Scientist claims Russian "ape woman" might have been a Sasquatch

In the late 1800s, a wild "ape woman" was violently captured, subdued, and sold into slavery in Abkhazia. Named Zana, she is described as being tall, powerful, with dark skin, and covered head to toe in dark hair. She could not speak, and only communicated in inarticulate grunts. She swam year-round, slept outside, and preferred to walk around naked.

 

Zana was impregnated many times by the local men and her "master," a Russian nobleman named Edgi Genaba who kept her on his estate. Her first few children died of exposure, so the local villagers began taking her children from her as soon as they were born. Two sons and two daughters survived and grew up to be fairly normal, albeit with dark hair and striking facial features.

 

Today, geneticist Professor Bryan Sykes has analyzed Zana's DNA and come to a startling conclusion: he believes that she was a Russian Sasquatch, part of a relict population of people who traveled from West Africa 10,000 years ago to the Caucasus mountains, where they existed in solitude for generations. According to Sykes, Zana was a subspecies of modern humans.

 

Could others like her still exist in the Caucasus? Hard to tell, but Zana's story is certainly an interesting one, and I look forward to learning more in the months to come.

Image courtesy Flickr/mikesub