I’ve never seen a yeti

There was an article in today’s paper about yetis, the probably mythical, pretty definitely not an actual giant hairy humanoid creature which is said to roam the Himalayas. It’s interesting, but covers the same ground that other reports  and features that I’ve read have.  In my heart I don’t believe there are any such hirsute beasts as the abominable snowmen, but I would love to read news that there are, and they are as mysterious and benign as they are usually portrayed, although in some movies and books they are given a more monstrous character. The article I read suggested that the animal most likely to have given rise to these myths is the blue bear; obviously I’m not an expert on bears but I really can’t imagine how anyone could mistake a blue bear which is hardly blue at all but brown with a lighter coloured ‘collar’ and chest and looks exactly like a bear. as anything other than a bear.

This is something I wrote a while ago about my history with the story of the yeti:

I have been captivated by the idea of the abominable snowman since I was quite a small child and read about him in my Reader’s Digest Junior Treasury. I was so intrigued, especially since he came from Tibet, a country which had fascinated me for an even longer time, that I even gave a speech in a speaking competition about him.
The idea of a big, shy, creature, hiding in distant places occurs across the inhabited world, the yeti, bigfoot, sasquash, almasty… there are stories about such semi-human beings from all over the world. So many expeditions have been undertaken, so many investigations, and there has been ‘evidence’ offered of the thing actually existing. The evidence might be footprints, bones, skin, hair, fuzzy photos, but no-one has been able to give a definitive answer to what the animal might be if it does exist, although some of the supposed evidence is patently fake. There have been all sorts of theories, ranging from a descendent of Neanderthal people, to giant apes, to completely new species of hitherto unknown animals.
I was so excited to read reports on the news and in newspapers, that a scientist has examined fifty-seven specimens of hair from some of these pieces of evidence, and put aside those which were clearly not what they purported to be, including fibre glass and plant material, and were left with thirty-six which were analysed. All the results were what might be expected… American black bears, brown bears, cows and horses,  deer, porcupine, sheep and even a human hair… all except two… These two samples gave a 100% match to a type of polar bear which had been on the planet 40,000 years ago… So how did the sample arrive in the Himalayas in the twentieth century? Intriguing!
here is a detailed article about this story, which does offer some interesting ideas which might answer the questions… might!
http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/jul/02/genetics-evolution-dna-analysis-yeti-sasquatch-bigfoot-zoology-primates

I’ve never seen a yeti, obviously – I would be writing a completely different story if I had – but I may have seen the shadow of one!