A date with the Yeti

Does the Yeti really exist? No, it doesn’t. Or at least, not the way we think it does. The Yeti or the Abominable Snowman is a mysterious creature that has been studied as a part of Cryptozoology, a pseudoscience that involves study of mythical/legendary creatures, with little or no evidence of their actual existence. The Yeti is said to be a huge, ape-like creature that inhabits the Himalayan region of Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.

However, the Tibetan plateau abounds with several species of bears, such as the Brown Bear, the Tibetan Blue Bear and the Himalayan Red Bear, which are often mistaken to be the Yeti. A bear’s footprint matches the most with that of a human, than any other animal. This is the most plausible explanation that has been given for the Yeti, considering the fact that both the Brown Bear and the Tibetan Blue Bear can walk upright or on all fours.

In 2014, Professor Bryan Sykes, a geneticist at the Oxford University had claimed that the 'yeti' hair from the Himalaya were a 100 per cent match with a 40,000 year old fossil polar bear but not to modern species of polar bear. Then later research at the University of Copenhagen found that the hair was not from a polar bear. However, recent research that involved DNA analysis of a hair sample allegedly belonging to the ‘Yeti’ shows that it is nothing but a brown bear.

A snowball hit Ming hard, right at the back of her head. Wincing, she turned around to see her brother Liu laughing away in glee.

“You…!” she screamed, and immediately gathered up some snow and hurled it at him. It missed him by a good three metres, at which Liu became even more delighted.

“Ha ha… You can’t hit me!” he sang out, “Girls can’t aim well. Ming can’t aim well!”

His triumphant victory call came to a sudden halt when Ming’s next snowball hit him smack on the face.

“There!” she said. “I hope that teaches you a lesson!” Soon, both were engrossed in a wild snowball fight.

Liu and Ming had come from China to Tibet with their parents that November. Their father had some important official work in the land, and both the kids were thrilled to skip school and have a vacation instead. Though it wasn’t the best time of the year to be in Tibet, Liu and Ming enjoyed the cold and snow immensely.

Snow capped mountains made up the backdrop of their quaint little cottage, and the ground and the nearby forests were covered in powdery white snow. Each day was spent in building snow castles and forts, tobogganing and having snowball fights, sports that they never got tired of. They waited for the pond near their home to freeze over, so that they could try out their new ice skates. All their parents’ warnings about thin ice and snow blizzards fell on deaf ears.

A timid voice interrupted the snowball fight. “May I join you in the game?”

It was Norbu, the local Tibetan boy, who accompanied the milkman every day. He was the same age as Liu, and both kids often waved to him as he passed by, but had never spoken to him before.

“Sure!” said Ming, standing up from behind the snow fort she had made to protect herself from Liu’s snowballs. Shyly, Norbu shook hands with her. Liu came over and put his arm around Norbu. “We had been wondering how to get you away from the milkman so that we could play with you!” he said.

“The milkman is my elder brother”, smiled Norbu. “I help him with his chores every day. Today I asked him if I could play with you both, and he said yes.”

“Then join my team!” cried Ming as she hurled a snowball at Liu without warning. Norbu laughed and joined in the game happily.

It was quite some time when they noticed that snow had started falling again. Ming, tired out with the snowball fight, wanted to rest. Liu, however, was in no mood to go back home. “I want to see that forest”, he told Norbu. “Do you know the way? Let’s go and have a look.”

“Mummy said to get back home soon”, reminded Ming. “We’re already late.”

“Well, you can go back home if you want to be a baby”, said Liu. “Come Norbu, let’s go exploring on our own.” Both the boys walked away, hand in hand. Ming didn’t want to be left behind, so she hurried after them.

Norbu took them over the hill slopes and valleys, and by a beautiful creek. There was hardly a soul around. He showed them a pond bigger than the one near their cottage, and the siblings decided that they would get their ice skates the very next day. Trees encircled the pond, their leaves frozen and shining with icicles. They roamed around the place, chatting and laughing. And that was when Ming first noticed the footprint in the snow.

“Come here, both of you”, she called. There was an imprint of a large foot, unlike any they had ever seen, in the snow. It seemed very much like a human's, except that there could be no human of that huge size, alive on the earth.

“I think it’s a footprint of the Yeti”, said Liu, excited. “The Abominable Snowman lives here! Let’s find him! We’ll become famous!”

Tibet was famous for its legend of the Abominable Snowman- a huge, ape-like monster that was said to dwell in the Himalayan region.

Ming looked half-scared to death. “Are you crazy? It could kill us and eat us”, she said in fear. Then she composed herself and said, “Besides, there is no such thing as the Abominable Snowman. You’re saying it just to scare me.” She stuck out her tongue at her brother.

“Scaredy-cat!” said Liu, teasing his sister. “You’re such a coward!”

“I am not!” pouted Ming.

“The Yeti’s going to creep up behind you and catch you by the neck, like this….Whoooooo…!!!” howled Liu, placing his hands on Ming’s neck. Ming screamed.

“Please don’t do that! The Yeti exists”, said Norbu solemnly. “And we worship him.”

Liu and Ming were intrigued, but they didn’t say any more after that. However, in the midst of all the commotion, they had not noticed the sky becoming darker and the snow fall becoming thicker. It was only when they could no longer see anything except white in front of them that they realized that they were in for a snow storm. They could hardly hear their voices above the howling of the strong winds that had started blowing.

“How do we go back?” cried Ming. “I told you we should have gone back home”, she scolded.

“Of course, blame it on me now”, shouted back Liu. “I told you to go back home. Who asked you to follow us?”

Norbu was worried. He knew that if the snow storm became a blizzard, they would get stuck for days without food or water, and the extreme cold could kill them. Worse still, they could get buried in the snow.

“Follow me”, he cried. “We need to find shelter!”

Norbu led the way, and the other two followed him. As they went on, they could hear deep moans and growls in the wind, echoing through the landscape.

Ming clutched Liu in fright. “What are those sounds?” Liu was in no mood to pay attention to the sounds, he simply hurried after Norbu, who had found a cave. Just as they entered the cave, a huge block of snow rolled over and blocked the entrance.

“What do we do now?” cried Ming. “We are trapped!”

Norbu sat down dejectedly. He had hoped to save his friends from the snow storm, but now it was worse.

A little while later, just outside the cave entrance, they heard the same growls they had heard in the wind. Ming shivered. “It’s the Yeti”, she whispered. “It’s come to get us!”

They could hear scratching sounds. It looked like the Yeti was trying to get into the cave. The three kids huddled together in a corner, too scared to even make a sound. The clawing and digging seemed to go on for a long time.

The snow seemed to be giving away. The sounds stopped, and it looked like the storm had subsided, and the entrance was no longer blocked. But how did that matter? They were now trapped by the Yeti! The children closed their eyes tight, waiting for the Yeti to come and grab them.

But nothing happened. Finally, Norbu got up and pushed at the thin layer of snow that still lay in front. It fell away easily, and he could come out into the open. Liu and Ming followed him outside. Far away, through the lightly falling snowflakes, they could see the behind of a huge, bear like creature walking away slowly. And leading away from the cave, were the same huge footprints in the snow.

By:Sneha Verghese is a research scholar in Journalism at Osmania University, Hyderabad. Also a post-graduate in biotechnology, she loves teaching and writing stories for kids to explain scientific concepts.