Nun cho ga is the first complete baby mammoth to be found in North America.

In 2022, miners excavating Yukon’s Klondike goldfields discovered the almost perfectly preserved remains of a baby woolly mammoth. Hidden under layers of permafrost, the 30,000-year-old prehistoric mammal was the first complete baby mammoth to be found in North America—and only the second in the world.

Secured immediately before a storm hit the area, the remains of the baby mammoth were brought to an alternate site. There, a ceremony was held in the presence of scientists, miners, politicians, and elders of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, a Yukon First Nation upon whose territory the goldfields lie.  The elders offered the baby mammal a blessing and named her Nun cho ga.

It is believed Nun cho ga is a female mammoth who died when she was approximately one month old. The location where she was discovered suggests she likely wandered away from her mother while grazing and got stuck in the mud.

In the year and a half that has passed since her initial discovery, Nun cho ga was kept in a freezer in Dawson City, Yukon. She will now be accompanied by a delegation of Indigenous elders to the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa for preservation.

Recently transported to the territory’s capital, Whitehorse, Nun cho ga will soon be airlifted to Ottawa aboard a plane chartered by the Yukon government. She will also be accompanied by First Nations heritage staff and Yukon government conservation specialists.

It is expected she will eventually return to Dawson City, though a clear timeline has not been released to the public.