On Sunday, April 26, 2009, National Geographic will premiere a documentary video on the discovery and investigation of Lyuba, a female woolly mammoth of about one to two months in age who suffocated in a muddy river bed about 40,000 years ago.
The baby mammoth named Lyuba was discovered by the Nenets reindeer herder named Yuri Khudi, in the Yamal peninsula of Siberia. Named after Yuri's wife (her name means "love" in Russian), Lyuba is the most recent of five baby mammoths so far discovered in the arctic. Lyuba is the best preserved baby woolly mammoth ever discovered, trunk, skin, internal organs, hair, all intact and in frankly amazing shape.
"Finding ivory is bad luck, but sharing it transforms its power into a force of good," is an old Nenets proverb, and it is central to the meaning of Waking the Baby Mammoth. The main researchers in the video are downright haunted by a CGI reconstruction of Lyuba—but you will have to read my review to get more.
National Geographic gave me plenty of pictures, and I know you won't be too startled to find I have used them for a couple of photo essays. One details some of the findings of the study of Lyuba. By a lucky shift of the winds, the researchers and camera crew were stranded with Yuri Khudi's family of reindeer herders for a week, and some of the photos of the way the Nenets live their life in Siberia are just breath taking.
For airing schedules, as well as more images, video and information, see the National Geographic's official website for Waking the Baby Mammoth. 
Close Up of Lyuba in St. Petersburg Laboratory. Photo credit © Florent Herry
Yuri Khudi and Reindeer Herd in the Nenets Encampment, Yamal Peninsula, Siberia. Photo credit © Olivier Ronval
Comments
Hi My name is Alexandra.I think that it is amazing that someone found a female wolly mamoth.I only have about a few questions to ask. First i was wonder how this animal was preserved and how could someone find a mammal that is not yet a skeleton. I mean like when people find dinasours they are a skeleton allready. But this mammoth still has skin, hair, and some of its special body parts.
I think that this the best discovery after King Tut. Even though I am a 4th grader I love history and sience so this is like really amazing to me.
This is a great question, Alexandra! It is amazing, isn’t it? According to the program, the baby mammoth was preserved in permafrost; in other words, she must have been frozen in the mud where she died, shortly after she died. While they haven’t found the exact location where she was buried, the scientists think she eroded out of a river bank upstream and floated down to where she was found, shortly before she was discovered.
Thanks! and I hope you stick with science!
Kris