Almas: Mongolia’s Wild Man of the Gobi and Pamirs

The almas is a hairy, man-shaped creature said to live in the mountains and deserts of Mongolia and Central Asia, from the Altai and Tian Shan to the Pamirs. Herders described it for generations. In 1958 the Soviet Academy of Sciences set up a commission to look for it. Hair samples sent for DNA testing in 2014 turned out to be bears, horses and a raccoon.

What's Actually Verifiable

English Wikipedia's article on the almas was read through its API on 10 October 2026, along with its article on Zana of Tkhina. Three independent texts were opened as well: the 2014 hair-sample paper by Sykes and colleagues (PubMed Central), the 2021 genome paper on Zana by Margaryan and colleagues (PubMed Central), and Michael Heaney's 1983 essay “The Mongolian Almas” in the journal Cryptozoology, in an Oxford-hosted web copy. Przhevalsky's book, Rinchen's papers and Porshnev's reports were not opened. Where this page leans on them, it is repeating what Wikipedia and Heaney say about them.

What the Name Means

Wikipedia notes that the word almas and its variants turn up in Mongolian, Turkic and Iranian languages. It quotes the Mongolian scholar Byambyn Rinchen, who wrote in 1964 that the origin of the name is quite unknown and cannot be translated into other languages. Rinchen also called the creature a “wild man”. Heaney's essay does not explain the word either.

Place names in south-western Mongolia carry it, including Almasyn Dobo, the Hills of Almases. In Övörkhangai and Bayankhongor, Wikipedia says, people avoid the name and call the beings akhai, “uncle-brother”. Wikipedia also notes that in the northern part of Mongolia the word was used mostly for an unreal creature or an evil spirit, something like a witch, while in the east, south and far west it named the wild man, often the female.

That split matters. “Almas” is not one clean cryptid. It is a word that different communities attached to different things.

What Witnesses Described

Przhevalsky, in his 1876 book on Mongolia and northern Tibet, repeated what he was told: a flat, human-like face, a body covered in thick black fur, huge claws, great strength, and a habit of walking on two legs. He says people moved their homes away from places it visited. He had this second-hand and did not see the creature.

A later account from the Mongolian scholar Damdinzhavyn Maidar, given in Wikipedia in English translation, is calmer. Half animal and half human, with reddish-black hair, a bare face and a pointed back of the skull, a stooped walk on half-bent knees, long arms, and a nocturnal life. Shy, suspicious and not aggressive. Nobody had heard it speak.

Heaney's essay adds that Maidar reported tracks found in 1973 and an encounter in 1974. Those are reports, not physical evidence anyone has been able to test.

The Soviet Hunt

After the Himalayan yeti scare of the 1950s, the USSR Academy of Sciences set up a commission on the “snowman” question. Heaney says it was largely Porshnev's doing. Its information bulletins came out in 1958 and 1959, and much of the Mongolian material in them came from Rinchen. Wikipedia describes an expedition to the Pamir Mountains in 1958, led by the hydrologist Alexander Pronin, with Porshnev and the surgeon Marie-Jeanne Koffman taking part.

In 1964 Porshnev proposed that the almas could be a relict population of Neanderthals still living in Siberia. His report was translated into English as The Soviet Sasquatch. Wikipedia says the hypothesis found no wide acceptance among Soviet scientists.

Heaney argues the wider body of almas evidence still deserves attention, yet he is hard on Porshnev's sources. He argues that a much-retold sighting credited to the Buryat scholar Bazar Baradiin is “in grave doubt”, because Baradiin's detailed diary never records it. He also finds that a lama who supposedly chased the creature first appears in a 1936 novel. Heaney concludes that Porshnev relied on third- and fourth-hand evidence, which was unwise.

What the DNA Said

In 2014 Bryan Sykes and colleagues published the first systematic genetic survey of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other “anomalous primates”. Of 57 samples received, 37 were selected and 30 yielded DNA. Eight were attributed to the almasty, and all eight came from Russia. The paper reports two brown bears, three horses, one cow, one American black bear and one raccoon, each matching a known sequence.

The same paper is better known for two Himalayan samples that it linked to a Palaeolithic polar bear. That claim was challenged. Edwards and Barnett argued in 2015 that degraded brown bear DNA was the likelier explanation, and Gutiérrez and Pine concluded there was no reason to see them as anything but brown bear. For the almas the lesson is simpler: nothing tested was unknown. Our Yeti guide covers the Himalayan side of that study.

Zana, the Woman Called an Abnauayu

One story often attached to the almas is a real person, and she deserves care. Zana lived in Abkhazia in the 19th century. Because of her appearance and behaviour she was assumed to be an abnauayu, the Abkhaz counterpart of the almas. Wikipedia describes her as very tall, dark-skinned and covered in red hair. She was captured, sold into slavery and kept on the estate of a nobleman, Edgi Genaba, where she lived until she died in the late 1800s. She had at least four children.

Porshnev collected local stories about her from 1962 and treated her as evidence for a surviving wild man. In 2021 Margaryan and colleagues sequenced genomes from a female skeleton found in the Genaba family cemetery and from Zana's youngest son, Khwit. The two shared a mother, and the authors concluded the skeleton was Zana. Her ancestry was largely East African, with some West African component, and the authors found no meaningful Neanderthal signal and rejected a non-human origin. They suggested, as speculation only, that congenital generalised hypertrichosis, a rare condition causing excess body hair, could explain her reported traits.

So the best-known “almas in captivity” turns out to have been a human being who was trafficked and enslaved. Wikipedia adds that the Zana theories are now largely seen as shaped by local folklore.

Why the Story Lasts

The almas sits where three things overlap: very large empty country, real animals that look startling at dusk, and a long tradition of naming the unknown after people. Brown bears stand on their hind legs. The Gobi and the Pamirs are places where a herder alone at night might well see something he cannot name. A name-avoidance habit like “uncle-brother” suggests people took the creature seriously as a presence, whatever it was.

For other wild men of Eurasia, compare the Chinese Yeren of Shennongjia and the Kazakh Zheztyrnak, a very different clawed monster from the same wider region.

Visiting the Region

There is no almas site to visit, and this guide has not checked travel conditions. Southwestern Mongolia, the Altai and the Pamirs are remote, high and weather-prone. If you go, hire local guides, and treat bears as the real danger.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the almas?

The almas is a wild-man figure from Mongolian and Central Asian folklore, described as a hairy, human-shaped creature that walks upright and avoids people. The word has also been used for a witch-like spirit in parts of northern Mongolia.

Where is the almas said to live?

Wikipedia lists the Caucasus, the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains of Central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. Many Mongolian reports come from the Gobi and the south-west of the country.

Did scientists ever test almas evidence?

Yes. A 2014 study tested eight hair samples attributed to the almasty from Russia. They matched brown bear, horse, cow, American black bear and raccoon. None was an unknown primate.

Is the almas a surviving Neanderthal?

That was Boris Porshnev's proposal in 1964. Wikipedia says it never found wide acceptance, and no Neanderthal remains or DNA linked to the almas have been found.

Who was Zana?

Zana was a real woman who lived in 19th-century Abkhazia and was taken for an abnauayu, the local almas-like figure. A 2021 genome study found she was of largely East African ancestry and concluded she was human.

What does akhai mean?

Akhai means “uncle-brother”. According to Wikipedia, people in parts of Mongolia use it instead of saying the creature's name, a taboo that suggests it was treated with respect or wariness.