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Abakan Mountain range where yeti conference says the beast is likely hiding.

A conference has announced that given recent evidence they are 95 percent convinced the yeti, a mythical or perhaps actual primate, exists in the cold wilds of Siberia. Scientists and cryptozoologists (those who have a fascination for the ‘study of hidden species’ such as Bigfoot) met in the Kemerovo region of Russia to exchange information on the yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman, and to conduct fieldwork. According to a statement from the conference, members found new evidence of the yeti’s cryptic existence.

“During an expedition to the Azasskuyu cave, conference members collected irrefutable evidence of the habitation of the Snow Man in the Shoria Mountains. They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory,” reads a statement from the conference.

A Russian scientists, Anatoly Fokin, also found several hairs that he said may belong to the yeti. ‘Yeti hairs’ collected in the Himalayas recently turned out to be those of a goral, a wild ungulate. The hairs from Russia will be analyzed as well.



An orangutan in Sumatra. If the yeti did exist would it be more related to the orangutan or humans? In addition, some cryptozoologists believe there is a large undiscovered ape in Sumatra, dubbed the orang pendak. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

Conference members, however, did not come away with photographs, video, or most importantly for skeptics an actual yeti—living or dead—to prove its existence, but still stated there was 95 percent certainty of its existence.

Some media outlets have labeled the conference largely a publicity stunt to attract tourists to the remote region, currently dominated by coal and metal industries. Conference members came from as far afield as the US, Canada, Spain, Sweden and Mongolia.

However, some well-respected scientists, such as Jane Goodall, have said it’s possible a large undiscovered primate still exists and is the source of sightings around the yeti, sasquatch, or Sumatra’s orang pendak.

Although newly discovered mammals are usually rodents or bats, there have been new monkeys discovered in Africa, Asia, and South America recently. Still these are small animals, nothing close to the reputed size of a yeti.

“We have concluded that these living beings are in principle human beings because they can even talk and communicate with people,” Igor Burtsaev who initiated the conference recently said. “They are another species that differ from us, of course. Yetis are well adapted to nature. Their life style is similar to that of animals. They do not use tools, clothes or fire but are quite intelligent.” Burtsaev believes these ‘beings’ may be long-surviving populations of Neanderthals, which most scientists say went extinct over 30,000 years ago.

The conference was the first in half a century to bring yeti experts together. There is talk of creating a yeti research center in Russia.

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