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Lyuba is a big girl now and at 42,000-years old, she has finally made her debut on the Australian scene. Well, not exactly a scene but more of a humidity-controlled glass cube at the Australian Museum. At first, she was taken out of the frozen grounds of Siberia. Then, a small museum in Russian carefully packed her in a crate and sent her to Australia. Now, Lyuba, the world’s best-reserved baby woolly mammoth is in Sydney.
Her condition surprised even the most experienced experts. Her internal organs and her skin are almost in perfect condition and intact. Moreover, the scientists found her mother’s milk inside her belly. On Saturday, she was unveiled as the most important piece for the museum’s exhibition called Mammoths – Giants of the Ice Age. Lyuba didn’t live long, but thanks to some kind people, she will now live forever and will make many people happy with her presence.
Baby Lyuba, the best-preserved woolly mammoth
Lyuba – the female woolly mammoth calf who lived for just a month 40,000 years ago. She is the best preserved mammoth in the world #IceAge pic.twitter.com/A2tW1qUXBF
— The Ice Age (@Jamie_Woodward_) November 1, 2016
Sadly, Lyuba died when she was just 35 days and Russia thinks of it as one of the country’s great treasures. This is only the fifth time the Shemanovsky Museum has sent her out and allowed another museum to make an exhibition around her. Actually, this is the first time Lyuba has travelled to the southern hemisphere.
Her story is also very interesting. Siberian reindeer herder Yuri Khudi first saw her back in 2007. He found her under the frozen mud on a Yuribey River bank. However, by the time he was back with a team of experts to get her out, someone else had gotten her out. Lyuba was gone. They finally found her outside a shop in a village deep in the Siberian frozen wasteland.
Her tail and one of her ears are the only parts missing. This is because while the shopkeeper was propping her up, a hungry dog came and chewed them off. Lyuba means “love” and she is now the first ever woolly mammoth to visit Australia. People can see Lyuba at the museum until May 13, 2018.
Image source: wikimedia
