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A hunt for theYetiended last calendar month with a exclusive chain of horse cavalry hair’s-breadth , a BBC Radio 4 program covering the Himalayan hunt has revealed .

Andrew Benfield , a author and meditation teacher , has spent class look for the Yeti with his sceptical Quaker and political psychoanalyst Richard Horsey . The pair travel through India , Myanmar , Nepal and Bhutan , hear to stories about the legendary animal and eventually making " Yeti , " a BBC Radio 4 series about their search .

A purported Yeti footprint in the snow in Bhutan.

A purported Yeti footprint in the snow in Bhutan.

The serial finished on a cliffhanger in June — a mysterious whisker supplied by an unnamed source awaiting deoxyribonucleic acid analysis . Abonus episodepublished Oct. 20 has now give away the hair came from a horse .

Benfield told Live Science the solution " did n’t feel just " after three age of search . " A cavalry was about as dull as we could get , " Benfield enunciate . But the DNA analysis does n’t annul the serial publication or the stories of the the great unwashed they spoke to , harmonise to the pair .

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Andrew and Richard sitting in the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan.

Andrew and Richard sitting in the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan.

Tales of an ape - like creature roaming the Himalayas date back C . westerly interest in the Yeti , orAbominable Snowman , took off in the former 1950s after British mountaineer Eric Shipton returned from Everest with photograph of jumbo footprint . Subsequent investigations led by westerner fail to come up any scientific grounds of the creature ’s existence .

Having worked in international developing , Benfield did n’t like that local account statement of the Yeti were dismissed just because bloodless Explorer had n’t discover one . He was also reassure by a Sir David Attenborough interview filmed in 2013 , in whichAttenborough saidhe thinks " there might be something in the Abominable Snowman whodunit . " Attenborough does n’t take part in the raw radio serial publication .

Benfield set out in 2019 to hear first - hand stories of the Yeti and invited Horsey , who has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychological science , to join him . " If I could convince him , I knew I was on to something , " Benfield said .

Richard Horsey (middle) recording in the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary alongside Brokpa nomad guide Sumba (left) and guide Pema Sonam (right).

Richard Horsey (middle) recording in the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary alongside Brokpa nomad guide Sumba (left) and guide Pema Sonam (right).

The BBC became involve in 2022 , just before the duo headed to Bhutan and the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary , a 286 - straight - mi ( 740 square - klick ) national park established , in part , to protect the " Migoi , " or Yeti , fit in to theDaily Bhutan . Here , Horsey eventually go a story that shake his skepticism , and Benfield acquires the purported Yeti tomentum .

The hair was about 6 inches ( 15 centimeters ) long . Benfield cut it in one-half and sent firearm toCharlotte Lindqvist , an evolutionary biologist at the University at Buffalo in New York . Lindqvist and her squad find the desoxyribonucleic acid matched Altai horses , a mountain breed from Asia .

Lindqvist was also part of a 2017 field of study published in theProceedings of the Royal Society Bthat canvass nine purported Yeti samples and found eight came from bears and one number from a dog . She has previously said that she has no dubiousness thecreature is a myth .

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Benfield accepts the deoxyribonucleic acid effect but still has n’t parted with the other half of the hair , which he told Live Science is currently in his cupboard . He also speak of the vast , unmoved , undiscovered nature of the Himalayas and say Yeti history get from people who know the region .

" You sure enough abide by local people ’s knowledge when you ’re up there because they ’re maintain you active , " Benfield said . " Who am I to question these people ? They ’re out there every daylight . "

Horsey did n’t believe they ’d come back with deoxyribonucleic acid evidence , but told Live Science the Yeti is more significant to local people than he ’d ever imagined . " We realized it does n’t really count to most of these people whether it physically exists , " Horsey said . " It ’s the role that it play in their world . "

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Writer Tshering Tashi detailed Bhutanese impression in the Yeti in a 2020 clause forKuensel Online , the WWW version of Bhutan ’s national newspaper . In it , he say that people in Bhutan are convince that the Yeti exists but are in " no precipitation " to bring on evidence .

" While there is certainly a biological being behind the mythology , we believe that it will not be in the shape and form that Westerners have romanticised it to be , " Tashi publish .

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