For many centuries, the inexplicable has attracted inquisitive minds. And not everything that a person encounters, learning new aspects of life, fits into the logic of consciousness. One of these inexplicable phenomena is the Yeti or Bigfoot.

More recently, an American went to the police with a statement about the attack on his trailer. The man told law enforcement officers that a snowman had thrown stones at his motor home. According to Pennsylvania resident John Reid, the yeti attacked after he saw the creature in the forest and turned on the lights to get a better look at it. Reed's police assured that they would investigate the incident, regardless of who exactly was responsible for the incident, a person or a yeti. District Attorney Edward Marsico jokingly remarked that the authorities had been looking for Bigfoot for a long time. "We would be happy to start prosecuting him, assuming, of course, that he can be caught," he said. Meanwhile, John Reed himself is the founder of the Yeti Search Society. According to him, he has already seen mysterious creature in the forest near his house, reports lenta.ru.

Yeti hunting begins

Bigfoot is still met by the Carpathian Hutsuls in the most remote corners of the Carpathians. Today, there are not only photographs and video evidence of the Yeti's existence, but also fragments of its body. In 1921, near Mount Everest, the famous British climber Howard Bury stumbled upon giant footprints on a snowy slope. Thus began a long-term hunt for the Yeti - the elusive Bigfoot. He was searched for in Tibet and in the Caucasus Mountains, in the deserts of Mongolia and Canadian forests. For all this time, scientists have not been able to either prove or disprove the existence of this legendary creature. Exactly 45 years ago, Bigfoot was filmed in northern California, USA. It was after this incident that cryptozoology - a science that is designed to look for animals considered extinct, legendary or too rare - received a powerful impetus. On October 20, 1967, the Americans Roger Patterson and Bob Grimlin managed to shoot the now-famous Yeti video in the wild California mountains.

Later, some people commented that this story was falsified from beginning to end, there were rumors that the Bigfoot filmed by the Americans was just a very well-chosen, professionally tailored suit. Whether this is true or not is still unknown, since there are scientists who do not doubt the veracity of the video and the realism of all the movements of the creature filmed on film, and there are those who see the fake in the video. By this time, scientists and cryptozoologists are arguing among themselves about the possibility of the existence of Bigfoot. If it exists, then why, in more than 100 years of research, has no one been able to provide 100% evidence of its existence? Why are there only fuzzy photos and videos? Why hasn't at least a whole yeti skeleton been found? How can he hide for so long in small areas of forests, which are cut down more and more every year? How can a bigfoot live in the forest in winter? There are a lot of questions, and those who still believe in the existence of Bigfoot explain this by the telepathic abilities of Bigfoot to feel danger for kilometers and the fact that only a few individuals remain in nature, and therefore it is as difficult to meet them as, for example, a snow leopard in the mountains of Central Asia, a red panda in the Himalayas, or an even better example - a thylacine marsupial wolf in the forests of Tasmania.

Even before Patterson and Gimli made their famous video, there were many cases of encounters with an unknown animal by peasants, hunters and lumberjacks in the Soviet Union. Later, articles appeared in magazines and newspapers about the numerous meetings of climbers with a mysterious creature. Most reports of such encounters came from the Himalayas. The leadership of the country drew attention to this, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR became interested in the problem.

And already in 1958, on the initiative of V. Obruchev, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a commission was created to study the problem of Bigfoot. An expedition to the mountains was organized, which, however, did not find any traces and again forgot about Bigfoot. However, his search continues to this day. Reports began to arrive of a meeting with a creature similar to Bigfoot from all continents of the world. American businessmen they began to offer huge rewards to those who find and deliver the body of Bigfoot to scientists, they even began to appear interesting finds. At first, people found only shreds of wool of unknown origin and made plaster casts of giant footprints, later there was a brush and scalp of a Bigfoot, and even later - even a body! Regarding the first, the monks believe that this scalp belongs to Bigfoot. It is now kept in the Kumjung monastery.

The history of the scalp dates back to 1962, when the monks killed Bigfoot in the winter. Since then, only the scalp has remained, which is still shown to museum visitors.

Regarding the body, in 1997 the frozen corpse of Bigfoot was demonstrated in France, in the city of Bourganef, at a provincial fair. It was brought from China, and it was dug out from under snow avalanche in Tibet. But later the body was stolen. The researchers, unfortunately, did not have time to conduct an examination and only photographs remained. And the people who found the Yeti suddenly disappeared without a trace after photos of Bigfoot were leaked to the press.

"In every corner of the world, Bigfoot is called differently. Faun, satyr and Silena in Ancient Greece; Yeti in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan; Gar Adams or Guley-Bani in Azerbaijan; chuchunny in Yakutia; almas in Mongolia; zhenzhen, maozhen and zhenxiong in China; kick-adam and albasty in Kazakhstan; Goblin, shish, Shishiga in Russia; sasquatch in Canada; bigfoot in the USA; terik, Arys, Julia in Chukotka; agogwe, kakundakari in Africa and the like. In Ukraine Bigfoot they are called wood goblin, chugaistr, gook, dog head and those who break the forest ... Here they were met mainly in the Carpathians and in the Crimea, "says Yaroslav Sochka, coordinator of the Ukrainian UFODOS club. Recently, the Bigfoot theme in Ukraine has become so popular that search expeditions began to be carried out here, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region prizes are announced for the discovery of the Yeti, festivals are dedicated to Bigfoot, documentaries are made about him.

Carpathian bigfoot

The Ukrainian Carpathians occupy an area of ​​more than 24 thousand square kilometers. They stretch 280 kilometers long and 110 kilometers wide. Of course, this is not the Himalayas, but there are enough places where a person goes very rarely, here you can hide from civilization. Ukrainian cryptozoologists, folklorists and storytellers have been collecting eyewitness accounts and any evidence that can prove the existence of the mysterious Bigfoot for many years. Often in the Ukrainian Carpathians, people came across huge footprints that are much larger than those of a bear. And in the Tatras adjacent to the Carpathians, one Pole even managed to film a Bigfoot on videotape.

There are a large number of legends and legends about encounters with the Carpathian bigfoot: shepherds, lumberjacks, and rebels often saw it. This topic was developed by journalist and researcher Ilya Ilnitsky. Back in the early seventies, a large expedition of folklorists headed from Kyiv to the Hutsul region, led by the outstanding Ukrainian folklorist Oleksandr Dey. In the vicinity of Kosmach, and later other Hutsul villages, folklorists recorded interesting stories about giant people, who in the Hutsulshchyna are called Chugaistry. Many have seen Oleg Biyma's 1986 film "Carpathian Springs". In this tape, the old-timers of Kosmach enthusiastically tell, recalling their youth, how they worked as lumberjacks, lived in a hut and a mythical creature came to them at night. The Chugaistrians in the Hutsulshchyna are also mentioned in the story of Mikhail Kotsyubinsky "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors". In this work, the writer describes real meeting Chugaistra with a man:

“Dry branches parted quietly, and a man came out of the forest. He was without clothes. Soft dark hair covered his entire body, surrounded round and kind eyes, wedged in his beard and hung down on his chest. and went up to Ivan. Then Ivan immediately recognized him ... ". The forest chugaister is a humanoid creature that, according to legend, lived in the forests of the Hutsul region in 1728-1918. His disappearance is observed during the end of the First World War. From generation to generation, the Hutsuls passed on the stories of the old-timers about these mysterious creatures. One of these stories was told by an elderly resident of the village of Dolgopolie, Verkhovyna district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Anna Mikhailyuk. Her father Yuri in his youth worked as an assistant to lumberjacks.

At that time, the Hutsul region was densely covered with impenetrable forests, but the authorities carried out deforestation in small areas. The exploitation of timber was led by Jews who owned significant capital and invested it in logging. Once Yuriy was in the logging under the mountains of Lukovitsy. There he became an eyewitness to the incident, which he later often told his daughter about. The lumberjacks came across what looked like a hut. It had no doors or windows. However, smoke was visible from the hut, and some sounds were heard from the middle of the dwelling. The lumberjacks did not approach the dwelling because of the strange fear that enveloped them. After a while it started to rain heavily and began to thunder. One of the lumberjacks nevertheless offered to go into the house so as not to get wet and not sit under dangerous lightning. They tried to get closer to the house, but a huge hairy man came out to meet them, with his whole appearance resembling the creature that the Hutsuls were most afraid of, about which there were so many stories and legends. The lumberjacks immediately recognized Chugaistr and rushed to run.

After the end of the war, the inhabitants of the Hutsul villages found two-meter skeletons of unknown creatures in the forest. There was no doubt - these are the bones of the legendary Yeti. Snow people are still being sought in the Carpathians today. In 2010, scientists from Germany came here under the leadership of Martin Ikristov, who were looking for Bigfoot in the village of Kosmach in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Search expeditions were also organized at the Bukovel resort. To this day, legends live here about a giant forest man who allegedly loves to "whistle the forest", to warm himself by the fire, which is laid out by shepherds and lumberjacks. Collectors of ethnographic material assure that there is even an old official document, which refers to the meeting of two brothers with a doghead. The guys cut off the monster's head and brought it to the village. About what the local authorities drew up a protocol. However, it was a very long time ago, and where these documents are is unknown. Many reports of a meeting with a snowman come from the village of Kosmach, Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine. One such story happened in 1994. In the Medvezhiy village, in the Tomchuchino tract, an unknown creature was met by a young man named Vasily. Two o'clock in the morning was approaching, but the starry sky shone so that it was visible as during the day. Hutsul approached the forest and suddenly heard footsteps behind him. Subsequently, the footsteps began to get louder as the monster approached. Vasily fled, and when he managed to run a few meters away, he disappeared behind the trees. Subsequently, he saw a creature, it was much taller than a man, with a long neck and a small head. “My hair stood on end. I didn’t know what to do,” the man recalled. “There was only one thought: to run. pray. A strong roar was heard from behind, it seemed that stones were falling from the mountains into streams. The monster did not run further after me, probably it has its own territory ... ".

Later, a similar story happened to a young guy who was leading a horse from a pasture to a house. In one area, the animal did not want to go further, the guy did not immediately understand what had happened until he saw a Bigfoot in front of him. However, he did not follow him, but turned around and ran away. Interesting case says another resident of the Ukrainian highlands - Peter: "When I was about 12 years old, the guys and I drove horses into the forest at night to graze. We kindled a fire, applied brushwood, we take turns watching the horses. "were alarmed. And a minute later it came out of the bushes, completely hairy. We were very scared. It came up to us, took Babiy in her arms (he was the smallest), and then lowered him to the ground and went into the forest." They saw an unknown monster and Carpathian hunters, one of whom said that he saw a bigfoot descending from a tree. Other old-timers of this village willingly tell about the monster that was seen in different places of Kosmach. A few years ago, a guy disappeared in the forest, who has not yet been found. People say that Chugaister could have attacked him.

Bigfoot was often seen in other parts of Ukraine. So, in 1986, Varvara Zozulya met a mysterious creature in the Crimean mountains. She walked in the direction of Cape Malchin. She reached one of the sea rocks, where she saw the creature. An unknown animal was sleeping. When the woman approached the animal to examine it, the monster woke up and began to look at her. The woman began to step back in fear, and she managed to avoid danger. We saw Bigfoot in the forests of the Lviv region. The meeting took place in the Mostysky district of this region: “My grandfather also told how in 1926 on the Polish-Ukrainian border he saw a huge monkey-like creature near the village of Krakovets. The body of the creature was covered with black wool,” recalls Roman Melnyk from Lviv. “There is no doubt that Bigfoot still exists in the Carpathians. What do we know about him? Chugaister is a huge forest man covered with thick hair. mutual language with other animals. He likes to warm himself by the fire, which is left behind by shepherds and lumberjacks. Yes, these are all legends, but there are also documented testimonies of people meeting with unknown creatures," says the village head of the village of Kosmach, journalist and folklorist Dmitry Pozhodzhuk.

The Ukrainian ufologist Vladislav Kanyuka also has no doubts about the existence of Bigfoot, who even managed to film the creation on videotape: “I was the first Ukrainian who managed to shoot Bigfoot on film. I thought that I was the first in the whole Union, but then it turned out that there were two people from St. Petersburg have already done this before me. They congratulated me, but said that now I will rush about with the film for a long time, because when I turn to experts, they will tell me that all this is fiction, or I'm stupid. and happened." The well-known Transcarpathian mystic writer Yuriy Chory is also convinced of the existence of the Bigfoot, who recorded from people who saw the Yeti many stories about their meeting with the forest noise - this is how the Bigfoot is called in Mezhhirya. Later, the writer published some of these stories in his book "Not Without the Evil One".

So does he exist?

Answers to, perhaps, the main question of cryptozoology - whether there is a Bigfoot or not, perhaps it will never be found. In the future, disputes between scientists will continue. But one thing is for sure - people continue to believe in legends, and legends do not die because the world is full of secrets. Every time a person comes across giant footprints in the forest, the remains of an unknown skeleton or shreds of wool, new information about the yeti appears in the press. This topic will also interest people as the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, since everyone wants to solve the riddle, satisfy their own curiosity, live with the idea that there is still a lot of mystery in the world, and wait for new discoveries. Some scientists will try to find this animal with a different goal - to become famous, get rich, others will be interested in the scientific study of this creature. The question of whether a bigfoot actually lives in the Carpathians or in the Himalayan mountains and who he is - a Neanderthal, a monkey or a wild man - is a matter of everyone's faith, and faith, as you know, does not require absolutely no evidence. The belief that the world that surrounds us does not fit into the framework of school anthologies and is still full of mysteries, of which there are so many, like centuries ago, mysteries that humanity is not able to solve.

And just the other day it became known about the results of the examination, which is directly related to Bigfoot. Three independent laboratories at once - in Moscow, St. Petersburg and at the University of Idaho - have completed DNA analysis of the wool of the Kuzbass Yeti. The conclusion is the same everywhere: biological material does not belong to a primate and not to a person. Recall that a year ago, scientists from 5 countries, having reached the Azas cave through the taiga, found a trace of a yeti with adhered hairs there. In the clay floor of the cave, an international expedition of world-famous biologists and cryptozoologists discovered then, in October 2011, several strange footprints. Not bear, not wolf. And not even monkeys. And they look great like barefoot human ones, only one and a half times more than the norm. In one of the traces, to the delight of biologists, even a capillary network was imprinted, which confirmed that this was not a fake. Another track - generally presented a surprise. A heavy yeti, leaving footprints in the wet clay, a few hairs stuck to them.

They were then collected in a bag and then divided into 3 parts. So, the wool of the Kuzbass Yeti went to the best laboratories in Moscow, St. Petersburg and in the USA, to the University of Idaho. A year has passed. And all three groups of scientists, having finished studying the wool of the Kuzbass yeti, received, in fact, the same result. “We all came to the same conclusions,” says Valentin Sapunov, a member of the expedition to the Azas cave, Doctor of Biological Sciences, St. Petersburg academician, professor. “Studies under an electron microscope showed that this is not human hair, but mammalian hair. But this is not bear hair, wolf, goat and other known animals of Mountain Shoria, and not a mammal known to science." According to Professor Sapunov, this wool is identical to the wool of the "snow" man, which was found earlier in the Urals and near St. Petersburg, and in the USA.

“And DNA analysis showed,” explains Valentin Sapunov, “that this creature is closer to Homo sapiens than the higher primates. Because, in terms of DNA, this creature (yeti) differs from Homo sapiens within 1 percent. And the DNA of the closest to human relatives - chimpanzees - differs from human DNA by more than 1 percent. Professor Sapunov is convinced that the Kuzbass yeti really exists. He's sure his footprints are 99 percent real. And the studied wool has a degree of certainty of 65-70 percent of the 95 percent allowed by science. Now scientists have received another portion of hairs - already another Kuzbass yeti, found next to its footprints 50 km from the Azasskaya cave. And one of the hairs - was torn out with thorns, when the yeti stomped on his own business, with the root. Now scientists have hope that the hair bag has survived. It will be studied in order to strengthen the degree of reliability of existing results, writes kp.ru

V. ABASOVA based on materials from ufodos.org.ua, paranormal-news.ru

Yeti mysterious creatures

Snowman and his relatives

It looked like either a woman or a monkey. He had a broad, wrinkled, grimacing and laughing face. Something indescribable - two bags of some kind, obviously breasts, dangled in front; long matted hair, reddened by the sun, framed her face and flowed behind her back. Turgenev felt a wild fear, a chilling fear of the supernatural.

Guy de Maupassant, "Fear"

Fictional creatures inhabit the folklore of all world cultures- be it steppe nomads, reindeer herders or South American cannibals. People living on different continents independently invented dragons, werewolves, ghosts, water monsters, dwarfs and giants. But only a few fairy-tale creatures have managed to become part of modern folklore. If you say that you met a fire-breathing dragon in the forest, you will receive an exemption from physical education and free pills for schizophrenia. But if you claim you got into a fight with a giant hairy hominid in a garbage dump - get a real chance to get on the front pages of the morning papers.

In March 2006 (MF #26) we told you about "cryptids" - animals whose existence is denied modern science(at least until one of them is caught - like, for example, the pygmy giraffe okapi or the lobe-finned coelacanth fish). Today we will talk about the "kings" of cryptozoology - archaic giants, now known as "snow people".

wild and unsympathetic

The ancient peoples, without saying a word, believed that long before them, giants lived on Earth. The latter were unbridled and ferocious, which is why the gods either completely destroyed them (Judaism), or expelled them from the world (ancient Greek myths). The giants left behind only huge ruins, called "cyclopean" in honor of the cyclops who erected the walls of Mycenae.

Not surprisingly, human encounters with prehistoric giants were extremely rare. Most of the giants of late European folklore had purely human features and were not considered representatives of any ancient race. Medieval "snow people" in their current sense can be called goblin, but they were a kind of spirits. The Scandinavians had jotuns and trolls, the southern Slavs had drekavaks, but the images of these forest dwellers are too blurry to talk about systematic contacts ordinary people with "snow".

Bigfoot, like UFOs, is a phenomenon exclusively of the 20th century. You can talk as much as you like about the growth of anthropogenic zones and the absence of powerful media in the 18-19 centuries that could inflate any trifle to a sensation, but the fact remains: until recently there was no bigfoot as a mass phenomenon, but now it is. Why, then, did the creatures that evolved along with humans over millions of years remain so little known that in a general cultural sense they can only claim the title of a race of giants, and an extinct one at that?

Judging by the oldest literary sources, contacts with Bigfoot were extremely rare. The first description of such a case can be considered the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which tells about the events of 57 centuries ago. According to the first table of the epic, the goddess Aruru created Enkidu, a hairy hero living in complete savagery. King Gilgamesh invented original way to catch him: on the bank of the river where Enkidu grazed, they brought the harlot Shamhat. The poor thing was undressed, and the giant "knew her for seven days." After such a marathon, the savage weakened, and his relatives - animals - began to avoid him. Thus, Enkidu was forced to become part of human society.

Scattered evidence of encounters with some "wild people" can be found in almost every major historian. For example, Plutarch talked about how Sulla's soldiers once caught a satyr (it should be noted that initially satyrs were not associated exclusively with horns and hooves - various animal features were attributed to them, symbolizing savagery). The Roman dictator gathered all the available translators and interrogated the captive, but he only emitted vile bleating and neighing, “which is why Sulla felt great disgust and ordered him to be immediately removed from sight as an ugly phenomenon” (Plutarch, Comparative Biography, Sulla, 27) .

Medieval researchers mentioned wild people a lot and often, but most often they described ordinary monkeys or uncivilized natives. There were no white spots left on the map of the Old World, so meetings with such creatures were only spoken of in the past tense. Once upon a time there were lions in Europe. Now even wild bulls and tarpans have not been preserved here, and snow people have become curiosities. For example, Heinrich von Gesler in the 14th century wrote of a wild Alpine woman "whose breasts are so long that she throws them over her shoulders."

Enthusiasts often recall that Carl Linnaeus included Bigfoot in his famous classification of living beings ("The System of Nature"). Indeed, the Swedish naturalist wrote about the “wild man” (about some hairy “sons of darkness” living in caves and stealing food from people at night), as well as about the “troglodyte man” (probably a Neanderthal). However, it should not be forgotten that in the first edition of the System of Nature, Linnaeus called whales fish ...

Origin of Species

retell modern stories about a meeting with a snowman does not make sense - most of them look like hunter tales. They are either of the same type or improbable, and in any case unverifiable. Of some interest are only general information about the known "varieties" of Bigfoot.

In the mountains of Altai, the Caucasus and the Pamirs lives almas("almast", from the Mongolian - "wild man"). He is described as a humanoid with red hair, human features, powerful superciliary ridges, a flat nose and chin (which completely coincides with the reconstructed appearance of a Neanderthal).

Legends about almas cannot boast of antiquity - they are only a few hundred years old. It may seem that there are almost more almas in the mountains than people. In 1871, Nikolai Przhevalsky saw them, and in 1941, Red Army soldiers allegedly caught some hairy citizen in the Caucasus, interrogated him (to no avail) and shot him as a German spy.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, these creatures are known as bartender, however, the most popular in the West is another, Tibetan name - yeti("man-bear" or "stone bear"). The number of meetings with him increased in proportion to the increase in the number of Europeans who explored the Himalayas. In 1832, the British noticed a certain red-haired creature in the mountains - probably an orangutan, in 1889 - something like a bear.

Yetis live here. Yeti, representing the highland subspecies of the troll family, have never heard of the fact that cannibalism is hopelessly out of fashion. Their opinion on this issue is: eat what moves. If it doesn't move, wait until it does. And then eat.

Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

Khumjung and Pangboche Monasteries for a long time kept yeti scalps, which were attributed to magical powers. In the middle of the last century, their study was carried out. The results are disappointing: they are just skins from the neck of a Himalayan mountain goat. The monks of Pangboche also owned another relic - a mummified yeti clawed paw, but in 1991 it was stolen (probably settling in someone's private collection).

In Scotland, on Mount Ben Macdui lives Am Fir Liat Mor("Big Gray Man"). No one really saw him, but many climbers heard strange steps along the slopes. Their stories are not much different from each other - they were walking along the mountain in the fog (usually in the evening), when suddenly measured steps began to be heard somewhere behind. The pursuer stepped rarely, but did not lag behind - that is, he was several times larger than a man. People began to panic, fled, and only caught a glimpse of some huge gray silhouette in the fog.

This phenomenon was so massive that it simply needed to find explanations. Theories have been put forward about energy breaks and "frightening" infrasound, but it is most likely that the specific conditions of Ben McDuy (frequent fogs) create a phantom effect well known to climbers. If a low-lying sun shines on a person's back, and fog floats in front of him, then an eerie reflection of a figure surrounded by a bright halo of light appears in it.

Filipino forest creature named Capri slightly reminiscent of a bigfoot with its habits (lives in trees, makes noise, shows interest in women), but at the same time it has a purely human appearance, wears traditional Bahag clothes and smokes a pipe (they say that crickets in the forests are coals that have fallen out of it).

Even overpopulated Japan has its own Bigfoot. He is called Hibagon(or Hinagon) because he lives in the forested Mount Hiba in Hiroshima Prefecture. The meeting with him took place 35 years ago. According to eyewitnesses, Hibagon was short, hairy, with a flat nose and burning eyes. All signs point to the fact that this is not Bigfoot, but something like a gorilla.

Among all the varieties of this creature, the fate of the American "bigfoot" is most interesting. bigfoot or sasquatch(The term was coined in 1920 by schoolteacher Burns, who noticed that many Native American tribes use words with the same root "sas" to mean wild people).

Until the middle of the 20th century, Bigfoot was not found in the United States, and stories about Sasquatch were popular only on Indian reservations. In August 1958 construction company Ray Wallace was laying a road in a deserted area of ​​​​California. Bulldozer Jerry Crew found traces of " big feet". The feet were 40 cm long, the stride length was over a meter. The local newspaper dubbed the find "bigfoot", and Wallace began to actively promote the "bigfoot" among fans of the unknown.

But the real “birthday” of the American Bigfoot can be considered October 20, 1967, when rodeo participants Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin managed to capture him on film. They went to national park"Six Rivers" with a rented 16mm camera, intending to make documentary about bigfoot in the style of the Blair Witch Project. The men agreed that, if possible, they would try to shoot the “big-legged” - his body could be sold profitably, moreover, it would be irrefutable evidence.

However, when they saw him, they completely forgot about the weapon. Bigfoot began to quickly move away from the researchers. Patterson dismounted from his horse and followed him with a working camera, Gimlin with a gun covering him from behind. As a result, the first half of the film came out defective - the image shook and jumped in all directions, but when Patterson approached the bigfoot by several tens of meters and stood motionless, the quality of the shooting improved markedly. The creature looked back at the pursuers several times and disappeared into the forest.

The US finally has its own national monster. For several decades, the word "bigfoot" has become a popular brand. From all over the country there were reports of similar meetings. People found traces, wool, excrement of the "big-footed". Numerous clubs of "big footologists" appeared, and a new industry arose in tourism. Scientists who studied the Patterson-Gimlin film were divided into two approximately equal camps: some said that this was an obvious staging (an actor in a woolen suit was running in front of the lens), others noted the creature’s unusual gait and stated that it could not be human.

November 26, 2002 Ray Wallace, the discoverer and popularizer of bigfoot, died. His family soon admitted that Ray, along with his brother, faked tracks around the bulldozer by putting large wooden feet on their feet. Why they needed it is not exactly known. They probably wanted to have some fun, but the bigfoot they invented soon turned into a national American hero, began to bring in considerable income and gained worldwide fame. Such a trifle as a fake of the first discovered traces does not bother enthusiasts at all.

Missing link

There are many theories about the origin of the Bigfoot, but if we dismiss all unhealthy fantasies (an alien from outer space, from another dimension, the energy projection of ordinary people, the souls of our ancestors, secret government experiments, super-developed primates hiding from people with the help of telepathy), the remaining versions can be count on the fingers of one hand.

The first, the most famous, relies on the mythical roots of wild giants, who allegedly lived on the planet long before man. Given the specific geography of Bigfoot encounters, most of which are in Asia, North America and Eastern Europe, we can assume that we are dealing with Gigantopithecus(Gigantopithecus blacki).

The remains of this extinct humanoid ape were found precisely in Asia (China). Unfortunately, there are too few of them to recreate the appearance of the animal. At the disposal of scientists there are only a few lower jaws and about 1000 teeth, the largest of which are 6 times larger than in humans. It is assumed that the growth of Gigantopithecus, standing on its hind legs, reached 3 meters. These giants most likely resembled gorillas or orangutans.

Against the “snow humanization” of the Gigantopithecus, the fact that they became extinct almost 100,000 years ago and could hardly have settled on several continents - especially with their supposed diet (most of the bones were found in the habitat of the ancestors of modern pandas that ate bamboo) speaks against the “snow humanization” of the Gigantopithecus.

Other Bigfoot Candidates - Neanderthals- also do not inspire optimism. Even if they survived into the 21st century, they would be too intelligent to lead a wild lifestyle (Neanderthals knew how to build shelters, used fire and used a variety of tools - from stone cutters to wooden spears). They were squat and stocky (height - up to 165 cm), which also does not correspond to the expected appearance of Bigfoot.

Finally, it is absolutely certain that Neanderthals died out about 24,000 years ago. Their last habitats are Croatia, Iberia (Spain) and Crimea. How could they survive as single individuals around the world - a question from the series “Who mated with Loch Ness monster in a small lake to live to this day? Today, when the entire planet has already been photographed by satellites and put on public display in Google Earth, when the Amazonian Indians dress in Chinese Adidas, and the Tibetans ride tourists through the mountains in Japanese jeeps, there is simply nowhere for the relic hominid to hide.

There are opinions that Bigfoot appear "pointwise" in different places on the planet just because they are something like Mowgli or Tarzan. History knows about 100 cases of discovery feral children. They are found to this day, often in a tragicomic situation - for example, two years ago a young man Sunjit Kumar was discovered in Fiji, who grew up among chickens and imitated their behavior.

In ancient times, lost or abandoned children, as well as persons with some mental disabilities, could easily go wild, spend their entire (certainly short) life in nature, and only occasionally catch the eye of superstitious townsfolk. Thousands of years ago, they would have been called trolls and satyrs, and in the 20th century, Bigfoot. It was precisely such a case that Turgenev described when visiting Gustave Flaubert (the epigraph of the article) - and in the end it turned out that she was a madwoman, fed by shepherds and living in the forest for more than 30 years.

The most reasonable explanation for the Bigfoot phenomenon is the saying "Fear has big eyes." Many secrets of the universe are hidden in erroneous perception. Giant sea ​​snakes the test turned out to be tangled algae, flying saucers - weather balloons, and Bigfoot - gorillas or bears.

The bear is such an original animal that anyone recognizes it at first sight. He does not eat his own kind, does not wander around the village at night in the hope of grabbing and dragging a child. From time to time, he climbs a tree to the very top, and from there he surveys the surroundings. He especially dislikes being teased or disturbed.

Alfred Bram, Animal Life

Bram was wrong, says Japanese climber Makoto Nebuga. Not everyone recognizes a bear, especially if the person is frightened, and the clubfoot stands on its hind legs. Nebuga spent 12 years looking for the legendary yeti in the mountains of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan and came to the conclusion that he had long been kept in many zoos around the world. The legend about him arose due to the fact that the Himalayan bear - "meti" - was confused with the "yeti" (not surprising, because the locals consider the bear a supernatural being). Reality is rarely as mysterious as our perceptions of it.

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After weighing all the pros and cons, it can be argued with a 99% probability that Bigfoot is a fiction. However, as primatologist John Napier rightly pointed out, there is a certain limit to the number of evidence of a meeting with a bigfoot, after which they can no longer be explained by errors and hoaxes alone. One or two stories about the "hairy monkey with glowing eyes" can be ignored. One hundred thousand stories about this - a reason to think. We can only wait and analyze. Time will judge.

, "Ramayana" ("Rakshas"), folklore of different peoples (faun, satyr and strong in ancient Greece, yeti in Tibet and Nepal, byabang-guli in Azerbaijan, chuchunny, chuchunaa in Yakutia, almas in Mongolia, ieren, maoren and en-khsung in China, kiikadam and albasty in Kazakhstan, goblin, shish and shishiga among Russians, divas in Persia (and Ancient Russia), maidens and albasts in the Pamirs, shural and yarymtyk among the Kazan Tatars and Bashkirs, arsuri among the Chuvash, picene among Siberian Tatars, sasquatch in Canada, teryk, girkychavylyin, myrygdy, kiltanya, arynk, arysa, rakkem, julia in Chukotka, sweet potato, sedapa and orangpendek in Sumatra and Kalimantan, agogwe, kakundakari and ki-lomba in Africa, etc.) .

Plutarch wrote that there was a case of the capture of a satyr by the soldiers of the Roman general Sulla. Diodorus Siculus claimed that several satyrs were sent to the tyrant Dionysius. These strange creatures were depicted on the vases of ancient Greece, Rome and Carthage.

An Etruscan silver jug ​​in the Roman Museum of Prehistory depicts a scene of armed hunters on horseback chasing a huge ape-man. And in the psalter of Queen Mary, dating back to the 14th century, an attack by a flock of dogs on a man covered with hair is depicted.

Bigfoot eyewitnesses

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Turks captured a European named Hans Schiltenberger and sent him to the court of Tamerlane, who handed over the captive to the retinue of the Mongol prince Edigey. Shiltenberger nevertheless managed to return to Europe in 1472 and published a book about his adventures, in which, among other things, he mentioned wild people:

High in the mountains lives a wild tribe that has nothing to do with all other people. The skin of these creatures is covered with wool, which is absent only on their palms and faces. They gallop over the mountains like wild beasts, feeding on leaves, grass, and whatever else they can find. The local ruler presented Edigei as a gift of two forest people - a man and a woman, captured in dense thickets.

The Indians of the northwestern United States and Western Canada believe in the existence of wild people. In 1792, the Spanish botanist and naturalist José Mariano Mosigno wrote:

I don’t know what to say about Matlox, a mountain dweller who brings everyone into indescribable horror. According to the descriptions, this is a real monster: his body is covered with hard black bristles, his head resembles a human, but much larger, his fangs are more powerful and sharper than those of a bear, his arms are incredibly long, and on his fingers and toes there are long curved claws.

Turgenev and the President of the United States personally encountered Bigfoot

Our compatriot great writer Ivan Turgenev, while hunting in Polissya, personally encountered Bigfoot. He told Flaubert and Maupassant about it, and the latter described it in his memoirs.

« While still young, he(Turgenev) somehow hunted in the Russian forest. He wandered all day and in the evening came to the bank of a quiet river. It flowed under the canopy of the trees, all overgrown with grass, deep, cold, pure. The hunter was seized by an irresistible desire to plunge into this clear water.

Undressing, he threw himself at her. He was tall, strong, strong and a good swimmer. He calmly surrendered to the will of the current, which quietly carried him away. Herbs and roots touched his body, and the light touch of the stems was pleasant.

Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder. He quickly turned around and saw a strange creature, which was looking at him with a greedy curiosity. It looked like either a woman or a monkey. He had a broad, wrinkled, grimacing and laughing face. Something indescribable - two bags of some kind, obviously breasts - dangled from the front. Long matted hair, reddened by the sun, framed her face and flowed behind her back.

Turgenev felt a wild, chilling fear of the supernatural. Without thinking, without trying to understand, comprehend what it is, he swam with all his might to the shore. But the monster swam even faster and touched his neck, back and legs with a joyful squeal.

Finally, the young man, mad with fear, reached the shore and ran as fast as he could through the forest, leaving his clothes and gun behind. The strange creature followed him. It ran just as fast and still squealed.

The exhausted fugitive - his legs gave way from horror - was about to fall down when a boy armed with a whip came running, tending a herd of goats. He began to whip the hideous humanoid beast, which took off running, uttering cries of pain. Soon this creature, similar to a female gorilla, disappeared into the thickets.».

As it turned out, the shepherd had already met this creature before. He told the master that this was just a local holy fool, who had long gone to live in the forest and completely ran wild there. Turgenev, however, noticed that hair does not grow all over the body from running wild.

Met Bigfoot and US President Theodore Roosevelt. He included this story, artistically processed, in his book The Hunter of Wild Beasts. The story takes place in the Beet Mountains, between the states of Idaho and Montana. From there, by the way, evidence of meetings with bigfoots is still coming.

In the first half of the 19th century, a trapper (that is, a hunter setting traps) Bauman and his friend explored a wild gorge. Their camp was constantly ravaged by some huge creature, moving on two, not four legs. The attacks took place either at night or during the day in the absence of hunters, and therefore it was not possible to properly examine the creature. Once a comrade remained in the camp, and Bauman, returning, found him torn to pieces. The footprints surrounding the body were identical to those of a human, but looked much larger.

Bigfoot kids

A very curious meeting with bigfoot in 1924 awaited lumberjack Albert Ostman. He spent the night in a sleeping bag in the woods near Vancouver. Snowman grabbed it, put it on his shoulder right in the sack and carried it. He walked for about three hours and brought Ostman to the cave, where, in addition to the yeti who abducted him, his wife and two children also turned out to be.

They didn’t eat the lumberjack, but they received it quite hospitably: they offered to eat spruce shoots, which the Bigfoot ate. Ostman refused and survived for a week on canned food from his backpack, which snowman thoughtfully took it with him.

But soon Ostman understood the reason for such hospitality: he was being prepared as a husband for the already grown daughter of the head of the family. Imagining the wedding night, Ostman decided to take a chance and poured snuff into the food of the hospitable hosts.

While they were rinsing their mouths, he rushed out of the cave with all his might. For many years he did not tell anyone about his adventure and when asked where he disappeared for a whole week, he simply remained silent. But when there was talk about Bigfoot, the old man's tongue loosened.

Yeti woman

It is documented that in the 19th century in Abkhazia, in the village of Tkhina, a woman, Zana, lived with people, who looked like a Bigfoot and had several children from people, who subsequently integrated normally into human society. Here is how eyewitnesses described it:

Reddish fur covered her greyish-black coat, and the hair on her head was longer than on her whole body. She let out inarticulate cries, but she could not learn to speak. Her large face with prominent cheekbones, a strongly protruding jaw, powerful brow ridges and large white teeth was distinguished by a ferocious expression.

In 1964, Boris Porshnev, author of a book about the relic hominid, met with some of Zana's granddaughters. According to his description, the skin of these granddaughters - they were called Chaliqua and Taya - was dark, of a Negroid type, the chewing muscles were highly developed, and the jaws were extremely powerful.

Porshnev even managed to question the villagers who, as children, attended the funeral of Zana in the 1880s.

The Russian zoologist K. A. Satunin, who in 1899 saw a female relic hominid in the Talysh Mountains in the south of the Caucasus, draws attention to the fact that “the movements of the creature were completely human.”

Bigfoot in captivity

In the 20s of the XX century in Central Asia several were caught yeti, imprisoned and, after unsuccessful interrogations, shot as basmachi.

The story of the warden of this prison is known. He watched two bigfoot located in the camera. One was young, healthy, strong, he could not come to terms with lack of freedom and raged all the time. The other, the old one, sat quietly. They ate nothing but raw meat. When one of the commanders saw that the warder was feeding these prisoners only raw meat, he shamed him:

“You can’t do that, after all, people ...

According to the people who participated in the fight against the Basmachi, there were still about 50 such subjects, which, due to their “wildness”, did not pose a danger to the population of Central Asia and the revolution, and it was very difficult to catch them.

We know the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service of the Soviet Army V. S. Karapetyan, who in 1941 examined a living Bigfoot caught in Dagestan. He described his encounter with the yeti as follows:

« Together with two representatives local authorities I entered the barn... Until now, I see, as if in reality, a male being appeared in front of me, completely naked, barefoot.

Without a doubt, this was a man, with a completely human body, despite the fact that his chest, back and shoulders were covered with shaggy dark brown hair 2-3 centimeters long, very similar to a bear.

Below the chest, this hair was rarer and softer, and on the palms and soles it was not at all. Only sparse hair grew on the roughened wrists, but the luxuriant hair of the head, very rough to the touch, descended to the shoulders and partially covered the forehead.

Although the entire face was covered with sparse vegetation, the beard and mustache were absent. Sparse, short hair also grew around the mouth.

The man stood perfectly straight, his arms at his sides. His height was slightly above average - about 180 cm, however, he seemed to tower over me, standing with a protruding mighty chest. And in general, he was much larger than any local resident. His eyes expressed absolutely nothing: empty and indifferent, they were the eyes of an animal. Yes, in fact, he was an animal, nothing more.».

Unfortunately, during the retreat of our army, the hominid was shot.

Bigfoot in the Himalayas

But most of all, the Bigfoot from the Himalayas became famous, relic hominids are called the local “yeti” there.

For the first time about these unusual inhabitants mountains became known from the notes of British officers and officials who served in India. The author of the first mention is B. Hodgson, from 1820 to 1843 authorized representative Great Britain at the court of the King of Nepal. He described in some detail how, during his journey through northern Nepal, the porters were horrified to see a hairy, tailless creature that looked like a man.

Several Buddhist monasteries claim to have yeti remains, including scalps. Western researchers have long been interested in these relics, and in 1960 Edmund Hillary managed to obtain a scalp from the Khumjung monastery for scientific examination.

Around the same time, relics from several other Tibetan monasteries were also explored. In particular, the mummified hand of Bigfoot. The results of the examination were questioned by many, and there were supporters of versions of both a fake and an incomprehensible artifact.

Snow people hiding in the Pamir caves

Major General of the Soviet Army M. S. Topilsky recalled how in 1925 he pursued with his unit the Bigfoot hiding in the Pamir caves. One of the prisoners said that in one of the caves he and his comrades were attacked by several creatures similar to great apes. Topilsky explored the cave, where he discovered the corpse of a mysterious creature. In his report, he wrote:

« At first glance, it seemed to me that it was really a great ape: the hair covered the body from head to toe. However, I know very well that great apes are not found in the Pamirs.

Looking closely, I saw that the corpse resembled a human one. We tugged at the fur, suspecting that it was a disguise, but it turned out to be natural and belonged to the creature.

Then we measured the body, turning it over several times on its stomach and back again, and our doctor carefully examined it, after which it became obvious that the corpse was not a human either.

The body belonged to a male creature, about 165-170 cm tall, judging by gray hair in several places, middle-aged or even advanced... His face was dark in color, without a mustache and beard. There were bald patches at the temples, and thick, matted hair covered the back of the head.

The dead man was lying open eyes baring his teeth. The eyes were dark in color, and the teeth were large and even, shaped like a human. The forehead is low, with powerful brow ridges. Strongly protruding cheekbones made the face of the creature Mongoloid. The nose is flat, with a deeply concave bridge of the nose. The ears are hairless, pointed, and the lobes are longer than those of a human. The lower jaw is extremely massive. The creature had a powerful chest and well developed muscles».

Bigfoot in Russia

There were many meetings with Bigfoot in Russia as well. The most remarkable, perhaps, took place in 1989 in Saratov region. The guards of the collective farm garden, having heard a suspicious noise in the branches, caught a certain humanoid creature eating apples, in all respects similar to the notorious yeti.

However, this became clear when the stranger was already tied up: before that, the watchmen thought that this was just a thief. When they were convinced that the stranger did not understand human language, and in general did not look too much like a person, they loaded him into the trunk of a Zhiguli and called the police, the press and the authorities. But the yeti managed to untie himself, opened the trunk and ran away. When, a few hours later, all those summoned arrived at the collective farm garden, the watchmen found themselves in a very awkward position.

Bigfoot caught on video

Actually, there are hundreds of evidence of meetings of different proximity with Bigfoot. The material evidence is much more interesting. Two researchers were able to film Bigfoot in 1967 with a movie camera. These 46 seconds have become a real sensation in the world of science. Professor D. D. Donskoy, head of the Department of Biomechanics of the Central Institute of Physical Education, comments on this short film as follows:

« After repeated consideration of the gait of a bipedal creature and a detailed study of postures on photographic prints from film, the impression remains of a well-automated, highly advanced system of movements. All private movements are united into a single whole, into a well-functioning system. The movements are well-coordinated, repeating the same from step to step, which can only be explained by the steady interaction of all muscle groups.

Finally, we can note such a sign that cannot be accurately described as the expressiveness of movements ... This is typical for deeply automatic movements with their high perfection ...

All this taken together makes it possible to evaluate the creature's gait as natural, without noticeable signs of artificiality, characteristic of various kinds of deliberate imitations. The considered gait of a creature for a person is completely atypical».

The English biomechanic Dr. D. Grieve, who was very skeptical about relic hominids, wrote:

« The possibility of forgery is excluded».

After the death of one of the film's writers, Patterson, his film was declared a forgery, but no evidence was presented. It is worth recognizing that the notorious yellow press, in pursuit of sensations, often not only invents them, but also loves to expose the past, both imaginary and real. So far, there is no reason not to recognize this film as a documentary.

Despite a lot of evidence (sometimes from people who deserve absolute trust), the vast majority of the scientific world refuses to recognize the existence of Bigfoot. The reasons are that the bones of wild people, not to mention the living wild man, have not yet been allegedly found.

Meanwhile, a number of examinations (we talked about some of them above) made it possible to come to the conclusion that the remains presented cannot belong to anyone recognized by science. What's the matter? Or are we once again facing the Procrustean bed of modern science?

Perhaps, of all the monsters known to the world, Bigfoot, supposedly living in the Himalayas, is the most elusive. And if he really lives in the highest mountains of the world, then geographically he is absolutely isolated from the places of human settlement. And this means that the size of its population should be significant. This is not Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, which are known to live near densely populated areas.

Many local residents of the Himalayas are absolutely sure of its existence, as evidenced by artifacts and Buddhist temples in Nepal. Military appropriations from Russia and China are spent on his research. Fossils discovered by experts in Asia testify to the prehistoric existence of Gigantopithecus, a great ape whose descriptions are very close to the stories of those who have seen the Yeti. Many of those desperate climbers who conquered the icy six-kilometer heights brought very good quality pictures of the giant monkey's footprints. Where is the truth? Does the notorious Bigfoot exist? in fact? Is the fact of its existence reliable or is science forever looking for an answer to this question?

giant prints

As always when in question about something incredible, there are two types of Yeti eyewitnesses - truthful and untruthful. Some people, having witnessed, for example, a traffic accident, tend to lie or slightly exaggerate the scale of what they saw; in the same way there are hunters to compose tales about the Yeti. It costs nothing for them to fabricate evidence, for example, to make fake casts of footprints or to mount a photograph, the purpose of which is only to deceive a gullible public. And really, why would you need to climb six or eight thousand meters into the mountains just to shoot a supposedly existing monster? Probably, no one would do this, however, people who go to the mountains also want to enjoy life, just like those who have never been to the mountains. Remember, for fun, we sometimes sculpt giant footprints in the beach sand. Why not do it on a snow-covered peak, and then still not photograph these huge footprints without placing your own ice ax next to one of them?

The most famous of these photographs is a 1951 photo taken by Eric Shipton, an incorrigible prankster and joker. Its author has always avoided asking about the circumstances under which it was made. The quality of the photo is close to perfection, it is very difficult to suspect a fake in it, the trace has jagged edges, as if it was really left by a walking creature; and at the same time, the imprint on the soft snow remained shallow, and this already arouses suspicion. Shipton stated that he presented to the public only one of the many pictures taken at the same time. He claims to have a photo of the chain of tracks, although he does not insist that it was taken by the same creature. Many climbers know what a goat trail looks like in the snowy mountains, they often confuse these tracks with those of other animals living in the Himalayas. So, fakes are an essential attribute of the game, but by the way, in our attempts to establish the truth, they turn out to be useless.

Himalayan bears

True evidence also occurs, but they do not leave scientists room for maneuver, since many of them are nothing more than erroneous identifications. Since it is sometimes difficult to understand who you see there, in the distance, at the foot of a neighboring peak - a Yeti, another climber, a piece of rock covered with snow, or some kind of animal. For example, in the region where the Yeti is likely to live, there are three types of bears, and all of them often stand on their hind legs. These are the Tibetan blue bear, the Gobi bear and the Himalayan brown bear. Usually these animals leave strange footprints in the snow and are very fond of devastating campsites and climbers' camps. One day, Japanese expert Matako Nabuka came up with an unexpected conclusion: in his opinion, the Yeti never existed, and the name itself is nothing more than a mispronounced word "meti" - as the locals call the brown Himalayan bear. His opinion was not supported by most researchers, but it is an excellent illustration of another piece of the puzzle.

And yet, even truthful information about meetings with the Yeti, even photographs should be subjected to careful verification, especially if one or another version needs to be built on their basis. Eyewitness accounts cannot be verified. It is necessary to adhere to common sense, but the first thing that he suggests is that the eyewitness could be mistaken. The sane researcher should be given what he is able to verify. And he himself must be prepared for the fact that the conclusions may contradict the previously formed opinion.

Bigfoot - myth or reality? Billions of people on Earth want the answer to this question.

Are you interested in the topic bigfoot photo or bigfoot video film? This article is about just that! Bigfoot or, as he is also called, bigfoot, hominoid, sasquatch is a humanoid creature that is believed to be found in the highlands and forest regions of the world. There is an opinion that this is a mammal that belongs to the order of primates and to the genus man, preserved from the time of human ancestors. The Swedish naturalist, the creator of a unified classification system for the animal and plant world, Karl Linnaeus, defined it as Homo troglodytes, or, in other words, a caveman.

Descriptive Characteristics of Bigfoot

There is no exact description of Bigfoot. Some say that these are huge four-meter animals that are distinguished by mobility. Others, on the contrary, say that his height does not exceed 1.5 meters, he is passive and swings his arms strongly when walking.

All Bigfoot researchers are inclined to conclude that the yeti is a good creature, if it is not angry

According to unconfirmed data, the yeti is different from modern man pointed shape of the skull, more dense physique, short neck, more long arms, short hips and a massive lower jaw. Its entire body is covered with reddish gray or black hair. The hair on the head is longer than on the body, and the beard and mustache are very short. It has an unpleasant strong odor. Among other things, he is excellent at climbing trees.

It is believed that the habitat of Bigfoot is the snowy edge, which separates forests from glaciers. At the same time, forest populations of snowmen build nests on tree branches, while mountain populations live in caves. They feed on lichens and rodents, and, before eating, the caught animals are butchered. This may indicate a close relationship with a person. In case of hunger, yeti approach people, and thus behave carelessly. According to the villagers, in case of danger, the humanoid savage makes a loud barking sound. But Chinese peasants talk about how snow people weave simple baskets, and also make axes, shovels and other elementary tools.

Descriptions suggest that the yeti is a relic hominoid that lives in married couples. However, it is possible that some people with overdeveloped unnatural hairline are mistaken for these creatures.

Early references to Bigfoot

The very first historical evidence of the existence of Bigfoot is associated with the name of Plutarch. He talked about how Sulla's soldiers caught a satyr who, according to the description, matches the appearance of a yeti.

In his short story Horror, Guy de Maupassant describes the meeting of the writer Ivan Turgenev with a female Bigfoot. There is also documentary evidence that in the 19th century there was a woman named Zana in Abkhazia, who was the prototype of the yeti. She had peculiar habits, but this did not prevent her from safely giving birth to children from people who, in turn, were distinguished by mighty strength and good health.

In the West in 1832 there were reports of a strange creature living in the Himalayas. B. G. Hodtson, an English traveler and explorer, settled in a highland region to study this mysterious creature. Later Hodtson B.G. in his works he talked about a tall humanoid creature, which the Nepalese called a demon. It was covered with long thick hair, differed from the animal in the absence of a tail and upright walking. The first mention of the Yeti Hodtson was told by local residents. According to them, for the first time about Bigfoot was mentioned in the fourth century BC.

Half a century later, the Briton Lawrence Waddell became interested in savages. At an altitude of 6,000 meters in Sikkim, he found footprints. After their analysis and conversation with local residents Lawrence Waddell concluded that predatory yellow bears, which very often attack yaks, are mistaken for humanoid savages.

The growth of interest in bigfoot was observed in the 20-30s of the twentieth century, when one reporter called the hairy savage "a terrible bigfoot". The media also reported that several Bigfoot were caught and imprisoned, after which they were shot as Basmachi. In 1941, colonel of the medical service Soviet army Karapetyan V.S. made an inspection of a snowman caught in Dagestan. Shortly thereafter, the mysterious creature was shot dead.

Bigfoot theories and film

To date, scientists do not have sufficient data to make an official confirmation of the validity of one of the theories. However, scientists are voicing rather bold hypotheses about the emergence of the Yeti, which have the right to exist. Their opinions are based on the study of hair and footprints, photographs taken, audio recordings, sketches of a strange creature, as well as video recordings that are not of the best quality.

For a long time, a short film directed by Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson in 1967 in Northern California was the most compelling evidence for the Yeti's existence. According to the authors, they managed to capture a female Bigfoot on film.

This happened in the fall, when Bob and Roger rode horses along a densely forested gorge in the hope of meeting a yeti, whose traces were repeatedly seen in these places. At one point, the horses were frightened of something and reared up, after which Patterson noticed a certain large creature that was squatting on the bank of the stream near the water. Glancing at the cowboys, this mysterious creature got up and walked away towards the steep slope of the gorge. Roger was not taken aback and, having taken out a video camera, ran to the stream for the creature. He ran after the savage, shooting him in the back. However, he realized that it was necessary to fix the camera and follow the moving creature, after which he knelt down. Suddenly, the creature turned and started walking towards the camera, but then, turning a little to the left, it left the stream. Roger tried to rush after him, however, thanks to his fast walking and large size, the mysterious creature quickly disappeared, and the film on the video camera ran out.

Gimlin-Patterson's film was immediately rejected by experts of the most important scientific center USA - Smithsonian Institution - as a fake. American specialists stated that such a hybrid with a hairy chest, gorilla head and human legs simply cannot exist in nature. At the end of 1971, the film was brought to Moscow and shown to a number of scientific institutions. Specialists of the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics and Prosthetics positively assessed him and became very interested in him. After a detailed study of the film, a written conclusion was made by the professor of the Academy of Physical Culture D.D. Donskoy, who noted that the gait of the creature on the film is completely not typical of a person. He regarded it as a natural movement, in which there were no signs of artificiality, and which is characteristic of various deliberate imitations.

Renowned sculptor Nikita Lavinsky also believed that the Gimlin-Patterson film was authentic. Based on the frames of this film, he even created sculptural portraits of a female Bigfoot.

The participants of the seminar on hominology Alexandra Burtseva, Dmitry Bayanov and Igor Burtsev undertook the most in-depth study of this film. Burtsev made a photographic reproduction with various expositions of stills from the film. Thanks to this work, it was proved that the head of the creature on the film was not a gorilla, as the Americans claimed, and not an ordinary person, but a paleoanthrope. It is also clear that the hairline is not a special costume at all, since the muscles of the back, legs and arms are clearly visible through it. The Yeti also differs from a human in its elongated upper limbs, the absence of a visible neck, the planting of the head, and an elongated barrel-shaped torso.

The arguments on which Patterson's film is based are:

• The ankle joint of the mysterious creature, captured on film, has exceptional flexibility, which is unattainable for a person. The foot in the dorsal direction has more flexibility than a human. Dmitry Bayanov was the first to draw attention to this. Later, this fact was confirmed and described in his publications by Jeff Meldrum, an American anthropologist.

• The Yeti's heel sticks out much more than the human heel, which corresponds to the structure of the Neanderthal foot.

• The then head of the department of biochemistry at the Academy of Physical Culture, Dmitry Donskoy, who studied the film in detail, concluded that the gait of a strange creature on the film is completely not inherent in Homo Sariens, which, moreover, cannot be recreated.

• The film clearly shows the muscles on the limbs and body, which in turn eliminates the assumption of a suit. The whole anatomy distinguishes this mysterious creature from a man.

• A comparison of the frequency of hand vibrations with the speed at which the film was shot proved that the hairy creature was rather tall, about 2 meters 20 centimeters, and if you take into account the complexion, then big weight- more than 200 kilograms.

Based on these considerations, Patterson's film was deemed authentic. This was reported in scientific publications in the USA and the USSR. However, if the film is recognized as authentic, then the existence of living relic hominids, which are considered extinct tens of thousands of years ago, is recognized. Anthropologists cannot yet agree to this. Hence the endless number of rebuttals of the authenticity of excellent film evidence.

Among other things, ufologist Shurinov B.A. contrary to popular belief, claims that Bigfoot is of alien origin. Other researchers of the yeti mysteries insist that the origin is associated with interspecific hybridization on anthropoids, thus putting forward the theory that Bigfoot occurred as a result of crossing monkeys with humans in the Gulag.

Bigfoot photo real. Bigfoot family in Tennessee (USA)

Real photo of a frozen yeti

In December 1968, two famous cryptozoologists, Bernard Euvelmans (France) and Ivan Sanderson (USA), examined the frozen corpse of a hairy hominoid found in the Caucasus. The results of the survey were published in the scientific collection of cryptozoologists. Euvelmans identified the frozen yeti as a "modern Neanderthal".

At the same time active search bigfoot were fought and in former USSR. The most significant results were given by the studies of Maria-Janna Kofman in the North Caucasus, Alexandra Burtseva in Chukotka and Kamchatka. Scientific expeditions in Tajikistan and Pamir-Altai led by Igor Tatsl and Igor Burtsev ended very fruitfully. On Lovozero (Murmansk region) and in Western Siberia, Maya Bykova successfully searched. Vladimir Pushkarev devoted a lot of time to the search for the Yeti in Komi and Yakutia.

Unfortunately, the last expedition of Vladimir Pushkarev ended tragically: due to lack of funds for a full-fledged expedition, he went alone in September 1978 to the Khanty-Mansiysk district in search of bigfoot and went missing.

Janice Carter has been friends with the Yeti (Bigfoot) family for decades!

AT last years interest in the Yeti is reviving, new regions of distribution of modern Neanderthals have appeared. In 2002, Janice Carter, a Tennessee farm owner, said in a television interview that a whole family of Bigfoots had been living near her farm for more than fifty years. According to her, in 2002, the father of the "snowy" family was about 60 years old, and their first acquaintance took place when Janice was a seven-year-old girl. Janice Carter met Bigfoot and his family many times in her life. This drawing was made from her words and clearly shows the proportions of the yeti and its peacefulness.

Recently, Russian hominologists (Yeti researchers) found information that in 1997 in France, in the small town of Bourganef, a frozen body of a Bigfoot was demonstrated, allegedly found in Tibet and smuggled from China. There are many inconsistencies in this story. The owner of the refrigerator in which the corpse of the yeti was transported disappeared without a trace. Gone was the van itself, with its sensational contents. Photos of the body were shown by Janice Carter, who confirmed that she did not rule out that this was not a falsification, but the real Bigfoot body.

Bigfoot video. Yeti speculation and falsification

In 1958, Ray Wallace, a resident of the American town of San Diego, launched a sensational story about the Bigfoot, which is a relative of the yeti living in the mountains of California. It all started with the fact that in August 1958, an employee of Wallace's construction company came to work and saw huge footprints around the bulldozer that looked like human ones. The local press dubbed the mysterious creature the Bigfoot, and thus America got its own kind of Bigfoot.

In 2002, after the death of Ray Wallace, his family decided to reveal the secret. The footprints, 40 centimeters long, were cut from boards at Ray's request, after which he and his brother put these paws on their feet and walked around the bulldozer.

He was so captivated by this prank for many years that he could not stop and periodically pleased the media and the society of lovers of the mysterious either with a recording on which he makes sounds, or with photographs with blurry monsters. But the most interesting thing was that the relatives of the deceased Wallace announced the falsification of the film, which was shot by Patterson and Gimlin. Many experts assumed that the footage was genuine. However, according to relatives and acquaintances, this filming was a staged episode in which Wallace's wife starred, dressed in a specially tailored monkey costume. This statement was a solid blow to enthusiasts who are trying to find a humanoid mysterious creature.

But back in 1969, John Green consulted the Disney film studio, who created monkey costumes for the actors, in order to determine the authenticity of the film. They said that the creature that was filmed was wearing real skin, not a suit.

It should be noted that hundreds of volumes of scientific literature are devoted to the observations of the hominoid. But there is still no concrete answer to the question of its origin and existence. On the contrary, the longer the research and search lasts, the more acutely questions are raised. Why can't catch Bigfoot? Can small populations of these creatures survive in unconnected areas? And there are many more questions that have not yet been answered...

I bring to your attention an excellent film about the Yeti with good video quality, dedicated to all aspects of this interesting topic, for many years disturbing the minds of people around the world.