December 3, 2007
Joshua Gates (R) displaying alleged footprint of Yeti.
Despite the fact that the new Yeti cast found by Joshua Gates closely mirrors the one he found in Johor, perhaps I was wrong about the first image floating out of Asia of it being a stock picture. I have confirmed that it sounds like it, indeed, is a different cast.
Neil Mandt of Mandt Brothers Productions who produced year one of “Destination Truth” but is no longer associated with the program just told me: “That’s definitely a new photo of a new cast. It is not a copy of the Johor cast. That is in my office in Los Angeles. I was in India at a the India International Film Festival for my movie when I learned of the new cast. I haven’t heard from Josh; I just know what I’ve read on the internet. It sounds like this cast was created there. Josh is scheduled to get back in town on Christmas eve. I’m sure I will hear from him then, if not before.”
Josh had been in email contact with me too, before he left, as I was scheduled to consult, post-production on the show.
I’ll keep you all up to date on what I learn.
Meanwhile, the AFP has published a rather skeptical article passing along vast amounts of bad data.
When in the world did you ever hear that Yetis only had four toes versus five? Or who is to say that Yetis are definitely bears?
I think the one that goes way over the top is the guy the following article quotes who says that those “people living in the high Himalayas believe in this strange creature called a Yeti but nobody has actually seen it.” Wow! Now that is an incredible piece of misinformation to be spreading.
Here’s most of what they are sharing:
Mountaineering and wildlife officials in Nepal said Monday they doubted whether footprints found by a United States team from a science fiction programme were those of a Yeti.
The host and crew from “Destination Truth” spent around a week in the foothills of Mount Everest and returned to the capital Kathmandu last week with claims that they had found footprints belonging to the legendary creature.
“The footprints may be from a Himalayan bear,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, the president of Nepal Mountaineering Association told AFP after looking at pictures of the prints.
“It is believed that Yetis have only four toes but the footprints recorded by the US team have five toes,” said Sherpa, whose father went unsuccessfully looking for the legendary beast in the 1950s.
The Yeti — described as massive half-human, half-ape-like creature — has captured the imagination of explorers and climbers in the Himalayas for generations.
Dozens of costly expeditions have taken place, none of which have proved the existence of the beast.
* * *
“Destination Truth” — which investigates the existence of mythical creatures — is being made for an American science fiction channel.
Host Joshua Gates told AFP Saturday that the programme would further investigate the footprints, which were found last week on the bank of the Manju River, 150 kilometres (94 miles) northeast of Kathmandu.
“The footprint is 13 inches (33 centimetres) long and the toes span nine inches (23 centimetres) across,” Gates told AFP at a hotel in Kathmandu.
“This is really an intriguing piece of evidence and we all feel a little bit unable to explain what we saw,” he said.
But Laxmi Manandhar, a spokesman at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, told AFP: “People living in the high Himalayas believe in this strange creature called a Yeti but nobody has actually seen it.
“The footprint castings brought by the US television crew are strange, but there is no supporting evidence to back up the claim that these are footprints of the Yeti.”“Experts in Nepal raise doubts over US ‘Yeti’ footprint claims” / AFP Source
Josh Gates is shown above with the Yeti footprint cast, dated December 1, 2007, from his Nepal expedition. Below is Josh Gates with the original Malaysia track cast from “Destination: Truth’s” season one Johor expedition of February 2006.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Abominable Snowman, Breaking News, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Destination Truth, Evidence, Expedition Reports, Eyewitness Accounts, Footprint Evidence, Forensic Science, Malaysian Bigfoot, Yeti