India Army Claims to Have Found Yeti Footprint

The Indian army has claimed to have found footprints of the elusive yeti, sparking jokes and disbelief on social media.

The army tweeted to its nearly six million followers that it had discovered "mysterious footprints of mythical beast 'Yeti' at the Himalayan Makalu Base Camp.

The yeti - a giant ape-like creature - figures prominently in South Asian folklore.  The yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman, is a legendary creature that is said to inhabit the upper reaches of the Himalayas. Stories of people seeing the yeti or its footprints are common in parts of India, Nepal and Bhutan. There is no evidence proving yeti exist but the myth retains a strong appeal in the region.

And the army has now added to the legend by sharing pictures of "footprints" in the snow on an official Twitter account.

Although the footprints were discovered last month, the army made the discovery public only after deciding that it matched earlier theories about the yeti.

Reacting to the disbelief on social media, the army said the "evidence" about the yeti had been "photographed " and "handed over to subject matter experts".

"So, we thought it prudent [to go public] to excite scientific temper and rekindle the interest."

There have been numerous attempts in recent years to solve the mystery of the yeti.  Recent research by a British scientist concluded that the legendary Himalayan yeti may in fact be a sub-species of brown bear.

In 2011, DNA tests on a "yeti finger" taken from Nepal to London half a century ago found it to be human bone.

And in 2013, DNA tests on hair samples carried out by Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes found that they matched those from an ancient polar bear. He said the most likely explanation for the myth is that the animal is a hybrid of polar bears and brown bears.