The Barun Valley Yeti Tracks and the Tree Bear

Daniel C. Taylor grew up in the Himalaya, the son of medical missionaries. At 11, in Mussoorie, he saw a photograph in The Statesman. It was the footprint Eric Shipton had found on the Menlung Glacier. That picture started his search. Tracks found around a tent in the Arun Valley in December 1972 later pointed him toward the Barun. So did the King of Nepal, who told him to "look in the densest jungle in my kingdom, the Barun Valley."

Winter, 1983. Taylor searched the Barun with his wife and young son. Robert L. Fleming Jr., a Himalayan natural historian, is credited as co-leader. Snow lay over the dense jungle east of Everest. In it, a line of fresh footprints. Hominoid in shape, with a digit like a big toe and what looked like a bipedal gait. "I had no doubt I had found the Yeti," Taylor said.

Earlier Yeti trails always ended the same way. On rock, at the edge of a glacier. This one did not. The snow let the searchers follow it, and it led up into the trees. High in the branches were large nests where the animal slept. In them, stiff black hairs. Nobody ever saw the animal itself.

Villagers had their own answer. Two bears lived here, they said. The rukh bhalu, a small, reclusive tree bear of about 68 kg. And the bhui bhalu, an aggressive ground bear of up to about 180 kg. A local hunter suggested the tree bear. "Villages claimed that there were two bears in the area (a tree and ground species) where Science said only one existed," Taylor recalled.

Taylor and Fleming spent three years on the question with John Craighead and Tirtha Shrestha. Taylor first proposed an unknown species or subspecies of tree bear. Skulls bought in local markets were compared with specimens at the Smithsonian, the American Museum of Natural History and the British Museum. When Taylor asked to examine bear prints at the Royal Zoo, the King replied: "Are you saying that science does not know something that Nepali villagers know?"

The skulls told one story. A single species, the Asiatic black bear. Bears around two years old spend much of their time in trees, away from bigger males on the ground, and may turn the inner claw into an opposable grip. When a hind paw steps into the front paw's print, especially going uphill, the result looks like a bipedal print with a thumb. Taylor tranquilised a bear and replicated the footprints in plaster. "These prints are not a hoax, but trails left by real animals," he said.

Not everyone was convinced. Jeff Meldrum reportedly faulted the lack of paw and print images for comparison. Some local people reject the bear explanation and say they have seen the Yeti. And one 1869 tree bear skull in the British Museum remains unexplained.

The search changed the valley. A park proposal followed in 1985. In May 1990 came a Royal Proclamation by King Birendra, and the Barun became the core of Makalu-Barun National Park. Villagers from Shyakshila later built the Yeti Trail, about 25 km from the Barun to Makalu Base Camp, with Taylor's funding. When Indian Army prints near Makalu made headlines in 2019, Taylor said they were probably from a bear. For him, the abominable snowman walks on a bear's paws. The valley it led him to is now protected.