The alleged footprint of a yeti (left) was measured on a mountain in Nepal and is compared (right) to a human footprintFootprints from the legendary Yeti have been found in the snow-covered slopes of the Himalayas, a Japanese team of explorers claimed today.The adventurers could hardly contain their excitement as they told of finding the 8in-long footprints which bore a close resemblance to those of humans.But, said team leader Yoshiteru Takahashi, they were not human - neither were they the footprints of wolves, deer or snow leopards.
'They were made by the Yeti, we believe,' said Mr Takahashi, who heads the Yeti Project Japan, after returning from the mountains to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.Stories of the Yeti - also known as the Abominable Snowman - have been passed down through generations of Nepalese families whose ancestors have told of a half-man, half ape, living in the Himalayas, where the world's tallest mountain, Mt Everest, is located.
Takashi is convinced the 8in footprint was made by a yeti and not any other animalMr Takahashi is convinced the 'creature' exists.If so, it would be very old, for it was first described in 1832 by Englishman James Prinsep who told of his local guides spotting a tall, bipedal creature covered with long dark hair.
Mr Takahashi also claims to have seen a Yeti when he went to the Himalayas in 2003. On that expedition he was 200 yards away from the apparition but remains convinced he was not mistaken.'It was in silhouette,' he said. 'It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimeters (5ft) tall.' Now, finding strange footprints in the snow on his most recent expedition, has left Mr Takahashi convinced that the Yeti is still wandering among the towering Himalayan peaks.
Japanese adventurer Yoshiteru Takahashi is convinced his team have found footprints of the yeti'
We have no doubt about what we have found. This makes us certain that the Yeti exists. As well as the footprints, the stories the locals tell makes us sure that this being is not imaginary.'Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV - a 25,135ft peak where Mr Takahashi says he has seen the shadowy figure in the past - the seven- man team has failed in their prime objective of capturing a Yeti on film.
'We set up nine motion-sensitive cameras in the area where I first saw what I believed was it, but we have not got any images.'But we'll be coming back as soon as we can - and we'll keep coming back until we get the Yeti on film, and then all doubt will vanish.'Following the first record of a Yeti by James Prinsep, other explorers have also written of the strange creature.
The footprint was found in the Himalayas, on a 25,135ft peak where the Japanese team believe they saw a yeti five years agoIn 1921 explorer Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury told of finding footprints he believed had been made by a large wolf, although they gave the impression of being made by a bare-footed man.The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is an ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet.
The names yeti and meh-teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology.His Sherpa guides told him, however, that the tracks must have been made by 'The Wild Man of the Snows'.
Fur blur: A 2007 image of the Yeti thought to be prowling around the HimalayasIn 1954, the Daily Mail reported the discovery of hair specimens from what was said to be the scalp of a Yeti. Professor Frederick Woods Jones, an expert in human and comparative anatomy, failed to reach a conclusion, but said the dark brown hair was not from a bear or an anthropoid (manlike) ape.
Alleged sightings and debate has continued through the decades - but so far no-one has been able to produce a clear, definitive photograph of the world's most elusive being.
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