Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290012
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: Medium
Dr. Marie-Jeanne Koffmann, a French-Russian surgeon, mountaineer and scholar, has been on the trail for more than two decades. She has collected more than 500 eyewitness accounts and a plaster-cast footprint of the "forest man of the Caucasus."
She rode on horseback through the remote mountains between the Black and Caspian seas, talking to villagers who had seen the mysterious beast.
Although skeptical at first, she soon became convinced the Almasty was another in the array of species that roamed the Caucasian wilds.
Retiring in France on a tiny Soviet pension, she never dreamed that one day she'd have the money to mount a full-scale scientific search.
But then, she had not counted on Sylvain Pallix.
Pallix, a documentary filmmaker, was fascinated by two articles Koffmann wrote for Archologia magazine. Tracking her down, he proposed finding sponsors for an expedition that he would film.
French paleoanthropologist Yves Coppens gave the search his blessing. Pallix quickly raised half of the needed $1.8 million. He's confident he'll find the rest.
"For three weeks the telephone has been ringing off the hook," said Pallix. "People are fascinated by the Almasty."
The expedition hopes to find one of the beasts, put it to sleep, take blood and skin samples and a plaster cast of the face and then let it awake in freedom - after putting a band on it so its wanderings can be followed.
Almasty may be unknown in the official world of scientists and academics, but the people of the Caucus know the creature well.
They say it is 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 6 inches tall, with red or black hair covering the body and slanted eyes that glow red in the dark.
Appearing like a cross between an ape and a Neanderthal, the Almasty reputedly can run at up to 37 mph. It eats plants and meat. It sometimes travels with companions and babies.
Peasants say the creature would never harm a soul.
by CNB