A mummified baby woolly mammoth has been unearthed in Yukon and it's a rare discovery in North America.
The government of Yukon revealed that a near-complete, mummified baby woolly mammoth was found in Klondike gold fields in Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory on June 21, 2022.
Miners who were working in Eureka Creek, which is southwest of Dawson City, discovered the frozen woolly mammoth while they were excavating the permafrost.
The territorial government said this is "a significant discovery" not only for them but for the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation as well.
Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Elders have given the mammoth calf the name Nun cho ga, which means "big baby animal" in the Hän language.
While Yukon has a notable fossil record of animals from the ice age, it's rare to uncover mummified remains of those animals that still have skin and hair intact.
"Nun cho ga is the most complete mummified mammoth found in North America," the government said.
Also, it's apparently the first near-complete and the best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth ever found in North America!
Mummified baby woolly mammoth named Nun cho ga that was discovered in Yukon.Government of Yukon
After a quick examination of the baby woolly mammoth, it's believed that she is female and about the same size as the 42,000-year-old infant mummy woolly mammoth Lyuba who was 85 centimetres tall.
Geologists from the Yukon Geological Survey and the University of Calgary suggested Nun cho ga died and was frozen in permafrost during the ice age, making her more than 30,000 years old.
At that time, she would have roamed the area along with wild horses, cave lions and steppe bison.
The government of Yukon said it will work together with the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation to "respectfully preserve" and also learn more about Nun cho ga.
Back in 2021, an advanced genetics and biosciences company revealed that it will try to bring back the woolly mammoth, more specifically, a cold-resistant elephant with the same core biological traits.
The goal is to have the animal walk, look and sound just like a woolly mammoth and live in the arctic just like the woolly mammoth did.