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02-08-2012, 04:40 PM
A BEAST lurches through icy waters in a sighting a paranormal investigator thinks could prove woolly mammoths are not extinct after all.
Video:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/sun-exclusive/4116533/The-Woolly-mammoth-alive.html#ooid=5oZDBoMzreLfI78xe1sCSLDmQQFyhXym
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, sporting giant tusks and a red coat.
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."
Other animals rediscovered after previously being thought extinct include the coelacanth. The large fish was believed to have died out over 65million years ago, but a live specimen was found by fishermen off the coast of South Africa in 1938.
Video:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/sun-exclusive/4116533/The-Woolly-mammoth-alive.html#ooid=5oZDBoMzreLfI78xe1sCSLDmQQFyhXym
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, sporting giant tusks and a red coat.
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."
Other animals rediscovered after previously being thought extinct include the coelacanth. The large fish was believed to have died out over 65million years ago, but a live specimen was found by fishermen off the coast of South Africa in 1938.