Demand for ivory sparks 'mammoth rush' in Siberian wilderness – dailystar.co.uk

Bans on trading elephant ivory has prompted dealers to rush to a remote Northern area of Siberia called Yakutia, which is five times larger than France, to harvest the bones of the ice age mammal.
Yukutia is littered with mammoth bones thanks to the area being covered by permafrost that effectively froze the remains of mammoths from tens of thousands of years ago.
Authorities claim that 500,000 tonnes of mammoth tusks are buried in Yakutia.
Many dealers are traveling to Siberia to obtain the ivory after China banned the imports and the sale of elephant ivory.
According to trade statistics, Russia exported 72 tons, with 80 percent of it going to China.
The area was long-known to contain the mammoth tusks, with local residents picking up the bones along the river and sea coasts for decades now.
But the latest so-called “mammoth rush” has got to do with skyrocketing prices of ivory – making the expensive exploration in the Siberian wilderness profitable, with one kilogram of mammoth ivory being sold in China for $1,000, or $455 per pound.
Despite the profits, the new industry is facing problems as the exploration is difficult due to the environment, where virtually no roads exist, and the lack of regulations.
“Our dead bones are saving living elephants,” local resident Prokopy Nogovitsyn told a local news agency.
"Being able to gather them is important both for us and for Africa.”
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