The most famous hair sample in Whitehorse will journey south to Alberta for analysis.

This is the most recent turn of events in the intrigue surrounding a hair sample that some believe recently fell from the body of a sasquatch in the Teslin area.

Philip Merchant, a veteran laboratory technician for the territorial Department of Environment, finished his analysis of the hair Wednesday afternoon.

According to his test, which involved comparing a print of the hair's scale pattern to those of other creatures, the hair likely came from bison.

The results are not entirely conclusive though, said Dennis Senger, the department's communications co-ordinator.

'(Merchant) is being a scientist,' he said in an interview. 'He's not 100 per cent sure, so he doesn't want to say anything conclusive.'

Merchant's expert opinion remains the same, though. He maintains the hair appears to be bison.

'I have not seen anything to lead me in another direction,' he said in an interview.

There are still many unknowns about the origins of the sample. Merchant said there is no way of knowing how the sample ended up there, whether it blew there or was placed there by human hand.

Over the past week, though, Dr. David Coltman, associate professor of biology at the University of Alberta, contacted Merchant about the sample.

He offered to run DNA tests on the tuft of potential sasquatch hair.

Merchant accepted Coltman's offer, and has contacted him to set up the DNA analysis.

The test will involve extracting DNA from cells in the roots of the hairs.

These cells will be taken from the mitochondria, the energy-producing part of a cell, because it evolves much more quickly.

It is also easier to isolate mitochondrial DNA than it is to isolate DNA in the nucleus of the cell, Coltman explained in an interview today.

Once the DNA sequence is prepared, it will then be run through a database of all known creatures.

'If it truly is sasquatch DNA, it will probably not match anything,' Coltman said. 'It should most closely resemble human or gorilla.'

If the sample is from a new species, this analysis should identify to what existing creature it most closely resembles, he said. This could be anything from human to bison.

The test results should be complete within a week's time.

The sasquatch sighting that sparked the current investigation occurred about a week ago, when up to nine witnesses claimed to have seen a creature roaming about in the woods in Teslin.

A footprint and the hair sample were found at one of the sightings.

About a year ago, two local adults also spotted a sasquatch-like figure as it crossed their path early one morning. They were both familiar with the wildlife in the area and, according to reports at the time, were shaken by what they saw.

'It certainly would be exciting if it were something new,' Coltman said.

The Yukon's latest sasquatch report, meanwhile, has attracted the interest of national media outlets, including CTV and the National Post, which published an article in Wednesday's editions.