VLADIVOSTOK, September 8. /TASS/. Yakutia's Northeastern Federal University will join the project to create the World Mammoth Center - an international scientific and cultural complex, the university's Chancellor Anatoly Nikolayev said in an interview with TASS during the Eastern Economic Forum.
"This is a big project that Yakutia has wanted to do for quite a long time. There have been several options, and we, as the Northeastern Federal University that has a unique museum of mammoth fauna, are this big project's co-organizer," he said. "The plan is the university will be responsible for a scientific and educational direction. And, of course, we have our own potential - we own several thousand exhibits."
At the forum's exhibition, Yakutia for the first time presented the carcass of mammoth Yana, found in June 2024 at the Batagaika thermokarst sinkhole - the university's scientific facility. The baby mammoth is one of the best preserved in the world: no losses on the head; the trunk, ears, and the mouth area are without visible damage or deformations. At the moment, Yana is the oldest geological find among the six mammoth cubs, previously discovered in the world, excluding fragmented remains.
The World Mammoth Center will be built next to a bridge over the Lena River on Tabaginsky Cape. The Center will act as a backbone facility and a generator of new knowledge in the Arctic, and as a training center. It will have cultural, tourist, commercial, industrial and environmental directions. During the Eastern Economic Forum, was signed an agreement with Gazprombank and the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic on the World Mammoth Center international scientific and tourist park, where required investment is 20 billion rubles ($245 million), and the center's planned area would be 232 hectares.
As a rule, the mammoth fauna objects found in Yakutia are well preserved. Practically 90% of all unique finds with soft tissues have been in Yakutia. Additionally, fossil animals with preserved biological fluids have been found in Yakutia only.
The Lena Bridge will mean a new stage of socio-economic development for Yakutia - for the first time the regional capital will be connected with a large part of the territory, presently separated by the river, from where the main part of cargo is delivered. The transport and logistics hub will connect air, rail, road and river transports to create a framework for development of a backbone transport network in the Far East.
About the forum
The 10th Eastern Economic Forum took place in Vladivostok from September 3 to 6 under the theme "The Far East: Cooperation for Peace and Prosperity." The Roscongress Foundation was the event's organizer, with TASS as its general information partner.