DNA tests suggest Abominable Snowman just a bear

SCIENTISTS believe they have finally solved the mystery of the Abominable Snowman using DNA tests. Its identity? According to DNA tests, it might be just a big brown bear.

One of the suspected images of a yeti.

SCIENTISTS believe they have finally solved the mystery of the Abominable Snowman.

Its identity? Disappointingly, a big brown bear. DNA tests on supposed yeti hair samples have revealed a genetic match with an ancient polar bear.

Scientists believe there could be a sub-species of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the ancient animal.

Yetis, also known as the Abominable Snowman, have been recorded for centuries in the Himalayas, with local people and mountaineers claiming to have seen hairy, ape-like creatures.

Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, set out to collect and test 'yeti' hair samples to find out which species they came from.

He analysed hairs from two unknown animals, one from the western Himalayan region of Ladakh and the other from Bhutan, 1287 kilometres to the east.

Footprints believed to be made by the yeti of Nepal and Tibet in 2008. AFP/YETIPROJECTJAPAN

Professor Sykes subjected the samples to the most advanced DNA tests available and compared the results with the genomes of other animals stored on the GenBank database.

He found he had a 100 per cent match with a sample from an ancient polar bear jawbone found in Svalbard, Norway, which dated back at least 40,000 years, and probably around 120,000 years. At this time the polar bear and the closely related brown bear were separating as different species. Even now, the they are known to interbreed where their territories overlap.

"This is an exciting and completely unexpected result that gave us all a surprise," Professor Sykes said.

He thinks the most likely explanation is that yetis are hybrids. "It could mean there is a sub species of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor of the polar bear," he said.

"Or it could mean there has been more recent hybridisation between the brown bear and the descendant of the ancient polar bear."

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