Eat an animal. Bigfoot is a legendary humanoid creature. Bigfoot people were hiding in the Pamir caves
The Yeti is the well-known Bigfoot, living in mountains and forests. On the one hand, this is a mythological creature whose secret thousands of scientists around the world are trying to unravel. On the other hand, this is a real person who, due to his disgusting appearance, hides away from human eyes.
Today, a new theory has emerged that may prove that Sasquatch lives in the Himalayas (the mountains of Asia). This is evidenced by strange marks on the snow cover. Scientists suggest that the Yeti lives below the Himalayan snow line. To find irrefutable evidence, dozens of expeditions were assembled to the mountains of China, Nepal and Russia, but no one was able to prove the existence of the famous “monster”. 
Features
Yeti are easy to spot and recognize. If you suddenly travel around the East, keep this reminder for yourself.
"Bigfoot reaches almost 2 meters in height, and his weight varies from 90 to 200 kilograms. Presumably, everything depends on the habitat (and, accordingly, on nutrition). He is a muscular, big guy who has thick hair all over his body. Coat color "It can be either dark gray or brown. In fact, this is just a general portrait of the famous Yeti, because in different countries he is represented differently." 
History of the Bigfoot
Yeti is a character in ancient legends and folklore. The Himalayas welcome its guests with old stories, where the key figure is the formidable and dangerous Snowman. As a rule, such legends are needed not to scare travelers, but to warn against wild animals that can easily harm and even kill. The legends about the famous creature are so old that even Alexander the Great, after conquering the Indus Valley, demanded from local residents proof of the existence of the Yeti, but they only said that Bigfoot lives at high altitudes. 
What evidence is there
Since the end of the 19th century, scientists have assembled expeditions to find evidence of the existence of the Yeti. For example, in 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary visited Everest and discovered the scalp of an unknown beast. Several years later, research confirmed that it was not a scalp, but a warm helmet made from a Himalayan goat, which, after a long stay in the cold, could appear to be part of the head of Bigfoot. 
Other evidence:
Russian expedition
In 2011, a conference was held, attended by biologists and researchers from all over Russia. This event was organized with the support of the government of the Russian Federation. During the conference, an expedition was assembled that was supposed to study all the data about Bigfoot and collect irrefutable evidence of his existence. 
A few months later, a group of scientists announced that they had found gray hairs in the cave that belonged to the Yeti. However, the scientist Bindernagel proved that all the facts were compromised. This is evidenced by the work of Jeff Meldrum, an Idaho professor of anatomy and anthropology. The scientist said that the twisted tree branches, photographs and collected materials were crafts, and the Russian expedition was needed only to attract the attention of tourists from all over the world. 
DNA samples
In 2013, geneticist Brian Sykes, who teaches at Oxford, announced to the whole world that he had materials for research, which were teeth, hair and skin. The study examined more than 57 samples and carefully compared them to the genomes of every animal in the world. The results were not long in coming: most of the material belonged to already known living creatures, such as a horse, a cow, a bear. Even the teeth of a polar-brown bear hybrid that lived more than 100,000 years ago were discovered.
In 2017, another series of studies was carried out, which proved that all the materials belonged to Himalayan and Tibetan bears, as well as a dog. 
Proponents of the theory
Despite the fact that there is still no evidence of the existence of the Yeti, entire communities dedicated to Bigfoot have been organized around the world. Their representatives believe that the mysterious creature is simply impossible to catch. This proves that the Yeti is an intelligent, cunning and educated creature that is carefully hidden from human eyes. The absence of irrefutable facts does not mean that such creatures do not exist. According to the theory of adherents, Bigfoot prefers a reclusive lifestyle. 
Neanderthal mystery
Researcher Myra Shackley, in her book about Sasquatch, described the experiences of two tourists. In 1942, two travelers were in the Himalayas, where they saw black spots moving hundreds of meters from their camp. Thanks to the fact that tourists were located on the ridge, they could clearly distinguish the height, color and habits of unknown creatures.
“The height of the “black spots” reached almost two meters. Their heads were not oval, but square. It was difficult to determine the presence of ears from the silhouette, so perhaps they were not there, or they were adjacent too close to the skull. The broad shoulders were covered with a reddish color -brown hair that hung down. Despite the fact that the head was covered with hair, the face and chest were completely naked, making flesh-colored skin visible. The two creatures uttered a loud cry that scattered throughout the entire mountain range." 
Scientists are still debating whether these sightings were real or just the imagination of inexperienced tourists. Mountaineer Reinhold Messner concluded that large bears and their tracks were often mistaken for Yetis. He wrote about this in his book "My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Deepest Secret of the Himalayas."
Does Bigfoot really exist?
In 1986, tourist Anthony Woodridge visited the Himalayas, where he also discovered the Yeti. According to him, the creature stood only 150 meters from the traveler, while Bigfoot did not make any sounds or move. Anthony Woodridge spent a long time tracking the unnaturally huge footprints, which later led him to the creature. Finally, the tourist took two photographs, which he presented to the researchers upon his return. Scientists studied the pictures for a long time and carefully, and then came to the conclusion that they are genuine and not a fake. 
John Napira - anatomist, anthropologist, director of the Smithsonian Institution, biologist who studies primates. He also studied Woodridge's photographs and said that the tourist was too experienced to confuse the image of the Yeti with a large Tibetan bear. However, more recently, the images were re-examined, and then a team of researchers came to the conclusion that Anthony Woodridge took a photograph of the darkened side of the rock, which stood upright. Despite the indignation of true believers, the photographs were recognized, although real, but not proving the existence of Bigfoot.
The Yeti or Bigfoot is of great interest. There have been various rumors about this creature for several decades. Who is Yeti? Scientists can only guess, since it is very difficult to prove its existence due to a lack of facts.
Eyewitnesses who met the strange creature describe in detail its fearsome appearance:
In addition, scientists were able to study the size of the monster’s feet from prints left on the snow or ground. Eyewitnesses also provided scraps of fur found in the thickets through which the Yeti made its way, drew it from memory, and tried to photograph it.
Direct evidence
It is impossible to determine with certainty who Bigfoot is. When approaching him, people begin to feel dizzy, their consciousness changes and their blood pressure rises. The creatures act on human energy in such a way that they are simply not noticed. In addition, yeti inspire animal fear in all living beings. As he approaches, there is complete silence around: the birds fall silent and the animals run away.
Numerous attempts to film the creature on a video camera proved virtually fruitless. Even if this was possible, the pictures and videos were of very poor quality, despite the high-quality equipment. This is explained not only by the fact that yetis move too quickly, despite their enormous height and dense physique, but also by the fact that technology, just like people, begins to fail. Attempts to catch up with the fleeing “man” were unsuccessful.
Those who wanted to photograph the yeti say that when trying to look into his eyes, a person loses control of himself. Accordingly, pictures are simply not taken, or foreign objects are visible on them.
Fact. Eyewitnesses from different parts of the planet describe creatures of either female or male gender. This suggests that Bigfoots most likely reproduce in the usual way.
It is not clear who Bigfoot really is. Either this is an alien creature, or an individual from ancient times who managed to miraculously survive to our time. Or maybe this is the result of experiments conducted between humans and primates.
Where does Bigfoot live?
Tibetan ancient chronicles tell of encounters between Buddhist monks and a huge hairy monster on two legs. From Asian languages, the word “Yeti” is translated as “someone who lives among the stones.”
Fact: the first information about Bigfoot appeared in print in the 50s of the last century. The authors of these texts were climbers who tried to conquer Everest. The meeting with the yeti took place in the Himalayan forests, in which there are paths leading to the top of the mountain.
The places where the mystical creature lives are forests and mountains. Bigfoot in Russia was first recorded in the Caucasus. Eyewitnesses claim that as soon as they saw the huge primate, it disappeared right before their eyes, leaving behind a small cloud of haze.
Przhevalsky, who was studying the Gobi Desert, encountered the Yeti back in the 19th century. But further research was stopped due to the government’s refusal to allocate money for the expedition. This was influenced by clergy who considered the yeti to be a creature from hell.
After this, Bigfoot was seen in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other places. In 2012, a hunter from the Chelyabinsk region encountered a humanoid creature. Despite his great fear, he managed to photograph the monster on his mobile phone. Then the yeti was seen many times near settlements. But his approach to people has not yet found an explanation.
Even though no one can say who the Yeti is, . This is supported not only by weak facts, but also by faith, which is sometimes stronger than all evidence.
, “Ramayana” (“rakshasas”), folklore of different peoples (faun, satyr and strong in Ancient Greece, yeti in Tibet and Nepal, byaban-guli in Azerbaijan, chuchunny, chuchunaa in Yakutia, almas in Mongolia, ieren, maoren and en-khsung in China, kiikadam and albasty in Kazakhstan, goblin, shish and shishiga among the Russians, divas in Persia (and Ancient Rus'), devs and albasty in the Pamirs, shurale and yarymtyk among the Kazan Tatars and Bashkirs, arsuri among the Chuvash, pitsen among Siberian Tatars, Sasquatch in Canada, Teryk, Girkychavylin, Myrygdy, Kiltanya, Arynk, Arysa, Rakkem, Julia in Chukotka, Batatut, Sedapa and Orangpendek in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Agogwe, Kakundakari and Ki-lomba in Africa, etc.) .
Plutarch wrote that there was a case of the capture of a satyr by the soldiers of the Roman commander Sulla. Diodorus Siculus claimed that several satyrs were sent to the tyrant Dionysius. These strange creatures were depicted on vases of Ancient Greece, Rome and Carthage.
An Etruscan silver jug in the Roman Museum of Prehistory depicts a scene of armed hunters on horseback chasing a huge ape-man. And Queen Mary's psalter, dating back to the 14th century, depicts an attack by a pack of dogs on a furry man.
Eyewitnesses of Bigfoot
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Turks captured a European named Hans Schiltenberger and sent him to the court of Tamerlane, who transferred the prisoner to the retinue of the Mongol prince Edigei. Schiltenberger still managed to return to Europe in 1472 and published a book about his adventures, in which, among other things, he mentioned wild people:
High in the mountains lives a wild tribe that has nothing in common with all other people. The skin of these creatures is covered with hair, which is not found only on their palms and faces. They gallop through the mountains like wild animals, feeding on leaves, grass and anything else they can find. The local ruler presented Edigei with a gift of two forest people - a man and a woman, captured in dense thickets.
The Indians of the northwestern United States and Western Canada believe in the existence of wild people. In 1792, the Spanish botanist and naturalist José Mariano Mosinho wrote:
I don’t know what to say about Matlox, a resident of the mountainous region, who brings everyone into indescribable horror. According to descriptions, this is a real monster: its body is covered with hard black stubble, its head resembles a human’s, but much larger, its fangs are more powerful and sharper than those of a bear, its arms are incredibly long, and its fingers and toes have long curved claws.
Turgenev and the US President personally encountered Bigfoot
Our compatriot, the great writer Ivan Turgenev, while hunting in Polesie, personally encountered Bigfoot. He told Flaubert and Maupassant about this, and the latter described it in his memoirs.
« While still young, he(Turgenev) Once I was hunting in a Russian forest. He wandered all day and in the evening he came to the bank of a quiet river. It flowed under the canopy of trees, all overgrown with grass, deep, cold, clean. The hunter was overcome by an irresistible desire to plunge into this clear water.
Having undressed, he threw himself into her. He was tall, strong, strong and a good swimmer. He calmly surrendered to the will of the current, which quietly carried him away. The grasses and roots touched his body, and the light touch of the stems was pleasant.
Suddenly someone's hand touched his shoulder. He quickly turned around and saw a strange creature who was looking at him with greedy curiosity. It looked either like a woman or like a monkey. He had a wide, wrinkled face that grimaced and laughed. Something indescribable - two bags of some kind, obviously breasts - were dangling in front. Long, tangled hair, reddened by the sun, framed her face and flowed behind her back.
Turgenev felt a wild, chilling fear of the supernatural. Without thinking, without trying to understand or comprehend what it was, he swam with all his might to the shore. But the monster swam even faster and touched his neck, back and legs with a joyful squeal.
Finally, the young man, mad with fear, reached the shore and ran as fast as he could through the forest, leaving behind his clothes and gun. A strange creature followed him. It ran just as fast and still squealed.
The exhausted fugitive - his legs were giving way from horror - was already ready to fall when a boy armed with a whip came running, tending a herd of goats. He began to whip the disgusting humanoid beast, which took off running, uttering cries of pain. Soon this creature, similar to a female gorilla, disappeared into the thicket».
As it turned out, the shepherd had already met this creature before. He told the master that she was just a local holy fool, who had long gone to live in the forest and had gone completely wild there. Turgenev, however, noticed that due to wildness, hair does not grow all over the body.
US President Theodore Roosevelt also met with Bigfoot. He included this story, artistically revised, in his book “The Wild Beast Hunter.” The story takes place in the Beet Mountains, between Idaho and Montana. From there, by the way, we still receive evidence of encounters with Bigfoot people.
In the first half of the 19th century, trapper (that is, a hunter who sets traps) Bauman and his friend explored the wild gorge. Their camp was constantly ravaged by some huge creature, which moved on two, not four, legs. The attacks occurred either at night or during the day in the absence of hunters, and therefore it was not possible to really see the creature. One day a comrade remained in the camp, and Bauman, returning, found him torn to pieces. The tracks surrounding the body were identical to human ones, but looked much larger.
Bigfoot children
A very interesting encounter with Bigfoot in 1924 awaited lumberjack Albert Ostman. He spent the night in a sleeping bag in the forest near Vancouver. Big Foot He grabbed it, put it right in the bag on his shoulder and carried it. He walked for three hours and brought Ostman to the cave, where, in addition to the yeti who kidnapped him, there were also his wife and two children.
The lumberjack did not eat, but was received quite hospitably: they offered to eat spruce shoots, which the snowmen ate. Ostman refused and survived for a week on canned food from his backpack, which big Foot I prudently took it with me.
But soon Ostman realized the reason for such hospitality: he was being prepared to be the husband of the already grown-up daughter of the head of the family. Imagining the wedding night, Ostman decided to take a risk and sprinkled snuff into the food of the hospitable hosts.
While they were rinsing their mouths, he rushed out of the cave as fast as he could. For many years he did not tell anyone about his adventure and when asked where he had been for a whole week, he simply remained silent. But when there was talk about snow people, the old man’s tongue loosened.
Yeti woman
It is documented that in the 19th century in Abkhazia, in the village of Tkhina, there lived among people a woman, Zana, who looked like a Bigfoot and had several children from the people, who later integrated normally into human society. This is how eyewitnesses described it:
Reddish fur covered her grayish-black skin, and the hair on her head was longer than on the rest of her body. She uttered inarticulate cries, but was never able to learn to speak. Her large face with prominent cheekbones, a strongly protruding jaw, powerful brow ridges and large white teeth had a fierce expression.
In 1964, Boris Porshnev, the author of a book about the relict hominid, met with some of Zana’s granddaughters. According to his description, the skin of these granddaughters - their names were Chaliqua and Taya - was dark, of a negroid type, the chewing muscles were highly developed, and the jaws were extremely powerful.
Porshnev even managed to ask village residents who, as children, attended Zana’s funeral in the 1880s.
Russian zoologist K. A. Satunin, who in 1899 saw a female relict hominid in the Talysh Mountains in the southern Caucasus, draws attention to the fact that “the movements of the creature were completely human.”
Bigfoot in captivity
In the 20s of the 20th century, several yeti, imprisoned and, after unsuccessful interrogations, shot as Basmachi.
The story of the warden of this prison is known. He watched two bigfoot located in the chamber. One was young, healthy, strong, he could not come to terms with lack of freedom and was raging all the time. The other one, the old one, sat quietly. They ate nothing but raw meat. When one of the commanders saw that the warden was feeding these prisoners only raw meat, he shamed him:
- You can’t do that, after all, people...
According to the information of people who participated in the fight against the Basmachi, there were still about 50 similar subjects who, due to their “savagery,” did not pose a danger to the population of Central Asia and the revolution, and it was very difficult to catch them.
We know the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service of the Soviet Army V. S. Karapetyan, who in 1941 examined a live Bigfoot caught in Dagestan. He described his meeting with the yeti like this:
« Together with two representatives of local authorities, I entered the barn... I still see, as if in reality, a male creature appearing in front of me, completely naked, barefoot.
Without a doubt, it was a man, with a completely human body, despite the fact that his chest, back and shoulders were covered with shaggy dark brown fur, 2-3 centimeters long, very similar to that of a bear.
Below the chest, this fur was thinner and softer, and on the palms and soles it was not there at all. Only sparse hair grew on the wrists with rough skin, but the lush head of hair, very rough to the touch, went down to the shoulders and partially covered the forehead.
Although the entire face was covered with sparse hair, there was no beard or mustache. There was also sparse, short hair growing around the mouth.
The man stood completely straight, with his hands at his sides. His height was slightly above average - about 180 cm, however, he seemed to tower over me, standing with his powerful chest stuck out. And in general he was much larger than any local resident. His eyes expressed absolutely nothing: empty and indifferent, they were the eyes of an animal. Yes, in fact, he was an animal, nothing more».
Unfortunately, during the retreat of our army, the hominid was shot.
Bigfoot in the Himalayas
But the snow people from the Himalayas became most famous; relict hominids there are locally called “Yeti.”
For the first time, these unusual inhabitants of the mountains became known from the notes of English officers and officials who served in India. The author of the first mention is considered to be B. Hodgson, from 1820 to 1843 the plenipotentiary representative of Great Britain at the court of the King of Nepal. He described in some detail how, during his journey through Northern Nepal, porters were horrified when they saw a hairy, tailless creature that looked like a man.
Several Buddhist monasteries claim to have Yeti remains, including scalps. Western researchers have long been interested in these relics, and in 1960 Edmund Hillary managed to obtain a scalp from the Khumjung Monastery for scientific examination.
Around the same time, relics from several other Tibetan monasteries were examined. Specifically, the mummified hand of Bigfoot. The results of the examination were questioned by many, and there were supporters of the versions of both a fake and an incomprehensible artifact.
Bigfoot people were hiding in the Pamir caves
Major General of the Soviet Army M. S. Topilsky recalled how in 1925 he and his unit pursued the snow people hiding in the Pamir caves. One of the prisoners said that in one of the caves he and his comrades were attacked by several creatures similar to apes. Topilsky examined the cave, where he discovered the corpse of a mysterious creature. In his report he wrote:
« At first glance, it seemed to me that this was really an ape: hair covered the body from head to toe. However, I know very well that great apes are not found in the Pamirs.
Taking a closer look, I saw that the corpse resembled a human one. We tugged at the fur, suspecting it was a camouflage, but it turned out to be natural and belonged to the creature.
Then we measured the body, turning it several times on its stomach and again on its back, and our doctor carefully examined it, after which it became obvious that the corpse was not human.
The body belonged to a male creature, approximately 165–170 cm tall, judging by the gray hair in several places, middle-aged or even elderly... His face was dark in color, without a mustache or beard. There were bald patches at the temples, and the back of the head was covered with thick, matted hair.
The dead man lay with his eyes open, teeth bared. The eyes were dark in color, and the teeth were large and even, shaped like human ones. The forehead is low, with powerful brow ridges. Strongly protruding cheekbones made the creature's face look Mongoloid. The nose is flat, with a deeply concave bridge. The ears are hairless, pointed, and the lobes are longer than those of humans. The lower jaw is extremely massive. The creature had a powerful chest and well-developed muscles».
Bigfoot in Russia
There were many encounters with Bigfoot in Russia. The most remarkable, perhaps, occurred in 1989 in the Saratov region. The guards of the collective farm garden, having heard a suspicious noise in the branches, caught a certain humanoid creature eating apples, in all respects similar to the notorious Yeti.
However, this became clear when the stranger was already tied up: before this, the watchmen thought that he was just a thief. When they were convinced that the stranger did not understand human language, and in general did not look much like a person, they loaded him into the trunk of a Zhiguli and called the police, the press and the authorities. But the yeti managed to untie himself, opened the trunk and ran away. When a few hours later all those summoned arrived at the collective farm garden, the guards found themselves in a very awkward position.
Bigfoot caught on video
Actually, there are hundreds of evidence of encounters of varying proximity with Bigfoot. Much more interesting is material evidence. Two researchers managed to film Bigfoot on a movie camera in 1967. These 46 seconds became a real sensation in the world of science. Professor D. D. Donskoy, head of the Department of Biomechanics at the Central Institute of Physical Education, comments on this short film as follows:
« After repeated examination of the gait of a bipedal creature and a detailed study of poses on photographic prints from film, the impression remains of a well-automated, highly sophisticated system of movements. All private movements are united into a single whole, into a well-functioning system. The movements are coordinated, repeated equally from step to step, which can only be explained by the stable interaction of all muscle groups.
Finally, we can note such a feature, which cannot be accurately described, as the expressiveness of movements... This is characteristic of deeply automatic movements with their high perfection...
All this taken together allows us to evaluate the creature’s gait as natural, without noticeable signs of artificiality, characteristic of various kinds of deliberate imitations. The creature's gait in question is completely atypical for humans.».
The English biomechanist Dr. D. Grieve, who was very skeptical about relict hominids, wrote:
« The possibility of counterfeiting is excluded».
After the death of one of the film's writers, Patterson, his film was declared a fake, but no evidence was presented. It is worth recognizing that the notorious yellow press, in pursuit of sensations, often not only invents them, but also likes to expose past ones, both imaginary and real. So far there is no reason not to recognize this film as a documentary.
Despite a lot of evidence (sometimes from people who deserve absolute trust), the vast majority of the scientific world refuses to acknowledge the existence of Bigfoot. The reasons are that the bones of wild people have not yet been allegedly discovered, not to mention the living wild person himself.
Meanwhile, a number of examinations (we talked about some of them above) allowed us to come to the conclusion that the presented remains cannot belong to anyone recognized by science. What's the matter? Or are we again faced with the Procrustean bed of modern science?
Before we talk about the mysterious Bigfoot itself, let's first talk about those who are looking for him. These are cryptozoologists. Cryptozoology is the science of animals unknown to science. What a paradox: science about what science does not know...
The term “cryptozoology” was coined by the French zoologist Bernard Euvelmans. Naturally, cryptozoology cannot be called a real science, it is a typical pseudoscience, but many who are passionate about the idea of searching for unknown animals dream of their dream becoming a reality. It must be said that among cryptozoologists there are real scientists who admit that perhaps “there is something”, but are very critical of the available information and facts.
The famous field zoologist George Schaller, in principle, without denying the possible existence of the “Bigfoot” and even participating in his search, complained that his remains or at least feces had not yet been found, without which it is impossible to draw conclusions about whether he really is and what he is.
But most cryptozoologists are enthusiasts without the appropriate education, and among them there are also, to put it mildly, inadequate people. Several times I had the opportunity to see them on the screen, and I immediately remembered my psychiatric past - as if I had been in the ward again. People who are passionate about one and only one idea, brushing aside all reasonable doubts and arguments from the other side...
Often the basis for the search is the myths and tales of the aborigines, which tell about strange creatures that live somewhere nearby and, if these creatures are large, strike terror into their hearts. However, the okapi, which the pygmies told the whites about, was a completely ordinary animal for these African people, living in their native virgin forests; the Europeans simply did not believe them - its description looked too unusual. As a result, okapi was discovered only at the very beginning of the twentieth century! The most difficult thing, listening to the stories of the natives, is to separate truth from fiction. In addition, according to cryptozoologists, animals that are considered long extinct could survive on earth. For example, who said that all dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago? Maybe they were preserved in some distant “lost worlds,” untrodden places where no white man had ever set foot. In the end, they discovered a living coelacanth, a lobe-finned fish whose ancestors appeared on earth long before the dinosaurs, about 380 million years ago and were thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago! Moreover, at the end of the 20th century, another modern species of coelacanth was found.
From this point of view, our closest relative, human, but wild, is an ideal and beloved object of cryptozoology. Ancient people are not dinosaurs; they appeared on earth just over two million years ago and also died out quite recently. But are they all extinct? In almost all corners of our planet, among traditional peoples there are legends about some strange people, or monkeys, covered with hair, but moving on two legs, who live in almost inaccessible wilds and are extremely rarely seen by representatives of our species . Moreover, there are even eyewitnesses who encountered these incomprehensible creatures, and there seems to be some material evidence of their existence.
For some reason, people are very concerned about the question of our closest relatives, who managed (or didn’t manage?) to survive, no matter what.
So, the elusive Yeti, Bigfoot (in different places he is called differently: Bigfoot, Metoh Kangmi (Tibetan), Sasquatch, Yeren or Chinese savage, Kaptar, Alamas or Alamasty, etc.). Either a Neandarthal, or a Pithecanthropus, or even an Australopithecus, some not-so-lucky relative of Homo Sapiens, who was forced into the harshest living conditions, where he survived against all odds. According to the descriptions of so-called eyewitnesses, this is a large hairy man or a giant upright walking monkey. Every now and then cryptozoologists go in search of him, going somewhere to the Himalayas or to the islands of the Malay Archipelago. By the way, our cryptozoologists searching for Bigfoot currently call themselves hominologists.
Bigfoot has been “seen” or traces of it have been found on almost every continent. In North America it is called sasquatch or bigfoot. Here is a description of him made at the end of the 18th century by a Spanish scientist from the words of Canadian Indians: “They imagine that he has the body of a monster, covered with hard black bristles; the head is similar to a human, but with fangs much sharper, stronger and larger than the fangs of a bear; he has extremely long arms; on his fingers and toes there are long, bent claws." Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, there were reports of a mysterious creature somewhat bear-like but walking on its hind legs; US President Theodore Roosevelt wrote about such a monster that killed a trapper in his book “Hunter of Lifeless Spaces.” Most often these meetings took place in British Columbia. In 1967, a short color film about a Sasquatch woman was even filmed in Northern California; They said about this film that if it was a hoax, it was a very clever one. From the tropical forests of southern Mexico there are reports of creatures called sisimites: "In the mountains live very large wild people, completely covered with short thick brown fur. They have no neck, small eyes, long arms and huge hands. Their tracks are twice as long human." Several people have reported being chased up mountain slopes by Sisimites. Similar creatures are said to live in Guatemala, where they are said to abduct women and children. Zoologist Ivan Sandersen, who worked in Honduras, wrote in 1961:
“Dozens of people have told me that they have seen it... One junior forester described in great detail two small creatures that he unexpectedly noticed as they watched him on the edge of a forest reserve at the foot of the Maya Mountains. ...
These people were from 3.6 to 4 feet in height, proportionally built, but they had very heavy shoulders and rather long arms, they were covered with thick, dense, almost brown hair, like a short-haired dog; they had very flat yellowish faces, but the hair on their heads was no longer than the hair on their bodies, with the exception of the lower part of the back of the head and neck... Neither the local resident nor any other person who reported the words of the local residents indicated that these the creatures were simple "monkeys". In all cases, they noticed that they did not have tails, they walked on two legs, and they had human features."
So, all these bigfoots and other sasquatch did not exist and could not have existed, we can put an end to them.
American apes are broad-nosed monkeys, as opposed to the narrow-nosed monkeys from which our ancestors descended, a completely different branch of primates. Well, representatives of the narrow-nosed people of our species appeared on the American continent no earlier than 15 thousand years ago. What about Patterson's 1967 movie story with the walking sasquatch? Look at “Peculiarities of the National Hunt”. Bigfoot looks no worse there. Moreover, in 2002, participants in the hoax said that the whole story was falsified; The forty-centimeter “footprints of the Yeti” were made with artificial forms, and the filming was a staged episode with a man in a specially tailored monkey suit.
Of course, the most famous “Bigfoot” is the Himalayan Yeti. In the 19th century, reports of it were found in the reports of British officials working in the mountainous regions of India and Nepal. The British resident at the Nepalese court, V. Hogdson, reported that his servants were afraid of a hairy, tailless humanoid creature during their travels. Yeti appear in Nepalese and Tibetan religious images. The Sherpas believe in his existence and are very afraid of him. In the last century, when the pilgrimage of climbers began in the Himalayas, new stories about Bigfoot appeared. For example, when approaching Everest, footprints were seen... Some mountain monasteries store “material evidence” of the existence of the Yeti. In 1986, solo climber A. Woolridge claimed to have met a two-meter yeti in the northern part of the Himalayas and even showed a photograph that showed something very small - the photograph was taken at a great distance - and humanoid.
Serious expeditions were also sent to Nepal in search of yeti, for example, under the leadership of the famous mountaineer Ralph Izard, but they did not find anything significant. The most interesting results, but negative, were obtained by a complex expedition of Edmund Hillary (the same one who first conquered Everest) and Desmond Doyle, an expert on Nepal and local languages in 1960-1961; Zoologists also took part in it. First, the mystery of the giant footprints was solved. It turns out that under the influence of sunlight, snow on the surface melts, and traces of small animals, such as foxes, merge into giant prints. Secondly, members of the expedition obtained three “Yeti” skins - they turned out to be the skins of a local subspecies of bear. Thirdly, with great difficulty, the members of the expedition managed to temporarily borrow the “Bigfoot scalp” from the Khutjun monastery; For this, Hillary got money to donate to the monastery and also build five schools (he generally helped the local population a lot). Research in Chicago confirmed his assumption: the “scalp” turned out to be very old, but made from the skin of a serow mountain goat.
The mummified “Yeti hand” from the same monastery was human.
In Central Asia, Bigfoot was called Alamas or Almasty. In 1427, the German traveler Hans Schiltenberger, who visited the court of Tamerlane, published a book about his adventures, in which he also mentioned wild people: “In the mountains themselves live wild people who have nothing in common with other people. The entire body of these creatures is covered with fur, only there is no hair on the arms and face. They run around the mountains like animals and feed on leaves and grass and whatever they can find." A drawing of an almasta appears in a 19th-century Mongolian medical reference book. There is evidence of a meeting with Almasty in the 20th century. It seems that in 1925, the body of a dead wild woman in the Pamirs was seen by Red Army soldiers - they found her in a cave where the Basmachi were hiding. According to traveler Ivan Ivlov, on the Mongolian slopes of Altai in 1963 he saw several “humanoid creatures” through binoculars; he also collected stories from local residents about numerous encounters with these strange creatures.
Biologist Wang Zelin in 1940, according to him, saw the corpse of a wild man shot by hunters. According to his description, this is a woman covered with thick and long grayish-red hair. 10 years later, two wild people, a mother and her cub, were seen in the mountains by another scientist, a geologist. In 1976, in Hubei province, a “strange tailless creature covered with reddish fur” was encountered by six officers of the Chinese People's Army. After this, a scientific expedition was sent there, which found many mysterious traces, hair and excrement, and also recorded eyewitness accounts. But the results of these studies are classified.
Reports of “wild people” also came from Malaysia and Indonesia. After all, just recently, in 2004, the remains of ancient tiny people who were nicknamed “hobbits” were found on the Indonesian island of Flores. They immediately remembered that local residents talk about “Ebo-Gogo,” dwarfs who supposedly had big eyes and hair all over their bodies; they spoke a strange language and stole fruits and moonshine from people. Well, maybe these are the hobbits, Homo floresiensis? But the Flores people died out not 17 thousand years ago, as previously thought, but, according to updated data, about 50 thousand, and no traces of Ebo-Gogo were found, other than in folklore.
To this day, the indigenous people of Sumatra are convinced that “orang pendeks” (“short guys” in the local dialect) live in the virgin forests of the island.
Like hobbits, the hypothetical Sumatran ape-men are small in size. On the island of Borneo (another name is Kalimantan), local residents call such creatures “tramututs”; they, according to them, were much larger. Ape-men in this region are sought out not only by amateur enthusiasts, but also by serious scientists. So, Professor Peter Chee puts special digital “traps” cameras on mysterious hominids, but so far no one has been caught in them. That is, the cameras captured a tapir, a marbled cat, the rarest Sumatran tiger, but not a hominoid. A few years ago, two cryptozoologist fans, who have no professional connection to science, but devote all their holidays to searching for mysterious creatures, found tufts of hair at a primitive site, which they were sure belonged to relict people. But, as it turned out upon careful study, this is the hair of a modern person...
Vague information about local “wild humanoids” came from Africa, but no one takes them seriously. Moreover, even in Australia their own “snow people” have appeared, which is simply ridiculous - it’s no different that kangaroos evolved into them!
In 2014, the results of a genetic study of all hair samples ever found attributed to Bigfoot were published. This work was carried out by a group of scientists led by Professor Brian Sykes from the University of Oxford. Cryptozoologists sent 57 samples, however, there were 55 left - because one sample turned out to be of plant origin, and one was actually fiberglass. DNA was isolated from 30 samples. Alas, these were the hairs of bears, wolves, tapirs, raccoons, horses, sheep, cows, and even the hair of a human sapiens and, moreover, a European. The most interesting thing is that two samples of hair belonged to bears - but not just any bears, but polar bears or their hybrids with the ancestor of the brown bear, judging by the analysis of mitochondrial DNA! This means that those researchers who believed that “Yetis” were bears of an unknown species were right! How beautiful it turned out! But, alas, everything is not so simple. The following year, two other groups of scientists doubted these results. It has been suggested that polar bear hairs got into the samples by accident; Sykes, of course, denies this. Most likely, this fur has nothing to do with Paleolithic bears, but belongs to the Himalayan (Tien Shan) subspecies of brown bear Ursus arctos isabellinus, which in Nepal is called Ju Te. Its range includes the northern regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Tibet, and it also lives in the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains. This is a very rare and largest animal in this region, males reach a length of 2.2 m, many researchers believe that it was he who was mistaken for the “Bigfoot”, which no one had seen up close.
In 1991, in Chinese Tibet on the border with Nepal, a Chinese-Russian scientific expedition worked, officially a glaciological expedition, but everyone knew that its main goal was to find Bigfoot.
My classmate Arkady Tishkov, now a Doctor of Geographical Sciences, deputy director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, took part in this expedition. He actually met some kind of “humanoid” creature at an altitude of more than 5000 meters and even photographed it on film, albeit from a long distance, and the camera was without a zoom - the last century, after all. Tishkov is convinced that the yeti really exists, but this creature has nothing to do with primates; most likely, it is a bear. Well, the yeti remained a mysterious person, but the Russian researcher brought from this expedition 80 kilograms of herbarium alone, described several new plant species, one of which, with lovely blue flowers, bears his name! The Japanese gave a grant to search for Bigfoot, but who would give money to study the Alpine - in this case, Tibetan - flora?
“Bigfoot” was also encountered in the Caucasus Mountains - if, of course, the testimony of “eyewitnesses” can be believed. However, I absolutely believe one witness - this is Professor Yason Badridze. For many years he conducted research in the Lagodinsky Nature Reserve, located on the South Caucasus Range, on the border of Georgia with Dagestan. There have long been stories in this area of giant wild men covered in fur who live high in the forest. In the 70s of the last century, many old people in mountain villages claimed that they saw these people with their own eyes. They were even given a name - Lagodekhi. One day a small company, including Yason Badridze, gathered at the weather station in the evening. The head of the weather station left the room, and suddenly his cry was heard. People running out of the house found him on the ground, he said that someone had hit him from behind and complained of severe pain. When he was taken to the station and undressed, the imprint of a human hand was clearly visible on his back - only it was three times larger than from the hand of an ordinary man. Yason Konstantinovich still wonders what it was.
Alas, all the materials and facts that supposedly speak in favor of the existence of relict humanoids : plaster prints of footprints, pieces of wool, photographs - raise very reasonable doubts among scientists, as well as the testimony of people who allegedly saw them with their own eyes. Plaster casts are easy to fake. And we’ve already figured out the wool thing.
The famous Zana, a “wild woman” from Abkhazia, found in the forest in the 19th century - the trump card of many Yeti seekers, from Professor Porshnev to Igor Burtsev - turned out to be a sapiens, albeit a Negroid, and not a Neanderthal. Since not everyone is familiar with her story, I will tell it briefly. Zana was caught by Prince Achba's hunters in the forest. She was a muscular woman of enormous height, over two meters tall, completely naked, completely covered with dark hair, with gray, almost black skin. Her face was wide, high cheekbones, with large features, a sloping low forehead, a wide mouth, a flat nose with large nostrils, and a protruding lower jaw. Prince Achba gave it to his friend, also a prince, and it passed from hand to hand until it found a permanent home in a log corral in the village of Tkhin. At first, Zana was kept in chains because she was violent, but gradually she got used to it, “tamed” her, walked freely around the village, still without clothes, and even did some work that required great physical strength. She spent the night in a hole she dug herself in winter and summer. She never learned to speak, but she knew her name. She loved to swim and was addicted to alcohol. She also gave birth to numerous children from local exotic lovers. She accidentally drowned her first child, and the next four were taken away from her immediately after birth. Zana died in the 80s of the last century, no one knows exactly when, and her youngest son Khvit, who remained to live in Tkhin, died in 1954. Her distant descendants, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are still alive today, among their own.
In 1962, Doctor of Biological Sciences A.A. learned about Zan from local residents. Mashkovtsev, he told Professor B.F. about it. Porshnev, who together with his colleagues came to Tkhin, began to look for and question old people who personally knew Zana (remember that at least seven decades have passed since her death, most likely more). In the 70s of the last century, his research was continued by the historian Igor Burtsev, who met Khvit’s daughter Raisa, who, according to his description, had Negroid facial features and curly hair.
After much searching, he managed to find Zana's grave, and was eventually able to obtain the skulls of Hvit and - presumably - Zana herself.
According to the scientific editor of the portal Anthropogenesis.ru Stanislav Drobyshevsky, who examined them, the skull attributed to Zana has pronounced equatorial (Negroid) features, and the skull of her son, despite its massiveness and powerful brow ridges, belongs, alas, not to a Neanderthal at all, but clearly sapiens.
And now about how sensations are born. A year ago, loud headlines like “Zana really was a Yeti!” appeared in many popular publications. (in April 2015, a similar message, for example, was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda in the section - scary to say - “Science”!). The articles said that Professor Brian Sykes (the same one) examined the DNA of the skull and declared that Zana was not a person, but a Yeti! Now in the hands of Igor Burtsev there was supposedly irrefutable evidence of the existence of Bigfoot. What's the matter? It turns out that English popular publications published sensational news - supposedly, according to Professor Sykes, the “Russian” half-woman, half-ape turned out to be Bigfoot! It is unclear whether this was a joke or whether the publishers were trying to attract attention to Sykes's new book, but it greatly damaged the professor's reputation in scientific circles. In fact, Brian Sykes actually analyzed the DNA of six descendants of Zana and her late son Quit and concluded that Zana was a modern human, but at the same time “one hundred percent” African, most likely from West Africa. He suggested that most likely it came from slaves brought to Abkhazia by the Ottoman Turks. Or she belonged to those people who came out of Africa about 100 thousand years ago and since then lived secretly in the Caucasus mountains (we will leave this conclusion to the conscience of the professor). In fact, before making such assumptions, he could have asked what nationalities inhabit Abkhazia - but blacks really live in Abkhazia! A small group of people ethnically belonging to the Negroid race lives in the village of Adzyubzha at the mouth of the Kodor River and surrounding villages. They consider themselves Abkhazians, like everyone else around them. Historians do not have a consensus on how and when they got there. Most agree that in the 17th century. According to one of the most likely versions, these are the descendants of black slaves brought by the ruling princes of Abkhazia Shervashidze-Chachba to work on tangerine plantations.
But, alas, one of the hallmarks of many cryptozoologists is to ignore everything that contradicts their concept.
And still Igor Burtsev poses for journalists with the skull of a “Neanderthal” in his hands, and the furry yeti Zana flashes on television...
By the way, why is it furry? Indeed, it seems like a monkey trait. According to witnesses' descriptions, Zana was completely covered with hair. Well, you have to take their word for it, and this happens. It is worth recalling the drawings from a school biology textbook illustrating atavistic features: portraits of Andrian Evtikhiev, whose face was overgrown with thick strands of hair, and the “bearded woman” singer Yulia Pastrana, who was distinguished not only by a beard and mustache, but also by a sloping forehead, like that of ancient people. But rather, there was something else here. Hypertrichosis (increased hairiness) can be not only congenital, but also acquired as a result of hormonal changes due to hunger and deprivation - “wild children”, the so-called “Mowgli”, are often hairy. Most likely, Zana was a weak-minded girl who got lost in the forest and went wild - this very plausible version is given by Fazil Iskander in the story “The Encampment of a Man.” This applies not only to Zana - a feral person with mental disabilities, characterized by increased hairiness, could well be mistaken for a “Bigfoot”. In particular, this can explain a fairly well-known case - the detention of a “wild man” in the mountains of Dagestan in December 1941. Colonel Karapetyan, whose squad caught the unfortunate man, described him as a deaf-mute and mentally damaged person, completely covered with hair. But the lice on it were not human... At one time, Carl Linnaeus, working on the taxonomy of the animal world, identified feral people (he knew of nine such individuals) into a special species “Homo ferus”, wild man.
It must be said that the USSR was almost the only country where cryptozoology was studied at the state level, and largely thanks to one person - Professor Boris Fedorovich Porshnev (1905-1972).
He was a scientist of universal knowledge, a doctor of both historical and philosophical sciences; He also had a biological education, but he did not receive a diploma, which he later very much regretted. His main historical works were devoted to the late French Renaissance, but he also studied the theory of anthropogenesis. In those days, the transitional links from monkeys to humans were still poorly understood, and many were not discovered at all, and now Porshnev’s theory has purely historical significance. He postulated that only modern humans are human in the full sense of the word, this is a qualitative leap, and all other proto-humans are closer to animals than to Homo sapiens. That is why he and all his followers considered Bigfoot a Neanderthal, albeit a degraded one, although, judging by the description, he is much closer to archanthropes, erectus or even more ancient creatures. By the way, Bernard Euvelmans also considered the Yeti to be a Neanderthal. Now we know that Neanderthals were very similar to us.
Porshnev was obviously a very charismatic person, otherwise how could he have convinced the USSR Academy of Sciences to send an expedition to search for Bigfoot? In the late 1950s, a Commission was created at the Academy to study the issue of Bigfoot. It included famous scientists: geologist, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sergei Obruchev, primatologist and anthropologist Mikhail Nesturkh, outstanding geobotanist Konstantin Stanyukovich, physicist and climber Nobel laureate academician Igor Tamm, academician A.D. Alexandrov, as well as biologists G.P. Demenyev, S.E. Kleinenberg, N.A. Burchak-Abramovich. The most active members of the commission were physician Maria-Zhanna Kofman and professor Boris Porshnev. The working hypothesis that guided the commission: “Bigfoot” is a representative of the extinct branch of Neanderthals who has survived to this day.
In 1958, a complex and very expensive expedition took place to search for the yeti in the highlands of the Pamirs. The mission was led by the botanist Stanyukovich, who, it must be said, did not really believe in the existence of the Yeti. The expedition included zoologists, botanists, ethnographers, geologists, cartographers, as well as local residents, guides and barsol hunters. They also took with them service dogs trained to smell chimpanzees. Porshnev was dissatisfied that the expedition took place in the summer; in his opinion, it was necessary to look for traces of an unknown hominoid in the winter, in the snow, but need I say what mountains are like in winter? No signs of the existence of the Yeti were found, but scientists made many other discoveries, for example, they found a site of Neolithic man, and based on the results of the expedition, a geobotanical atlas of the highlands of the Pamirs was created.
After this, the Academy of Sciences officially closed the topic of studying Bigfoot, despite Porshnev’s objections. Since then, all searches for Yeti in our country have been carried out exclusively by enthusiasts who organized trips to the mountains of Central Asia and the Caucasus on their own.
How B.F. Porshnev conducted research in the field can be learned from the notes of one of the participants in the 1961 expedition to Tajikistan, S.A. Said-Alieva: “In the vicinity of the lake. Temur-kul we saw traces of various predatory animals. The next day at 7–8 o’clock in the morning near the shore of the lake. Temur-kul measured the bear's footprint. It ranged in length from 34.5 cm to 35 cm. When Prof. was told about this. B.F. Porshnev, he said that this was the trace of this animal (that is, “Bigfoot”). Then I asked B.F. what kind of claws he had - long or humanoid. He answered: almost like a person.” How easy it is to adjust facts to suit your concept! The result of Porshnev’s research was the monograph “The Current State of the Question of Relict Hominoids,” published in 1963.
The term “relict hominoid”, by the way, was coined by Pyotr Petrovich Smolin (1897-1975), the same PPS, or Uncle Petya, who became the godfather of several generations of Soviet biologists, heading in turn the KYUBZ (the circle of young biologists of the Moscow Zoo) and the VOOP (the circle young naturalists under the All-Union Society for Nature Conservation). As the chief curator of the Darwin Museum, he founded the Seminar on Hominology, which after his death was called “Smolinsky”; this seminar still operates, and his works are published. In 1987, Maria-Zhanna Kofman organized the Russian Association of Cryptozoologists or the Society of Cryptozoologists, uniting Bigfoot seekers. Igor Burtsev founded and headed the International Institute of Hominology (it is difficult to say whether it has employees other than the director).
Work in progress! More and more “relict hominoids” are being discovered in our country, even in the near Moscow region. Chuchuns in Yakutia, Almasts in Kabardino-Balkaria, someone else in Adygea... Burtsev admits that he has never seen them. But this does not stop hominologists. In recent years, active searches for Bigfoot have been carried out in the Kemerovo region, with cryptozoologists traveling there from almost all over the world. One of the expeditions was led by boxer Nikolai Valuev, who wanted to fight Bigfoot. Cryptozoologists also visited where a certain creature was seen most often - on Mount Karatag and in the Azas cave. Alas, the “Yeti” hair found there turned out, as one would expect, to be bear hair. But this did not stop the authorities from organizing a yeti tourism boom; the Bigfoot became a kind of symbol of Mountain Shoria. The governor of the Kemerovo region announced that whoever catches him will receive a reward of one million rubles, and the opening day of the ski season will now be a holiday - Bigfoot Day. I can completely understand the Kemerovo officials - not everyone is as lucky as Chebarkul with his meteorite, but the tourist infrastructure needs to be developed!
And a few years ago, Bigfoot showed up... in Moscow! In the Butovo forest, where residents of South Butovo walk their dogs. In winter, dog walkers found huge footprints of bare feet there. Women with dogs refused to go there; From mouth to mouth, terrible stories were passed on about a torn cat and people missing in the forest... To all persuasion they answered one thing: let them first investigate, and only then... Explore. Two men with service dogs, who were not afraid of the Yeti, met village teenagers in the forest who, over their felt boots, put on huge soles in the shape of bare feet with widely spaced toes. The boys were terribly pleased with themselves and loudly discussed the behavior of the nervous ladies, who, seeing the tracks, turned around with a loud squeal and ran back as fast as they could. People, as it turned out, did not disappear at all, and the cat’s corpse is on the conscience of local ravens, who are not averse to eating their pets. It’s good that everything became clear, otherwise the yellow press would soon have flashed headlines like “Bigfoot people are coming to Moscow!”
And some brief conclusions in conclusion:
- Most likely, the legendary Yeti is a brown bear of the Himalayan subspecies Ursus arctos isabellinus.
- There has never been and cannot be any “relict hominoid” on the American continent
There is still a lot of unknowns left in the world, but in the future scientists will be able to explain many phenomena based solely on real facts, and not on fictitious concepts and speculation.
Literature:
MAIN LITERATURE:
- Bernard Euwelmans On the trail of unknown animals
- Igor Akimushkin Traces of unprecedented animals
Both of these books are freely available on the Internet, but the facts given in them are largely outdated; it is better to familiarize yourself with the modern book by Vitaly Tanasiychuk:
- Vitaly Tanasiychuk. Incredible Zoology (zoological myths and hoaxes). M., KMK, 2011
- Arkady Tishkov Another meeting. “Light (Nature and Man)” No. 6-7, 1992, p. 39
- Alexander Sokolov. Myths about human evolution. M. Alpina, 2015