'Woolly mammoth' spotted in Siberia

The Sun - UK ^ | Wed Feb 08, 2012 | Staff

[Red Badger]

A BEAST lurches through icy waters in a sighting a paranormal investigator thinks could prove woolly mammoths are not extinct after all.

The animal – thought to have mostly died out roughly 4,000 years ago – was apparently filmed wading through a river in the freezing wilds of Siberia.

The jaw-dropping footage was caught by a government-employed engineer last summer in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Siberia, it is claimed.

He filmed the elephant-sized creature as it struggled against the racing water.

Its hair matches samples recovered from mammoth remains regularly dug up from the permafrost in frozen Russia.

The official was reportedly in the area surveying for a planned road.

Paranormal writer Michael Cohen said: "Rumours of a handful of mammoths still kicking around in the vast wilderness of Siberia have been circulating for decades and occasionally sightings by locals have occurred.

"Siberia is an enormous territory and much of it remains completely unexplored and untouched by humans. "

Woolly mammoths roamed the Earth 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age.

A small pocket remained on and around Wrangel Island, off the coast of Siberia, and these did not die out until 3,500 years ago.

Mr Cohen, 41, added: "It is highly possible that a number of species, extinct elsewhere, survive in the area.

"If surviving woolly mammoths were found in Siberia, it could run against Russia's plans to further develop and exploit the area's considerable resources.

"It would be potentially one of the greatest discoveries ever."

But viewers are divided on the nature of the animal seen in the video. Some have dismissed it as a hoax while others reckon it is an elephant lost in the Siberian wilderness. The third theory is the sighting shows a bear eating a huge fish. What do you think?

[Daffynition]

It's a party!

[Irenic]

Very fun thread, thanks!

[ApplegateRanch]

Sorry that is against UBM&MC Union Rules. (United Brotherhood of Monsters and other Mytical Creatures)

---

I always have that trouble. Every time I try to get apicture of the monster under the bed, all that comes out is a fuzzy, grainy picture of what could easily be mistaken for dust bunnies with a cat hiding behind them, as it really is of the monster that I know lives under there.

[Daffynition]

Wooly mammoth paints your cat...

[Revolting cat!]

Whatcha talking about? It’s 4:55PM here in Vladivostok now.

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

Heh. Somehow I thought mammoths were herbaceous critters.

Oh well, doubters gonna doubt...haters gonna hate.

I believe...

[The Cajun]

Can't believe nobody posted a pic of the spaced out Ancient Alien guy from the History Channel.

[Daffynition]

LOL...It's too early in the thread. We have to humiliate all the *doubters* and then bring in the alien guy. :)

Clearly it's a mammoth struggling with an ostrich.

[TigersEye]

Beer and fish! Woo hoo!!!

[TigersEye]

Oh, boy! Now that we have an animated gif of an elephant choking the chicken this thread is headed for the Smoky Backroom at the very least.

[The Cajun]

and then bring in the alien guy.

Yes sir reee, he's the deal sealer for me, if you can't believe him, who can you believe?

:^)

[Daffynition]

It's all down stream from here.

[Daffynition]

I thought the Russians and the Japanese were going to clone a mammoth.

The perfectly mummified woolly mammoth, a female who died at the age of six months, was named "Lyuba" after the wife of reindeer breeder and hunter Yuri Khudi who found her in Russia's Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region.

Weighing 50 kg (110 lb), and measuring 85 centimeters high and 130 centimeters from trunk to tail, Lyuba who died at least 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, is roughly the same size as a large dog.

Lyuba will be shipped to School of Medicine, Jikei University in Japan to undergo three-dimensional computer mapping of her body. The mammoth will then return to St Petersburg for an autopsy before being put on display in Salekhard.

The discovery of the baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age.

[Daffynition]

You can barely discern the speed boat pulling the mammoth in the video.

[Fresh Wind]

Looks like a bear with a big fish in its mouth.

[maine-iac7]

[TigersEye]

This thread needs more squatch!

[Daffynition]

Did you see upthread...I posted the First Wookie impersonating a mammoth....not close enuf?

[TigersEye]

OK, good enough. But tell me this; why don't mastodons get as much press as mammoths?

Anti-mastodonites that's why!