Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes has concluded that the legendary Himalayan yeti may be a sub-species of brown bear, based on DNA tests of hair samples. The tests revealed a perfect match with an ancient polar bear jawbone from Svalbard, Norway, dating back 40,000 to 120,000 years.
Professor Sykes told the BBC that the most likely explanation for the myth is a hybrid of polar bears and brown bears. 'I think this bear, which nobody has seen alive,... may still be there and may have quite a lot of polar bear in it,' he said. 'It may be some sort of hybrid and if its behaviour is different from normal bears, which is what eyewitnesses report, then I think that may well be the source of the mystery and the source of the legend.'
The DNA tests were conducted on two samples: one from a mummified creature shot by a hunter in Ladakh, northern India, around 40 years ago, and a single hair found in a bamboo forest in Bhutan by filmmakers 10 years ago. The results were compared with genomes on a DNA sequence database.
Professor Sykes described the findings as 'completely unexpected' and said more work is needed. He suggested that a sub-species of brown bear in the High Himalayas could be descended from an ancestor of the polar bear, or there may have been recent hybridisation between brown bears and descendants of the ancient polar bear.
In 2008, US scientists examined hairs claimed to be from a yeti from Meghalaya, India, and concluded they belonged to a Himalayan goat, the Himalayan Goral.
