[ti:Scientists Find No Evidence of Yeti] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.72]For decades, a large creature called a Yeti [00:06.28]has been talked about in Western popular culture. [00:10.72]It has appeared in films, cartoons, video games and more. [00:16.81]The yeti is large and hairy and walks on two feet. [00:22.36]Some people claim they have seen a yeti [00:25.44]in the Himalayan Mountains in Asia. [00:28.80]It has a fearsome reputation. [00:32.28]Consider a scene from the American cartoon show, Scooby Doo: [00:38.24]-Apparently every restaurant that's ever opened here [00:40.58]closed down immediately -- under suspicious circumstances. [00:43.60]-Let me guess: Yeti-related circumstances? [00:47.00]-You got it. [00:48.68]New genetic research suggests that this huge beast may, [00:53.80]in fact, exist in the Himalayas. [00:57.48]But it's probably just a bear. [01:01.20]A team of scientists said this week that they had studied the DNA [01:07.12]of nine samples from museums and private collections. [01:12.76]All of the samples were said to have come from the yeti. [01:17.88]They found that eight of the nine samples came from bears [01:23.04]– Asian black bears, Himalayan brown bears and Tibetan brown bears, to be exact. [01:29.98]The one remaining sample came from a dog, the researchers found. [01:36.20]Charlotte Lindqvist studies bear genetics [01:39.68]at the State University of New York at Buffalo. [01:43.92]She is one of the writers of the yeti report published recently [01:48.83]in the scientific journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society B." [01:54.80]She said the report's findings "strongly suggest" [01:58.76]that the legend of the yeti is connected closely to bears [02:03.64]that live in the mountainous area. [02:06.76]Lindqvist called the study the most detailed research to date of so-called yeti specimens. [02:15.12]While the recent study did not identify a yeti, [02:19.24]it did give scientists information about the area's bear populations. [02:25.84]The brown bears living high in the Tibetan Plateau [02:29.64]and the western Himalayan Mountains [02:32.28]appear to belong to two separate bear populations, researchers found. [02:38.72]Despite living fairly close to each other, [02:42.08]those two populations have been separated [02:45.24]for thousands of years, Lindqvist said. [02:49.48]I'm John Russell. [02:51.40]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM