"We have no physical evidence whatsoever," Mr Opit said of the Yowie [despite displaying a supposed Yowie footprint cast]. "The animal has never been scientifically searched for because nobody believes it exists… There's no scientific investigation because there's nothing to work on. But once we have actual DNA evidence of the animal it will be one of the most important scientific discoveries ever made."

It should be noted, however, that while Gary Opit may talk up the prospects of Yowie DNA neither he nor any other 'researcher'

makes any effort to collect samples for testing despite the apparently large number of new reports. The number and extent of false claims is unknown. Even simple exaggeration is problematic. For example, wildlife expert Gary Opit has, at various times, falsely claimed to be a biologist, a zoologist, an environmental scientist, and an anthropologist despite having no formal qualifications whatsoever. Most Yowie reports are made to the 'researchers' who tend to perpetuate the chicanery and are rarely investigated to any reasonable standard.

Want to better understand the Yowie? Start by taking a closer look at those who value media attention over critical inquiry.  --Yowie-O [Ed.]

Meet the people searching for Australia’s mythical Dreamtime Bigfoot. “It would be easy to prove their existence with DNA by scooping up a soil sample from a footprint,” says Opit, who believes the yowie could in fact be a marsupial cryptid, based on eye-witness reports, and keeps its young in a front pouch like a kangaroo.

The title says it all, really...  --Yowie-O [Ed.]

Article features  Jason Heal as a "field researcher", Gary Opit as an "environmental scientist" this time, and paranormal film-maker, Attila Kaldy, whose account is interesting but hardly unbiased.  --Yowie-O [Ed.]

Note that links to the "Yowie thermal" videos are now unavailable. Why were they removed? Is it an acknowledgment that Yowies weren’t actually captured on thermal video? Is it an attempt to avoid further scrutiny? Is Big Brother responsible? Or have the rights been sold?

At any rate, removing the original videos makes further analysis impossible.

Mythical hobbit 'sighting' after 'little hairy man' jumps onto naturalist's roof (2021)

ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN? Couple think they spot YETI – but are stunned when they realize it’s a snow-covered tree (2020)

Yowie Claw! (a commentary) (2014)

How Nimbin got its name (2007)

The Americans might have bigfoot, but here in Australia hundreds of witnesses have claimed to have had encounters with our own version - a mythical animal we now know as the yowie. And while there may not be any hard proof of its existence, reports of these sightings stretch back to the early days of European colonisation and continue to this day... There have been many claims of yowie sightings over more than two centuries, with startling similarities in the descriptions offered.

Grey nomads are used to keeping their eyes peeled for exciting things as they criss cross the country. For most, the sight of a saltwater croc or a platypus is about as thrilling as it gets … but then there are the bewildered minority!

While it’s easy to write off reported sightings of yowies, bunyips, UFOs, ghosts, and aliens as misidentification, hoax or delusion, for those on the sharp end, the experiences can be all too real.

Doctor Oscar Cárdenas, a specialist in paranormal issues, says that some Yowies searchers claim to have captured thermal images of this animal in early 2021. Despite this, Cárdenas says that there is no physical or photographic evidence to prove the reality of this animal.

For the doctor in biology of the Australian National University, Carlos Pavón, it is possible that there are large animals that have not yet been discovered or classified by science, however, he considers it "highly unlikely". "It is very likely that a lack of understanding and a very different way of seeing things is at the origin of these stories of mythical creatures," says Pavón.