Discovery channel: "Russian Yeti" and the Yeti 'family'

And so, last night I watched Discovery’s latest special – “Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives”. A mockumentary, made in style of Discovery’s films about the dragons, the mermaids, and the giant shark Megalodon, it was a fun film to see. It was designed in “The Blair Witch Project” style, as an American explorer Mike, and his trusty Russian sidekick/interpreter Mila, went into the wild Urals mountains to discover the truth – whether the Russian Yeti has killed 9 student tourists back in 1959. Designed as an action/cryptozoological film rather than a scientific one (the Mermaids duology comes to mind), it is very hard, if not pointless, to discuss the scientific aspects of the film. However, the titular cryptid, the yeti, does deserve some discussion, to say the least.

The tales and myths of giant apes and wild men of the woods have come from all over the world, and the territory of former USSR was no exception. The most widespread and used name for these creatures there was Almasti, or Almas. They played a rather negative role in the local tales, and were generally similar to the Bigfoot and the Yeti in appearance (seriously, since when does it matter where the Yeti lives, in Russia or not? I mean, if there is a ‘Russian Yeti’, does it mean that there are also Indian, Tibetan, Nepalese Yetis and so forth? What is the difference? Even the film itself did not really dwell on this fact), but they had some important differences: they were more human-like in appearance (and Bigfoot, conversely, looks more ape-like than man-like), and they were rumored to be able to use fire, again unlike the Bigfoot. 

Some greater regional differences come to mind. The Mediterranean world, curiously, did not really have many ape-men myths; the fauns and the satyrs are different – they are part goat or horse, not ape, but Northern Europe had humanoid giants of their own – the trolls and ogres of the Norse, and further down, in the mainland Europe, the wildmen proper. At about 2.7 m in length, and weighing 200 kg, these beings were just as intimidating as the Bigfoot and the Yeti are, but they were more civilized, they had their own culture (supposedly), and were not as hairy, so they probably could use fire and make clothing of their own. The trolls and ogres of the Norse, were not just bigger (about 3.5 m tall and weighing about 360 kg), but they truly were civilized, complete with culture, civilization, and societies of their own. In fact, if you read some of the Norse (Scandinavian, Icelandic) folklore, one can realize that the Norse trolls and ogres belonged, practically, to a world parallel to humans, inhabited not just by them, but also by huldra, beings that were half spirit and half-real. This makes it hard to decide if trolls and ogres were real and not purely imaginary, one of versions of the vague and mysterious ‘Them’, imagined by humans to symbolize the anti-humans – but that is another tale.

Conversely, the wildmen of Europe, including the Almas, were less sophisticated and more ape-like – they probably could use fire, and were more man-, than ape-like, but that was it. No civilization for them, no sir! Further to the east, where the Yeti and the Bigfoot live, the ‘wild people’ become increasingly more ape-like and animalistic, without any evidence that they use fire, or tools, and clothing? It is non-existent. They are also relatively smaller than the European analogs: the Bigfoot is about 2.5 m high and weighs under 200 kg, its southern cousin the skunk ape is about as big as a man and weighs under 150 kg, the Yeti is about as big as the Bigfoot, though probably is, and so’s the Yowie. The Yowie, incidentally, is interesting, also because it lives in Australia, where all of the native mammals either hatched from eggs (the Monotremes), or are marsupial and have pouches to carry their tiny youngsters around. Higher primates, including the great apes and humans, are placental and have neither. This makes the Yowie’s identity especially puzzling – just what is it?..

“Russian Yeti” film did not mention the Yowie, but it did mention the Orang Pendek as the ‘Sumatran Yeti’, so to speak. The Orang Pendek is a humanoid creature, but at about 1-1.2 m in height and a very slight build, most cryptozoologists and other specialists feel that it has no connection to the Yeti, but is possibly the descendant of Homo Florensis, the Flores Man, instead. The latter has plenty of its own mystery; nobody is certain whether or not it was actually a dwarf race of modern humans, or a descendant of a more ancient species, Homo Erectus, for example. To connect the Orang Pendek to the Yeti family was wrong from the cryptoozological P.O.V. as well...

Getting back to the wildmen and ape-like creatures, “Russian Yeti” was a very good movie...and nothing more. Unlike “Mermaids”, or “Megalodon”, it did not pretend to be anything real, or to have been filmed in the real life. There are appropriate disclaimers and warnings that is drama, not suitable for children of all ages, and it should be treated as such by its audience.

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