Yeti

Yeti
Species information
Skin colour	Grey
Hair colour	White
Related to	Troll (possibly)
Native to	Tibet
Alternative names	Bigfoot The Abominable Snowman
Height of average adult	15 feet
Mortality	Mortal
Distinction	Human-like traits Carnivorous Fears fire
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast XXXX
Status	Extant

"A native of Tibet, the yeti is believed to be related to the troll, though no one has yet got close enough to conduct the necessary tests. Up to fifteen feet in height, it is covered head to foot in purest white hair. The yeti devours anything that strays into its path, though it fears fire, and may be repulsed by skilled wizards."

— Newton Scamander, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman or Bigfoot, was a magical beast native to Tibet.

Description

Standing up to 15 feet tall, it was a snowy-white furred humanoid that may have been related to the troll. Yetis were one of the wizarding world's worst kept secrets, as there had been so many Muggle sightings of the yeti. Because of this, Tibet had one of the worst wizarding secrecy records, due to its continuing breaches of Clause 73 of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. The International Confederation of Wizards had to place a permanent International Task Force up in the mountains to help control the situation.

The yeti's alternate name of Bigfoot could also be used to refer to the sasquatch.

The yeti feared fire, allowing for skilled wizards and witches to repel it. However, the yeti would attack and eat anything that it met, so no known witch or wizard had the opportunity to study it up close.

Yeti fur could be used as a potion ingredient.

History

"4 Yetti [sic] footprints: True sighting or another prank?"

— The Quibbler

The yeti on Hogwarts grounds in the 1980s

Some time before the 1984–1985 school year, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn imported a yeti from Tibet so his Care of Magical Creatures class could study it. The yeti ended up escaping and would roam the area around Hogwarts Castle for years, earning the name of The Legendary Yeti of Hogwarts. Rita Skeeter ended up writing an article on it for the Daily Prophet, where she cast the yeti as violent, but Kettleburn disagreed, stating he thought the yeti was a pacifist as, to his knowledge, it hadn't hurt anyone. During the 1984–1985 school year Christmas holidays, Jacob's sibling and Rowan Khanna captured the yeti and returned it to Professor Kettleburn.

In 1992, Gilderoy Lockhart taught his second-year Defence Against the Dark Arts class about the yeti, using his book Year with the Yeti. However, based on his fraudulence, his information was taken from a more accomplished wizard or witch and his own version was twisted with inaccuracy and arrogance.

In 1998, The Quibbler questioned whether four yeti footprints were sighted or if it was another prank. Xenophilius Lovegood misspelled yeti as 'Yetti'.

Behind the scenes

• The yeti is a mythological creature purported to live in the portions of the Himalayas encompassing Nepal and Tibet, generally considered in modern times to be a misidentification of various types of bear native to the region; or, alternatively, as a fictionalised form of the extinct ape Gigantopithecus, known to have inhabited the vicinity.
• The name "Abominable Snowman" derives from an account of a sighting of the creature in 1921 by a Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury. Bigfoot, on the other hand, describes a similar creature supposedly found in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, believed to have derived from a combination of local folklore and various hoaxes.
• The yeti appeared as the final boss of a special Forbidden Forest adventure in the 2021 December update of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Mentioned only) (GBA version)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Mentioned in The Quibbler)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (First appearance)
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World
• Pottermore (Appears on book cover)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened