The Indian Army tweeted out photos of what it claimed were footprints of a Yeti, the mythical Himalayan monster, on Monday, adding they discovered evidence of the creature’s existence during a recent mountaineering expedition. The tweet evoked a variety of mocking memes and responses.

The photos were tweeted by the official Twitter page of the Indian Army's Additional Directorate General of Public Information. The army claimed they were taken on April 9 close to the Makalu Base Camp, which was located in an isolated mountainous area between Nepal and Tibet. One of the pictures showed a zoomed-in shot of a footprint that measured 32 by 15 inches. The tracks in the snow also appeared to show the prints of a single foot.

The Indian army was incessantly rebuked for propagating theories about the yeti, which is also known in popular folklore as bigfoot or the abominable snowman.

A few people, who believed the myth, were excited to see the photos:

After facing overwhelming criticism for its tweet, the army answered a series of queries from the media, explaining that the photos were posted solely with the intention of reviving scientific curiosity among people.

“The story is based on physical proofs of on the spot narration, photos and videos… Tweeted as we thought prudent to excite scientific temper and rekindle the interest,” it said. “Some of us who reject the story surely shall have definitive answers to the evidence. As they say, nature, history, and science never write their final story.”

It added that it will publish videos of the footprints Tuesday.

A number of Indian scientists and other experts opined that the army’s tweet doesn't prove that the legendary apelike beast actually dwells in the Himalayan region.

“The Yeti is a mythical figure, the scientific basis of such claims is lacking,” Dr. S.P. Singh, a renowned ecologist and former vice-chancellor of the Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, told Hindustan Times.

Joint secretary of Nepal’s forest department Maheshwar Dakal also told the outlet that although there was a healthy population of the brown bear in the Makalu-Barun National Park, they did not receive any evidence about the existence of a Yeti in the area. “We cannot ascertain the presence of the Yeti unless we have proof in the form of pictures or others. The footprint does not explain all and could be of bear or snow leopard,” Dakal said.

Dipankar Ghose, the director of the species and landscape program of the World Wide Fund-India, said he thought it was “unbelievable that such a species exists which has not been discovered yet”. “Because of atmospheric pressure and heat, the hind paws of animals disappear while walking on the snow. Only forepaws are visible which are splayed over time,” Ghose added.

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