<P> In 2004, Henry Gee, editor of the journal Nature, mentioned the Yeti as an example of a legend deserving further study, writing, "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human - like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth ." </P> <P> In early December 2007, American television presenter Joshua Gates and his team (Destination Truth) reported finding a series of footprints in the Everest region of Nepal resembling descriptions of Yeti . Each of the footprints measured 33 cm (13 in) in length with five toes that measured a total of 25 cm (9.8 in) across . Casts were made of the prints for further research . The footprints were examined by Jeffrey Meldrum of Idaho State University, who believed them to be too morphologically accurate to be fake or man - made, before changing his mind after making further investigations . Later in 2009, Gates made another investigation during which he discovered hair samples . A forensic analyst concluded that the hair contained an unknown DNA sequence . </P> <P> On 25 July 2008, the BBC reported that hairs collected in the remote Garo Hills area of North - East India by Dipu Marak had been analyzed at Oxford Brookes University in the UK by primatologist Anna Nekaris and microscopy expert Jon Wells . These initial tests were inconclusive, and ape conservation expert Ian Redmond told the BBC that there was similarity between the cuticle pattern of these hairs and specimens collected by Edmund Hillary during Himalayan expeditions in the 1950s and donated to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and announced planned DNA analysis . This analysis has since revealed that the hair came from the Himalayan goral . </P> <P> A group of Chinese scientists and explorers in 2010 proposed to renew searches in the Shennongjia Forestry District of Hubei province, which was the site of expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s . </P>

Any one animal living in the foot hills of the himalayas