Revised - The Yukon government is stonewalling attempts to provide more information on the status of the baby wooly mammoth specimen found in June 2022.

The specimen, known as Nun Cho Ga, could be taken to a facility in Ottawa in the near future for conservation and further study.

There are tentative plans to send the specimen to the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, the only facility in the country able to do the work.

However, the Yukon government has refused to allow Dr. Grant Zazula to speak to the Star on the subject for unknown reasons – despite him providing an extensive talk with one local media outlet earlier this week. The find has been the subject of international media coverage.

“In terms of an official statement, the Government of Yukon is proud to be providing technical and logistical support to Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in in preparation for Nun Cho Ga to undergo conservation treatment at the Canadian Conservation Institute and we will be in a better position to share details and specifics when the application process is complete,” Cameron Webber, a spokesperson for the Department of Tourism and Culture, told the Star in an email Thursday.

“Dr. Zazula won’t be conducting further Nun Cho Ga-related interviews at this time.”

The government wasn’t nearly so closed-mouthed last year when the discovery was made. Now-premier Ranj Pillai was among the people who happily posed for photos with the mammoth in Dawson City.

“On June 21 (2022), a near-complete, mummified baby woolly mammoth was found in the Klondike gold fields within Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Traditional Territory,” the government said in a statement.

“Miners for the Treadstone Mining company working on Eureka Creek uncovered the frozen woolly mammoth while excavating through the permafrost.

“This is a significant discovery for Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and the Government of Yukon. Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders named the mammoth calf Nun Cho Ga, meaning ‘big baby animal’ in the Hän language.”

According to that statement, the Yukon has a world-renowned fossil record of ice age animals, but mummified remains with skin and hair are rarely unearthed.

A quick examination of the woolly mammoth suggests she is female and roughly the same size as the 42,000-year-old infant mummy woolly mammoth “Lyuba” discovered in Siberia in 2007.

Geologists from the Yukon Geological Survey and University of Calgary who recovered the frozen mammoth on site suggest that Nun Cho Ga died and was frozen in permafrost during the ice age, more than 30,000 years old.

The discovery of Nun Cho Ga marks the first near-complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America. A partial mammoth calf, named Effie, was found in 1948 at a gold mine in interior Alaska. 

“Nun Cho Ga is the most complete mummified mammoth found in North America,” the statement said.

It didn’t take long for various politicians and scientists to comment on the exciting find.

Zazula said at the time, “As an Ice Age palaeontologist, it has been one of my life-long dreams to come face-to-face with a real woolly mammoth. That dream came true today.”

A call to the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in on Thursday was not responded to.