Monsters and Myths

Tom Burnette is a man with a mission. He found his life’s calling unlooked for almost 20 years ago in the woods near Old Fort. That’s when he encountered Bigfoot.

Many people over the years have seen what they believed to be sightings or physical evidence of Bigfoot. But Burnette is different in one respect. The creature he saw came back. And, as it turned out, there was more than one. Indeed, he now believes, there’s a whole colony of them.

Where, exactly? He’s a bit guarded about exact locations, but said he sees the creatures “way up Curtis Creek, near the Parkway.”

What brings them back, again and again, to the woods Burnette haunts?

He has several guesses. For one, he believes a large community of them have lived in the area for a ling time. And because their home territory coincides with the woods he haunts, they have become familiar with him.

In other words, he has made peace with them. Although he says he has not come face to face with the reclusive creatures, he has found what he believed to be gifts left for him; mushrooms, meat, and other items harvested from the woods.

“They know I’m not out to hurt them, that I’ll protect them,” he said. “They’re used to me now.” That familiarity has led to several opportunities to observe them, at a distance, for more than just a few seconds, he said.

So how is it that more people haven’t seen them? Simply, he answered, because people tend to think of Bigfoot as a dumb beast, no smarter than a bear. In fact, the Bigfoot culture is well developed and they are highly intelligent creatures.

“They’re more aware of you than you are of them,” he said. “These are very alert creatures.”

After years of observation, Burnette believes the Bigfoot domesticates the wild animals of the forest the same way humans domesticated dogs, and for the same reasons.

“They use bear to hunt,” he explained. “They hunt in groups.”

Earlier this spring, Burnette got what he believes is confirmation of this theory, when he came very close to a hunting party accidentally.

“I felt sure something was watching me,” he said of one day’s excursion into the woods. “I turned around and felt eyes on me.” He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he explained, but long years of romping the woods has taught him the limitations of the human eye in the dense foliage.

He raised his cell phone and took pictures of the woods in front of him. It was only after he had detail shots printed at maximum enlargement that he saw the evidence he had in hand.

One eerie picture shows what appears distinctly to be a humanoid face, with flat, wide mouth and heavy brows. The face’s left are the shapes of what could be faces of bears or other beasts.

Burnette was chilled to think he had come so close to a hunting party, but said that, by this time, if the Bigfoot had wanted to hurt him they could have done so. The fact he has remained unharmed is evidence, he said, that the Bigfoot mainly hunts small game.

This latest close encounter is not the first. Several years ago, he continued, he found what he believed to be an infant Bigfoot left on his property. Why would a mother Bigfoot abandon her baby?

Burnette suspects that the baby may have been in danger from a male. He said in the primate kingdom, a male will sometimes kill an infant in order to get the female to go into heat. Holding the infant, he made what he now regards as a great mistake.

“I took it back into the woods,” he said, “and left it, hoping she would come back for it.” Sadly this did not happen. Days later, he found the skull of the young creature; whether it had been eaten by dogs or killed by an adult Bigfoot, he didn’t dare speculate.

He explained that he realized this was the evidence the world had been waiting for. He photographed the skull, then sent it to Texas laboratory for DNA analysis. Today, he is upset about the lab’s progress, and speculated he might have to go to court to get the thing back into his possession.

Meanwhile though, two pictures he shot of the skull are featured in the book he published a while back about his observations. Entitled “Natures Secret Agents,” the book is a diary account of his experiences and observations over the years. Many sightings are detailed, along with the occasional exchange of gifts and, sometimes, terrifying harassment by less friendly members of the Bigfoot community.

Burnette has learned to keep his distance. He tries to get the best photographs he can, but does not ever wish to put them on the defensive. The size, strength and cunning of the creatures means no human would stand a chance. He feels safe so long as he maintains a healthy respect for the Bigfoots’ privacy and space.

He said that several years ago an Indian chief told him the Bigfoot is the guardian of the forest and all the animals in it. After several years observation, he is inclined to agree.

“They don’t want anything to do with us,” he said, because they know the violent ways of Man. “I want to share what I have learned so that we can understand them, not fear them, and respect them and their home.”

Source: morganton.com

The search for the Yeti or Bigfoot of Shoria Mountain in Russia is set to continue as the snows melt and the weather warms in Siberia. The expedition will commence in June 2009 and will be headed by Valery Kimiev and Professor Nikolai Skalon, the head of the department of Zoology at the Kemerovo State University. Local’s are still alleging they have seen the bigfoot type creature in the area surrounding the Azass Caves on many occasions. One local will be joining the expedition, Hunter Michael Kiskarov who claims to have seen a Yeti more than once.

The local head of government  Vladimir Tashtagol has received 14 written reports by residents of remote villages around the area of the Azass caves and the nearby Mrassu river claiming to have seen these creatures in recent years. The Cryptids are described as being two meters tall, with reddish black hair that resembles that of a brown bear.

The Azass cave is several kilometres deep and it is believed the Yeti or Yeti’s dwell deep in its interior. Some believe that the creature is a lone neanderthal survivor or the sightings have been of one of a number the species, part of a small colony that represents the world’s last Neanderthals.

Source: allnewsweb

“Be careful of what you find,” Diane Stocking warned. “It may well be a rock.”

Stocking, one of three guest speakers Saturday at the 21st annual Bigfoot Conference/Expo, said that what may initially appear to be evidence of Bigfoot or Sasquatch activity must be scrutinized thoroughly before conclusions can be reached.

For example, an apparent footprint was located along a stream and a plaster cast made. Further investigation — by none other than Peter Byrne, one of the so-called “Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery” who led a three-year search for the Abominable Snowman (or Yeti) in Asia — revealed that the impression, though remarkably footprint-like in appearance, was actually made by a rock that had been dislodged from its resting place.

Stocking is president of Florida-based Stocking Hominid Research Inc. She possesses a degree in forestry, served several years as curator of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and is well known in the Bigfoot research arena.

Twisted trees can also often be mistaken for Bigfoot activity, she said. But tornados, microbursts and ice storms can cause such damage too.

So-called “stick stacks” and “weaves” must also be carefully considered, she said. Some formations can occur naturally from falling branches. Others are man-made, possibly by hikers seeking temporary shelter.

Stocking said that one weave in Oregon does not appear to be either natural or man-made, as trees were pulled inward to form a teepee-like formation. The peak was no less than 15 feet from the ground when she examined the formation about 1 1/2 years after its initial discovery by another researcher. The original peak was higher, she said, as the formation had begun to collapse in on itself.

Tree markings can be the result of elk rubs, bear clawings, buck scrapes and porcupines.

Bears walk in such a manner that they place their hind paws into the print of their front paws. This can lead to elongated prints that appear human-like. Animal prints in snow can expand due to thawing.

Bears suffering from mange can, at a distance and standing upright on their hind feet, appear Bigfoot-like. Tree stumps in photographs have given rise to some reported Bigfoot sightings.

Stocker denounced claims that Bigfoot have a mid-tarsal break in their feet giving them flexibility beyond that of humans. She said that biped movement requires a rigid arch.

Though having no personal sightings, Stocking said she does believe that Bigfoot exists. The creature is intelligent and elusive, easily able to avoid detection if it so chooses. Encounters with humans may simply be accidental.

Billy Willard also addressed the audience of several hundred. He formed Sasquatch Watch of Virginia with his son Josh in 2005.

Among the team members is John, who shared his encounter  from 1982 during a hunting trip to North Carolina. His first time hunting, he was stationed in a deer stand. At about 9 a.m. he noticed an odor that sickened him. He had dry heaves, felt the hair on his head stand up as if by static shock, began to convulse and fell to the floor of the stand.

About five minutes later he sat up and began to hear noises. About 50 yards away was a figure he saw only from the waist up. The creature pulled tree branches through its mouth, stripped off the leaves. It peered from left top right periodically, turning its upper body as it did so.

“This wasn’t a person wearing a costume or playing a joke on me,” he said.

It would be more than two decades before John could bring himself to return to the forest.

Willard shared details of several incidences he and his team have investigated, including one in Salt Fork State Park in April near a public picnic area. A track, possibly that of a juvenile Bigfoot, was found and cast. Eyeshine (light reflected from eyes) was seen and members entered the woods. At one point a stick was thrown in Willard’s direction; he saw it travel end-over-end, not flatly, as if it fell from a tree.

Willard also experienced a similar feeling to that of John on an investigation. He became sick and disoriented and laid down on the ground for a few minutes before regaining his bearing.

“I’ve never had that feeling before,” he said, “and I’ve not had it since.”

One theory put forward to explain such experiences is that the creature emits “infrasound” in frequencies of less than 20 Hertz that can cause disorientation in some people. Infrasound is known to be used by some animals in the wild, including elephants and tigers, Willard said.

During a 2007 expedition to Paris, Texas, Willard and team member Tom L. were sleeping in a tent at the end of a campground. By his own admission Willard is a loud snorer. His partner later said that he heard footfalls to the tent, felt the poles being shaken, saw the silhouette of a creature and heard the creature mimic Willard’s snoring sounds.

The following morning Willard said he had what he thought initially was a dream in which something grabbed his leg through the fabric of the tent. Efforts to brush it off failed so he balled his hand into a fist and punched it and fell back asleep. After hearing of Tom L.’s experience he checked his leg and found a red mark where he believed he had been grabbed.

Doug Hajicek was scheduled to speak but was forced to cancel due to business-related obligations, said Keating. Hajicek is perhaps best known for his “Monster Quest” series airing on the History Channel. Keating was featured in one of those episodes dealing with Bigfoot in Ohio, known as the “grassman.”

Keating himself shared information regarding the first and most recent sightings to take place in Salt Fork State Park.

Shortly after the state park opened in 1972 a woman spotted a creature crossing the roadway not far from the cabins. It was the first of four separate sightings taking place over a two-week period. The last and perhaps most terrifying was that of a park ranger who peered out a ranger station window into the face of an alleged Bigfoot. Instinctively he lashed out, Keating said, shattering the glass pane with his hand. The injury required dozens of stitches to close.

On Feb. 9 a West Virginia couple driving through the park spotted a creature walking up a hill. They turned their automobile around and observed the creature “hugging” a tree. Keating said this may have been an attempt by the creature to conceal itself.

Four things are required for a sighting, Keating said: A creature to be observed, an observer, that observer willing to share his/her sighting and circulation within the community of the sighting. Though he is aware of more than two dozen alleged sightings in Salt Fork State Park, there are certainly others that go unreported, possibly from fear of ridicule.

The conference ended with a question and answer session with both speakers, Keating, John and Eric Altman of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society.

Source: dailyjeff

Rich La Monica was behind the wheel of a box truck on a late winter day when he saw a large figure moving through the briars beneath the leafless trees.

“It wasn’t human. It was just too big,” La Monica said. “It definitely looked like what you’d expect to see of a Bigfoot.”

Fearing people would think he was nuts, he kept quiet about what he saw for four years, until he found a community of believers in 1992.

“Then I knew there were actually hundreds of people who had seen them,” he said.

This weekend, hundreds of believers from around the nation will descend on Salt Fork State Park for the 21st annual Bigfoot Conference.

The free event in the ballroom of the park’s lodge will feature exhibits and a tour of nearby locations of Bigfoot sightings. There also will be several speakers, including Doug Hajicek, producer of the History Channel’s “MonsterQuest.”

The show aired an episode last summer that included interviews with La Monica and Don Keating, director of the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center and conference host. The episode was called “Ohio Grassman.”

Grassman as a local name for the Bigfoot stems from the 1940s and 1950s, before “bigfoot” became a household name, said Keating, who was one of the authorities interviewed for the program.

In the 1940s and 1950s, children would tell their parents they saw a large man walking through the grass, hence the name “Grassman,” Keating said.

Sightings date back to at least 1869, when people reported seeing what they called “Wildmen,” super-humanly large, hairy creatures. Since then more than 300 sightings have been reported, said Keating, who said he has had two encounters.

He and a network of colleagues investigate reports of sightings, including ones in rural parts of Ashtabula, Medina, Portage and Summit counties.

Keating excludes reports that are clearly false.

“There’s a lot of people out there who try to make Bigfoot investigators look like total idiots,” Keating said. “You cannot be gullible.”

But he knows gullible, foolish or even crazy is what skeptics would say he and other believers are.

Believers point out that for a long time people believed that the world was flat, that there were no planets around stars other than the sun, that no creature could live near the thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean. They say that new creatures are discovered all the time and that no Westerner had seen a panda until late in the 1800s.

Even those who accept that science evolves often remain certain that there is no such thing as Bigfoot.

La Monica says, “If they ever have the experience, I’m sure they’ll understand why I believe.”

Source: cleveland.com

THE Yowie has been unfairly blamed for the death of a dog in the Top End, according to one of the world’s leading cryptonaturalists.

Territory Yowie researcher Andrew McGinn told the Northern Territory News yesterday the dog’s death could be the work of the Bigfoot-like beast.

“The way the guy’s dog was killed was typical of a Yowie,” he said.

“I know it sounds fanciful but over the past 100 years, dogs get killed or decapitated and people report feeling watched, having goats stolen or seeing some tall hairy thing beforehand.”

But Tim the Yowie Man, a former economist who turned his hand to Yowie research after spotting a hairy beast on a bushwalk 15 years ago, said the Yowie was not to blame.

“I’m very concerned that the Yowie is being incorrectly portrayed as an aggressive creature that is posing a danger to people’s pets,” he said.

“In over 150 years of Yowie reports all over Australia, I’ve never heard of a Yowie ripping an animal’s head off.

“It is my understanding that in this case there is no evidence that proves a Yowie is responsible for biting the head off a seven-month-old puppy.

“To speculate, with a lack of conclusive evidence to back the claims, that the decapitation of this poor puppy was the work of a Yowie is alarmist.”

The Canberra cryptonaturalist said there had only been a handful of Yowie reports from the Territory in the past 15 years.

“One turned out to be a hoax, another turned out to be a hairy naked human running across the Stuart Highway near Alice Springs and the other was of spurious origin,” he said.

Source: ntnews

BENTON COUNTY- In October 2003, the small town of Decatur on the western side of Benton County found itself with a new resident.

Normally, a new neighbor would not cause any kind of stir. After all, people pack up and move every day, but this time things were different.

Although a little shy, the new neighbor soon brought news crews and myth debunkers from all around into the tiny town as the local gossip began to circulate about just what the new guy looked like.

It did not take everyone long to realize that the new neighbor who had moved into the woods around Crystal Lake was, indeed, Bigfoot.

“We had some pretty interesting calls on it,” Decatur Chief of Police Terry Luker said. “I had one lady call me and I tried to explain to her that it was not a Bigfoot and that it was too small to be a Bigfoot.

“The lady stopped me and she said, ‘Well, you know, they have babies, too.”’ ery day she hears someone in the restaurant telling their own Bigfoot story.

“He stays right out there,” Mickey Metz of Gentry said as he pointed into the woods across Crystal Lake. “Some people still say they can hear him way out over there, but we never see him and I do not stay out after dark.”

Paul Austin of Decatur says he remembers the excitement the town went through when Bigfoot was first seen in 2003, but after about a week he did not hear any more about the new neighbor.

“I am not a believer,” Austin added.

Kim Strobel of Gravette, however, is a believer and with good reason.

“I believe in him. I have heard him,” Strobel said.

While working on a wild-game reserve in Winston, Ore., Strobel and a group of his coworkers heard Bigfoot’s howl. When Bigfoot entered the reserve, all of the animals - the lions, the tigers, the monkeys - began howling and hissing and getting extremely nervous in their cages, and then Strobel

The official stance on Decatur’s Bigfoot sightings in 2003 is that the monkey-like creature people were getting fleeting glances of around town was actually a baboon that had escaped from the local wilderness safari in nearby Gentry.

The first spotting of Bigfoot was on Hill Street, and it was not long before the police department was getting calls from citizens who had seen Bigfoot on the west side of Decatur, Luker said.

“It was a lot of fun. I have not heard of any sightings lately,” Luker said.

“He is still around. He still comes in for coffee in the morning,” Denise Trammell, owner of the Gallery Café in downtown Decatur, said.

“He is a little shy, so sometimes he has to come in before we actually open,” Trammell said, noting the café has a deal with Bigfoot to not take photographs of the being that is surrounded with mystery.

“He has a family now. He is a pretty nice guy,” Trammell said, noting that evheard what he believes was Bigfoot letting out a sound that he is not likely to ever forget, he said.

“It was a quiet night. You could hear the grasshoppers chirping and then you could hear just a strange howl and all of the lions started roaring and the monkeys started going crazy,” Strobel said. “The next day we went out looking for him, and never could find anything. But being around animals all my life, I can tell you that sound was like nothing else.”

The mystery of whether or not Bigfoot really exists lives on in Strobel’s mind.

“I have been in quite a few places and you always hear about these stories, but none of us know what all God has created,” Strobel said. “I can not say it was (Bigfoot). I can not say it was not. Two-thirds of the rumors out there are usually true, though.”

Source: nwanews

The legend of the ‘Honey Island Swamp Monster’ born in the swamp lands of Louisiana has been debated for years. Since the legend began with the first sighting in 1974  reported by Harlan Ford and Ray Mills until present day many crypto zoologist and bigfoot believers have investigated and reported on the legend. There have been alot of varying opinions as to if this was an elaborate hoax or an authentic sighting of a bigfoot like creature. Some think that the original reports and sightings by Mr Ford may have been accurate , although through out the years others created hoax footprints and sightings trying to expand on the legend.

M.K. Davis did some research into the legend and found some interesting facts and items which lean to the honey island swap monster being a hoax. These findings are thought by some to simply prove that there were some people over the years who tried to profit or expand on the legend by means of a hoax , but does not prove that the orginal sightings and reports by Mr Ford  and indeed fabricated.

A Louisiana Hoax

M. K. Davis’s presentation…dealt with the “Honey Island Swamp Monster,” a Bigfoot-like denizen of Louisiana reported by an air traffic controller in the late 1970s and featured in the television series In Search Of… featuring Leonard Nimoy. Davis had an unbelievable stroke of luck. He found a man who had recovered one of the shoes used to perpetrate the hoax-for a hoax the story seems to have been. Davis showed footage of the shoe with a three-toed claw attached to the bottom, which was presumably used to fake the tracks. The other shoe is unaccounted for, but the Honey Island Swamp Monster seems to have been exposed once and for all. Bearing in mind [Loren] Coleman’s earlier remarks, there may have been sightings of some anomalous creature in the beginning, but the only available evidence points to fraud.

Whether the legend was a hoax from the beginning or not we may never know. But like many other cryptozoological creatures the legend of the “Honey Island Swamp Monster” lives on.

The Search Never Ends - Monsters and Myths

Does a hulking, 7-foot-tall, ape-like creature roam the rugged mountains and forests of Northern New York and Vermont?

It may seem far-fetched, but accounts can be traced back to Indian lore and even the logs of Samuel de Champlain.

While the lake creature Champ remains the region’s best known ‘monster,’ in recent years, two nationally televised documentaries — on the History and Discovery Channels — have featured entire segments on Bigfoot sightings in upstate New York and Vermont.

The most recent, “Monster Quest,” in 2008, chronicled numerous sightings of a large, hairy, ape-like creature on both sides of Lake Champlain.

‘CANNIBALISTIC MAN’
In the Pacific Northwest, there’s Bigfoot or the legendary Sasquatch; in the Himalayas, there’s the yeti or abominable snowman.

The Algonquin on the western shores of Lake Champlain told of seeing the windigo or “giant cannibalistic man” who, according to legend, roamed the countryside. One modern-day Native American account of the windigo describes it as “a giant thing, swift “¦ and covered with hair, and has eyes like two pools of blood. And there’s this smell, like rotting meat.” This description is similar to Bigfoot reports today.

The Iroquois have a similar oral history of flesh-eating stone giants who possessed powerful physiques.

Across the border in Quebec, the Algonquin-speaking Attikamekw called these creatures Kokotshe.

In his ship’s log chronicling his voyage of discovery on the St. Lawrence River 1604, Champlain wrote how numerous Indian tribes in the region had told eerie stories of a giant, hairy man-beast that was known to the natives as “the Gougou.” Champlain wrote that so many of the tribes recounted such stories that he believed there must be some truth to the tales.

“And what makes me believe what they say, is the fact that all the savages in general fear it, and tell such strange stories of it.”

In northern Vermont, Abenaki traditions tell of a huge, hairy, man-like creature known as the Forest Wanderer who would leave giant, human-like footprints behind. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, many early Vermont settlers in Essex and Orleans counties told of encountering a mysterious bear that moved swiftly through the woods on two legs, always managing to elude capture.

Vermont historian Marion Daley describes this creature in her book, “History of Lemington,” noting its ability to move about in a swift, ghost-like manner bordering on the supernatural.

A CLEVER RUSE?
More than 100 sightings in upstate New York state have been recorded.

In August of 1869, a “wild-man” scare took place at Sucker Brook near Ogdensburg. The creature was never found. In 1883, the Plattsburgh Sentinel reported on the “great scare at Port Henry” involving a “wild man who scares women and frightens the children.” Some witnesses said it appeared to be wearing “an overcoat.” Could this have been fur or hair that was mistaken for clothing by those trying to make sense of what they were seeing? Once again, the creature eluded search parties.

Another cluster of sightings occurred during autumn of 1921, when residents living near Malone organized hunting parties to track down a “wild man.” Most of the reports were centered near the hamlet of Skerry, 12 miles to the southwest. A reporter for the Dunkirk Evening Observer described the tension in the area: “Women sleep ill o’ nights, children are kept from school, or guarded by adults on their way there and back, lonely females cower behind locked doors and men wag their heads in gossip as they ponder over the puzzle of the wild man”¦”

Skeptical authorities in Franklin County considered the story unlikely, instead opting to believe that it was “a clever ruse effected by bootleggers to take advantage of the absence of officers,” so they could more easily smuggle liquor across the Canadian border with ease.

‘SCARY AS HELL’
In the summer of 1969, an ape-like creature was spotted near a cabin at the Pumphouse campsite at Long Lake. The encounter took place at about 11 p.m., as a small oil lantern illuminated the inside of the cabin. One of the men reported afterwards that his wife told him she could see a raccoon staring at them through the window at the back of the cabin. Rolling over in bed, he glanced up and saw a large cone-shaped head and a dark face that appeared to be pushed in. Brownish fur encapsulated the face.

The next morning at a nearby stream, the couple found what appeared to be a heel print 8 inches wide.

Another sighting took place near Saranac Lake on a tranquil summer’s evening in August of 1996. Two men fishing in a boat on Pine Lake near dusk spotted what they took to be a black bear. Suddenly the “bear” stood up and walked off, leaving the men shaken. One of the witnesses said it stood 7 feet tall and had dark-brown hair.

“Its face was hairy yet fleshy around the upper cheeks. Its eyes were dark in color but clearly visible and had a brightness about them.”

The creature stared at the pair for 10 seconds before tilting its head then darting into the woods with the agility of a cat.

Said one of the men: “The whole experience was very, very upsetting. Although I can honestly say it did not attempt to threaten us “¦ it was scary as hell. That night I did not sleep one wink.”

Source: pressrepublican

More evidence of the abominable snowman (more politely known as a Yeti or Bigfoot) has been uncovered in Russia’s Kemerovo Region in southwestern Siberia, the Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

Vladimir Makut, a local administrator in the Tashtagol district of Kemerovo Region, noted in an interview with the newspaper that sightings of unusual large creatures in the area date far back into Soviet times, when the area contained several prison colonies. The creatures inspired such dread that the prisoners sometimes refused to go out to work. The local native people, the Shors, also have numerous legends about wild “dark people.” Specialists note, however, that, historically, more yeti activity has been recorded in neighboring regions. The Soviet Academy of Sciences even set up a commission to investigate those reports in 1958. It concluded that Altai, which Tashtagol borders on, is a breeding ground for the creature. There the yetis have been sighted in pairs and yeti children have been seen.

Dozens of sightings near Azas Cave have been recorded, all during the winter months. The area is accessible only with local guides and the right equipment, but it is visited by campers and personnel from the coal mining industry. The latest series of reports began last November. Igor Burtsev, director of the International Center for Hominology, noted that the situation is unusual in that reports have come from locals. Local inhabitants rarely report such sightings, even when they are aware of the presence of the mysterious creatures. There were no actually encounters with the yetis, but numerous tracks were found. They were described as similar to bear tracks, but with distinct toes.

Makut organized an expedition to the cave and, after finding tracks himself, called in Burtsev and several regional officials. They also confirmed the presence of footprints in the cave, but declined to enter the cave farther than 30 yards, noting the dangerous conditions. The yetis themselves eluded the explorers.

Komsomolskaya Pravda noted that there have been other recent developments in hominology. Last month, a film crew from Russia’s Channel One television discovered enormous hominid footprints in Abkhazia and interviewed a local resident who stated that she was the granddaughter of a domesticated yeti. According to the woman, Raisa Sabekia, her grandmother, named Zana, was captured by hunters and given as a gift to her grandfather, who was a local nobleman. He eventually taught her to speak. Abkhazia is another region known for the presence of yeti. An Academy of Sciences expedition searched for the creature in that region in Soviet times as well.

Source: mosnews

Two backpackers on a year long trip around Australia got the fright of their life last week while they were out trekking in bushland in the vicinity of the township of Leura, not far from the well known Katoomba landmark, ‘The Three Sisters’.

It was early evening and by the two ladies admission a bit late to be by themselves in the bush. Ingrid Schön 23, of Germany and Adi Hassan, 22 of France decided to head back into town when they heard the breaking of branches and loud footsteps heading towards them. Ingrid shone a torch onto the track in front of them.

At this point they both claim to have seen what they now describe as Bigfoot charge away into the distance.

‘Admittedly we did not get a close look but we think what we saw looked like the American Bigfoot, basically covered in fur and about two meters tall. It definitely had no clothes on and was not human.’ Ingrid told All News Web reporter Jadyn Cassidy. ‘We were petrified and almost lost our way back in our nervous state’ Ingrid commented.

The Blue Mountains is believed to be the home of a creature known as the Yowie, basically Australia’s version of Bigfoot or the Yeti. There have been many recent sightings.  Prior to the arrival of Europeans local Aboriginal tribes were certain of its existence. Aboriginal communities still living in the Blue Mountains along with some other locals continue to believe the Yowie might be out there in the vast expanses of Australia’s Great Dividing Range.