Of Mammoths and Men

Ancient hunters killed woolly mammoths for their meat. Today in Russia’s Arctic the search is on for their valuable tusks.   After being frozen for thousands of years in a Siberian riverbed, this pristine mammoth tusk is a financial boon to the hunter who found it.   Image © Evgenia Arbugaeva/National Geographic

Of Mammoths and Men Image © Evgenia Arbugaeva/National Geographic



Vladimir Potapov raises the skull of a prehistoric bison from a pile of assorted bones, including mammoth tusks, outside a makeshift bathhouse near Lake Bustakh.

 

Of Mammoths and Men Image © Evgenia Arbugaeva/National Geographic

The journey from permafrost to market—nearly 90 percent of Siberia’s tusks end up in China—begins by small boat.

Of Mammoths and Men Image © National Geographic



Images are from the April issue of National Geographic magazine.

source National Geographic