DNA analysis shows that the two-meter serf Zana, who could overtake a horse, was not human.
Hundreds of researchers, theoretical scientists and science fiction writers have devoted their lives to finding the sensational Bigfoot. However, a leading geneticist believes he has found evidence that indicates that this person (more precisely, a woman) is not just a myth.
Professor Bryan Sykes of Oxford University argues that a huge woman named Zana, who lived in 19th century Russia and looked like a "half-monkey, half-human", could be a glorified yeti.
Witnesses said that this woman, found in the Caucasus Mountains between Russia and Georgia, had all the features of a “wild animal” and was covered with thick reddish hair. Experts believe that a wandering "wild woman" was found in a remote Ochamchira region in the Republic of Abkhazia. In the 1850s, she was caught by a local merchant who hired a group of hunters to hunt her down in the mountains and put her in chains. Professor Sykes claims that Zana was held “in a pit surrounded by pointed stakes” and sold from hand to hand until she was put into the service of Prince Edgie Genab.
This monkey woman had at least four children from local men, and according to the Times, some of Zana's descendants still live in the area.
Sykes made his startling discovery when he analyzed saliva samples from six living relatives of Zana and the teeth of her deceased son Khwit. The analysis showed that they all have the right amount of African DNA, and therefore Zana was "100% African", but, surprisingly, she was not like any known group.
She looked like a wild beast, “whose most terrifying feature was the expression on her face - it was not human, but animal,” wrote a Russian zoologist in 1996. This scientist, who collected eyewitness accounts of Zana, wrote: "Her strength and endurance were enormous." She could overtake a horse and "swim across the stormy Moscow River (as the text apparently refers to the Mokvi River - approx. Per.) Even in flood, when the water rose to the highest mark."
Some claim that she was a runaway slave who escaped the Ottoman Turks, but Professor Sykes claims that her "unparalleled DNA" refutes this theory. He believes that her ancestors left Africa more than 100 thousand years ago and lived in the Caucasian wilderness one generation after another.
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Over time, Zana was tamed by the prince, who bought her and kept her as a servant on his estate in the Abkhazian village of Tkhina. From the surviving eyewitness accounts, it is clear that she was incredibly strong, slept on the street and ran naked around the estate until her death, which occurred in 1890.
Some of Sykes' colleagues question his other discoveries, such as that the yeti seen in Bhutan may have actually been unknown bear breeds. Despite the lack of solid evidence from analysis of the alleged "Yeti hair", the professor says he developed a strong sense of "something like that" after interviewing dozens of witnesses. Sykes says he does not know who is the best candidate for the title of the surviving race of the "people-monkeys" - Yeti, Bigfoot or Almasty in Russia. He says: “Bigfoot is looking for a lot more people. But I believe that the most likely candidate is either Yeti or Almasts living in remote and sparsely populated areas."
The mythical yeti and those who tried to find him
The first stories about the yeti appeared before the 19th century among Buddhists, who believed that this creature inhabited the Himalayas. They described a mysterious beast that looks like a monkey and carries large stones in his hands, which he uses as a tool and weapon, and also makes whistling sounds.
In 1832 a traveler published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal an account of his trip to Nepal. He wrote that he saw a tall, two-legged animal covered with long dark fur, which, as it seemed to him, was running away from him in fear.
The term Bigfoot was coined in 1921 when Lt. Col. Charles Howard-Bury published a book called Mount Everest The Reconnaissance (Mount Everest. Exploration).
Interest in Bigfoot increased in the early 20th century when tourists began to travel to the region in an attempt to catch it. They reported very strange footprints in the snow.
The Daily Mail organized a trek to Mount Everest in 1954 called the Bigfoot Expedition. During the expedition, team leader John Angelo Jackson photographed ancient drawings of yeti and huge footprints in the snow. They also managed to find hair samples - believed to be from the head of a yeti.
British climber Don Whillans has claimed to have seen the creature in 1970 while climbing Annapurna. According to him, while searching for a parking space, he heard strange screams, and his guide said it was a yeti screaming. That night he saw a dark silhouette wandering near the parking lot.
Recently, more and more reports of Yeti sightings have appeared, and scientists who organized a conference on this topic in 2011 in Russia said that they were 95% sure of the existence of Bigfoot.
In 2013, one scientist said that the yeti is a distant relative of the polar bear, thought to be extinct more than 40,000 years ago. However, the researchers proved that the samples of the analyzed hair actually belong to a modern polar bear, as well as a rare breed that lives high in the mountains.
Jennifer Newton, JAY AKBAR