A 30,000-Year-Old Arctic Squirrel Found In Canada Was Just Unveiled & It Still Has Fur (PHOTOS)

An arctic squirrel discovered in Canada that lived around 30,000 years ago was recently unveiled and its fur is still intact.

The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre shared the first photos on Twitter and Facebook of an arctic ground squirrel from the last ice age, including pictures of the animal curled up in a ball and X-rays of its remains.

It was discovered at Hester Creek in the Klondike Gold Fields, which is within the Traditional Territory of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, located near Dawson City, Yukon.

In the photos, you can see that the squirrel's fur was preserved along with its bones and claws.

The X-rays were done by a local vet in Whitehorse and those show the curled-up skeleton of the ice age squirrel.

Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre, which features fossils and remains of ice age animals, as well as the stories of the first people in North America, said that the specimen will be on display at the centre soon.

Grant Zazula, a paleontologist with the Yukon government, told CBC News that the "perfectly preserved" 30,000-year-old animal with its face, skin and hair intact helps bring the specimen to life.

The X-rays of the remains show that the animal was young and probably in its first year of hibernation when it died, but the cause of death is still unknown, according to experts.

Also, Zazula said this squirrel specie is interesting because they survived in Yukon after the ice age, unlike mammoths which went extinct.

This isn't the first time that an ice age discovery has been made in the territory recently.

Back in 2022, the government of Yukon shared that a mummified baby woolly mammoth was unearthed from permafrost and it was a rare discovery.

That's because mummified remains of ice age animals that still have skin and hair intact are rarely found.

Also, it was the first near complete and the best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth to ever be found in North America!