Miners in Canada discovered a frozen mummified baby mammoth during one of their excavations for gold near Klondike, a city in Yukon, last week, according to the provincial government.
Miners with Treadstone Mining made the discovery, which is considered the most complete mummified woolly mammoth found in North America and features skin and hair, according to a news release.
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Elders in the Trʼondek Hwechʼin First Nation band that has lived in Yukon for a thousand years named the female baby mammoth “Nun cho ga,” which means “big baby animal” in the Han language.
“This is as a remarkable recovery for our First Nation, and we look forward to collaborating with the Yukon government on the next steps in the process for moving forward with these remains in a way that honours our traditions, culture, and laws,” Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Chief Roberta Joseph said in the release. “We are committed to respectfully handling Nun cho ga as she has chosen now to reveal herself to all of us.”
Ranj Pillai, Yukon’s minister of tourism and culture, tweeted his reaction to the discovery Friday, highlighting the cooperation between the miners, including Brian McCaughan from Treadstone Mining, the Yukon government, and the Trʼondek Hwechʼin.
“What an amazing discovery! The Yukon has always been internationally renowned for ice age and Beringia research,” Pillai tweeted. “This mummified woolly mammoth is the most complete mummified mammoth found in North America!”
Geologists from the Yukon Geological Survey and the University of Calgary who helped recover the mammoth on site believe the baby died and has been frozen since an ice age more than 30,000 years ago.
“As an ice age palaeontologist, it has been one of my life long dreams to come face to face with a real woolly mammoth,” Yukon paleontologist Dr. Grant Zazula said in the release. “That dream came true today. Nun cho ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world. I am excited to get to know her more.”
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Although Nun cho ga is the most complete mammoth discovered in North America, a partial mammoth calf named Effie was found in 1948 at a gold mine in Alaska. Another mummified baby woolly mammoth named Lyuba was discovered in Siberia in 2007.
