'Bill Munns stands next to his model of a Gigantopithecus male, a quadrupedal, fist-walking creature that also could have stood erect, as bears do.'
Posted on 12/02/2007 3:13:18 AM PST by jsh3180
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A U.S.-based television channel investigating the existence of the legendary Yeti in Nepal has found footprints similar to those said to be that of the abominable snowman, the company said on Friday.
A team of nine producers from Destination Truth, armed with infrared cameras, spent a week in the icy Khumbu region where Mount Everest is located and found the footprints on the bank of Manju river at a height of 2,850 meters (9,350 feet).
One of the three footprints discovered on Wednesday is about one foot long, or is of similar size and appearance as shown in sketches of the mystical ape-like creature believed to live in snowy caves, the TV company said.
"It is very very similar," Josh Gates, host of the weekly travel adventure television series, told Reuters in Kathmandu after returning from the mountain.
"I don't believe it to be (that of) a bear. It is something of a mystery for us," said Gates, 30, an archaeologist by training.
Tales by sherpa porters and guides about the wild and hairy creatures lurking in the Himalayas have seized the imagination of foreign mountain climbers going to Mount Everest since the 1920s.
Several teams have searched for it and some have even claimed to have discovered footprints.
But no one has actually seen the creature nor has it been scientifically established that the Yeti exists. Gates said the footprints on lumps of sandy soil, which would be sent to experts in the United States for analysis, were "relatively fresh left some 24 hours before we found them".
"This print is so pristine, so good that I am very intrigued by this," Gates, flanked by his team members, said adding the findings would prompt more investigation into the Yeti.
Destination Truth chronicles some of the world's notorious crypto-zoological creatures and unexplained phenomena.
Some local sherpas believe that the Himalayas are abodes of strange creatures and consider the Yeti as a protector while others say it is a destroyer.
"There is a kind of mysterious creature that lives in the Himalayas," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of Nepal Mountaineering Association in Kathmandu, who hails from the Khumbhu region were Mount Everest is located.
Have they ever considered tracking dogs?
/mark
I had to look twice at that picture, at first glance I thought it was Bill Walton at the center post position,,,,,,
Maybe the footprint was planted by (Sir Edmund) Hillary to show mountaineering leadership.
Thus the Yeti is simply a natural phenomenon that is perfectly explainable. Although, that doesn't mean that nothing exists. There are stories, both past and present, of natives saying something exists and being pooh-poohed (is that a word LOL) by 'experts,' and then it turns out to be the case.
A few examples from Africa:
The Boomslang: natives used to say that it was deadly venomous, but Western herpetologists (snake scientists) 'pooh-poohed' (there it is again) them because the snake was back-fanged, and EVERYONE knows that back-fanged snakes do not have potent venom. Well, they soon changed their minds when the most reknown herpetologists of the time (believe his name was Karl Schmidt) got bitten by one, and died a rather horrible death (if i remember correctly, he was bleeding from his eyes and his urine had turned black when he passed over).
Okapi: A rare antelope that looks like a mix of giraffe, zebra, and a mix-mash of other beasts. When the 'experts' so some hides they thought it was the work of a good African taxidermist, until live Okapi started turning up.
Mountain Gorilla: same story ....was kown as the African Yeti for a while.
The one that is still 'out there' is the Mkelele-Mbembe ...think of it as an African lochness monster. Let me just say I would go swimming in Loch Ness before i went swimming in lake Tele
LOL
The sasquatch's foot is like that of a human, but "bigger"....
(I used to listen to Art Bell before he and the show JTS.)
Looks like the Twilight Zone monster from the episode where the guy is afraid of flying and the creature is on the wing ripping it up.
So,you are saying there is a large hairy animal living in eastern Oklahoma but it is different from the large hairy animal living on Mt Everest?
I’ve never been to Oklahoma, but I was just pointing out the differences between the Asian and NA cryptozoological creatures
Ping!!
Why were they able to find only 3 footprints?
“Some clown walking around up there with a footprint form”
I made a pair of contoured big feet and nailed them to an old pair of tennis shoes when I was in the scouts. Used to tromp around and leave prints around the tenderfoot’s campfire pit at night.
Definitely a print of the Snow Miser AKA "niveus misere".
Unless you go looking for it, you will only hear the giggle factor of the standard media outlets. I have studied that film and followed the analysis for years and it is rather interesting to see what technology has shown in that old film 40 years later.
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