“Woolly Mammoth” Spotted in Siberia (Updated)
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 8th, 2012
Wow, first this month has produced a video of a “River Monster” in an icy river in Iceland. Now, allegedly, a “Woolly Mammoth” has been filmed in a rough-looking river in Siberia.
According to the English tabloid source, The Sun, this footage was taken by “a government-employed engineer last summer in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Siberia.”
Before this “incident,” supposed sightings of living mammoths in Siberia were recorded as recently as the 1970s.
Could this be a replica (obviously with a movable trunk) in a creek? Or is this proof of a mammoth cryptid in Siberia? Or a brown bear with a salmon in its mouth (see at bottom)?
Below is an extremely tiny image of a brown bear with a salmon from here, demonstrating that if viewed smaller than we are all use to, a bear can look like a mammoth:
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Mammoth or brown bear with a large fish in it’s mouth.
I didn’t see tusks.
oh look, a bear carrying a fish across a river…never seen that before…!!! 😉
I also saw a bear with a fish. If that was a trunk, it would be held up out of the water instead of dangling.
Yep.. Bear with it’s dinner.
Noooo… really? really? a blobmamoth. It seems sasquatch ain’t the only critter around with blurry images.
Could this just be grainy footage of a brown bear holding a live and wriggling salmon by the tail? I really hope its genuine but something doesn’t look quite right.
Looks like a grizzly bear carrying a fish across a stream.
You refer to the video of the iceland serpent. That one looks like a puppet swimming through the water. You can even see the boat running parallel to it toward the end of the clip.
Can we get some better special effects people in on this?
looks like a bear with a big fish
Looks like a russian bear with a fish dangling from it’s mouth.
It’s a very small mammoth with a fish colored trunk. 🙂
I’d go with the bear thing, although I see what appears to be an ear flapping (larger than a bear’s ear).
not buying that at all …. so out of focus as to ensure it’s a dubious, at best, clip.
happy bear with a salmon!!
I see the tusks and mammoth-sized ear. Coupled with the DNA analysis of the hair samples, I’m not willing to write this one off, yet.
Sasquatch in mammoths clothing???
I’m calling hoax. A mammoth would hold it’s trunk above the water line.
Bear with a fish?
It’s bunk… If it was a Woolley Mammoth they would have showed it walking up the other side of the river. It’s A BEAR…
Doesn’t even look like a living creature to me, more of a computer animation but that’s just me ;p
Maybe, but I don’t think so. They also found hair that DNA tests as mammoth hair, and there have been reports for generations. That would be one huge fish, the bear would have to have the profile of a mammoth, and the ears of the mammoth, and possibly tusks. Only iffy thing for me is where the trunk is held, and that CGI is so good these days.
Scratch than– I looked up elephants crossing a river on Youtube, and they didn’t hold their trunks above the water. Still looks questionable, though.
What?!?
Bear with fish for sure!
The “trunk” is a different shade than the body. So it is a bear carrying a fish (or something) in its mouth.
No story here unless it turns out to be a supposedly extinct Cave Bear carrying an unknown species of arctic Coelacanth.
So cool!
I have to say I really doubt this is a bear. First of all why is he crossing the river with a fish? He starts off right next to the other bank and if he just caught it you would imagine he would head to the close side to eat it. Never heard of a bear traveling with food. Secondly look up pictures of a grizzly crossing a river vs an elephant crossing a river. Grizzlys seem to have a flat back whereas mammoths unlike elephants and mastodons have a pretty significant upward slope in their back making their head quite a bit taller than their hind quarters. Also since it is heading to the center of the river it should be heading somewhat downhill and if it was a bear I would expect its head to be at least even with its hind. At first I thought it was suspicious that its trunk is underwater but after looking at elephants they do the same thing. The other thing I have heard mentioned is the camera. “why is so awful and why didn’t he zoom in”. Well maybe he was zoomed in. Most camera phones dont have a true zoom function, they have digital zoom which sure it makes the picture bigger but it decreases the quality which is what this reminds me of. Either this is an elaborate hoax with a man made fake mammoth or it is the real thing. I really doubt this is a bear with a fish. What do you all think?
It’s a bear with a fish. Taimen can get up to 150 pounds, easily big enough to be the fish in the video. But just because this video is of a bear does not mean there can’t be mammoths in remote Siberia; there is a lot of unexplored wilderness out there!
My girlfriend suggested a bear with a fish, I thought dodgy CG, the water in front of it just looks odd.
im pretty sure its a bear w/ a fish although its moving really slow which is weird
but i looked at it again and it looked completely different. i swear i saw tusks and a trunk and everything. its like if u go looking for a bear u see a bear but if u look for a mammoth u see a mammoth. idk about this one
I would believe a mammoth before I’d believe a bear with a fish. It would have to be an enormous bear with an equally huge fish. Unless the trees on the bank are significantly smaller than they look. Also, it has big floppy ears that you can see waving about. As it is though I’ll make CGI my first choice, just to be skeptical.
If I was in the Russian wilderness and came across a mammoth, I would take another shot of vodka and follow it to get a better video or pic. But it does look cool, though, more like a mammoth than a bear to me. If it’s a fake, somebody in the advertisement business needs to hire its maker.
I’d say bear with a fish, something just looks off about the supposed trunk
The link has been updated with an image of a long-distance bear with a fish that resembles an elephant/mammoth. Take a look.
Maybe not a mammoth, maybe the Kanchatka Bear!!
I’d like to see what the image stabilizer and super-resolution people can do with this. I find the report of hair samples and DNA intriguing.
Looks like a bear walking w/ the head of a fish in its mouth so the tail dangles downward resembling a trunk. Would be cool tho!
The anatomy and gate is all wrong for it to be a bear, looks very pachydermish to me.
Weird. Really weird. I watched it four times and it is not a bear with a fish; a large ear, tusks, and a long snout are visible. Estimating size is difficult. I have to say, although you can’t rule out a nice wooly mammoth costume with two guys in it, this is probably the most intriguing cryptid video I’ve seen recently. One issue with the hoax possibility is it seems pretty dangerous to me to try and ford a wide, swiftly flowing river in a bulky, clumsy elephant suit – the risk of falling and drowning while being swept away seems pretty great. But, people do incredibly stupid and dangerous stunts all the time, too.
Does anyone have a good link for an elephant crossing a stream at the same relative depth (just above the belly)? It would help for comparing movement.
Very fake. I think it’s digital. It isn’t even displacing any water.
And another thing I keep reading “why wouldn’t you run right up to it and get a real close shot” Really? Think about this would you actually go running up to a wild elephant even if it were alone. These are huge beasts that are a hell of alot faster than humans. Gotta say I would keep my distance if I were actually there and not simply spouting heroic ideas from a keyboard.
For the non-Brits on here, The Sun is a barrel-bottom tabloid that has never let facts or decent journalism get in the way of a headline. Caution is advised. Also, it’s owned by Murdoch, who has used his press outlets to pimp upcoming releases of the Fox entertainment group, recently by showing authentic looking, ‘amateur’ viral videos. The chimps with guns etc from last years Planet of the Apes films being an example. Until further verification arises, I’m staying very skeptical on this one. Having said all that, I’d LOVE it to be real!!!
i agree-but it seems to be a bear with fish in mouth-you can see the bear shape and fish hanging from mouth-
it is real but its a bear with fish in mouth
No way. Is it not more probable that this is photoshoped? It’s definitely brown and with what appears to be a trunk.
For me this looks more real than fake.. The trunk seems separated from the head only for one reason – a tusk. Actually, it’s possible to see it for a short while in the beginning of the film – a white glimpse for a short moment. And the ear that flaps – that is an elephant, simply cannot be a bear.
But mammoth? Or maybe another extant og “extinct” elephant species… would love to go and check..
R they sure they didn’t just play Skyrim and that’s we’re they saw the mammoth
Well this one looks interesting.
Bear looks like an easy answer. But it looks way too big and much more like a pachyderm than a bear. If that’s a fish in its mouth, it’s a requiem shark.
I’m pretty sure that’s an elephant of some sort. What I’m not sure about is the location. Asian elephants are often brownish. It seems to me that it could be any river coming off the Himalayas.
I seem to remember an episode of Animal X that found Nepalese elephants that were larger than average Asian elephants. Anyway, I question the location of the video and the conclusion that it’s a mammoth.