Nepal Discounts Claim Yeti is a Bear

Nepal is outraged by climber's claim that yeti is just a bear
By Thomas Bell in Kathmandu
(Filed: 27/09/2003)
A claim that the yeti does not exist has been greeted with a chorus of stern disapproval by leading Nepalese officials and commentators.
The row began when a claim by a Japanese mountaineer, Makato Nebuka, that the yeti is really a meti, or Himalayan brown bear, was labelled "controversial" and ultimately "fallacious" in a front-page analysis in the daily Kathmandu Post.
Among those lining up to dismiss Mr Nebuka, who has spent 12 years climbing in the mountains of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan without once encountering an abominable snowman, was the chief government surveyor, Tirtha Bahadur Pradhanga, an amateur "yetiologist".
News Telegraph