by Karen Mehall Phillips - Saturday, February 6, 2016
Safari Club International just may be saving the best for last as it gets set to auction a pair of rare blue mammoth tusks tonight at the annual Saturday night dinner and auction event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center beginning at 6:45 p.m. Tipping the scale at 78 and 80 pounds, the evenly-matched tusks are from an extinct member of the Elephantidae family, which ranged throughout Eurasia and North America during the Pleistocene epoch.
Considering wooly mammoth tusks usually exhibit cream, tan and brown coloration, it is not often that blue tusks emerge from the prehistoric permafrost. Typically these tusks would have been buried in a large deposit of the mineral vivianite, which produces their blue color. The curved tusks likely were put to good use digging away snow on the Ice Age tundra to feed and for fighting when competing for mates. Distinguished by their exceptional curve, amazing blue coloration and the fact they are so well-matched means the pair may be sold for more tan $100,000. For more information, contact the SCI Auction Department 520-620-1220.
Sponsored by MidwayUSA, tonight's event will raise millions of dollars for SCI's hunter advocacy, conservation and education programs and will be topped off with entertainment from country music's Merle Haggard.
In closing, I can't resist saying I have an oldie-but-a-goodie theme song SCI can play before auctioning the mammoth tusks: "Wooly Bully!" Fifty years later there appears to be a good reason for the song! ...
"Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw.
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw.
Wooly bully, wooly bully.
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully."
SCI SHOW TRIVIA TIME: "Wooly Bully" was recorded by novelty rock 'n' roll band "Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs" in 1965 making it 51 years old. The wooly mammoth was around much earlier, hailing from the Pleistocene geological epoch, which lasted from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago. Safari Club International was founded in 1973 and continues to do wonders for hunters, hunting and wildlife conservation with 200 chapters worldwide!
