The name "Abominable Snowman" was coined by Henry Newman, a newspaper columnist, in 1921. The proper name for this cryptozoological animal is Yeti. The hairy upright creature has been "sighted" in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and Mustang and is thought to live in the remote mountain valleys of the Himalayas. In 1921 Lieutenant Colonel C.K. Howard-Bury claimed to have found footprints of the yeti that were three times the size of the average human footprint. The Sherpas, inhabitants of the local areas around the Himalayas, and mountain guides for tourists, claim that the yeti are not as rare as previously thought. They believe there are many different kinds of yeti creatures living in the mountains but that they intentionally hide from humans so as to avoid being taken into captivity.
Skeptical Perspective
No yetis have been found or captured on film to provide hard evidence of their existence. Considering the large size of the creature and the necessity for several to exist to maintain the gene pool, why are they not more common? Modern technologies and tracking devices and the near century that the beast has been said to exist make it even more difficult to believe that it does, knowing we have not found any hard evidence to support such a claim. No hair, bone or trace fossil has been discovered. No authentic casts of the footprints referred to in sightings are available for study. A possible explanation, however, for the large size of the footprint may be due to the phenomenon of tracks expanding in the snow when exposed to sunlight. Several footprints referred to have been shown to be hoaxes, created by natural causes or human in origin. |
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