British scientists have done DNA testing on hair found on a tree in Bhutan which may be hair from a Yeti, and have not been able to match it to any known animal. The findings raise the possibility that the hair sample belongs to an as yet undiscovered species.
In Bhutan, an expedition team led by a Yeti hunter searched for the creature in a forest in the eastern part of the country, where the leader was convinced a Yeti was at large. ?He told us that he had found evidence of the Yeti in the hollow of a cedar tree,? said Rob McCall, a zoologist who was on the expedition. McCall?s team removed strands of hair from the tree and took them to the U.K. for DNA analysis.
?We found some DNA in it, but we don?t know what it is,? said Bryan Sykes of the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine, one of the world?s leading experts on DNA analysis. ?It?s not a human, not a bear or anything else we have so far been able to identify. It?s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn?t recognize before.?
Catherine Cooke, former director of the Mind/Science Foundation and neice of famed Yeti researcher Tom Slick, is leading an expedition to Nepal starting on April 10, 2001, in search of the Yeti. The expedition will be using specialized low-light cameras and sensing equipment in an effort to locate the unknown animal, and will be making exculsive reports to Unknowncountry.com and Dreamland.
The image of the Yeti used in this story was created by artist Robert Bateman, for more about his work, click here.
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