Discovery of yeti hairs, [THE TEST ARE CONFIRMRD]

[Pixie Byrnes]

Gary Opit forward this to me last night, thought the forum might like a read.
'Discovery of suspected yeti hairs, Australia’s Yowie, Thylacine & Hidden Animals.'

Source: The Sun-HeraldAugust 3, 2008

THE discovery of suspected yeti hairs on a tree in India has confirmed what many scientists have long suspected: the abominable snowman would make a terrible house pet. A creature of that size shedding hairs would play havoc with your shagpile. That's not to mention the effect it might have on allergy sufferers.

Yeti follower Dipu Marak collected the hairs in 2003 after a forestry officer saw the yeti in dense jungle for three days running, breaking branches from trees and eating their sap. Marak recently gave the hairs to BBC journalist Alastair Lawson, who passed them on to scientists at Oxford Brookes University.

"The hairs are complete with the cuticle, and between 3.3 centimetres and 4.4 centimetres long and thick and wiry and curved," biologist Ian Redmond told AFP, causing the world to raise a collective eyebrow as it pondered the possibility that the scientists were handling yeti pubes.

After comparing the hairs with samples from an Asiatic black bear, yaks, orang-utans, gorillas and Redmond's beard, the scientists sent the hairs away for DNA testing.

"Under the microscope, they look slightly human, slightly like an orang-utan and slightly like the hairs brought back by Edmund Hillary," Redmond said, referring to hairs Hillary collected on Everest in the 1950s.

Hillary also saw massive footprints on the Ripimu Glacier. If he saw any on the summit just before he planted his flag, he quickly scuffed them over and kept it to himself.

Yetis, as they are known in Nepal, have been part of folklore ever since man could light a fire and tell a tale around it. In the Garo Hills of Meghalaya state, north-eastern India, where these latest hairs were found, the creature is known as mande barung, or forest man.

In America the mysterious, hairy hulking beast with a heavy brow is called bigfoot; in Canada it's a sasquatch and in Sydney a prop forward.

The rest of Australia calls it a yowie. Popular haunts include areas of wilderness either side of the NSW-Queensland border.

"Yowies are still being observed in Springbrook, Border Ranges and behind Mullumbimby," environmental scientist and ABC radio wildlife expert Gary Opit says on the ABC website. "In fact I heard recently of one chap who was buying and feeding them roast meat." Opit has good reason not to be sceptical. "Most people don't believe they exist for one second but I'm fortunate that I've actually seen one and heard their calls," he says.

"They have incredibly powerful roaring calls, barks and gurgles. They will call around 3am on full moon nights and we don't really know what they are but they seem to be carnivorous nocturnal primates."

Another mysterious beast in the Northern Rivers is something that has been described as a cross between a dog and a kangaroo. Variously known as the devil dog, the Billinudgel beast and the Mullumbimby monster, it may be a thylacine, or a relative of it.

There have been 50 reported sightings of the creature since 1964, mostly in and around the national parks and wildlife corridors of the North Coast, says Opit.

Then there's Australia's equivalent of Nessie: a six-metre-long monster with flippers and a snake's head that features in Aboriginal legend and has been seen surfacing up and down the Hawkesbury hundreds of times since European settlement, says Rex Gilroy, a passionate cryptozoologist, or student of hidden animals.

Proof that any of these animals exist would be mind-boggling. Miraculous enough is the continuing existence of landscapes wild enough that such creatures might successfully hide in them. Sceptics would say such wild places are fertile ground for our imaginations. Science has a habit of pouring cold water on such romanticism.

As the BBC's Lawson told the Oxford Mail: "The Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston was once given hairs in Pakistan which were thought to have been taken from a yeti and they turned out to be hairs from a goat's scrotum."

That's why goats, like yeti, are much better kept outdoors.

Sceptics are all too happy to point to the various films and footprints that have turned out to be hoaxes. But the scientists in Oxford think they might be on to something.

"We are very excited about the preliminary results," Redmond told The Independent.

However, he raised the spectre of an ugly scene if the hairs do turn out to be from an unknown species; something resembling a scene from ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, except Elliot would need a much bigger bicycle basket to get our hero away.

"My concern is that if we do find something unusual, it will be from a very small population of animals and I would want to talk to the state government and Indian government so they are not inundated with people trying to catch one for a museum," Redmond told AFP.

"I want us to approach this in a 21st-century and not a 19th-century way."

Not a chance. It would be halfway up the Empire State Building, batting away biplanes, before you could say Fay Wray.

Here's hoping the hairs are from a bear, or a cat, or a paintbrush. Yetis would be a lot better off staying in our imagination.

Source: The Sun-Herald

[stickyfingers]

...wow...good stuff pixie... there are at least three amazingly funny parts of that article...

(1) "The hairs are complete with the cuticle, and between 3.3 centimetres and 4.4 centimetres long and thick and wiry and curved," biologist Ian Redmond told AFP, causing the world to raise a collective eyebrow as it pondered the possibility that the scientists were handling yeti pubes.

(2) In America the mysterious, hairy hulking beast with a heavy brow is called bigfoot; in Canada it's a sasquatch and in Sydney a prop forward.

(3) As the BBC's Lawson told the Oxford Mail: "The Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston was once given hairs in Pakistan which were thought to have been taken from a yeti and they turned out to be hairs from a goat's scrotum."

...but also one very serious part... if a Yowie / Bigfoot or Yeti was ever captured... I pity it's poor fate that lies ahead of it from reading this part of the article...

"My concern is that if we do find something unusual, it will be from a very small population of animals and I would want to talk to the state government and Indian government so they are not inundated with people trying to catch one for a museum," Redmond told AFP.

"I want us to approach this in a 21st-century and not a 19th-century way."

...hmmm... I wonder if we will EVER get to see or hear about the results of those hairs in the future?... thanks for sharing that Pixie... by the way Pixie... I love your Avatar!... cheers... Stickyfingers.

[Pixie Byrnes]

Thanks Sticky!..yeah... I agree with you..What lives in the woods should 'Live in the woods'
cheers mate.

[ozestrange]

the scientists sent the hairs away for DNA testing.

And the results were...???
Damn..I hate cliff hangers..

[homerbear]

G'day Pixie,
For non-scientific types..umm..oze, DNA testing can take a min of 3wks on outside to define what the hairs are and they have try to either match as close to as possible to other hair samples or disreguard them and agree that the hairs found belong to a new undiscovered species of primate, its a long and tedious exercise that can't just done overnight, so keep your wig on for a bit longer and don't jump to any non-factual conclusions on your own, let the...EXPERTS who get paid the BIG dollars work it out...

[_Daniel_]

Thanks for the post... was a good read, cheers.
-anonimust

[ozestrange]

its a long and tedious exercise that can't just done overnight

I have been involved in dna sampling for about 4 years now..
The quickest MT dna sampling to species id we have ever managed to obtain..from EXPERTS was 3 weeks.

so keep your wig on for a bit longer and don't jump to any non-factual
conclusions

Goodbye and good luck

[Dion]

These results sure are taking awhile its been months now!

[Dion]

Ok another month has passed and still nothing

[Strange1]

The DNA tests on the hairs are from a goat known as a Himalayan Goral.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7666900.stm

[Dion]

Yeah saw that strange1 I thought that was a different story altogether from the first one and that the connections where different maybe I'm wrong

Anyhow thanks for posting it up

[Lasso]

Interesting read pix thanks for that story.

the scientists sent the hairs away for DNA testing.

And the results were...???
Damn..I hate cliff hangers..

ozestrange you cracked me up with that one.

[Yeti]

I have emailed Ian Redmond and Dr Anna Nekaris in relation to these Yeti hairs, I put it to them about comparing my hair samples with samples from India. Since my samples have been identified as being similar to hair collected in the USA which are believed to be Sasquatch/bigfoot hairs.
If thats the case and they do test my samples it will prove beyond a doubt that yes there is a higher primate roaming the planet. There can be no other answer if all hairs are the same.

[iwanttobelieve]

I have emailed Ian Redmond and Dr Anna Nekaris in relation to these Yeti hairs, I put it to them about comparing my hair samples with samples from India. Since my samples have been identified as being similar to hair collected in the USA which are believed to be Sasquatch/bigfoot hairs.
If thats the case and they do test my samples it will prove beyond a doubt that yes there is a higher primate roaming the planet. There can be no other answer if all hairs are the same.

Hi Yeti.

Is it possible to post the results/reports from these samples?

[Yeti]

I'll post the report either way, but I can't see the results being anything other than positive and that being that the hair samples are one in the same. I'll certainly keep you upto date.