Scientists searching for the legendary yeti have agreed that the mythical creature does, after all, exist. They reached their decision at the end of a two-day conference in Moscow devoted to the abominable snowman.

The meeting was timed to mark the anniversary of some celebrated, but controversial film footage, supposedly showing a
female Yeti, shot in California 30 years ago. The participants were in agreement that the film was genuine and that the yeti exists.

The BBC's Russian affairs specialist Stephen Mulvey says a steady flow of reported sightings of the yeti has helped to keep alive
the theory that the animal is more than just a figment of the imagination.

In China in 1993, and in the United States in 1995, there were widely publicised claims of close encounters with the creature.
Earlier this year a well-known Italo-Austrian adventurer, Reinhold Messner claimed to have stood face to face with a yeti in the
Himalayas. He is writing a book on the subject and has promised to publish photographs. But to date the most famous pictures of a yeti remains the footage shot in 1967 in Bluff Creek, Northern California. On the eve of the Moscow conference an American film-maker claimed that the creature seen at Bluff Creek was no more than an actor in a specially-made suit.

However conference participants from America, Canada and Russia all dismissed the hoax theory, arguing that both the anatomy and the gait of the creature were non-human.

The yeti is a mythical creature who is supposed to live in the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world.

Although there have been many reported sightings of the yeti, none of them have been documented with evidence in any way.

According to the conference organiser, publisher Igor Burtsev, Western and Russian specialists studied the film independently
over many years, but arrived at many of the same conclusions.

It is a common occurrence within closely related animal species inhabiting a similar ecological niche and utilizing a similar food resource that a major size difference evolves so that one species is half the size and weight of the other so as to reduce competition amongst them. This is perfectly shown in the observed size difference in these 2 undescribed bipedal primates. Different territorial calls also evolve in closely related species that further reduce competition amongst them.

The Aboriginal people and European settlers, particularly those working in the bush, knew both species. Aboriginal people in southeastern NSW knew the larger species as Doolagarl, Doolagard, Gooligah, Thoolagal, Moomega and Yaromah depending on their language group. Aboriginal people from Sydney inland to the Blue Mountains and Bathurst and down to Bateman's Bay and Bega appear to have used the word Yowie or Yourie for ghosts and evil spirits. This word then appears to have been applied to the large bipedal primate by early settlers along with the word Yahoo. After European settlement Aboriginal people also used both Yowie and Yahoo and Europeans also used the term Hairy Man and Australian Gorilla. Yowie has become the accepted name in recent years.

Scientists and cryptozoologists researching reports of similar large bipedal primates, usually known as Wildmen, across Africa, Eurasia, South-east Asia and the Americas agree that the animal appears to be Gigantopithecus, known only from half a million year old fossils from China. Descriptions of the physical appearance and behavior of the Yeti of the Himalayas, the Yeren of China, the Sasquatch or Bigfoot of the Americas and the Doolagarl or Yowie of Australia are all so similar that it would appear that they are all members of the same species or at least closely related.

All appear to be extremely cryptic, solitary, nocturnal hunters that have adapted to a wide range of different habitats, have naturally low population numbers and very large territories, as is typical of many large carnivorous mammal species. Competition with another similar-sized bipedal hunting primate, humans, may have been partly responsible for humans existing in large, diurnal, social populations and Gigantopithecus existing as scattered, solitary, nocturnal, cryptic populations so that competition is reduced.

The small bipedal primate was known to the Aboriginal people as Junjadee, Junjuddis, Dinderi, Winambuu, Waaki, Nimbunj, depending on their language group, and, since European settlement, Brown Jacks. This smaller species made newspaper headlines in March 1979 when individuals were observed on Tower Hill at Charters Towers in Queensland. There have been many reports of small bipedal primates from Africa, Asia and in Sumatra where they are known as Orang Pendek.

So how did these originally Asian animals get to Australia? The answer is evident in the documentation of sightings of these and similar animals elsewhere. In Australia the large bipedal primate has been observed swimming in rivers and lagoons and in such a situation has been called a bunyip. Sightings of seals far upstream in freshwater rivers and billabongs, perhaps along with the last survivals of aquatic mega fauna, were probably responsible for most bunyip reports.

The Aboriginal people of the lower Murray River know of an ape-like creature that swims in the river and is named Mooluwonk. On 18 July 1848 the Angus reported the sighting of a huge humanoid swimming in the Eumeralla River. The Melbourne Herald of 29 October 1849 reported the observation of a bunyip beside a lake on Phillip Island described as being half man and half baboon that dived into the lake when it was shot at. The Sydney Morning Herald of 24 August 1872 reported that a party of surveyors observed a bunyip at Cowal Lake that resembled a human being. It was covered with long dark hair and was swimming, rising out of the water so that they could see its shoulders and then diving as if in chase of fish.

A Yowie has been observed wading ashore from Lake Dulverton in Tasmania in 1987 and Sasquatch have been observed doing likewise in Lake Winnipegosis and the Klamath River in North America. These reports show that the Yowie is an excellent swimmer in small bodies of water and investigations by Bob Titmus, one of the very early Bigfoot investigators, operating from a boat among the islands and inlets of British Columbia over several years, proved that the Sasquatch was capable of swimming through stormy seas. Fresh sets of tracks coming out of the water and into the woods on small islands proved that the Sasquatch is perfectly capable of swimming across open ocean to reach distant hunting grounds or to colonize new territory. Yowies therefore appear to have entered the Australasian region from Asia by swimming from island to island.

Accidental rafting could also explain this Asian animal's presence here. It is believed that Asian mice reached Australian shores in this way over millions of years and once here have diversified into endemic species. Larger mammals would have enormous difficulties surviving such a voyage, adapting to the new environment and arriving in large enough numbers to begin a genetically diverse population. However an adaptable, semi-aquatic carnivorous primate, humans, made the journey so perhaps a similar, though fur-covered, species could do like-wise. Before human domination of Southeast Asia the islands were thickly vegetated and richly populated with a diverse fauna. Riverside rainforest torn loose near a river mouth during cyclonic weather to form rafts of trees floating towards Australia with a complement of animals preyed upon by a family of castaway Yowies could just be possible.

Many researchers of undescribed cryptic animals are not biologists and often concluded that these animals must be paranormal because they are so elusive and impossible to capture. They state that the existence of the animal can only be understood by looking for explanations that go beyond the understanding of modern physics. These statements are preposterous and show little understanding of physics, biology, ecology or animal behavior. It is most unlikely that the entire understanding of physical reality falls apart whenever an undescribed animal is reported. It is also unlikely that the only evidence of other dimensions intruding into our own is represented by a cryptic animal and by no other aspect of natural phenomena.

It is to be expected that the public would have little knowledge of, or belief in, undescribed fauna. Most people's experience with wildlife comes from television documentaries, museums, zoos and the picnic areas of national parks. It is only natural that people believe that, if an animal has not been regularly observed then it cannot possibly exist. Field biologists, however, know from years of experience that many species are incredibly difficult to observe, trap, photograph or obtain any evidence of their existence what so ever until they come up with an innovative method to do so. This particularly applies to solitary nocturnal carnivores.

The Eastern Puma or Mountain Lion (Puma concolor couguar), which ranged from New Brunswick in Canada to the Carolinas in the USA, has been considered extinct by all American state wildlife agencies and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for most of the 20th century. Despite numerous fauna surveys no evidence for its existence had been found in almost 100 years and yet dozens of eyewitness reports have been made in almost all Eastern states every year. A Canadian wildlife biologist, Bruce Wright, director of the Northeastern Wildlife Station of the University of New Brunswick, was convinced from sighting reports from the late 1930s that the eastern puma survived in cryptic, remnant populations but was never able to convince his fellow zoologists or provincial officials. After over 50 years of investigations of Eastern Puma sightings by biologists, fresh tracks in snow and a fecal scat was found. Analysis of the droppings revealed the remains of consumed prey, snowshoe hare, and indisputable eastern puma hairs from the feet and legs, presumably ingested during grooming after feeding. On 1 March 1993 the New Brunswick Minister of Natural Resources officially acknowledged the presence of an eastern puma population.

The eastern puma is still regarded as extinct in the USA despite the eyewitness reports and its official rediscovery in Canada. The eastern puma is now understood to have survived all of that time that it was definitely thought extinct even though not a photograph or a specimen has been obtained. Unlike what some researchers thought, the sightings did not represent an entity from another dimension but an ordinary animal that could easily survive and reproduce without revealing any evidence of its existence.

If a carnivorous animal is hunted into apparent extinction, what is probably exterminated are all those members of the population that have been the most successful competitors for territory and therefore hold the prime habitats, are more self-assured and are more obvious to human hunters. The survivors are probably those that have always been forced to live in the poorest habitats and through competition with more dominant individuals have been forced to become cryptic. When humans clear the prime habitat of the species the cryptic individuals survive in remnant habitat and pass on their genes for cryptic behavior to their offspring.

If the eastern puma can survive, as an almost invisible entity in such a heavily populated area as the eastern portion of North America, how much easier is it for cryptic species to survive undetected in less heavily populated localities. In Australia, several carnivorous species, the mainland Thylacine, Tasmanian tiger, feral pumas and black panthers, the Yowie and the Junjadee are all regularly reported. When biologists point out that Thylacines were easily trapped and hunted in the early part of this century and so could not possibly have changed their behavior to become cryptic, it is possible to understand that the cryptic members of the population always avoided the hunters and continue to do so now.

With the increasing technological advantage that we humans possess it may eventually be proven that we were extremely arrogant and that cryptic species that we swore could not possibly exist without us knowing all about it, have been observing us all along.

" We have just made a single discovery and we are opposite a phenomenon which comes out of the ordinary one. According to expertises' which I carried out, using the print run by that who made this discovery, we can affirm that it acts well a being alive on the Valin mounts. For the first time, we have a scientific proof between our hands and there is no doubt that it is an animal of which the foot measures 18 inches, which could weigh in the 250 to 300 pounds and which moves on two legs. According to my deductions, it would be about famous "the sasquatch," this is the one called "bigfoot." "Here are surprising declarations made last Friday, by Yvon Leclerc, a scientist of Our-Lady of Mount Carmel, in the sector of Three-Rivers.
For this man of science, the discovery of a forest technician of Saint-Fulgence is of first importance. " It is quite obvious that such an information will make start many people, but the case of the " sasquatch " is not new and of the researchers, as well known as the American Grover Krantzs, doctor and professor at the University of Washington, and Marie-Jeanne Kauffman, doctor and professor with the Academy of Science of Moscow, make mention in their search of it. It is in 1967 that the first prints of this animal were raised. In 1969, the same description was raised in Washington. In 1990, Doctor Barbara Malloy speaks about another presence in Vermont. In 1999, it was in Ontario. "On the other hand, it is the first time at Quebec that we have the chance to have a print authenticates very revealing which enables us to establish certain irrefutable scientific parameters. When I saw the moulding of this print, for the first time, I was persuaded that
we were in the presence of this famous " big foot ". I subjected this print to one as of the my brothers, who is an orthopedist in Quebec, and this last made only confirm the authenticity of this print which has all the characteristics of a print of foot an alive being. "

There's a bigfoot attacking cars and trying to snatch little children in the Tennessee foothills. Exactly what the Flintville monster is or where it came from remains a mystery, but more than two decades of sightings and terrifying encounters have left many people convinced that the creature is not only real but more than two decades of sightings and terrifying encounters have left many people convinced that the creature is not only real but dangerous as well.

More than two decades of sightings and terrifying encounters with a massive, hairy monster have left the folks of Flintville, Tenn., about 70 miles west of Chattanooga, convinced that the creature is not only real, but dangerous. "That thing's so big it could easily hurt somebody," complained Ned Sinclair, a farmer. "Who knows how many head of our livestock have gone missing because of it?"

So far no one has been hurt by the Flintville monster, which often leaves behind 16-inch footprints and a foul, skunk-like odor. But there are those who claim to have had close calls.

One man said a "7-foot-tall hairy monster" chased him through the woods, howling and screeching at him like an ape. A woman said she hid on the floorboard when a similar creature attacked her car.

On at least one occasion, a child was nearly kidnapped by a thing with long, hairy arms. The trouble began in 1976 when a woman told police that a "giant, hairy monster" broke her automobile antenna and then jumped onto the roof of her car and began bouncing up and down. When the woman's story made news, other citizens stepped forth to describe similar encounters.

Several attacks were reported in the early 1980s, including one by a plumber who said his truck's windshield was smashed by the monster and another by a housewife who said a "black, hairy creature" chased her inside her house and beat on the door.

In 1989 a church pastor complained that "something" had destroyed the windshield and antenna on his car. That same week a group of teens reported a "large, manlike ape" loping across a field at the edge of town. Of all the stories, however, none can match the nearly tragic drama related by Jennie Robertson.

On April 26, 1976, Mrs. Robertson's 4-year-old son, Gary, was playing in the yard when his mother heard him scream. When she ran outside to investigate, she became conscious of a foul odor that reminded her of a skunk or "dead rats."

Then she saw a huge, apelike figure bounding across the yard toward the house. "It was 7 or 8 feet tall." she told investigators," and seemed to be all covered with hair. It reached out its long, hairy arms toward Gary and came within a few inches of him." Seconds before the shaggy beast could grab the child, his terrified mother snatched him up, darted inside the house and locked the doors. When she got up enough courage to look out the window, she saw a "big, black shape disappearing into the woods." Minutes after she reported the incident to police, swarms of lawmen and hunters descended on her property, armed with shotguns and rifles. They resolved to track down and kill the creature.

Throughout the night, they combed the woods on the outskirts of town. They never found anything, but on at least two occasions the creature screamed at them and pelted them with rocks.

The next day the hunters found more 16-inch footprints, as well as hair, blood and mucus. The hair was scientifically analyzed but could not be identified. No sightings have been reported since 1993. Does that mean the creature has gone away? "I doubt it," said Mrs. Robertson. "It's probably just gone into hiding for awhile."

Throughout the South, from Arkansas to Virginia, reports of monsters resembling bigfoot continue to reach the desks of law enforcement officers and park rangers. Most sightings can be dismissed as hoaxes or illusions triggered by poor visibility or unsteady imaginations. But a few - like the Flintville monster - cannot be explained away