What level of scientific inquiry is the search for Bigfoot in?

For hundreds of years, people across North America have reported seeing a large hairy biped with a uniquely terrifying scream and a scent that would kill an ox walking around in the wild. However, the actual existence of these creatures has yet to be unequivocally proven to the satisfaction of science. Having so many of these sightings and anecdotes relating to sasquatch but lacking some sort of uncontestable physical evidence leaves a gap where speculation runs free, creating wild theories that are difficult to address properly in a scientific paradigm. In recent years, one proposed theory as to the veracity of the sasquatch's existence comes from paleoanthropological ideas and has interesting implications for the evolution and divergence of the primate lineage. The possibility of sasquatch being a yet-undiscovered extant hominid species descended from a past member of the primate lineage, surviving in thick deciduous forests in the northwest regions of the United States. Possible candidates for the ancestral sasquatch species include Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Gigantopithecus blacki. By looking at the present-day ecology of those regions in the US, past models of primate divergence and evolution, present-day primatology, opportunities for migration, the fossil record of the proposed ancestor species and the ethnographic record of sasquatch literature, it is possible to evaluate this theory surrounding the mystery of sasquatch in a scientific as opposed to pseudoscientific framework. In assessing the value of this theory, further questions and strategies can be raised as to aid in the verification or the debunking the status of the sasquatch as an extant species.