Last week we wondered if some lucky Siberian had actually caught a woolly mammoth on video.

Well, wonder no more. It there are no lucky Siberians here.

Some suspected the video is an
outright hoax — a computer-generated
mammoth digitally inserted into a real
river scene. Many others, however,
were convinced that the animal was
real: not a mammoth, but instead a
bear with a large fish hanging from
its mouth. That would explain its
relatively small size, the shape of
the “trunk” on its head, and the
color. Experts cast doubts on the
video’s authenticity; Derek Serra, a
Hollywood video effects artist,
concluded that it “appears to have
been intentionally blurred.”

The website Life’s Little Mysteries caught up with the man who made the original video, Ludovic Petho, who said he didn’t see any woolly mammoths.

“I don’t recall seeing a mammoth; there were bears, deer, and sable,” he said. “But no woolly mammoths.”

The original footage isn’t quite as dramatic as the altered video.