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Fresh evidence of mythical Yeti
Monday, March 24th 2008, 1:02 PM
Fresh evidence of mythical Yeti
December 1, 2007
A GROUP of explorers say they have found fresh evidence of the mythical Yeti in the Nepalese Himalayas, stirring fresh excitement among those who believe the reputed snowman creature really exists.
The explorers, belonging to travel adventure series Destination Truth, said today that they had found footprints of Yeti while on a search for the elusive creature for their television documentary.
"We were doing night investigation near a riverbed about three nights ago when one of our guides first saw the prints and alerted us," Josh Gates, host of the television show, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Kathmandu.
"We cast the footprints, and we all feel a little bit unable to explain what we really saw," Gates said showing off his Yeti footprint cast.
One of the casts Gates showed consisted of a whole foot nearly two times as large as that of humans. The creature could have been up to 2.4 metres tall, the explorers said.
Gates said the footprints were discovered in a remote area where with no human settlements, a three day trek from Lukla, about 250 km northwest of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
"We are preparing to bring the footprints back to the US to have them further analysed," Gates said.
Many people in the Nepalese Himalayas and Tibet believe that the creature exists, though undisputed proof has been elusive.
Purported evidence such as skull and bone fragments that were said to belong to the creature have been dismissed by experts as coming from other animals.
Gates himself says he remains cautious about the discovery but is open to the beliefs of others.
"There are lot of people living in the Himalayas who are having a genuine experience, and I don't know how we can readily explain all eyewitness accounts" Gates said. "Certainly, there is more work to be done to explain this."
For Gates and his television team, the find was unexpected after travelling through a dozen countries in search of similar of the world's most notorious crypto-zoological creatures.
"To talk to the locals about their sighting and find a piece of evidence, even if it is not a conclusive piece of visible evidence, is exciting," Gates said.
The team will make an effort to return to Nepal to carry out more investigations if justified by laboratory results.
For now, the team is headed to Africa and then to Brazil to investigate other creatures of legend.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/ articles/2007/12/01/11963 94684875.html |
