Does This Dash Cam Footage Prove the Existence of the Yeti?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — the time when Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comes back to a television — or these days, may be a computer monitor — near you. Remember the delightful stop-motion Rankin and Bass special from your childhood? If you were terrified by the Abominable Snowman, you’re not alone. That hairy white monster was frightening.

But did you know that according to some people, the Abominable Snowman is real? It’s also known as the yeti and folks have been trying to capture it for ages.

Well, just last month, a group of friends traveling through Russia’s Republic of Bashkortosta allegedly recorded video evidence proving the existence of the yeti.

Dash cam footage was posted on YouTube. The video shows a small, blurry, but obviously two-legged figure darting across the road in front of the group’s car. Is it the “missing link” yeti-chasers have been searching for?

Maybe. Though the in vehicle camera system is far from high definition, you can make out what appears to be a thick layer of brown hair covering the creature’s body.

Vadim Gilmanov, the driver of the vehicle, admitted that the sighting could have been a prank, though he didn’t seem entirely convinced that it wasn’t the real deal.

“… who else could dash out so quickly in the middle of the night … in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

Apparently, this was not the first report of a yeti sighting in this particular area. In fact, it is widely known that this stretch of road in Bashkortostan, near the Urals, is famous for its yeti sightings. In the early 20th century, tourists began making trips to the region for the sole purpose of finding and catching the real-life Abominable.

Other legendary creatures present in Russian folklore that are similar to the yeti have supposedly been spotted in the region, as well. There is the shurale, a tall hairy beast that tickles its victims to death. And then there is the forest demon, a white, hairy, long-fingered creature that can change its shape to take the form of a human peasant. He is only detectable by his shoes, which he wears backwards on his feet.

With the invention of body cams and dash cams, spotting and recording such elusive mythical creatures should be a much simpler task. Perhaps that’s why the global dash camera market was valued at $1,458.2 million in 2013 and is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.3% between 2014 and 2020.