British Scientists at the Oxford Brookes University are studying the hard hair strands, claimed to be taken from a Yeti like creature found in the west Garo Jungles of Meghalaya in north-east India.

The hair were given to BBC by Dipu Marak, who is a passionate Yeti believer. He retrieved the hair from a site in dense jungle after an ape like creature called Mande Barung, was seen by a forester for three days in a row in 2003.

According to Marak, the creature is about 3m (nearly 10ft) tall and around 300kg (660lbs) in weight. He believes that the creature is herbivorous.

In the research conducted on Thursday, the hair strands were compared with hairs from other animals known to live in the area around the Garo hills of the north-eastern state of Meghalaya. These strands are also being compared to samples taken from primates, bears, dogs, yaks and humans. These samples were provided by the Natural History Museum in Oxford.

The tests are being conducted using the most sophisticated microscopes in Britain, by Award winning Primatologist, Anna Mekaris and microscopy expert, Jon Wells.

Anna Mekaris explains, "To get more appropriate results, the hair are kept in nail varnish and after the varnish dries, the mould which it forms creates much better three-dimensional image than the hair itself."

After the microscopic examinations, the hair will be sent to various labs for DNA analysis.

According to ape conservation expert, Ian Redmond, the hairs from India had the same follicle patterns to hair brought back to the UK by Sir Edmond Hillary and donated to the Natural History Museum.

Both Mr Redmond and Ms Mekaris agree that there are possibilities that these hair belong to an unknown species of primate.