The Tragic Tale of Zana: A Human or Something Else?

The Disturbing Story of Zana, the Mysterious Ape Woman of the Caucasus Mountains For centuries, stories of the Almas, a Siberian counterpart to the Sasquatch, have persisted in local villages of the area between Georgia and Russia. But none is more shocking and intriguing than that of Zana, the prehistoric ape woman captured by hunters and brought to civilization in the late 1800s. Zana looked human but at the same time she did not. Believed to be part of a tribe of wild people from deep in the Russian-Mongolian ranges, Zana was covered entirely in reddish-brown hair and had the offensive smell and facial features that were both human and simian. Her sheer strength was also beyond human, allowing her to swim effortlessly against the high tide of a nearby river and run faster than a horse at full gallop. Despite attempts to tame her, Zana remained wild and was confined to a cage where she stayed for three long years, surrounded by swarms of crowds clamoring to gawk. Even after her captor's attitude toward her softened, Zana still would only grunt and hiss, never uttering a single word. As time went on, Zana became alcohol dependent, and she was taken advantage of by men from a nearby village while she was impaired, leading to her becoming pregnant. The tragedy continued when she carried her newborn to a river and waded into the ice-cold waters in an attempt to bathe it. The newborn, lacking the thick protective fur of its mother, did not survive the washing. Zana fell pregnant again and repeated the devastating ritual at the river with her second child. After the second drowning, the local community decided that if Zana had any more children, they were to be taken away immediately to ensure their survival. Sadly, Zana continued to drink and be abused, going on to have four more children, all swiftly removed from her care. Aside from two rare photographs of her daughter and her son, not much is known about Zana's children. Some of Zana's descendants are said to be living to this day, but the answer to whether she was truly human or part of an isolated hunter-gatherer tribe remains buried in the chronicles of history. Could Zana have been an Almas, with a physiology and body adapted to survive in the frigid waters and harsh winters of the Caucasus Mountains? Or was she truly a member of an isolated tribe so culturally different from her captor's society that she ultimately seemed non-human? While most scientists do not recognize the creature's existence, the legend of Zana, the mysterious ape woman of the Caucasus Mountains, continues to intrigue and disturb researchers and Bigfoot enthusiasts alike.