Mammoth task to achieve

Skilled craftsmen have started to use prehistoric materials to preserve traditional Chinese carving techniques as ivory ban continues

Chinese craftsmen have been carving ivory since ancient time. But in the modern era, illegal poaching and the slaughter of African elephants have endangered the now controversial art form.

Instead, ivory from extinct wooly mammoths is helping China's ivory carvers to sustain their historic craftsmanship. Mammoth tusks are exempt from the ivory trade ban, which the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora implemented in 1989. The treaty only regulates trade in living creatures; mammoths have been extinct for thousands of years.