The discovery of Yuka, a young mammoth found frozen in Siberia recently, is extraordinary for the evidence it brings about our planetary history. She is so well preserved that her coat is intact – remarkably, it is strawberry blond in colour – and there are indications that she was attacked by a lion before humans killed her, some ten thousand years ago.
The details of her life and the world in which she lived are so detailed that I, and you, can see and feel the wildness and savagery of those hard times in the icy wastes of one of the cruellest lands on earth. My heart went out to Yuka, only two and a half years old and who broke her leg as she tried to escape from her predators not, really, so very long ago. She was beautiful, and how wonderful that her short life has become the gift of wonder and knowledge around the world.
I wonder where and in what form she lives on now? For she has never, really, died.
More information about and pictures of Yuka are available
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