Soviets on trail of Siberian Big Foot

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D-4 Sat., Feb. 4, 1978 The Modesto Bee
Shaggy-haired wild man
Soviets on trail of Siberian Big Foot
Moscow (AP) – Soviet scientists say they have gathered evidence pointing to the existence in Siberia of a dark, shaggy-haired, shrill-voiced wild man resembling in some ways the legendary Snow Man of the Himalayas.
The Soviet news agency Tass said specialists at the Institute of Language, Literature and History in Soviet Yakutia have been evaluating testimony of Siberians who claim they encountered the manlike creature called “Chuchunaa.”
The name means “fugitive” or “outcast” in one of the dialects of Yakutia, a vast expanse of forest, mountains and frozen tundra in northeastern Siberia.
“The famous Himalayan Snow Man, Yeti, whom many explorers believe exists, might prove to have a Yakutian relative,” wrote Tass correspondent Sergei Bulantsev in a story on the institute’s findings.
The Himalayan Snow Man is also known as the Abominable Snow Man. Large trucks in the snow are ascribed to such a creature. Some scientists believe that, if he exists, he may be a form of unclassified ape.
In the American Northwest, there also have been reports of a huge creature known as a Sasquatch, or “Big Foot,” which has been described by various people who claim to have seen it as looking like a bear or an ape.
The Tass story said “there is a lot of testimony of witnesses who ran into the wild man” in Yakutia’s Verkhoyansk region, about 400 miles north of the city of Yakutsk.
“The old-timers of highland villages of the Verkhoyansk region warn guests who come from afar: ‘Don’t go alone in darkness. Be careful in the mountains. Don’t go to the river – Chuchunaa might appear,” the account said.
According to the witnesses, Tass said, “Chuchunan” was described as tall and thin, standing about 6 feet 6 inches, with long arms hanging below his knees.
“He feeds on raw meat and wears a reindeer skin,” the story said. “He cannot speak, but only utters shrill screams.”
The creature was in the habit of sneaking up to people’s dwellings and stealing food, Tass said. Upon seeing a hunter or reindeer breeder, he would run away in most instances, but sometimes would start fighting.
Reindeer breeders, hunters, mushroom and berry collectors ran into him most frequently at dawn or late in the evening, “the account noted.
Other details provided by witnesses described “Chuchunaa” as barefooted, shaggy-haired, “with a face as big as that of a human being, only very dark. His small forehead protruded above the eyes, like a peaked cap. “Tass said.
It added that “he ran away from people very quickly, leaping.”