“Mammoth ivory has become the perfect alibi.”
— Environmental investigator, quoted in SCMP, 2021
In the icy silence of Siberia’s thawing tundra, tusks are surfacing. Not fossils in museums, but ivory gleaming, intact, thousands of years old. And increasingly, for sale.
As climate change peels back the layers of frozen Earth, it’s exposing the remains of long-extinct woolly mammoths. These once-slumbering giants, some entombed since the Ice Age, are now feeding a booming global trade. To some, they represent a cruelty-free alternative to elephant ivory. To others, they’ve become a dangerous loophole, one that’s being exploited to smuggle illegal elephant ivory under the mammoth’s name.
The question is no longer whether the trade in mammoth ivory is legal.
It’s whether it should be.
An Ancient Commodity in a Modern Market
Woolly mammoth ivory occupies a strange legal and moral limbo. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which bans global trade in elephant ivory, does not cover mammoths because they’re extinct. That means mammoth ivory can be bought and sold without many of the restrictions that apply to its modern counterpart.
At first glance, this seems like a conservation win. Why not use prehistoric ivory instead of killing living elephants?
But this logic has proven dangerously flawed.
Investigative reports show that mammoth ivory is routinely used as cover for laundering illegal elephant ivory. It’s nearly indistinguishable in color, texture, and form, and smugglers exploit this similarity. In 2017, Chinese authorities seized over a ton of mammoth ivory at a border crossing from Russia. The tusks had been concealed in secret truck compartments in what officials described as a complex, well-organized operation (Hindustan Times).
In the digital marketplace, the problem deepens. A 2021 investigation uncovered over 4,000 listings of mammoth ivory products across Chinese e-commerce sites, ranging from carved figurines to jewelry to religious artifacts (South China Morning Post). There’s little oversight, and even less incentive for buyers to verify the origin of the ivory.
For poachers and traffickers, mammoth tusks offer plausible deniability.
Scientific Gold, Commercial Exploitation
Beyond its commercial value, mammoth ivory holds immense scientific significance. Each tusk contains a unique geological archive, with growth rings that reveal annual climate patterns, diet, and migratory behavior—much like the rings of ancient trees.
Yet, in the rush to extract tusks, this scientific potential is being lost.
Permafrost hunters in remote Arctic regions often use high-pressure water cannons and heavy machinery to excavate remains. It’s a brutal process that damages surrounding ecosystems and often destroys accompanying bones and artifacts. These remains, valuable to paleontologists, are discarded like rubble.
“The emphasis is on the ivory,” said one researcher from the University of Portsmouth. “The rest is just in the way” (University of Portsmouth).
For Indigenous communities in Siberia and Alaska, mammoth tusks are not simply trade goods. They are part of a cultural and spiritual continuum, having been used for centuries in tools, art, and ritual. Some worry that as global demand increases, these local traditions may be pushed aside in favor of the extractive industry.
Climate Change and the Unearthed Economy
There is an irony to all this. The very climate change that threatens today’s ecosystems is also driving the discovery—and commodification—of the past.
As Arctic permafrost thaws, it destabilizes ancient gravesites. In some areas of Siberia and Alaska, tusk hunters have become a new seasonal workforce. These diggers can earn thousands of dollars for a single large tusk, sometimes more. The incentives are high, the regulations low.
But the cost is cumulative.
Removing mammoth tusks contributes to the physical erosion of Arctic landscapes already weakened by warming. It also undermines climate research. Some scientists now advocate for protective zoning in mammoth-rich permafrost regions to preserve these time capsules before they’re looted beyond recovery.
The Ivory Laundering Pipeline
The real danger lies not in the mammoth ivory itself, but in the regulatory vacuum it occupies.
Because mammoth ivory is legal in most countries, it allows traffickers to create a gray market where legality and illegality blur. Experts warn that without advanced forensic tools, like isotope analysis or collagen fingerprinting, it is almost impossible to distinguish mammoth ivory from elephant ivory once it’s been carved.
In markets like China, Hong Kong, and even parts of Europe, mammoth ivory has become a convenient proxy. A 2020 study by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, found that many sellers labeled products as “mammoth ivory” regardless of their true origin.
And buyers? Most can’t tell the difference.
Can Regulation Catch Up?
There are solutions, but none are easy.
Some conservationists argue for a total ban on all ivory trade, mammoth included. Others advocate for tighter import controls and mandatory testing of ivory products to verify origin. The European Union, for instance, has considered placing restrictions on mammoth ivory imports as part of its broader wildlife trade strategy.
Technology could help. New methods of radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis are becoming faster and cheaper, potentially enabling authorities to trace the source of ivory with greater confidence.
But until regulation, enforcement, and consumer awareness align, the mammoth ivory trade will remain a convenient smokescreen, profitable for traffickers, disastrous for elephants, and tragic for science.
What the Mammoth Teaches Us
The woolly mammoth’s extinction was, in part, a climate story—shifting ecosystems, human hunting, and habitat loss.
Its resurrection in commerce may be a cautionary tale.
In our effort to use the past to protect the present, we risk corrupting both. Ivory, whether ancient or modern, is never just a commodity. It’s a marker of power, of desire, and of what we choose to value. The mammoth trade is more than a legal loophole. It’s a test of how far we’re willing to stretch ethics in pursuit of profit.
And like the permafrost, the ground beneath us is cracking.
Sources
- Hindustan Times – Seizure of Mammoth Ivory
- South China Morning Post – Online Mammoth Ivory Trade
- University of Portsmouth – Environmental Impact Report
- TRAFFIC Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network
- NOAA Arctic Report Card
- CITES Official Database
