The great thing about the Discovery Channel's documentary "Raising the Mammoth" (Sunday, 9 p.m.) is the passion of the people behind the project.
Not that the information included in the program isn't interesting — sometimes even fascinating. But the scientists are so passionate about mammoths in general and one in particular — frozen in the Siberian tundra for the past 20,000 years — that it's hard not to get caught up in their passion.
"Raising the Mammoth" re-counts the discovery of the carcass, and (so the scientists hope) well enough preserved to provide all sorts of information they've never been able to uncover before. And, in part, it's the personal story of French explorer Bernard Buigues, who learned of the mammoth from a tribe of indigenous Siberians known as Dolgans and set about to recover the animal's remains.
At times, Buigues even talks of the Jarkov mammoth (so named for the tribesman who found him) as if the animal were still alive.
"You have to understand that I spent more than two years around this Jarkov mammoth, and I came to like him very much. To care about him," Buigues said.
Which is why he insisted that before the block of ice containing the animal's remains was lifted by helicopter and taken to frozen caves some 200 miles away for examination, the tusks — which were removed by the tribesmen — be returned to the carcass. Buigues himself called his actions "maybe . . . crazy" and added that "I was not reasonable."
"Because all of the energy I put in this — enthusiasm, passion and some kind of love — I decided to communicate more about this. Because what I would like is that this Jarkov mammoth will be a mammoth flag for people who live in this territory, but also for our public," he said. "Because it's a good way to think about paleontology for our present time."
Not that he was alone. American geologist Larry Agenbroad agreed with the decision to restore the tusks.
"We set them up, essentially in life position, in the show," Agenbroad said. "And every time that my wife and I walked by them, we literally got a melancholy feeling. We thought, 'It's sad that these tusks are here and the animal is only (a short distance away) and yet they should be together.
"And I feel, in talking with Bernard, this was what he was trying to express in his way when he said he was trying to honor this mammoth. It should come out complete, even thought this is not where the tusks were originally found. I think it was not a stunt for television or anything else. I personally would have done the same thing."
CLONING? "Raising the Mammoth" not only recounts the expedition to recover the remains but offers a primer on mammoths, complete with computer-generated graphics. And information about what the scientists are hoping to do with the carcass.
Among the more intriguing prospects is the possibility of cloning a mammoth or recovering mammoth sperm and impregnating a modern-day elephant.
"People have asked me, 'Why? Why clone a mammoth?' I say, 'Why not?' " Agenbroad said. "First of all, in North America at least, I can demonstrate that humans had a great deal to do with the extinction. If that's all that was said, you'd say maybe we owe them a chance to come back."
But he went on to make an analogy with a present-day program to re-introduce wolves and grizzly bears to areas of the United States where they had been eradicated.
"I don't see any real ethical or moral difference between bringing back grizzly bears and wolves and the possibility of bring back a mammoth clone," Agenbroad said.