The Indian army says it has discovered footprints in the Himalayas that appear to belong to a yeti or the abominable snowman, known in the United States as bigfoot.
Measuring 81.28 cm by 38 cm, the footprints were found near Mount Makalu base camp April 9 by a Indian Army Mountaineering Expedition Team.
A spokesman for the country’s defense ministry told NBC News on Tuesday that photographs taken by the army’s mountaineering expedition team had been passed on to “the scientific community” for verification.
For the first time, an #IndianArmy Moutaineering Expedition Team has sited Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast 'Yeti' measuring 32×15 inches close to Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019. This elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past. pic.twitter.com/AMD4MYIgV7
— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) April 29, 2019
Molecular biologist Ross Barnett said that if DNA samples were collected, they could potentially be analyzed to determine what kind of animal left the footprints in the snow.
Research carried out by Barnett and fellow ancient-genetics expert Ceiridwen Edwards in 2014 had found that DNA samples taken from reported yeti sightings matched brown bears local to the Himalayan region.
Whether or not the origin of the footprints was narrowed down, Barnett was confident yeti sightings would continue.
“You can’t kill a legend with anything as mundane as facts,” he said.
Mount Makalu is the world’s fifth highest mountain. It is located on the border between Nepal and China and is about 20 km south of Mount Everest.
Via NBC News
