Another lost link

Mammoth hopes rest on icy DNA
From Clem Cecil in Moscow

JAPANESE scientists hope to use parts of a mammoth preserved in the Siberian permafrost to impregnate an Indian elephant with its sperm and clone the extinct animal for display at an Ice Age wildlife park.
Organisers of the planned park are now populating it with species from that time in preparation for the much hoped-for return of the mammoth. Several hundred wild horses have been sent to graze in land set aside for the park in the far North East of Siberia on the River Kolyma.
Musk ox from another part of Siberia have also been imported, and discussions on buying bison have started with Canada.
A hunter discovered two frozen mammoth legs in the permafrost eight years ago, but because of lack of funds the local authorities only visited the site in 1997 and could not afford to excavate. Japanese interest in the find was excited and two universities funded an expedition this month.
The mammoth appears to have been killed by an avalanche which made it tumble on to its rump, and crushed it on to the permafrost between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago.
The science departments from the universities of Kinki and Tifu in Japan, who have sponsored the excavation of the legs, hope to receive Russian permission in the autumn to export fragments of mammoth skin for research.