‘Oriental Yeti’ found in China is no Yeti

In the past 60 years cryptozology – the study of mythical or legendary animals – has grown into somewhat reputable science, with several universities now offering courses in the subject. Coleman created one of the first, at the University of Southern Maine, where he taught in the zoology department for two decades.

“If the Asian press starts using the word ‘yeti’ for every unidentified animal it’s going to muddy the waters of cryptozoology,” Coleman says.

“Even though we haven’t found the yeti, we have a body of literature on the yeti going back 3,000 years,” he adds. The yeti of central Asia and the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest are an ape-like biped between 4 and 7 feet tall, and a version of it exists in many regions worldwide: China’s yeti is normally called the yeren; in Australia, it’s the yowie; in Malaysia, it’s the sejarang gigi; and in Brazil, they call it the mapinguari.

Coleman says the field of cryptozoology has grown from a handful of people into tens of thousands of followers, and he alone gets hundreds of emails daily from self-proclaimed cryptozoologists. Even chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall says she is sure that undiscovered primates, such as the Yeti or Sasquatch, exist.

“When I’m asked do I believe in yeti or Bigfoot, I say ‘no,’ because belief is the realm of religion. I consider that there is good evidence for the yeti, enough for us to pursue it. But I’m not convinced it’s a folklore tradition or a zoological tradition.

“I occupy the skeptical, open-minded middle,” he continues. “The blind debunkers are just as dangerous as the true believers. I’m a skeptical, open-minded cryptozoologist.”