I thought FT would know better.

[lordmongrove]

The March edition of FT has a white yeti on the cover. I feel duty bound to point out that the yeti is black, brown or reddish but never white.
There are rare reports of white sasquatch and even rarer reports of white almasty but never white yeti.
I thought FT would have known this.

 

[Timble2]

That's quite a myth-take.

 

[escargot]

I have a genuine yeti-skin scarf.

 

[Vardoger]

The March edition of FT has a white yeti on the cover. I feel duty bound to point out that the yeti is black, brown or reddish but never white.
There are rare reports of white yeti and even rarer reports of white almasty but never white yeti.
I thought FT would have known this.

I believe most people think of the Yeti as white. I don't think they coined the name "Abominable Snowman" because it is black, brown or reddish.

 

[lordmongrove]

Most people are wrong. There has never been a sighting of a white yeti. The name comes from a mistranslation of the Sino-Tibetan name metho-kangmi meaning abominable man of the rocks. It was wrongly translated as abominable man of the snows giving rise to the false notion of a white creature. The yeti is not and never has been white.

 

[Bigfoot73]

There has never been a sighting of a white yeti.

Well if it was white and in a snow-covered landscape it wouldn't exactly be glaringly conspicuous would it?

 

[David Plankton]

It isn't a Yeti on the cover of the latest FT though, it's a representation of a Shurale. Look closer and see it has a horn sticking out of its forehead.

 

[lordmongrove]

There has never been a sighting of a white yeti.

Well if it was white and in a snow-covered landscape it wouldn't exactly be glaringly conspicuous would it?

The yeti dosn't live i the snow, that's another myth. It lives below the tree line in wooded valleys. Above the snow line there is very little to eat as opposed to in the forests. It is thought that occationaly a yeti will move from valley to valley and leave tracks. It may also eat animals killed by avalanches but for the most it keeps to the forest.

 

[lordmongrove]

It isn't a Yeti on the cover of the latest FT though, it's a representation of a Shurale. Look closer and see it has a horn sticking out of its forehead.

Only just got the issue today. They are off my pedantic hook! The horn may represent a garbled account of a saggitall crest.

 

[Kondoru]

Wasnt there a series of BF sightings of a sandy or dirty white colour?

 

[lordmongrove]

Wasnt there a series of BF sightings of a sandy or dirty white colour?

Yes there have been white sasquatch sightings in North America but not white yeti in Asia, they are all black or brown.

 

[Kondoru]

Picky.

 

[Sergeant_Pluck]

There has never been a sighting of a white yeti

There was never a sighting of anything, until someone saw it.

 

[oldrover]

Yeti are very commonly white.

http://www.erla.co.uk/Images/shop/yetigroup.jpg

 

[Vardoger]

Yeti are very commonly white.

http://www.erla.co.uk/Images/shop/yetigroup.jpg

That's good evidence, just like my incredible photo posted earlier in this thread.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Unlike most of you, Richard - aka Lord Mongrove - has actually travelled to these far-flung locations in search of such man beasts, from Russia to Sumatra.

I have never met Richard, but I would rather back his word than yours. Why? Because he has spoken firsthand to those who have seen such creatures.

To be honest, folks, grow up.

 

[PaulTaylor]

The figure on the cover may not be an accurate representation of either the shurale or yeti, but it looks cool. I love the work of the artists who have illustrated FT over the years, but I expect artists to interpret subjects in their own personal way, using lashings of artistic license, and I sort of think that's their job. It's what you want from them. I remember, a few years back, a representation of a chupacabra that in few ways resembled anything I'd previously heard of the cryptid, but my word it looked good.

 

[Urvogel]

The yeti is not and never has been white.

I'll believe that when they actually find a body and do a proper scientific census of their numbers.

And really, who's to say they can't be white? Mammoths after all came in colours from blonde to red to black. Why shouldn't yetis have different shades? Or perhaps like white lions there's a recessive gene that makes some rarer members of the species pale. Or perhaps like ermine they change colour with the seasons.

Until a carcass gets found and proper DNA sequencing happens from that carcass, or the entire population gets found and tagged, no-one can say for definate what colours they can and can't be. After all, the only colours of yeti we know about are the ones we've seen. It could easily be a represensative bias. Maybe the white ones make up the majority, it's just the brown ones that are stomping about and getting spotted more.

 

[GNC]

Maybe old Yeti are white?

 

[Mythopoeika]

The yeti is not and never has been white.

I'll believe that when they actually find a body and do a proper scientific census of their numbers.

And really, who's to say they can't be white? Mammoths after all came in colours from blonde to red to black. Why shouldn't yetis have different shades? Or perhaps like white lions there's a recessive gene that makes some rarer members of the species pale. Or perhaps like ermine they change colour with the seasons.

Until a carcass gets found and proper DNA sequencing happens from that carcass, or the entire population gets found and tagged, no-one can say for definate what colours they can and can't be. After all, the only colours of yeti we know about are the ones we've seen. It could easily be a represensative bias. Maybe the white ones make up the majority, it's just the brown ones that are stomping about and getting spotted more.

Quite. Until we have a few of these beasts in captivity or on slabs, it's really not possible to be dogmatic about colouration.

 

[Kondoru]

And since we know `some` Bigfoot are light in colouration....

 

[oldrover]

Aspirin are white, I want an Aspirin.

 

[GNC]

Aspirin are white, I want an Aspirin.

Sorry, all we have here for you are the red pill and the blue pill.

 

[AlexTomlinson]

As the perpetrator of the offending illustration I think I ought to clarify a few things.

The Russian Yeti on the cover of FT 298 is a reworking of my original yeti painting. http://alextomlinson.squarespace.com/po ... s/14881117

I deliberately made the original a very generic ‘vanilla’ yeti as I wanted to be able to resell it as stock art.

Having lived and worked for some time in Nepal in my youth I was never lucky enough to see the yeti myself but on the rare occasions when it did come up in conversation all my local friends seemed to favour the ‘Hollywood’ white version rather than anything they may have been passed down by ancestor witnesses . They did all watch far too many dodgy videos though.

I was asked by FT to adapt my original yeti painting to better fit the Russian Yeti feature as there wasn’t much time or money to commission a new version from scratch.

Luckily as I work in many layers in Photoshop I was able to remove the Stupa and prayer flags fairly easily and replace them with some simple woods and a nice generic Siberian wooden church. I was also able to raid my old stash of rhino slides (yes, slides! That’s how long ago I was in Nepal) and find some decent reference for the horn. I always read the cover feature over and over before starting an illo and was uncomfortable with the Yeti being white but it would have taken too much time to change it, as it is I am quite pleased with the finished painting and think I prefer it over the original.

I have seen discussion about my version looking a lot like the Mogato fought by Kirk in Star Trek. It does quite a lot, but that’s just a coincidence and pretty much what you get when you stick a horn on top of a white gorilla that’s walking upright. I don’t remember having seen that particular episode but I am sad enough to admit that I cannot rule it out in which case it may have snuck into my subconscious.

Hmm, think that's everything, frankly I am just glad that people notice my covers at all

 

[dreeness]

8)

Did somebody mention Star Trek?

Trek Trivia Time!

The Mugato was called the Gumato in the original script; however, DeForest Kelley could not pronounce the name correctly and it was changed. Both Kelley and Shatner pronounced the name as Mugatu all the way through the episode, and Mugato is still frequently misspelled Mugatu in various sources such as The Star Trek Compendium.

 

[PaulTaylor]

frankly I am just glad that people notice my covers at all

Your illustrations give the first impression of each month's Fortean Times, and for me it's always a good impression. Keep up the good work!

 

[AlexTomlinson]

You say Mu-ga-to I say Mo-gat-o spelling not my strong point.

Cheers for the kind words Paul, wasn't fishing for compliments but it's still nice to catch one occasionally.

Kirk out.

 

[lkb3rd]

There has never been a sighting of a white yeti.

Well if it was white and in a snow-covered landscape it wouldn't exactly be glaringly conspicuous would it?

I put forth the theory that there are white ones, but none have ever been spotted because they drop into a snow angel position when anyone is in the area.

 

[PaulTaylor]

There has never been a sighting of a white yeti.

Well if it was white and in a snow-covered landscape it wouldn't exactly be glaringly conspicuous would it?

I put forth the theory that there are white ones, but none have ever been spotted because they drop into a snow angel position when anyone is in the area.

Thus, the enduring mystery of the Himalayan snow angel is finally put to rest. Funny how sometimes everything seems to just fall into place. I think yetis probably have a white winter coat as well as a dark summer coat. The winter coat is made from arctic fox and seal pup pelts. The summer coat is denim.

 

[oldrover]

Ocelot velour.