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Tag: yeti

  • Bigfoot Hair Samples: The Results Are In

    Over the years many people have tried to prove and disprove the legendary creature known as Bigfoot.

    A group of scientists recently decided to use DNA testing to determine if any of 30 alleged Bigfoot hair samples were real.

    The tests showed that all of the hair samples came from large mammals, but none of them belonged to Bigfoot.

    Most of the hair samples belonged to animals that lived in the region where they were found.

    The most common animals included bears, moose, dogs and cows.

    The idea for the testing came from researchers at Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology.

    Both groups of researchers issued an open call for any hair samples that were believed to belong to Bigfoot.

    While the researchers were doubtful that they would really get any Bigfoot hair samples, they were anxious to see what other animals could be confused for the creature and many of them hoped that at least one of the samples would come back as a new or unfamiliar species.

    “I thought there was about a 5 percent chance of finding a sample from a Neanderthal or (a Yeti),” said Bryan Sykes of Oxford University, who led the research, the first peer-reviewed study of Bigfoot, Yeti and other “anomalous primates.”

    The researchers received hair samples from all over the world and although the scientists were not able to find any hair samples that belonged to Bigfoot, they say that it doesn’t mean the creature doesn’t exist.

    “The fact that none of these samples turned out to be a Yeti doesn’t mean the next one won’t,” said one researcher.

    The scientists did find two samples from ancient polar bears in the Himalayas, who are not known to live there. That suggests there could be a new or hybrid bear species out there, which means other unknown animals could also exist.

    Do you think Bigfoot is real?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Bigfoot Killed, Corpse on Tour in Texas

    Bigfoot Killed, Corpse on Tour in Texas

    Bigfoot’s corpse is on tour. The tour is called the “I Told You So Tour.” The reason it’s called the “I Told You So Tour” is because its creator, promoter, and emcee is Rick Dyer, who last put a bigfoot corpse on tour in 2008 only to later be forced into admitting that that bigfoot was just a rubber suit.

    This one’s not a hoax, though. No, siree. According to self-described “master tracker” Dyer, “we want to show as many people as possible . . . Bigfoot is not the Tooth Fairy. Bigfoot is real.” This bigfoot, which Dyer has dubbed “Hank,” was allegedly shot and killed outside of San Antonio. Dyer claims to have lured it with ribs he bought at Wal-Mart. Also, it should be noted, this time as good as any, that Dyer’s day job (because master bigfoot trackers need days jobs in this economy) is selling used cars. Kid you not.

    Dyer’s aware of the skepticism stemming from his previous shenanigans, but he claims that the 2008 hoax “didn’t start out as a hoax and that’s what people don’t understand. This is about redeeming myself. I don’t want to go down as a hoaxer. I want to go down as the best Bigfoot tracker in the world.” For what it’s worth, Dyer’s website claims that he and his team are the “only real bigfoot trackers in the world,” so I guess that means he’d have to be the best by default.

    The body of the creature, currently under a glass coffin adorned with camouflage baseball hats, was supposed to go on display a week and a half ago at the International UFO Congress and Film Festival in Phoenix, but Dyer was forced out of that event after Maureen Elsberry, co-organizer of the event and investigator on the Science Channel’s show “Uncovering Aliens,” denied him exhibition space due to his past hoaxery.

    “It was like a bunch of confusion. I don’t know what happened in Phoenix,” Dyer said. “I wanted to go to Phoenix. If we get a venue in Phoenix, we will be happy to go back there. We love Phoenix. The only reason we’re doing this tour is for me to bring Hank to the people, and that’s it. I just hate to disappoint the people that I’m trying to show it to.”

    The body is currently on tour in Texas, tickets priced at $20. But for those who don’t want to shell out, Dyer’s got a sneak peek in the following video (this footage is a bit NSFW—the bigfoot on display is anatomically correct):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiUa3vFAapQ

    By the way, I’m thinking of starting a band called Bigfoot’s Corpse and trying to book shows on the “I Told You So” tour. Anybody want to jam?

    Image via YouTube

  • Yeti, Abominable Snowman, or…Polar Bear?

    Yeti, Abominable Snowman, or…polar bear? Yep, that’s right – the Yeti myth has finally been put to rest, at least for us skeptics. Bryan Sykes, a genetics professor at the University of Oxford, says that he now has the DNA evidence to prove that the elusive ‘Yeti,’ or, ‘Abominable Snowman,’ is merely the descendant of an ancient Norwegian polar bear.

    Sykes recently told NBC that he began his quest for evidence of the world’s most famous mythical creatures because of the lack of scientific research that had been done previously on the fantastical subject – and, he added, “I am in a position to actually do something to answer the questions.”

    In 2012 Sykes began his journey on ‘the Yeti project’ by contacting scientists and museums worldwide, asking for hair samples obtained from purported Yetis, Bigfoots, or Sasquatches. Flooded with responses, he chose two samples to use for his analyses. Sykes said, “Of the samples in this study, one came from a Yeti mummy in Ladakh. It was from the mummified body that was shot 40 years ago by a local hunter. He kept it because he did not think it was a bear from its behavior. To him it was a Yeti.”

    The second sample used for comparison came from a Himalayan region 800 miles east of Ladakh, the Kingdom of Bhutan. According to the professor, this sample, obtained a decade ago, was “a single hair, found by the king’s own Yeti guards.”

    Upon extensive DNA testing of the hair, Sykes compared the results to other animal genome data stored in the GenBank database, and the final analysis was surprising – the relation between the jawbone of an ancient Norwegian polar bear and the two hair samples from the mysterious creatures in Ladakh and Bhutan were 100% matches.

    The ancient polar bear Sykes matched the two samples with was a bear that is thought to have lived about 40,000 years ago in the Norwegian Arctic.

    Sykes told the Associated Press that he believes the most viable explanation for the beings long theorized to be Yetis is that the creatures “…may be a new species…may be a hybrid.” (Between brown bears and Himalayan polar bears.) However, his analysis did not support a link between modern bears in the Himalayas, but prehistoric polar bears.

    Despite centuries of “sightings,” the Yeti mystery may now be put to bed for good. Hopefully, Sykes’ research on the quest for Bigfoot and Sasquatch will be just as conclusive. As the British scientist recently said, “Bigfootologists and other enthusiasts seem to think that they’ve been rejected by science. Science doesn’t accept or reject anything, all it does is examine the evidence and that is what I’m doing.”

    If you’re lucky enough to be in the UK, you can catch Bryan Sykes on a new documentary series, “Bigfoot Files.” The series will devote its first episodes to the 3-part special on Bigfoot, featuring Sykes – the documentary will premiere on Sunday on Britain’s Channel 4.

    Image courtesy Jerzy Strzelecki via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Yeti/Snowman Mystery Could Be Closer to Clarity

    Tales of giant Yeti, or Abominable Snowmen have been around for decades, and so-called “Bigfootologists” have enjoyed studying and chasing the elusive beasts. Now, according to CNN, research that has been done by a leading UK geneticist may have shed some light on the truth about the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, after hair samples from two mystery animals proved to be a genetic match to an ancient polar bear.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Dauy3fEoQ

    Brian Sykes put out a worldwide call last year for people to submit hair or other tissue from “cryptids,” or previously unknown species. From these donations, he collected about 30 samples. Those who gladly submitted samples to the project last year were asked to give a description of the material and details of where and when it was found. They were also encouraged to give their own opinion of its species type and the reasons for that view.

    Sykes’ research focused on two samples, both from the Himalayas but found about 800 miles apart. Testing found a 100% absolute match with a polar bear jawbone from Svalbard, the northernmost part of Norway, that dates back between 40,000 and 120,000 years.

    These surprising results cast new light on the legend, but will it satisfy worldwide “Bigfootologists”? “There’s more work to be done on interpreting the results. I don’t think it means there are ancient polar bears wandering around the Himalayas,” Sykes said. “But we can speculate on what the possible explanation might be. It could mean there is a subspecies of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor of the polar bear. Or it could mean there has been more recent hybridization between the brown bear and the descendant of the ancient polar bear.”

    “‘Bigfootologists’ and other enthusiasts seem to think that they’ve been rejected by science,” Sykes is quoted as saying. “Now I think that’s a complete distortion of what science is about. Science doesn’t accept or reject anything. All it does is examine the evidence, and that is what I’m doing.”

    Image via youtube

  • Yeti May Be a Bear Descendant, States Scientist

    In Chill Out, Scooby Doo!, Scooby and the gang go to the Himalayas to help a French hunter find and kill the Yeti / Abominable Snowman. After many chases and hilarious antics, the Yeti is discovered to be not an actual Yeti, but rather a stunt by Ming to get her crush to keep his radio station running.

    Unfortunately for many kids (and many adults as well), Scooby and Shaggy still have a real Yeti to fear. However, this Yeti may not be what many have believed it to be. British professor, Bryan Sykes, has used science to prove the true identity of the Yeti, once and for all.

    Last year, Sykes put out a request for people to send him samples from unidentified species, such as the Yeti, Bigfoot, and Sasquatch. In total, Sykes received 70 samples, 27 of which produced good DNA results. Out of those 27 useful DNA samples, 2 proved vital to the mission of the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project.

    The two samples which sparked the most interest from Sykes were from 2 similar, yet distant, locations: the Western Himalayan region of Ladakh and Bhutan, which is approximately 800 miles east of Ladakh.

    When Sykes cross-referenced the DNA from these two strands of hair with the DNA of other animals in the GenBank database, the results were both astounding and conclusive – The hairs showed a 100% match to the DNA of a 40,000-120,000 year old ancient polar bear from Svalbard, Norway (Which means one can only hope that this ancient polar bear was a panserbjørne, such as those from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.)

    So what do these results mean? According to Sykes, “This is an exciting and completely unexpected result that gave us all a surprise. There’s more work to be done on interpreting the results. I don’t think it means there are ancient polar bears wandering around the Himalayas. But we can speculate on what the possible explanation might be. It could mean there is a sub species of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor of the Polar Bear. Or it could mean there has been more recent hybridisation between the Brown Bear and the descendent of the ancient Polar Bear.”

    Despite these rather conclusive findings, many in the community do not believe that these results will quell the fervor of Yeti enthusiasts: “I do not think the study gives any comfort to Yeti-believers. But “no amount of scientific data will ever shake their belief,” stated David Frayer, a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Kansas. Frayer went on to add, “If (Sykes’) motivation for doing the analyses is to refute the Yeti nonsense, then good luck.”

    Sykes’s motivation for the project, though, is not to ruin the hopes and aspirations of Yeti-hunters, but rather to “to inject some science into a rather murky field.”

    If anything, Sykes’s findings may have spurred an even larger hunt for the Yeti. After all, who wouldn’t want to find an ancient-hybrid polar-brown bear that may or may not have opposable thumbs and super-awesome metal armor?

    Image via Wikipedia

  • Bigfoot Gets Caught on Camera Again

    Bigfoot Gets Caught on Camera Again

    Well, it looks like old Bigfoot is at it again, walking around and parading himself like some animal.

    In case you don’t know who Bigfoot is, he’s a big bi-pedal hairy ape-like creature made famous by a short video filmed by Robert Gimlin and Roger Patterson back in October 20th, 1967. Bigfoot also goes by the name “Yeti”, or “Sasquatch”, and has been marketed as a subject for humiliation in beef jerky commercials.

    Some say he’s a legend, some say he’s a misidentified animal, and some say he’s just a guy in an ape suit running around and causing mischief for the past five decades.

    Last Tuesday in a conference in Dallas, Texas, a group of Bigfoot researchers who call themselves the Sasquatch Genome Project, screened an 8-year-old “never before seen HD video” of the great beast walking around through some Kentucky forest.

    According to Dr. Melba Ketchum (not to be confused with Ash Ketchum), a genetics scientist and the leader of the Sasquatch Genome Project, a majority of the $500,000 funded into the group’s study of Bigfoot came from Wally Hersom and Adrian Erickson, both entrepreneurs interested in the “subject matter”.

    A total of 111 specimens of purported Bigfoot samples, including everything from hair to skin, came from 34 different hominine research facilities, and have been examined over the past five years by The Sasquatch Genome Project.

    The group is hell bent on proving the existence of the Sasquatch, even extracting DNA from their collected samples.

    Not to be confused with an old piece Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, this picture shows a sample of Bigfoot’s skin tissue.

    “We want people to understand that this is a serious study,” Dr. Ketchum told CBS Dallas.

    Dr. Ketchum mentioned in February that, “We soon discovered that certain hair samples — which we would later identify as purported Sasquatch samples — had unique morphology distinguishing them from typical human and animal samples.”

    “They’re a type of people, they’re a human-hybrid, we believe. And all of the DNA evidence points to that. And they can elude us, so if you get [footage] at all, it can be fleeting,” Ketchum told ABC affiliate WFAA.

    Yet, some believe this whole Bigfoot fiasco to be hogwash.

    “It’s just a joke. She, [Dr. Melba Ketchum] is a laughing stock of people that are of a community that are already kind of wacko.” Todd R. Disotell, a professor at the Department of Anthropology at New York, told ABC news.

    “This was not reported in any scientific way whatsoever. It’s complete junk science, and then she misinterprets it. She hasn’t published in peer-reviewed papers on this stuff. I don’t know how this got put together.”

    (Pictures via WikiCommons, Sasquatch Genome Project)

  • Bigfoot Hair Samples to Undergo New DNA Analysis

    Bigfoot hair samples are being gathered, collected, and processed as part of a new study that will help determine if such a creature actually exists. So if you or anyone you know has random Yeti hairs just lying around the house, be sure to let the folks over at Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology know about your findings. They’re looking for any and all specimens, even if you’re not 100% sure where the samples came from.

    “If the Yeti is real and somebody has found bits of their hair, you should be able to tell from the DNA in the hair if this is actually a Yeti,” said University College London professor Mark Thomas.

    Scientists have already received a wealth of potential specimens, including hair, blood, and items thought to have been gnawed upon by the fluffy cryptid. The new tests will allow researchers to determine how close the creature in question is to apes or humans, even if they sample is from an unidentified animal. Of course, the chance that someone out there actually has a few strands of hair plucked from the backside of a Bigfoot is relatively low.

    Of course, not everyone feels that this sort of endeavor is valid. Kansas University professor David Frayer, for example, seems to think the project is a phenomenal waste of time. “No serious scientist (would) treat Yeti as a worthy research project,” he told the Associated Press.

    Even if the results of these DNA tests prove that none of the provided samples belong to a Yeti, will that stop people from believing in the beast? Don’t count on it. Part of the public’s fascination with Bigfoot is the fact that no one has managed to get a good, hard look at the creature, despite the efforts of countless individuals. Our fascination with the legend is rooted in the mystery that surrounds it. While scientists shuffle through random blood and hair, many folks will be wandering around the forest, cameras and imaginations in-hand.

    (image) Matthew Fortner
    @techjunkieblog     Researchers plan to use new techniques to analyze DNA to crack Bigfoot mystery. Just need Bigfoot hair. http://t.co/1f1uBFR3
    1 hour ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto
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    (image) Sherry Snipes
    @1diversitydiva     Wanted: #Bigfoot hair samples for DNA study (I just thought this was funny! who funds this stuff?) #diversity http://t.co/wWwAXkRo
    1 hour ago via Facebook · powered by @socialditto
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    (image) Wil Anderson
    @Wil_Anderson     Researchers claim DNA could help prove if Bigfoot exists. Kardashians suddenly very nervous…
    12 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
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    (image) dan of DNA
    @dan_DNA     Man on the radio wants to hunt and kill a bigfoot, “preferably a juvenile”, he said.
    1 day ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry · powered by @socialditto
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    (image) Jim Turpen
    @jlturpen     DNA testing to shed light on mythical ape-like creature http://t.co/9HBGtEGX If it’s “mythical,” it doesn’t exist. Case closed, Researchers.
    54 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto
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