Bigfoot Encounters MOSNEWS - New Bigfoot activity noted in southwestern Siberia |
Bold-italic inserts are correction or comments by Igor Bourtsev -- April 7, 2009 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 Makuta, 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. (There were also many reports gathered in neghbouring Mongol Altai mountains in 1960-70's, and I also visited those mountains in 1976 being the head of a research group. We found there were many eyewitnesses at that time. Afterwards, the British anthropologist Myra Shakley visited the same regions of Mongoly and also found additional data on the almases - the local name of such creatures. By the way, in Altai Republic (Russia) there is a mountain called Almys-tou - "the mountain of almyses" IP) 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. Makuta 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 (footprints were very unclear), 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 (it's not true) 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. (Zana could not speak according to eyewitnesses) 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. (Boris Porshnev started to look for Zana's grave in 1964-65, and I continued in 1971, 1975) MOSNEWS - New Bigfoot activity noted in Siberia http://mosnews.com/features/2009/04/07/bigfoot/ Article courtesy Anton Korenyako; comments in bold-italics are Igor Bourtsev's... April 17, 2009 Back to Bigfoot Encounters Main page Back to Newspaper & Magazine Articles Back to Bigfoot Encounters "What's New" page Portions of this website are reprinted and sometimes edited to fit the standards of this website |