Abominable, but yetis are really bears

ONE of the world’s great mysteries was cleared up yesterday when scientists claimed to have discovered the secrets of the Abominable Snowman.

But they disappointed romantics the world over by declaring that the yeti is a common or garden bear.

Sightings of yeti or their footprints high up in the Himalayas have been reported for centuries.

But DNA analysis of suspected yeti remains revealed them to come from much less exotic creatures.

The nine samples – including bone, tooth, skin, hair and faeces collected in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau – proved to be of more mundane origins.

One was from a dog and the other eight matched DNA from Asian black bears, Himalayan brown bears and Tibetan brown bears.

The study in Proceedings Of The Royal Society B – the institution’s biological research journal – looked at samples including skin from a paw revered by Tibetan monks as a relic and a fragment of thigh bone.

Lead scientist Charlotte Lindqvist, of the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, USA, said: “Our findings strongly suggest that the biological underpinnings of the yeti legend can be found in local bears.”

How yetis are often portrayed and, below, a rare “sighting” of the elusive creature