Yeti, << YEH tee, >> also called the Abominable << uh BOM uh nuh buhl >> Snowman, is a creature said to live on Mount Everest and other mountains of the Himalaya range of Asia. Reports of such a creature have also come from remote parts of China, Siberia, and other parts of Asia. According to legend, the Yeti is a hairy beast with a large, apelike body and a face that resembles that of a human being. It has long arms that reach to its knees, and it walks erect on its thick legs. Legend says that the Yeti sometimes comes down from the mountains to attack villagers.
The name Abominable Snowman may have come from a journalist’s translation of metoh kangmi, a Tibetan name for the creature. The name Yeti was given to it by the Sherpa people of Nepal. The word probably once meant all-devouring creature. It may refer to a mountain demon rather than a real creature.
There is no direct evidence that the Yeti exists. Local tribes have reported seeing it, but their stories cannot be verified. Since the late 1890’s, sightings have been reported by Western travelers, and explorers have sighted footprints of a large, unknown creature in the snow. In 1951, the British explorer Eric Shipton took pictures of “snowman” tracks near Everest. Since then, several expeditions, including one sponsored by World Book in 1960, have searched for the creature. The explorers neither captured nor saw anything that might be the snowman. Scientists of the World Book expedition said the tracks may have been made by bears or other animals. They found that the sun often caused such tracks to melt into large footprints.
Some investigators consider the Yeti to be a cryptid. A cryptid is a living thing whose existence has been suggested but not demonstrated. Scientists have collected small amounts of hair, teeth, and bones that were purported to have come from a Yeti. In 2017, scientists conducted tests on genetic material obtained from many of these samples. The tests showed that the samples all came from various known species, including dogs and bears.
See also Bigfoot; Gigantopithecus Mount Everest; Yowie.
