THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when an 11-year-old boy goes wandering in Russia.

The Moscow News reports that Yevgeny Salinder was rambling through an isolated area in one of Russia’s northernmost peninsulas when he stumbled across the carcass of a woolly mammoth – which despite having been there for up to 30,000 years, was almost fully intact.

The remains alone weight half a tonne, and include a tusk, various bones, skin and hair.

It’s said to be one of the best-preserved mammoths ever found – in one of the few cases where a full mammoth was found frozen, a thoughtless hunter allowed the carcass to thaw, sold its tusks, and abandoned the rest of the carcass to be eaten by wolves.

The mammoth has been nickname ‘Zhenya’, after the nickname of the boy who found it.

(Photos: ITAR-TASS/ Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

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11-year-old goes wandering, stumbles across 30,000-year-old woolly mammoth

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.