The 42,000-year-old baby mammoth named Lyuba found in Siberia five years ago has arrived in Hong Kong to kick off its Asian tour.

Hong Kong / NationalTurk – Lyuba the woolly baby mammoth was discovered in 2007 on Siberian tundra in Russia’s Yamal Peninsula by Yuri Khudi, a Siberian nomad from the Nenet tribe who live largely herding reindeer. Many Nenets believe that mammoths are creatures from an underground spirit world and bring bad luck to anyone who discovers them.

One-month old Lyuba was buried in ice where she died by drowning in a mudslide and snow for more than 42,000 years ago. The frigid Siberian river muck had preserved the carcass of Lyuba, the baby mammoth perfectly, which will go on display on Thursday in Hong Kong, before traveling to consecutive exhibits in China, Jakarta, Indonesia, Singapore and the tour will end in Taiwan in summer of 2013. Lyuba already toured North America in 2010.

Lyuba the mammoth : What a scientific recovery and treasure !

Although she has lost most of her woolly undercoat and long shaggy hair, and feral dogs chewed off one of her ears and her tail before she reached scientists, most parts remain intact. Since then, her body, tusks and organs have remained remarkably intact, providing scientific insight into the life of mammoths during the ice age. There were even still traces of her mother’s milk in her stomach.

Scientists around the world have collaborated to study her using cutting edge technology. They want to find out why she died and what she can tell us about mammoths at the end of the last Ice Age.

Lyuba, the mammoth’s body is on loan from the Shemanovsky Museum in Russia. The Russian scientists imaged Lyuba’s insides with scanning technology, sampled food remains still in her stomach, and extracted teeth and tissue samples to determine her age and look at her health.

At the exhibit at the IFC Mall in Hong Kong, the public will be able to view Lyuba the mammoth’s body in a specially chilled space.

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