Ivory
Woolly mammoth ivory is very rare and very expensive. Mammoth ivory is anywhere from 10,000 to 200,000 years old and is found in the Arctic regions of the Earth, because to be available it needed to be preserved in permafrost. Since most of the tusks are currently frozen underground, it isn’t often that someone casually finds a mammoth tusk. However, gold miners and Eskimo hunters have been known to spot and dig up a tusk in the ground before, and spring floods combined with the melting of the ice caps have unearthed many ancient pieces of the mammoths ivory.
The colors of the ivory range from shades a tan and brown to shades of blue, all depending on the minerals surrounding the burial site of the mammoth. Considering this, many jewelers consider each piece of mammoth ivory to be unique and irreplaceable, considerably raising the value. A kilogram of woolly mammoth ivory in Russia or around any harvesting areas usually fetches a price of about 300-400 US dollars. However, as the ivory travels to the Western markets, it can end up costing the end buyer up to $1,600. Even though the trade and harvesting of elephant ivory is illegal, professionals cannot find a way to do the same for mammoth ivory, since the species is already extinct and the harvesting of it is not harming any currently alive animal.
The colors of the ivory range from shades a tan and brown to shades of blue, all depending on the minerals surrounding the burial site of the mammoth. Considering this, many jewelers consider each piece of mammoth ivory to be unique and irreplaceable, considerably raising the value. A kilogram of woolly mammoth ivory in Russia or around any harvesting areas usually fetches a price of about 300-400 US dollars. However, as the ivory travels to the Western markets, it can end up costing the end buyer up to $1,600. Even though the trade and harvesting of elephant ivory is illegal, professionals cannot find a way to do the same for mammoth ivory, since the species is already extinct and the harvesting of it is not harming any currently alive animal.
Trade
Even after extinction, the woolly mammoth has remained an important cultural figure in the indigenous peoples in Siberia. For many centuries, these populations would find and trade mammoth ivory without even knowing its significant value, and along with trading with each other, they traded with other grand civilizations, such as the Chinese and Mongols. In fact, it is thought that Güyük, the 13th century Khan of the Mongols, sat on a throne fashioned out of mammoth ivory. The trading of woolly mammoth ivory continued into the 19th century, and, until then, it had only been a trivial affair. However, from the start of the 19th century onwards, the demand for mammoth ivory and elephant ivory soared. However, since elephant ivory had been banned, many poachers and dealers turned to mammoth ivory as a replacement.
Media
In 2002, Blue Sky Studios released the first of many movies in the Ice Age franchise. The movies follow a group of animals surviving the Paleolithic ice age, including a woolly mammoth. So far throughout the franchise’s history, there have been four movies, and all together they have grossed over $2.8 billion worldwide. Blue Sky Studios have also made a number of video games relating to the Ice Age franchise for many gaming consoles, such as the Wii, PlayStation, XBox, as well as the iPhone, iPad, and other various Android devices. In 2016, various Ice Age themed attractions, along with another new film, will be featured in the first 20th Century Fox theme park, opening as part of Malaysia’s Resorts World Genting.