For the sake of searching for Bigfoot, Russian fans are selling houses and settling in the forest
Recently, information appeared in the media about the found body of a yeti. Two Americans found the corpse of a dead creature and showed it to a famous American anthropologist. He said - the body belongs to Bigfoot - and decided to conduct a DNA test. We called a press conference. Scientists have already sent their congratulations to their American colleague. The world froze in anticipation of a sensation. But alas, the test results showed that it was DNA … of a possum … And the body is a rubber costume for Halloween.
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Japanese scientist who had been looking for a Yeti in Nepal for 12 years finally gave up and admitted that no Bigfoot exists. Like, there was a linguistic confusion - the Nepalese, describing "meetings in the mountains", did not say "yeti" ("man"), but "meti" - "bear" …
And yet the scientific world is still arguing whether Bigfoot actually exists (“big foot” is another name for the phenomenon). And if so, who is he - an unexplored species of primates, a Neanderthal who has survived to this day? MK learned new facts and scientific discoveries on the subject of Bigfoot.
Is the miracle kept in St. Petersburg?
The International Center for Hominology (the science of snow people) is located in a small room in a residential building in Moscow. Igor Burtsev is the director of the center and a student of the famous among cryptozoologists Professor Porshnev, the first scientist who studied the snowmen seriously and believed that they were Neanderthals, who surprisingly survived to this day. The professor was ridiculed and died of a heart attack when the last book he wrote was taken out of print. Today his works are rarities. They contain numerous testimonies of meetings with yeti, descriptions of these creatures, their way of life, habits. But talking about serious science in this office is somehow strange …
“Anything can be passed off as a sensation,” Mr. Burtsev began the conversation critically. - Recently, a yeti's paw was allegedly found in Altai. It was enough for us to show the picture to the zoologist, so that he said that it was a bear paw! Their inner finger is always smaller, and the "little finger" is larger than the rest. So the right bear's paw was passed off as the snowman's left paw.
Shots are often sent to our center, which at the first viewing turn out to be a fake. For example, the authors claim that they filmed in Tibet, and on film - Scandinavia …
Do you get really interesting information?
- Sure! In 2004, I traveled to the United States to Tennessee, where a woman lives who claims that a whole family of humanoid creatures lives near her house. The woman herself has been observing them there since childhood. Bigfoots are already used to her, she feeds them, and they often enter the territory of her house from the forest. But she refuses to take them off. Why? It will seem strange to us, but she is sure that her furry friends will be against interference in their lives. Moreover, then scientists will come to these places, and she is afraid that her "neighbors" will be put in cages or killed. But she allowed me to shoot.
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Are you sure that she is in herself?
- I cannot call this woman crazy, she is adequate, she has children, does not suffer from loneliness. The blood of the Indians flows in it, and these people have a special relationship to nature and the animal world. And she's right to fear for the lives of these creatures. Many scientists set the goal of their research and expeditions to get the body of a Bigfoot. Although this will give absolutely nothing. Skeptics will again say that this is a fake, and we are already sure - Bigfoot exists!
And you never saw the yeti in America?
- Unfortunately no. In all the 20 days I've lived on the farm, the creatures never showed up. True, they came at night - they left footprints near the stern. Probably, they should have stayed there longer, about 3 months, they would have gotten used to me and would have seemed. I believe in it.
We still have a lot to explore. For example, now we are going to send our specialist to St. Petersburg in search of Bigfoot. Do not be surprised!
I received a letter from a colleague running a Bigfoot program in the United States. He says they were recently called by an American who now lives in Kiev. The man said that in 1992 he worked in St. Petersburg, in a museum. Once he went down to the basement of the museum to take air measurements. And I saw there in the closet a mummy or stuffed creature that looked like a yeti. Unfortunately, the caller could not remember the name of the museum, as he worked at that time in several institutions. He did not leave his coordinates either. But we called all museums where there are basement storage facilities and where there may be similar exhibits, and now we are sending our colleague there. We hope luck smiles on us.
Alien or Human?
Good luck really doesn't hurt fanatical scientists. For those who are not in the know, people have been trying to catch Bigfoot for 200 years. Back in the 18th century, the scientist Karl Linnaeus created the work "The System of Nature", in which he also included a caveman, "homo troglodytos". He also gave him the characteristics: wild, naked, wordless, forest. At that time, scientists already knew about the hairy inhabitants of the forest. But they began to seriously study them a little over a hundred years ago, from 1907. True, the First World War prevented scientists from going on an expedition. And it took place much later, in 1954. Then the English journalist Ralph Izzard organized a trip to the Himalayas. The Yeti was not caught, but they collected unique material for further study.
Information about the snowmen came and comes from all over the world - from America, Mongolia, China, Africa, Uzbekistan, the Caucasus and even the Moscow region. During this time, it was found out that creatures live in small groups, but these groups communicate with each other. They do not farm, apparently, they do not know how to speak and have incredible physical strength.
- The geography of the settlement of these creatures is quite wide. But what is surprising in this - after all, a person also occupied a huge territory. These creatures can also differ in height, coat color, and its quantity. But in general, the descriptions are similar, says Burtsev.
- Just yesterday I received a letter from a colleague from Idaho, he published an article in the bulletin of natural history and science of his university that the American Bigfoot is recognized as an anthropoidos North American! Russian scientists consider this creature a human! This is our only disagreement with the Americans today.
In cryptozoology, there are several versions of the origin of hairy creatures. First, Bigfoot is the missing link between ape and man. The second is the Neanderthals. There are scientists who consider the Yeti to be aliens. I personally don't know what Bigfoot is! Although I have been studying it for 30 years. Many eyewitnesses claim that Yeti are telepathic and can hypnotize animals and people. Therefore, until now, no one has managed to catch them.
- In Indonesia, on the island of Florence, archaeologists recently discovered the remains of people previously unknown to science - small stature, a little more than a meter, who died out 5-10 thousand years ago. So why can't our troglodytes be some kind of unexplored people? The main thing is for science to recognize that these creatures exist. Whoever they are and whatever they are called, the researcher believes.
Evidence in the snowdrifts
Is there any irrefutable evidence for the existence of Bigfoot?
- Forensic experts find the killer by fingerprints, traces of blood, particles of hair, clothes. We have more than enough such "evidence"! And if in forensic science this is evidence of a crime for which they can even be executed or pardoned, why in science cannot it?
If we are to draw parallels with the investigation of the crime, we also have eyewitness accounts. Yes, this is the most unreliable of the evidence, but it is according to their words that the "idiots" of the Yeti are made. And they all have common characteristics - pronounced musculature, almost complete absence of a neck, large growth, hair on the body, lack of clothing and shoes, physical strength. Despite its almost human appearance, this creature leads an animal lifestyle, so some scientists believe that this is just a new species of primates.
The second proof is the footprints. The first were found in the Himalayas, in the snow, hence the name of the creature. Several hundred chains of footprints have been collected in the world. Many of them, after a thorough analysis of ichnologists (ichnology is the science of footprints), showed that this foot cannot belong either to humans or to animals known to science. Porshnev, the founder of hominology in Russia, has published a whole book dedicated to the traces of big feet.
The third indisputable proof is videotape. Filmed in 1967 in California by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, the film is only a minute long. The film shows a hairy creature running through an open clearing. His entire face is covered with hair, even has something like a beard, and at the same time a woman's breasts are clearly distinguished. The growth and weight of the creature exceed ordinary human ones. However, US scientists have recognized the footage as a fake. Then Patterson brought the film to Russia. We brought it to the Museum of Anthropology, but the then director of the institute, as soon as he heard about the film, waved his hands: "And I don't want to see!" That scientist was a longtime rival of Professor Porshnev, he had personal scores with him …
Nevertheless, Russian scientists, anthropologists, criminologists, and special effects specialists looked at the 16mm film. They studied gait, facial expressions, speed of movement of the object imprinted on it, and … they believed Patterson.
The shooting was carried out from a rather long distance, and when zooming in, the image turns out to be of poor quality. We looked at the footage on the editing table, replayed the tape hundreds of times to calculate the speed at which the film was shot. Calculated - 16 frames per second. With this kind of shooting, the speed of movement of the subject was fantastic - 7 steps per second! Even a professional runner cannot move that fast! But this is not what made scientists believe the Americans. After careful checks, it turned out that on the film - a creature with an anatomical structure that is not characteristic of any of the known species of animals or humans.
After examining the gait of an unknown object, Professor Donskoy, a biomechanic, wrote a 4-page report, from which it follows that a person cannot reproduce such a gait.
The fur of the animal was studied by a young graduate of Moscow State University, Galina Sinelnikova. She offered her colleagues a new method - spectral analysis of hair. Without going into details, let's say what her conclusions meant: the hair does not belong to a person, but also to an animal. She published her article in the journal Chemistry and Life.
- Specialists of the Institute of Prosthetics wrote a conclusion that the creature on the film cannot be artificially created, - continues Burtsev. - Employees of Petrovka 38 concluded that the tracks brought by Patterson were not fake. Mosfilm's specialists in camera movement, tree branches, lighting concluded that shooting cannot be combined. In addition, muscle play is clearly visible in the film, which excludes wearing a costume or imitation. The very anatomy of the body and the low stance of the head distinguish this creature from modern humans. Measurement of the frequency of hand vibration and comparison with the speed at which the film was filmed indicate that the creature is 220 cm tall and weighs more than 200 kilograms.
It is possible, of course, to admit that the primitive methods of analysis of that time could give a lot of errors. However, a year ago, American scientists decided to conduct their own research. The results of their examination completely coincided with the Russian ones. The film is recognized as original.
Where do the corpses disappear to?
But the film is not the only proof of the existence of the snowmen.
In those places where traces of Bigfoots are found, marks or objects of their material culture often appear. And this, in the opinion of my interlocutor, is the most important evidence!
They leave huts made of branches, apparently to mark the territory, twist tree branches with such a force that is not characteristic of people. Moreover, such marks were found both in America and here in Russia. But the most unusual finds I made in the United States, on the very farm where the yeti came. We found a clay ball with pieces of red wool and something that looked like a ball - an oblong object woven from strips of bark.
And even where yeti appear, horses find braided pigtails in a mane in the form of a loop - someone twists the mane in a very unusual way. Probably, scientists would not have paid attention to these "braids" if they had not been mentioned in stories about Azerbaijani and Russian snow people of different years. What is this, a coincidence? But the pigtails in the photos from the States completely match the pigtails from Russia!
“There are known cases of yeti bodies being found. What happened to them?
“The same thing always happened to them - as soon as information about the bodies leaked to the press, they disappeared.
In 1967, at a fair in the United States, onlookers were shown the corpse of either a monkey or a hairy man killed by a firearm. The body of the two-meter creature was doused with water and frozen. Iceman, or Frozen, immediately attracted the attention of scientists Ivan and Eyvelmans. They wrote a whole book about Frozen, met with the owner of the body, a famous American actor, who bought the body "on the occasion." According to the authors of the book, the killed creature arrived in the States from Vietnam, where the war was at that time. Apparently, he was brought along with the bodies of American soldiers. But after the book was published, the corpse disappeared without a trace, and its owner did not give any comments.
- The owner of the Frozen was threatened with criminal punishment, apparently, that is why the body disappeared, - Igor Dmitrievich believes. - If it was a fake, it could be carried around the world for a long time and earn money on it.
The second "yeti corpse" appeared in 1997 in France. And again at a fair in a small town. The object was 2 meters 60 centimeters tall and was placed in a glass box.
- This humanoid creature had an unusual collarbone shape, in the form of the Latin letter V. And in humans, it is almost straight. Such a structure is convenient for creatures with short necks, but who could think of such anatomical details for a stuffed animal? In addition, a person has not yet appeared who would say that it was he who made this dummy. So I believe that it was a real being, but as soon as the journalists started talking about it, the body was gone again …
Goblin or a woman in a fur coat?
In order to still catch the elusive Yeti, we need money, and our cryptozoologists have nowhere to get it. So it turns out that only the most ardent fanatics are doing this and, of course, at their own expense.
- I just sold my country house to recoup all expenses. I have 1000 dollars left of this money, this money is enough only for a ticket to America. And what is there to live on? I’m thinking about how to earn extra money in order to spend several months in the States, to watch the Yeti,”complains Burtsev.
And an amateur cryptozoologist Anatoly Fokin, an architect and yeti hunter, settled in the Kirov region. He lives almost all year round in the forest in his hut, eats roots and honey, so as not to frighten off the forest man by the smells, does not drink or smoke. Anatoly hangs feeders in the forest and puts camera traps on the goblin. True, the traps are imperfect - they work too slowly when there is no one on the film …
- Fokin fell ill with this hunt in 2003, after a letter from the local huntsman Sergeev came to the Darwin Museum, where we lecture, - says my interlocutor. “He said that in their forests there are creatures covered with gray wool. Locals nicknamed them "shilikun". Once the huntsman saw three women in fur coats walking through the forest. And this is summer! But by the time it dawned on him that he ought to follow the women, their trail was gone.
The second case was when Sergeev was hunting a bear. The huntsman was sitting on the boardwalk. There was an oat field nearby. Suddenly he sees a shilikun walking along the edge between the forest and the field. The creature moved directly towards the hunter. He got scared and shot into the air. The beast fled into the forest, and a loud whistle was heard from there, and a second later another, response. During another hunt, the huntsman saw a female shilikun with two cubs. They crossed the ravine. The huntsman counted seven or eight such meetings. Fokin read the letter and went to the huntsman …
I recently went to see him, in those parts, however, we did not manage to photograph anyone, but we saw many thick branches, broken high above and clearly not by a bear. The bear knocks down trees, but does not break, his paws are not adapted to capture. And those branches were broken in half. Or scattered around … But if these searches are not crowned with success, there are still many places on earth where yeti live …
