Turns out it's not some half-human-half-ape beast or even a gorilla adapted to the freezing temperatures at the mountains.
IT'S A BEAR!
Specifically, it is partially polar bear.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10384000/Yeti-lives-Abominable-Snowman-is-part-polar-bear-and-still-roams-the-Himalayas.htmlYes we are not dealing with some ancient offshoot of the human species. It is just some regular bear, which happens to be half-bear-half-polar-bear. A creature with the blood of ancient beasts which have been thought to have died out 40'000 years ago.
...Now that I type it out like that it does seem like most of the crazy theories got pretty close. [whisper] APART FROM THE FACT THAT IT'S A BEAR THAT IS! [/whisper]
Professor Sykes believes that the animals are hybrids – crosses between polar bears and brown bears. Because the newly identified samples are from creatures which are recently alive, he thinks the hybrids are still living in the Himalayas.
The sample from Ladakh came from the mummified remains of a creature shot by a hunter around 40 years ago. He considered the animal so unusual, and so alarming, he kept some of its remains. A sample of the hair was passed to Professor Sykes by a French mountaineer who was given it by the hunter around a decade ago. The second sample was in the form of a single hair, found in a bamboo forest by an expedition of filmmakers, also around ten years ago.
Professor Sykes added: “This is a species that hasn’t been recorded for 40,000 years. Now, we know one of these was walking around ten years ago. And what’s interesting is that we have found this type of animal at both ends of the Himalayas. If one were to go back, there would be others still there.”
EDIT:
After reading this I think someone should notify Colbert.
He added: “The fact that the hunter, who had great experience of bears, thought this one was in some way unusual and was frightened of it, makes me wonder if this species of bear might behave differently. Maybe it is more aggressive, more dangerous or is more bipedal than other bears.”
(Despite my humorous post I am really thrilled by this new discovery.)