As many who know me will state, I’m an unashamed fan of cryptozoology – this being (for the few of you that don’t know) the field of study that revolves around those creatures thought to exist by some, but which remain unrecognised by mainstream science in general. These are the cryptids: entities like Bigfoot, Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster..., sea-serpents, and so on.
After months of persistence in August 2016, I got to fulfil a dream; going to an actual cryptozoology event (the Centre for Fortean Zoology's Weird Weekend) and meet people who shared my interests. At the event, I got talking to the eternally wonderful Richard Freeman, a cryptozoologist and yeti enthusiast, who has led expeditions in search for this elusive creature. Richard is a firm believer in the yeti's existence and that it is an unknown primate, most likely a new great ape.
Richard isn't the only one to go looking; many people have been motivated, over the decades to travel the Himalayas in search of the elusive creature, with primate conservationist Ian Redmond, and natural-history television great Sir David Attenborough amongst the yeti's modern day advocates.
The conversation turned to a particularly interesting character; the great mountain man Reinhold Messner (who looks like a yeti himself). Messner authored a book, called My Search for The Yeti which stated that the yeti is merely misinterpreted images of the myths surrounding the Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus); not an unknown anthropoid. Seems reasonable enough, right?
However, believers and sceptics alike have expressed doubt at this conclusion... and for very good reason. I won't go into details here, as people like Richard know this a whole lot better than I do.
Richard related an interview with the actor Brian Blessed, a renowned explorer and mountaineer himself, for a defunct (and, apparently, not very good) magazine called Quest. Blessed, who is friends with Messner, said that Messner had shared with him an encounter with a yeti. Blessed said that Messner had walked around some rocks and come ‘face to face’ with the creature. What's important to note is that Messner had said it was not a bear, was 7 feet tall, man-like and stood erect.
There are other occasions when Messner’s descriptions sound precious little like a bear. Julian Champkin of the Daily Mail 16th August 1997 wrote that Messner has… “encountered the yeti; and not once, but four times, once close enough to touch it. More importantly, he claims to have photographs of the creature, including a mother yeti tending her child, and a yeti skeleton”. None of these photographs have been forthcoming; Messner has never shown them to anyone (to my knowledge). Nor has he shown the "yeti skeleton" he claims to possess. Keep note of that.
If you doubt the veracity of these second-hand sources, then here it is, straight from the horse's mouth; this was said by Reinhold Messner himself.
"I searched for a week, 12 hours a day, in an area with no trees," he says. "I didn't expect to find one so soon. First, we saw a mother with her child. I could only take a photograph from the back. The child had bright red fur, the older animal's fur was black. She was over two metres tall, with dark hair, just like the legend. When they saw us they disappeared."
Two days later, he claimed to have come across and filmed a sleeping yeti. The film is just as noticeable as the photos by its absence; like the photos and pretty much every piece of evidence he claims to possess, Messner has refused to show it to anyone.
In an article relating to the BBC’s Natural World documentary on the yeti, Messner describes seeing one from a range of 30 metres in Southern Tibet. Very importantly, the article says that Messner is sure it is some kind of primate. He describes it in the article thus… “It was bigger than me, quite hairy and strong, dark brown-black hair falling over his eyes. He stood on two legs and immediately I thought he corresponds to the descriptions I heard from Sherpas and Tibetans.”
So why did Messner write a book trying to explain away the yeti as a bear when these very transparently were not the creatures he claimed to have seen? Was it because of fear of ridicule? And what became of the vast amount of supporting evidence that Messner claims to have accumulated and the photos and film that he claimed to have taken? Was Messner trying to take the focus away from these or make them seem less important by saying the yeti was just a bear?
Given Messner's reluctance to show his "vast mass of supporting evidence" to anyone and his repeated changes of tack, my suspicions are that none of the evidence he claims to have accumulated actually exists. Messner was talking bollocks.
To cap it all off, Messner’s behaviour shortly after people (both believers and sceptics alike) criticized him doesn’t exactly paint him in a positive light; basically, he accused everyone who expressed a syllable of doubt of forming some sort of conspiracy against him.
According to Richard Freeman, Sherpas become angry when westerners say that the yeti is just a bear, and quite rightly. The animal they pick repeatedly as looking most like the yeti is a bipedal gorilla. The yeti has a flat, ape-like face and walks almost constantly on two legs. The yeti can manipulate things with its hands and hence must have opposable thumbs; in fact, it is said to sometimes hurl large rocks. Bears have none of the above features and are rather familiar animals to the Sherpas, who encounter them regularly; they insist that the yeti is a separate animal, most likely a primate.
In light of all this, I agree with Rich that Reinhold Messner's claims should be dismissed. In fact I would go one -step further; it is my opinion that Reinhold Messner is a charlatan who has spent over two decades attempting to string the gullible along with s theory based on falsified evidence. Anyone who has seriously investigated the phenomenon has stated; the yeti is an ape, not a bear.
After months of persistence in August 2016, I got to fulfil a dream; going to an actual cryptozoology event (the Centre for Fortean Zoology's Weird Weekend) and meet people who shared my interests. At the event, I got talking to the eternally wonderful Richard Freeman, a cryptozoologist and yeti enthusiast, who has led expeditions in search for this elusive creature. Richard is a firm believer in the yeti's existence and that it is an unknown primate, most likely a new great ape.
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| An artistic rendition of a pair of yetis; as you can see their fur is reddish-brown. Contrary to popular belief, the yeti does not have white fur. The Yeti, illustration from "Monsters and Mythic Beasts" 1975 (color litho), |
The conversation turned to a particularly interesting character; the great mountain man Reinhold Messner (who looks like a yeti himself). Messner authored a book, called My Search for The Yeti which stated that the yeti is merely misinterpreted images of the myths surrounding the Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus); not an unknown anthropoid. Seems reasonable enough, right?
 |
| The man at the centre of this issue - Reinhold Messner. |
However, believers and sceptics alike have expressed doubt at this conclusion... and for very good reason. I won't go into details here, as people like Richard know this a whole lot better than I do.
Richard related an interview with the actor Brian Blessed, a renowned explorer and mountaineer himself, for a defunct (and, apparently, not very good) magazine called Quest. Blessed, who is friends with Messner, said that Messner had shared with him an encounter with a yeti. Blessed said that Messner had walked around some rocks and come ‘face to face’ with the creature. What's important to note is that Messner had said it was not a bear, was 7 feet tall, man-like and stood erect.
There are other occasions when Messner’s descriptions sound precious little like a bear. Julian Champkin of the Daily Mail 16th August 1997 wrote that Messner has… “encountered the yeti; and not once, but four times, once close enough to touch it. More importantly, he claims to have photographs of the creature, including a mother yeti tending her child, and a yeti skeleton”. None of these photographs have been forthcoming; Messner has never shown them to anyone (to my knowledge). Nor has he shown the "yeti skeleton" he claims to possess. Keep note of that.
If you doubt the veracity of these second-hand sources, then here it is, straight from the horse's mouth; this was said by Reinhold Messner himself.
"I searched for a week, 12 hours a day, in an area with no trees," he says. "I didn't expect to find one so soon. First, we saw a mother with her child. I could only take a photograph from the back. The child had bright red fur, the older animal's fur was black. She was over two metres tall, with dark hair, just like the legend. When they saw us they disappeared."
Two days later, he claimed to have come across and filmed a sleeping yeti. The film is just as noticeable as the photos by its absence; like the photos and pretty much every piece of evidence he claims to possess, Messner has refused to show it to anyone.
In an article relating to the BBC’s Natural World documentary on the yeti, Messner describes seeing one from a range of 30 metres in Southern Tibet. Very importantly, the article says that Messner is sure it is some kind of primate. He describes it in the article thus… “It was bigger than me, quite hairy and strong, dark brown-black hair falling over his eyes. He stood on two legs and immediately I thought he corresponds to the descriptions I heard from Sherpas and Tibetans.”
So why did Messner write a book trying to explain away the yeti as a bear when these very transparently were not the creatures he claimed to have seen? Was it because of fear of ridicule? And what became of the vast amount of supporting evidence that Messner claims to have accumulated and the photos and film that he claimed to have taken? Was Messner trying to take the focus away from these or make them seem less important by saying the yeti was just a bear?
Given Messner's reluctance to show his "vast mass of supporting evidence" to anyone and his repeated changes of tack, my suspicions are that none of the evidence he claims to have accumulated actually exists. Messner was talking bollocks.
To cap it all off, Messner’s behaviour shortly after people (both believers and sceptics alike) criticized him doesn’t exactly paint him in a positive light; basically, he accused everyone who expressed a syllable of doubt of forming some sort of conspiracy against him.
According to Richard Freeman, Sherpas become angry when westerners say that the yeti is just a bear, and quite rightly. The animal they pick repeatedly as looking most like the yeti is a bipedal gorilla. The yeti has a flat, ape-like face and walks almost constantly on two legs. The yeti can manipulate things with its hands and hence must have opposable thumbs; in fact, it is said to sometimes hurl large rocks. Bears have none of the above features and are rather familiar animals to the Sherpas, who encounter them regularly; they insist that the yeti is a separate animal, most likely a primate.
In light of all this, I agree with Rich that Reinhold Messner's claims should be dismissed. In fact I would go one -step further; it is my opinion that Reinhold Messner is a charlatan who has spent over two decades attempting to string the gullible along with s theory based on falsified evidence. Anyone who has seriously investigated the phenomenon has stated; the yeti is an ape, not a bear.
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| The Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus) - not a yeti
Image credits
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the Tibetan brown bear which has various colours, corresponds to a lot of yeti sightings, however, most bears aren't bipedal for long enough to correspond with the apelike reports, these may refer to an orangutan subspecies that existed on mainland Asia up to about 12000 years ago, it maybe relic populations still exist in the Himalayan forests, Vietnam & China
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