A supposed yeti footprint in the snow in Bhutan. (Photo courtesy of Sonam Penjore)
The search for the Yeti, which ended last month, yielded only one strand of horse hair, BBC Radio 4's Himalayan search programme reported.
Andrew Benfield, a writer and meditation teacher, spent years searching for the Yeti with his skeptical friend and political analyst Richard Horsey. The pair travelled across India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan, collecting stories about the mythical creature and eventually creating a BBC Radio 4 radio series, Yeti, about their search.
The series ended in June on a thrilling note when a mystery hair provided by an anonymous source was sent for DNA testing. In a bonus episode released on October 20, the hair was revealed to belong to a horse.
Benfield told Live Science that the outcome was “not very satisfying” after a three-year search. “A horse is the most boring thing we could have,” he said. But the DNA analysis doesn’t diminish the value of the show or the stories of the people they spoke to, the duo said.
Andrew and Richard sit at Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan.
Legends of a monkey-like creature roaming the Himalayas have a long history. Western interest in the Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman, began in the early 1950s when British mountaineer Eric Shipton returned from Everest with photographs of enormous footprints. Later studies by Western scientists failed to provide any scientific evidence for the creature's existence.
Working in international development, Benfield disagreed with the idea that indigenous Bigfoot stories were dismissed simply because white explorers could not find evidence. He was also reassured by a 2013 interview with Sir David Attenborough, in which Attenborough suggested that “there may be something to the Bigfoot mystery.” Attenborough is not involved in the new radio series.
In 2019, Benfield began a journey to hear Bigfoot stories firsthand, inviting Horsey, who has a PhD in cognitive psychology, to join him. “If I could convince him, that meant I was on the right track,” Benfield said.
The BBC joined in 2022, before the duo travelled to Bhutan and the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, a national park covering an area of
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