Scientists '95 Percent' Certain They've Found Elusive Siberian Yeti

[Yeti]

Lee Speigel lee.speigel@huffingtonpost.com
Scientists '95 Percent' Certain They've Found Elusive Siberian Yeti


First Posted: 10/10/11 08:34 PM ET Updated: 10/11/11 01:56 PM ET


Is this Yeti's home? A skier hits the slope of Zelenaya Mountain outside the Siberian town of Kemerovo, where scientists believe the legendary Siberian Snowman may live.

Has it finally happened? Did scientists find real evidence of the existence of a hairy bipedal creature known as the Siberian Snowman or Siberian Yeti?

Researchers are claiming they are 95 percent sure that the fabled Russian version of the Abominable Snowman or Bigfoot lives in the Kemerovo region of Siberia.

Last week, a group of international scientists met in Moscow and then set out to the remote mountainous area in search of the elusive creature (depicted below).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/siberian-snowman_n_994268.html#s271066

[Yeti]

Depicted is an illustration of a creature reported to inhabit the Kemerovo region of Siberia. Scientists from the U.S., Russia and other countries have yet to find one of these creatures known as the Russian Snowman. In early October, researchers claimed to be 95 percent certain that the animal exists.

[Yeti]

An alleged footprint of a Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, appears in snow near Mount Everest in 1951. Now, scientists are setting out to find evidence of a reported unknown, hairy, bipedal creature known as the Siberian Snowman

[Yeti]

Bigfoot or bear? Impression left on the driver's side window of a pickup truck owned by Jeffrey Gonzalez. The bizarre image was left by an alleged Bigfoot in California's Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day 2011. DNA samples of the impressions will eventually determine the identity of the animal responsible for them. (See next slide for a close-up of the paw-like impression.)

[Yeti]

Close-up of the "paw" print image. The impression was reportedly left by Bigfoot on the window of a pickup truck in the California Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day weekend 2011.

[Yeti]

Bigfoot or bear? Pictured is a second impression left on the rear side window of the same truck from the previous slides. According to forensic/law enforcement photographer Mickey Burrow, "What you're seeing is a swipe mark. It looks like a small hand, swiping to the left, leaving another impression, and there's hair within those areas -- you can see where the hair would be."

[Yeti]

This footprint was found over Memorial Day weekend, 2011, near Fresno, Calif. by a group of campers who were on a Bigfoot-hunting expedition. The print, measuring approximately 12 inches, was found near a truck where possible DNA evidence was left behind by more than one Bigfoot creature.

[Yeti]

A film still shows what former rodeo rider Roger Patterson said is the American version of the Abominable Snowman. He said pictures of the creature, estimated at 7 1/2 feet tall, were taken northeast of Eureka, Calif., in October 1967. Click through this gallery to see recent evidence for the existence of Bigfoot.

[Yeti]

This footprint was found in 2008 in the Sierra National Forest near Fresno, Calif.

[Yeti]

Thomas Byers snapped this photo of "Bigfoot" along Golden Valley Church Road in Rutherford County on March 22, 2011.

[Yeti]

It didn't take very long for them to issue a statement on the official Kemerovo website stating they had found "footprints, a probable den and various markers that Yetis mark their territory with."

An English translation (from translate.google.com) of the original Russian news report added that the conference researchers "collected irrefutable evidence of the existence of the Yeti in Mountainous Shoria" (the southern part of Kemerovo).

They concluded that the artifacts gave them 95-percent proof of the existence of Yeti in the Kemerovo region, the press release stated.

Some possible Yeti hair samples reportedly found in the region by Russian scientist Anatoly Fokin will be studied in a laboratory to determine their origin.

"This does not seem to be any more than what you hear about from weekend excursions in North America that go out, discovering some hair of undetermined origin, calling it 'Bigfoot hair,' then locating some broken branches and piled trees, saying it was made by Bigfoot, and finding footprints that look like Sasquatch tracks," said Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

"These are not 'proof' that would hold up, zoologically," Coleman told The Huffington Post.

It's not the first time this year that alleged Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch) "evidence" has come under scrutiny.

Back in June, creature researchers in California held a press conference soliciting help to get a DNA test that might determine if Bigfoot left physical impressions on the windows of a pickup truck in the Sierra National Forest.

So far, the jury is still out on that case.

Skeptics point out that the area of Siberia that's allegedly home to the local Yeti legend helps promote tourism. In fact, opening day of the ski season there is known as Day of the Yeti -- an attempt to sell many Yeti-related souvenirs and bring in more skiers to the region.

While scientific researchers continue hunting for signs of a Yeti lair in Kemerovo, let's hope they don't discover a cave that contains a set of recently purchased touristy Yeti beverage mugs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/scientists-found-siberian-yeti_n_1003639.html#s271009

[Yeti]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwE87wshhz4&feature=player_embedded#t=0s

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/scientists-found-siberian-yeti_n_1003639.html#s271009

[Yeti]

Lee Speigel lee.speigel@huffingtonpost.com

Yeti Evidence Falls Flat: Scientist Says Local Officials Staged Siberian Snowman Hunt For Publicity

A group of international scientists made headlines last month after suggesting they were "95 percent" certain they'd found evidence that the elusive Yeti -- or fabled Siberian Snowman -- really exists.

But one scientist who was part of the big snowman hunt tells The Huffington Post that local Siberian officials staged the entire snowman scenario -- all for publicity.

"It was a very awkward feeling because here I was a guest and this was clearly orchestrated," said Idaho State University anthropologist and anatomist Jeffrey Meldrum.

http://www.isu.edu/bios/Professors_Staff/meldrum_j.shtml

[Yeti]

And now, as researchers claim that twisted tree branches are possible proof of the Yeti's existence, Meldrum is offering a word of caution.

"Since nobody has demonstrated to me any corroborating evidence, like footprints in direct association or hair intertwined in any of these [tree] structures, I'm much more inclined to think the majority of them are just natural occurrences," he said.

Meldrum was among a handful of scientists and investigators invited to Russia's Kemerovo region -- about 2,000 miles east of Moscow -- in October to look at possible evidence of a large, hairy primate, known as the Yeti or Siberian Snowman.

"I was happy when I learned there was interest by Russian government authorities to promote and sponsor the organization of a [Yeti] institute," Meldrum said.

"I thought that, at the very least, the official recognition of an institute -- of the need and the desirability to investigate these claims -- was a positive step," he said.

Meldrum, author of "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," was the only American scientist in the group that traveled to a huge cave in Kemerovo, home to an alleged Yeti.

His suspicions began when trip organizer Igor Burtsev, head of the Yeti Institute at Kemerovo State University, told the group that it might find some remains of Yeti footprints in the cave.

"Somebody found a right footprint," Meldrum said. "But I thought it was a little vague and not real distinct. It was a pretty expansive cave and there could've been footprints all over the place, if there was something tromping around in there in the sand."

When Meldrum decided to go farther into the cave on his own, followed by a cameraman, "one of the regional government people saw us and rather harshly called us back, stopping us from going any farther back."

"I thought that was kind of odd, and then someone picked up a little tuft of hair that was apparently pressed into the footprint. At that point, I wasn't comfortable with the situation and had an inkling of what might be happening," Meldrum said.

[Yeti]