It’s up there with the Loch Ness Monster, UFOs and its close cousin the abominable snowman: the hunt for the mythical Bigfoot has proven a source of fascination and obsession for many. For a majority of people, though, there are countless reasons to doubt the creature’s existence.

Any ‘evidence’ so far has mostly consisted of grainy video, footsteps and hearsay, with accusations that many reported encounters were either hoaxes or simple misidentification. Some adamant Bigfoot ‘believers’ have even accused the best known cases - such as the famous Patterson-Gimlin video - of being fakes.

Now, a group of Texas-based researchers belonging to the ‘Sasquatch Genome Project’ claim to have ‘proven’ the existence of the human-like animal. WFAA report the SGP team has identified “definitive video and DNA evidence from the elusive Sasquatch. Researcher Dennis Pfohl... personally captured video and collected DNA samples from Sasquatch individuals.” The “serious study” has taken five years so far and cost $500,000.

The group write on their website that "we have had the proof for nearly 5 years but building enough data to convince mainstream science has taken a lot of time.  Trying to publish has taken almost two years.  It seems mainstream science just can’t seem to tolerate something controversial, especially from a group of primarily forensic scientists... We encountered the worst scientific bias in the peer review process in recent history".

Unfortunately, the footage the group has released to back-up their claims is unlikely to persuade sceptics. Consisting of conveniently short, shaky and grainy clips, the footage does not give us the clear, definitive look at the Bigfoots (or is that Bigfeet?) most people have long been searching for. Even with the promise of a forthcoming extended release of the footage, that DNA evidence had better be definitive...

Check out the clip below for a glimpse at the footage in question.