Yeti Captured On Russian Dashcam? Driver Captures Humanoid Figure Creeping Around In The Snow
A Russian man believes he’s captured a Yeti – the famed creature sometimes incorrectly referred to as “The Abominable Snowman” – on dascham video, Fox News is reporting.
Last week, the video below popped up on YouTube, and has since picked up over a million views. In it, a man drives down a snow-covered road, mentioning the word “Yeti” a couple of times with his passengers. We’re not sure of the rest of what they were saying – The Inquisitr’s Foreign Language Translation Department having taken the day off – but from the context, it appears they were either looking for Yetis, or joking with each other that they might see one.
Sure enough, they saw one.
Beginning at about 00:47, something runs across the road.
Then, strangely, the car’s engine cuts out, before being restarted, then the driver drives over the creature’s tracks before backing up and trying to get a second look.
The video is believed to have been shot in the Republic of Bashkortostan, a Russian enclave near the Kazakhstan border, between the Ural mountains and the Volga River.
And if you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! Aren’t Yetis from Nepal or Tibet or some place, not Russia?” you’d be right.
According to Live Science, the Yeti legend originated in the Himalayas, wherein some Buddhist temples he’s revered as something of a deity. You can find artifacts – bones here, hairs there – that are rumored to be from him and are treated with great respect. Sir Edmund Hillary even stopped by a temple that had a scalp rumored to have come from a Yeti (in fact, it came from a goat).
“The Yeti is said to be muscular, covered with dark grayish or reddish-brown hair, and weigh between 200 and 400 pounds. It is relatively short compared to North America’s Bigfoot, averaging about 6 feet in height. Though this is the most common form, reported Yetis have come in a variety of shapes.”
By the way, you may have heard the term “abominable snowman” and “Yeti” used interchangeably.
#Character #Toy: Abominable Snow Monster Rudolph And The Island Of Misfit Toys https://t.co/xhocT5eTOK #Toys pic.twitter.com/K3bfDEtMTp
— Toys Charm (@clintonCedri) November 19, 2016
You may have even done it yourself. You’d be wrong, however. The phrase “abominable snowman” comes from a mistranslation of some Sherpa words that British explorers misused when recounting their adventures back in London, according to BBC News. Nevertheless, the term “abominable snowman” is much better at selling newspapers than “Yeti,” so it stuck.
Anyway, back to Russia: did these guys capture a Yeti walking across the road? I’m going to burst everyone’s bubble here and say “probably not.”
First of all, the human brain has evolved to see patterns – and in particular, to attach human faces and features – when in fact there is none. The process is called “pareidolia,” and it’s the same pattern that causes people to believe they’ve seen the Virgin Mary in the water stains on an overpass, or Jesus Christ in a piece of toast, according to The Skeptic’s Dictionary. So in this case, you’re watching this video, expecting to see a Yeti, something blurry and unidentifiable crosses the road, and your brain decides it looks vaguely humanoid, and Voila! You think you see a Yeti.
What you’re actually seeing there is most likely an animal, perhaps with injured legs so that it appears as it’s walking on two feet. You’ll also notice that the being’s tracks look more like that of a mundane animal, possibly an injured deer or fox, rather than a 6-foot-tall, 400-pound bipedal cryptoid.
Do you believe this Russian dashcam footage captured a Yeti or just an injured animal?
[Featured Image by Fun Way Illustrations/Shutterstock]