Gold prospectors discover frozen mammoth baby in Canada
While excavating the permafrost of the Klondike gold fields, workers found a well-preserved mummified woolly mammoth – second only to worldwide. The animal was about a month old.
The aborigines gave the mummified woolly mammoth the name nun cho ga (big animal baby).
Photo: Dan Sugar, @WaterSHEDLab/University of Calgary
A combination of happy circumstances led to an exciting discovery in northwest Canada. It required a combination of vigilant miners, responsive authorities, good working relations with the natives and, finally, a nearby geologic team.
A well-preserved and mummified woolly mammoth has been discovered. Gold prospectors found the female cub while excavating permafrost in the Klondike gold fields in the Trondok Hochin Aboriginal Tribal Area in the Canadian Territory of Canada. A young man stopped working immediately when he encountered something unknown and called his boss who immediately informed the authorities.
Workers discovered baby mammoths while digging in the permafrost of the Klondike Gold Fields.
Photo: Dan Sugar, @WaterSHEDLab/University of Calgary
Half an hour later, the paleontologist was informed and he was looking for experts who could examine and rescue the now-melt find. And he was lucky, because geologist Dan Sugar of the University of Calgary was working with two students on a nearby project and rushed to the drilling site immediately after the discovery. “It was an incredibly lucky timing,” Sugar said after the rescue. “Being a part of this exploration was the most scientifically exciting thing I’ve ever experienced.”
“We have to treat them all with respect. When that happens it will be a powerful thing and we will heal. We as a people should do it.”
Chief Roberta Joseph of the aborigines of Trondok Hoshin was also pleased to get the mammoth out of the ground. “This is a wonderful discovery for our first nation,” said a joint statement from the Aboriginal and Yukon authority. The remains must now be handled in a manner that respects Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in traditions, culture and laws, President Joseph wrote. The elders of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people called him Nun cho ga (Big Baby Animal).
“It’s amazing,” said Peggy Kormendi, the elder of the Trondok Hoshin family, in the statement. “We have to treat them all with respect. When that happens it will be a powerful thing and we will heal. We as a people should do it.”
He died 30,000 years ago
Geologists from California and the University of Calgary believe that Non Chu Ga died during the Ice Age and was frozen in permafrost more than 30,000 years ago. “It’s pretty amazing to think that this animal was dead so long ago, but so well preserved that it still has hair,” says geologist Dan Sugar. She looks like a baby taking a nap. “Nun cho ga is one of the most unusual Ice Age mummified animals ever discovered in the world.”
Co-paleontologist Grant Zazola was also excited after the rescue. Zazula told Global News that Hassan Chu is an “amazing scientific discovery.” Hair and skin have been preserved. “If you look at her feet, you’ll find that she has very small toenails and toenails that haven’t completely hardened yet.”
The cub was only about a month old before it died about 30,000 years ago.
Photo: Yukon Territory / Trondik Huachen
Its length is about 140 cm. Initial investigations indicated that she was about a month old when she died. Woolly mammoths inhabited Eurasia and then North America for hundreds of thousands of years. The species became extinct on the mainland about 13,000 years ago – on some Arctic islands after only a few thousand years.
“There is one thing that stands out in everyone’s life and I can really vouch for it being mine.”
It is the second woolly mammoth cub to be discovered worldwide, the report said. In 1948, parts of a mammoth calf, called Evie, were found in a gold mine in the US state of Alaska.
The authorities and the indigenous people also gave special thanks to the gold prospectors, who discovered the giant baby “with eagle eyes” during excavations and immediately reported to the authorities. The workers are very proud of their discovery. “There is one thing that stands out in everyone’s life and I can really vouch for it is mine,” said Brian McCugan, who runs the family business Treadstone Mining with his wife, Sharon.
Part of the team that made the discovery.
Photo: Dan Sugar, @WaterSHEDLab/University of Calgary
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