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They were the biggest of the Ice Age giants, roaming the frozen plains of the Northern Hemisphere.

But it seems the final days of the woolly mammoth were a sad struggle for survival.

Genetic analysis of two woolly mammoth remains show that their population became so small that they had become chronically inbred.

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The last of the woolly mammoths (shown in the reconstruction above) were isolated on an Arctic island for around 5,000 years, forcing them to inbreed as their population dwindled until disappering 4,500 years ago

Researchers have concluded that the creatures clung on in just a tiny pocket of the Arctic, on an island that appears to have become cut off from the mainland.

The study has also raised the prospect of bringing the giant mammal back to life using cloning techniques with modern elephants.

However the researchers behind the genetic analysis have urged other scientists not to attempt this for fear of the suffering it may cause to the animals.

Instead, they say their findings have revealed new insights into the evolutionary history and demise of the woolly mammoths.

They have published full DNA sequences of one mammoth found in Oimyakon, northeast Siberia – thought to be around 45,000 years old – and another from one of the last surviving mammoths found on Wrangel Island, north of Russia in the Arctic Ocean.

They found that the mammoths on Wrangel Island had been isolated for at least 5,000 years, eking out a meager existence there before dying out 4,500 years ago.

Analysis showed that the parents of the mammoth found on Wrangel Island had been distant relatives, suggesting the population had been inbreeding.

Dr Love Dalén, an associate professor of Bioinformatics and Genetics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History who took part in the study, said: 'We found that the genome from one of the world's last mammoths displayed low genetic variation and a signature consistent with inbreeding.

'This is likely due to the small number of mammoths that managed to survive on Wrangel Island during the last 5,000 years of the species' existence.'

The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Cell Biology, found that the mammoth genome only appeared to align with African elephant DNA by between 64 per cent and 76 per cent.

Researchers extracted DNA from the remains of two woolly mammoths who died 36,000 years apart

Scientists have been able to extract DNA from mammoth hair (above) and tusks found across Siberia

Bringing the mammoth back! Researchers map genomes

Mammoths are thought to have evolved around 400,000 years ago in eastern Asia and is a close relative to the Asian elephant.

The researchers analysis revealed that mammoths appear to have suffered significant setbacks around 250,000 to 300,000 years ago where their population was decimated.

However, they then recovered before they experienced a further hit to their populations around 116,000 to 130,000 years ago.

The population then appears to have remained stable until 12,000 years ago when their numbers were drastically reduced.

The researchers believe the mammoths in Oimyakon and Wrangel separated around 50,000 years.

Hunting by humans has long been thought to be what drove the mammoths to extinction while climate change has also been blamed.

This mammoth tusk on Wrangel Island in Russia belonged to one of the last mammoths before they died out

The new results suggest the animals were already in decline by the time humans began moving into Europe 45,000 years ago.

Professor Hendrik Poinar, director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University who was also involved in the research, said the DNA raises the prospect that mammoths could now be brought back from extinction.

Organisations like the Long Now Foundation have said they hope to resurrect the mammoth.

Professor Poinar said: 'This discovery means that recreating extinct species is a much more real possibility, one we could in theory realize within decades.

'I think in the future it will be inevitable that we will be able to do it, but the bigger question is should we do it.

'With a complete genome and this kind of data, we can now begin to understand what made a mammoth a mammoth—when compared to an elephant—and some of the underlying causes of their extinction which is an exceptionally difficult and complex puzzle to solve.'

Hendrik Poinar discusses whether we should bring back the mammoth