Thieves make off with woolly rhino

25 Oct, 2007 10:02 / Updated 17 years ago

The remains of a pre-historic woolly rhino discovered in the Republic of Yakutia in Siberia earlier this year have been stolen. Scientists say it was unique because the body of the rhinoceros was unusually well preserved.

It disappeared from a warehouse where it was being stored before being moved to a research site.   “The remains were brought from where it was being hidden to the warehouse, but by the morning the body was gone. Overnight an unknown group of people got the caretaker to open the gate. Nobody knows where they came from or where they went. There are just three known examples of the remains of woolly rhinos in the world,” Pyotr lazarev, a museum director said.    The body weighed around 1000 kilos and, researchers say, it would have been very difficult to move it unnoticed.