. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Ted, Chamberlain, comp. “Climbing Legend, Yeti Hunter.” National Geographic. June 2000. 12       Mar. 2008 .

Zhenxin, Yuan. “Bigfoot Believed Living in China.” BFRO. 19 Apr. 2000. Los Angeles Time. 21 Mar. 2008 .

“Legendary ‘Wildman,’ Cousin of Bigfoot, Exists.” BFRO. 02 Aug. 1988. UPI Wire Service. 21 Mar. 2008