The yeti hunt is on.

Search is on for Yeti, Russian Researchers Say

By Trevor Stokes | October 4, 2011 10:03 AM EDT

The Russians are setting out to do what no one has done before: Find Yeti.

Yeti, otherwise known as Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman or Sasquatch, has titillated explorers for over a century, with sightings of large footprints in mud or snow.But the governor of Siberia's Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, has taken the notion seriously and will host a conference with scientists from Russia, the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Estonia, Mongolia and China evaluating evidence of the Bigfoot. The gigantic legend is thought by some to still roam densely wooded areas in western North America, the North Caucasus between Russia and Turkey and parts of Siberia."When Homo sapiens started populating the world, it viciously exterminated its closest relative in the hominid family, Homo neanderthalensis. Some of the Neanderthals, however, may have survived to this day in some mountainous wooded habitats that are more or less off limits to their archfoes," Igor Burtsev, director of the Moscow-based International Centre of Hominology told The Voice of Russia radio. "No clothing on them, no tools in hands and no fire in the household. Only round-the-clock watchfulness for a Homo sapiens around."

See photos read rest here: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/224723/20111004/yeti-abominable-snowman-sasquatch-russian-conference.htm