A recent video, supposed to be a hoax, showing a giant animal crossing a river in Siberia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region, has surfaced, creating furor over an extinct species of mammoth.

The animal in the video, released by The Sun on Wednesday, is said to be the woolly mammoth that existed 10,000 years ago. However, research has shown that a small isolated population of woolly mammoth lived until 1700 BC on Wrangel Island, near East Siberian Sea in the Arctic Ocean.

The video is reportedly of last summer and was captured by a government-employed engineer.

Most of the Siberian regions in Russia and parts of Asia have remained unexplored. Sighting of a woolly mammoth in the region defies scientific proofs concerning the extinction of the species, but possibility of their existence cannot be ruled out, according to paranormal writer Michael Cohen, who posted the video online.

Rumours of a handful of mammoths still kicking around in the vast wilderness of Siberia have been circulating for decades and occasionally sightings by locals have occurred, Cohen was quoted as saying by The Sun.

Siberia is an enormous territory and much of it remains completely unexplored and untouched by humans, he added.

Nonetheless, the video is being considered no less than a faux pas. Mostly viewers have identified the animal as an elephant or a bear with a big fish in its mouth.

Watch the video and find out by yourself here:

This is not the first time a hoax video has surfaced from Siberia. Some of the famous hoaxes from the region that went viral in the past are:

Dead 'Siberian' Alien Video, 2011

In April last year, two students released a video showing an alien dead body. They claimed they had discovered it at a UFO crash site but later admitted to their stunt. The Russian interior ministry further confirmed that the video was a hoax and the alien dead body was made of bread crumbs covered with chicken skin.

Watch the YouTube video here:

UFO and 'cat-like aliens' communicate with Siberian air traffic controllers, 2011

In March last year, Siberian air traffic controllers reported of hearing a cat-like language from an unknown craft. I kept hearing some female voice, as if a woman was saying miaow-miaow all the time, the controller said. However, the footage does not show snow outdoors at a time when Siberia was all snow. The video is widely regarded as fake. Watch the video here:

Well to Hell Hoax, 1989

It is said that in 1989, a few Siberian scientists created a borehole so deep that they got through a cavity where temperature was 1100 degree Celsius. They thought they discovered the hell. When they lowered a heat resistant microphone into the well, they were said to have heard screams.

Later, it was made clear that the hole was dug up to certain limits where temperature did not exceed 180 degree Celsius, and that no supernatural incidents were encountered.

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