Mammoth tusk hunters

Hunting for mammoth tusks takes place in many regions of the Russian Arctic. Dolgans in Arctic Yakutia and the Taymyr Peninsula sometimes search for them in summer and on our tours in these areas you are likely to see tusks in peoples nomad camps or village homes. Nenets on the Yamal Peninsula do not usually actively search for tusks, although they do sometimes find them.

It is in north-central and northeastern Yakutia, however, that mammoth tusk hunting has become a way of life for large numbers of people.

One expert, after years of research in one district of Arctic Yakutia, concluded that even in that one district (about 1000km from east to west and about 200km from north to south) there were 500,000 tonnes of mammoth tusks alone buried in the ground. Although at first glance this figure seems a bit 

excessive, it is probably not far off, as an average pair of mammoth tusks weighs 100kg. This means that around five million mammoths died in that district, of the 40 million mammoths believed to have lived and died in Siberia as a whole over the 400,000 years that woolly mammoths inhabited the region.

People in Arctic Yakutia spend months on end out in the taiga and tundra every summer searching for mammoth tusks. These tusks, entombed in the permafrost, are pushed to the surface each year when the top layer melts and expands, creating a seemingly never-ending supply.

Please see our mammoth-tusk related tours below. One is a dedicated itinerary to visit tusk hunters. The other two are different tours during which guests are also likely to encounter mammoth tusks or tusk hunters.

Hunting for mammoth tusks takes place in many regions of the Russian Arctic. Dolgans in Arctic Yakutia and the Taymyr Peninsula sometimes search for them in summer and on our tours in these areas you are likely to see tusks in peoples nomad camps or village homes. Nenets on the Yamal Peninsula do not usually actively search for tusks, although they do sometimes find them.

It is in north-central and northeastern Yakutia, however, that mammoth tusk hunting has become a way of life for large numbers of people.

One expert, after years of research in one district of Arctic Yakutia, concluded that even in that one district (about 1000km from east to west and about 200km from north to south) there were 500,000 tonnes of mammoth tusks alone buried in the ground. Although at first glance this figure seems a bit excessive, it is probably not far off, as an average pair of mammoth tusks weighs 100kg. This means that around five million mammoths died in that district, of the 40 million mammoths believed to have lived and died in Siberia as a whole over the 400,000 years that woolly mammoths inhabited the region.

People in Arctic Yakutia spend months on end out in the taiga and tundra every summer searching for mammoth tusks. These tusks, entombed in the permafrost, are pushed to the surface each year when the top layer melts and expands, creating a seemingly never-ending supply.

Please see our mammoth-tusk related tours below. One is a dedicated itinerary to visit tusk hunters. The other two are different tours during which guests are also likely to encounter mammoth tusks or tusk hunters.

Tours to mammoth tusk hunters in the Russian Arctic