Scientists note that this is the only finding in North America. The elders of the local settlement of Trondek Khvechin called the mammoth Nun Choga, which means “big baby animal” in the Han language.

What is known about the find

The frozen body was found in the permafrost by local miners.

• A quick glance shows that it was a female about the same size as the woolly mammoth found in Siberia in 2007 and estimated to be 42,000 years old.
• Geologists from the Yukon Geological Survey and the University of Calgary, who studied the frozen mammoth in situ, suggest that Nun Choga died out in an ice age of more than 30,000 years and was frozen in permafrost.
• The mammoth’s intestines, hair and even nails have been preserved.
• These astonishing remnants of the ice age provide an extremely detailed picture of the times when Nun Choga roamed the Yukon with wild horses, cave lions, and giant steppe bison.
• Nun Choga’s discovery marks the first almost complete and best preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America. A partially preserved mammoth body named Effie was found in a gold mine in Alaska’s interior in 1948.

A research team next to a mammoth mummy / Photograph by Prof Dan Shugar

Yukon has always been a world-renowned leader in ice age and Beringia research. We were fascinated by the discovery of the mummified woolly mammoth calf: Nun Choga. Such discoveries could not have taken place without a strong partnership between the miners, Trondek Khvechin, and the Yukon government.
– Commenting on Ranj Pillai, Minister of Tourism and Culture.

The animal will likely be transferred to one of the local museums, where it will be kept and attract tourists from all over the world.

Mummy of a mammoth Sister cho ha / Photograph by Prof Dan Shugar

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