Raising the Mammoth Page #2

is the largest remaining

Arctic mammal today.

Hopes are high as the helicopter

sets down 232 kilometers northwest

of Khatanga.

Bernard is heartened by the relative

softness of the ground.

Digging may be easier than expected.

The men are equipped for a month's

stay on the Taimyr.

They'll be in radio contact

with Anatoly

and the Russian authorities

responsible for their safety.

Otherwise, they're on their own.

Despite the sunny skies

it's well below zero.

Their first job is to set up camp.

Ah, a little bit more...

ah I think it's okay.

Conditions here can - and do -

change in a matter of hours.

The tents and porthole windows are

double thickness

to protect against gale-force winds

and the chill of polar nights.

They weigh close to 182 kilos.

Reindeer meat, one of the few things

in ample supply on the tundra

will be a staple of the team's diet

for the next month.

With a crew this small,

the men will have to take turns

in the kitchen

and the hunters among them

will help supply their table

with meat.

Frequent meals will help the men

conserve their energy

for digging in the cold.

Finding a woolly mammoth carcass

hidden in the tundra is a rarity.

Preserving it in its frozen state

almost unheard of.

If they succeed, it will be the find

of the century.

Like hunters from another age,

they hope to reap the spoils

of victory.

Radar will provide a two-dimensional

image

of the animal the Dolgans found.

It's programmed to detect the shape

of the mammoth,

the presence of flesh and bones.

Let's go 12 meters to the left side,

and then we go on this way.

If the animal is here,

Bernard wants to dig as close to it

as possible.

Ay, yay, yay yay...

It's very, very clear also that you

have between...

Bernard has enlisted the help of

a Swede named Per Wickstrom,

a specialist in ground-penetrating

radar.

It's the first time this method

will be tried

to take readings in permafrost.

Interesting...

Dolgan will call you shaman

because you can see!

Encouraged by the initial results

Bernard has his team clear away snow

from the research perimeter.

The next radar sweep will be

even more precise.

Per narrows the grid to sections

spaced only inches apart.

Are you ready?

Yes!

Start!

Mark, mark, mark...

He'll use a smaller antenna to

locate shapes called anomalies.

...mark, mark, and finished.

Something's visible on the screen.

There's definitely something

down there.

Boris Lebedev, the outdoorsman

artist and poet

is to Bernard the quintessential man

of the tundra.

Without his calming presence and

his strength,

an expedition in such harsh

conditions would be unthinkable.

A breeder of sled dogs,

Boris admires authors such as

Jack London

and James Fenimore Cooper,

who also chronicled life

on the edge of civilization.

And to hunt a giant in the ice

perhaps a fitting quest.

From the mammoth that you have

begun to...

As the team prepares to break ground

Per interprets the data from the

latest radar surveys.

The findings will determine whether

or not Bernard gives the go-ahead

to carry on with the dig.

The results couldn't be better.

Five, seven, six...

Six, six meters totally.

Six meters totally.

But down quite deep here,

at approximately two point five

to three meter

there is a very large anomaly.

There on the screen is proof that

entombed in the permafrost

is something the size of

a woolly mammoth.

If they can find the ancient animal

imprisoned in the earth,

the plan is to carve a block

around it

build a steel frame under it

and airlift it to Khatanga by helicopter.

Penetrating earth as dense as

concrete is no easy task.

Permafrost, layers of clay,

silt and water compressed over

millennia, give way slowly,

even to the menacing teeth of

a chainsaw.

Using the most basic tools available

in Khatanga,

the work is backbreaking.

Progress is slower than expected.

But Bernard takes time to gather

permafrost samples

for a survey on the mammoth's little

studied habitat.

Voila!

On the horizon is a welcome sight,

a herd of reindeer announcing the

arrival of the Dolgans.

All year 'round, the Dolgans travel

the tundra on wooden sleds,

harnessed to the reindeer they catch

and domesticate.

Guenady Jarkov has come as promised

to consult with Bernard.

He's brought along his family and

the magnificent Ice Age tusks.

The Dolgans use mammoth ivory

for buttons, tools,

and ornaments for their herds.

No one can wait to have a look

at the freshly cleared ground.

Guenady wants to show Bernard as

accurately

as possible how he found the tusks.

If Bernard can determine how

the mammoth lies underground,

he'll risk less of a chance of

damaging it while digging.

Hospitality is the rule on the tundra

and it's offered with gratitude.

The cooperation of the Dolgans on

this dig is a first.

Though their ancestors roved

the Taimyr for 422 years,

Bernard is the first mammoth hunter

to seek their advice

and to attempt to honor the rules of

their culture.

With the earth so resistant to

the advances of pick and shovel,

it could take days for the team to

move forward.

Bernard comes up with an idea

that may help move the process along.

It's a kind of makeshift greenhouse

designed to soften the ground.

And if it works, the men joke

they'll all want to camp there.

But it worked too well.

To warm the earth any further could

risk harming the animal inside.

On the tundra tonight,

there's a hope that the elusive

mammoth will show himself soon.

Within hours, the earth has yielded

its first sign of mammoth:

A molar, very well preserved.

Despite the signs of scavengers

Bernard is unfazed.

Like tree rings, the ridges in the

teeth reveal a mammoth's age.

This one is 47.

Do I have an idea, a better idea

of this?

And after I will try to put up

you will help me, yeah?

With the remains of the skull

now extracted

Bernard will focus his search

on the anomaly

so clearly displayed by the radar.

Over the ages, the mammoth's head

must have drifted slightly

from its body.

Bernard decides to reposition

the tusks.

That way, the team can assess

where the bulk of the mammoth lies

and how to resume the dig.

According to the radar,

what should remain in the earth is

a mammoth-sized carcass.

Take care of the end

and maybe Nico or Vladimir, take out?

No, don't touch.

Give me a little bit of snow

pack of snow. Please.

Concerned that a storm may be

on its way

Vladimir, a former meteorologist

radios Khatanga.

There's bad news in the forecast.

The men have abandoned

the solar tent opting

to dig in the granite-like

earth instead of the mud.

Like detectives scratching for

evidence at the scene of a crime

they leave no stone unturned.

Eventually, their perseverance

pays off.

The first clue plucked from the

permafrost is modest

but to the Ice Age detectives

a major victory.

It's the wiry hair of

a woolly mammoth.

The men are closing in on

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