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A team of Japanese adventurers say they have discovered footprints they believe were made by the legendary yeti said to roam the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet.
"The footprints were about 20 centimeters long and looked like a human's," Yoshiteru Takahashi, the leader of the Yeti Project Japan, said in Kathmandu on Monday.
Takahashi was speaking after he returned with his seven-member team from their third attempt to track down the half-man-half-ape, tales of which have gripped the imaginations of Western adventurers and mountaineers for decades.
Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV -- a 7,661-meter peak where they say they have seen traces of yetis in the past -- the team failed in their prime objective of capturing one on film.
But Takahashi said the footprints were proof enough. "Myself and other team members have been coming to the Himalayas for years and we can recognize bear, deer, wolf and snow leopard prints and it was none of those," he said.
"We remain convinced it is real. The footprints and the stories the local tell make us sure that it is not imaginary," he added.
Photographs of the prints have been posted on the expedition's website, www.everest.co.jp/yeti2008/.
The team had set out nine motion-sensitive cameras in an area where Takahashi saw what he thought was a yeti during a previous expedition in 2003.
"It was about 200 meters away in silhouette. It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimeters tall," said Takahashi.
Despite their lack of success this time, the team plans to continue the quest.
"We will come back as soon as we can, and we will keep coming back until we get the yeti on film," said Takahashi.
© Wire reports
20 Comments
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OgieDoggie
I think our YETI Project boys have been hitting the Sako. Now if they had found an empty pizza box next to the tracks they may have been onto something.
neverknow2
It was a human then?
thebottomline
Send out the Hendersons to go and find Harry!
outofmydepth
what - no pics???
aussieboy18
It is a human. Many people go exploring out that far all the time. There's no such things and creatures like that.
Disillusioned
This smells like bovine poo to me! Or is that yeti poo!
8iamhappy8
Always stir up people's imagination to capture the media's attention... There is no Yeti...
soldave
“We will come back as soon as we can, and we will keep coming back until we get the yeti on film,” said Takahashi.
Expecting a few return visits then.
timorborder
Was this before or after they experimented with mind-altering substances?
tkoind2
I keep telling my Yeti friends to get some shoes so they can keep people thinking that they don't exist. But Yetis never listen.
buffalo
Amazing! a team of international yeti hunters arrive and a set of tracks are found. What a croc of mud!
Chessnutroastin
20 cm footprints? 150cm tall? I think my little sister was camping up there last week.
fatloser
Not YET chums!! Why not find those footprints at USJ and give the park a much needed boost!! I sure hope there will be a flood of SNOW MONSTER movies next year!!!
solarbuster
It wasn't me, my feet are 27cm.
OssanULTRA
Frankly I think Yeti, Bigfoot, Yeren believers are a bunch of wackjobs who need to get a life. Or perhaps a real job. But still, every year new animals including quite large mammals are being discovered by scientists in areas some less remote than the Himalays. As much as I ridicule these folks I'm smart enough to know that one day I may be proven wrong.
Alphaape
I was surprised about a few years back about the find of a type of deer that had been thought to have been extinct in Vietnam. If they survived years of massive bombings, then I could in a way see that maybe such an animal as a yeti may exist.
Maybe oneday one of these creatures will be captured. I wonder where PETA stands on this issue?
GW
PETA has to determine if they are tasty or not
Noripinhead
One thing's for sure: "Yeti" is much easier to pronounce than "Abominable Snowman." Try saying that five times fast.
romulus3
why do grown men look for Life on Mars, The Yeti, Big foot, the Lock Ness Monster, Nibiru Planet X and fulfillment in marriage? What a waste of time. Grow up!
fatloser
I survived those masive bombings as well!!!!!!! But back to the mysterious Yeti. These Scientists have decided to follow the lead of the cops in Georgia who found a Big Foot carcass. Fakers all of them!!!