Experts believe the Ice Age creature may have been in hibernation when it died, as it was discovered curled up in a ball.
It was found in 2018 by miners in the Yukon Territory near the Alaska border.
“It’s completely unrecognizable until you see the little hands and claws, and you see a little tail, and then you see the ears,” Yukon government paleontologist Grant Zazulla told CBC.
“When you see a perfectly preserved animal, it’s 30,000 years old, and you can see its face, its skin, its hair and all that, it’s just amazing.”
The researchers named the mummified arctic squirrel “Hester” because it was found near Hester Creek in Canada, near Dawson City.
This region has already discovered many well-preserved animal specimens dating back tens of thousands of years, including giant beavers, small mammoths and wolf cubs.
“It’s amazing to think that this little animal ran all over the Yukon many thousands of years ago,” the Yukon government wrote in a Facebook post about the squirrel last month.
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