A composite image from Yeti Project Japan shows what team members claim is a yeti footprint (l) photographed on the Dhaulagiri mountain in Nepal, and a human footprint. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
http://www.newanimal.org/yeti.htm【10月20日 AFP】ネパール・チベット間のヒマラヤ（Himalaya）一帯に住むと言われている未確認動物｢イエティ（yeti）｣を撮影することを目指し、8月からネパールで捜索活動をしていた「イエティ・プロジェクト・ジャパン（Yeti Project Japan）」の高橋好輝（Yoshiteru Takahashi）隊長が20日、ネパールの首都カトマンズ（Kathmandu）でAFPの取材に応じた。
イエティは半猿半人の動物と言い伝えられ長年、欧米の冒険家や登山家の想像をかき立ててきた。イエティ・プロジェクト・ジャパンの捜索は今回で3度目。高橋隊長が率いる7人のチームが標高7661メートルのダウラギリ4（Dhaulagiri IV）山頂で42日間を過ごした。
前回2003年の捜索の際、高橋隊長らはイエティと思われる生物を目撃し、足跡を撮影した。｢200メートルくらい先にシルエットが見えた。人間のよう に2足歩行で、背は150センチくらいだった。私も、他の隊員もヒマラヤには何度も来ており、クマやシカ、オオカミやユキヒョウの足跡は分かる。あの足跡 はそのどれとも違っていた｣（高橋隊長）
今回は、前回の目撃地点付近に自動カメラ9台を設置したが、残念ながら撮影には至らなかった。しかし、足跡はイエティが存在する強力な証拠だと高橋隊長は言う。
同チームは今後も、撮影に成功するまで探検を続けるとしている。イエティの足跡の写真は同プロジェクトのウェブサイトでも見ることができる。(c)AFP
Japanese climbers claim to have found the Yeti's footprints
A team of Japanese climbers claimed they have found the footprints of the legendary abominable snowman in the folds of the eastern Himalayas in Nepal.
An eight-member team claimed the footprints of the snowman or Yeti were about 20 centimetres long and were human in appearance. The creature's footprints were found on snow at an altitude of about 4,800 metres (15,748 feet) in the Dhaulagiri mountain range in west Nepal.
The scientific community said there is no proof of the Yeti's existence despite decades of sightings. "We saw three footprints which looked like that of human beings," Kuniaki Yagihara, a member of the Yeti Project Japan, told Reuters, after returning with photographs of the footprints.
The Japanese crew said it was their third attempt to track down the half-man-half-ape, which has long been part of the western adventuring folklore in this part of the world.
The team said they have become adept at recognising the various beasts such as bear and snow leopards and are adamant that the "footprint" was "none of those".
Although the climbers spent more than 40 days on Dhaulagiri IV - a 7,661 metre (25,135-foot) peak where they say they have seen traces of yetis in the past - they could not furnish the press with a single photograph of the Yeti. "If I don't believe in Yeti I would never come," said Yagihara.
Nepali Sherpas say the legend of the Yeti rests deep in the Himalayan psyche. Tales of wild hairy giants living in the snow are part of growing up in the mountains. These prompted many, including Sir Edmund Hillary, to carry out yeti hunts.
The Yeti is also considered more than a myth by the world of cryptozoology, the study of uncatalogued creatures, which takes seriously the idea that the alleged creature may be the last fragments of a race of giant man-apes that existed in central Asia more than 300,000 years ago.
There appears a global trading industry in sightings of the abominable snowman. Most turn out to be false. In July Yeti hairs were supposedly found in north east India. Upon testing they turned out to belong to a species of Himalayan goat. In August, two men in the US claimed they had found the remains of a half-man-half-ape Bigfoot, which actually turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit.
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