A boy from a remote part of north Russia has uncovered the well-preserved remains of a 30,000-year-old adult mammoth, according to media reports.

News reports identified the boy as Yevgeny Salinder, the son of a couple working at the Sopkarga polar weather station, some 3000km northeast of Moscow.

According to the Pravda.ru news website, the last time mammoth remains of this caliber were discovered in Russia as far back as 1901.

Salinder reportedly discovered the animal during a walk. The remains are said to be that of a male mammoth aged 15 or 16 years, and that its fat hump, skin and meat were in excellent condition.

Scientists used picks, axes and a steam-blaster to melt the permafrost in an extraction operation lasting a week, the report said.

The mammoth probably died in the summer because it lacked an undercoat and had a large reserve of fat, the report said quoting Aleksei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.