Bigfoot search buffaloed

DNA from Teslin tuft a 100% match with bison species

By Brookes Merritt

Bigfoot believers will have to keep looking for evidence after University of Alberta researchers yesterday identified a hotly debated tuft of hair as belonging to a bison.

Wildlife geneticist Dr. David Coltman wouldn't deny witnesses saw some sort of creature near Teslin, Yukon, earlier this month, but if it was a sasquatch, it must have recently stepped on a bison to have left this particular hair behind.

"You can't fool us with a hair sample," Coltman said. "DNA sequences from the sample produced a 100% match with known bison sequences."

Coltman said bison are uncommon in the Teslin area and that it took many attempts to extract DNA from the sample because it was highly degraded.

The extent of degradation is consistent with perhaps longer-term over-winter exposure or the consequence of the tanning process used to preserve hides, he said.

Corey Davis, the technician who performed the DNA analysis, suspected the hair was bison but said the chance to discover a new species — no matter how small — is exciting.

"There was always about 0.1% of me that hoped it was (from a new species)," Davis said. "There was quite a bit of anticipation (in the lab), everyone was crowded around the sequencer waiting for the data to come out."

Coltman didn't comment on the suggestion that the U of A seek grant funding to create a sasquatch research centre, and said he'll not be pursuing any further Bigfoot research.

"I'm very afraid of getting packages from people all over the world," he said, recalling a recent conversation with a woman who thought a werewolf had scrambled across her roof. But he stopped short of saying Bigfoot is non-existent.

"On the basis of what we found we cannot rule out that there could be a bipedal primate species in North America that is as yet undescribed," Coltman said.

From: Edmonton Sun, 29 July 2005.