Yeti is not a Russian word; it is Nepalese and means rock
beast. The yeti (of which there are three distinct kinds) are quite different
to the creatures reported from Russia .
From eyewitness descriptions, the yeti sound like great apes, the larger (8-10
feet tall) may be a surviving Gigantopithecus; the man sized yeti may be a
mainland orang-utan and the smallest one ( 4-5 feet tall) sounds like it’s
related to orang-pendek.
The Russian beasts from the Kemerovo
region sound very like the creatures known as the Almasty reported from the Caucasus Mountains . I hunted these back in 2008 and
talked to many eyewitnesses, including the deputy head of a national park. They sound nothing like Neanderthals, but
something much more primitive. We know that Neanderthals were sophisticated,
having fire, spears, flint tools, and clothes.
They made art and seemed to have venerated the cave bear, and lived in
small tribes who took good care of the sick, injured and elderly.
The largest Neanderthals were only 5 foot 7 inches tall (but
vastly stronger than modern man), and it has often been said that if one were
shaved, washed and put in a suit he could walk through a modern city unnoticed.
At up to 7 feet 6 inches, the Almasty is bigger than the Neanderthal,
and they have a much more primitive look about the face. They have tool use
(clubs, rocks and so on) but do not make fire. Some don uncured deer skins occasionally,
but mostly they go naked save for their shaggy hair.
Neanderthals and modern man speciated about 188,000 years
ago. Neanderthals contributed about 1-4 % genetic material to modern,
non-African humans indicating some interbreeding. There is no ‘missing link’
between Neanderthals and us as we did not evolve directly from them.
It would seem to me that both the Caucasus Almasty and the Kemerovo creatures are
early offshoots of Homo erectus, the
species that begat both Neanderthal man and modern man, as well as Homo heidelbergensis. This species seems
to be adapted for mountain environments.
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