Yeti : the ecology of a mystery

As it turned out, young Daniel never outgrew the enchantment of the mysterious Yeti, the Abominable Snowman. His search for the enigmatic creature of Himalayan legends spread over many decades: from 1956 until 2015, Daniel C. Taylor visited almost all valley systems in his quest to explain the ‘Yeti’s footprints’. But to his surprise, solving the footprint mystery did not answer the Yeti question. As his quest evolved, Taylor went on to create two massive national parks around Mount Everest. Equipped with abundant knowledge of the Himalaya, Taylor tells a story that is captivating and full of surprises. He looks back at his exploration of the 2,000-mile-wide Himalaya and talks about bioresilience as a parallel dynamic to biodiversity, thus widening the scope of our understanding of ecology. Yeti: The Ecology of a Mystery is the extraordinary story of one man’s conservation impact and what it means for people to be part of the wild in today’s increasingly tamed world. This book explains the mystery of the Yeti or Abominable Snowman, the creature that has left mysterious footprints in Himalayan snows. The book also explores why people are so fascinated with the possibility that a wild hominoid might still reclusively live (the idea of a wild humanity alive in people's hopes). Here also is the extraordinary story of one man's conservation impact-a quest for mysterious animal caused him to lead in creating two massive national parks around Mount Everest, one in China/Tibet and one in Nepal. This book narrates how the author explores much of the 2,000-mile breadth of the Himalaya, from his childhood in India to his work years in Nepal, China/Tibet, and Bhutan. From 1956 until 2015 he visited almost all valley systems. The book recounts his ascents of Himalayan summits and even a first descent of a major river, Nepal's Sun Kosi. This book not only explains scientifically the Yeti and describes a range of Himalayan animals and plants, it also brings forward a wide scope of ecological understanding. Significant among these is the author's postulate about bioresilience as a parallel dynamic to biodiversity. Additionally, the author explores what it means (and how important it is) for people to be part of 'the wild' in today's increasingly domesticated world. Taylor's breadth of Himalayan knowledge is massive, the story captivating and full of surprises-and what he has accomplished includes 'discovering' the Yeti as well as creating two huge national parks. This book is on the author's long search for the Yeti, the mythical mountain man long thought to inhabit the Himalayas. It describes in detail the discovery that giant human-like footprints are made by a previously unknown subspecies of bear and then the even more ambitious project, the creation of two national parks around Mt Everest for the protection of the endangered bear. "Equipped with an abundant knowledge of the Himalaya, Taylor tells a story that is captivating and full of surprises. He looks back at his exploration of the 2,000-mile wide Himalaya and talks about bioresilience as a parallel dynamic to biodiversity, this widening the scope of our understanding of ecology."--Page 2 of cover