IMAGE: Image AFP/Yeti Project Japan.

Bigfoot madness is back. Recently, it was revealed that alleged hair samples of a type of yeti from India were revealed to be from a Himalayan Goral (Naemorhedus goral)—a species of goat. However, a Japanese team, which has repeatedly tried to find hard evidence of the yeti in Nepal, announced they have found footprints of the creature. Ultimately, the team hopes to obtain film of the legendary yeti. From the AFP:

A team of Japanese adventurers say they have discovered footprints they believe were made by the legendary yeti said to roam the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet.

“The footprints were about 20 centimetres (eight inches) long and looked like a human’s,” Yoshiteru Takahashi, the leader of the Yeti Project Japan, told AFP in Kathmandu on Monday.

Takahashi was speaking after he returned with his seven-member team from their third attempt to track down the half-man-half-ape, tales of which have gripped the imaginations of Western adventurers and mountaineers for decades.

Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV — a 7,661-metre (25,135-foot) peak where they say they have seen traces of yetis in the past — the team failed in their prime objective of capturing one on film.

But Takahashi said the footprints were proof enough.

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“We remain convinced it is real. The footprints and the stories the local tell make us sure that it is not imaginary,” he added.

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The team had set out nine motion-sensitive cameras in an area where Takahashi saw what he thought was a yeti during a previous expedition in 2003.

“It was about 200 metres away in silhouette. It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimetres tall,” said Takahashi.

The expedition’s website can be found here.

Hat tip to Kevin.