You never know where an article on cryptozoology will pop-up.

The Monadnock regional newspaper in New Hampshire, Monandnock Ledger Transcript printed an article by Jane Eklund on December 14, 2006. This article is entitled Zoologist investigated Yeti and appeared in a flashback type of entry in the paper.

The zoologist in question was Leon Hausman, who passed away on February 2, 1966. Hausman retired to the Monadnock region, namely the town of Fitzwilliam, in 1952 after working for both Cornell University and Rutgers University.

Hausman was a well known zoologist, who was especially acknowledged for his work on mammalian hair analysis. Though he did also write upwards of 20 books on various zoological topics.

Hausman was involved with the early analysis of the Yeti scalps, which have been well documented elsewhere (the scalp history, not so much Hausman’s work). However, he also did some additional work that is of interest in cryptozoology.

One of these earlier works was in 1955, and involved the analysis of potential mountain lion hairs and flesh from November of 1954. The hairs were from a feline style animal reportedly shot at, but not killed, in Missouri by a hunter. It was deemed the “Whatsit” at the time. Hausman, according to newspaper accounts, thought the hairs represented a feline and were from a mountain lion.

Craig