Well preserved remains of a mammoth which died about 30,000 years ago were discovered by a boy near a remote weather station in Russia's Taimyr peninsula, about 3,000 kilometres north-east of Moscow.

The mammoth was discovered by a local 11-year-old boy, Zhenya Salinder, as he took his dog for a walk.

The dog was alerted to the "very special scent of a mammoth. His natural curiosity led him to finding just one bone at first," said Sergei Gorbunov, the Russian project coordinator at the International Mammoth Committee.

Gorbunov described how scientists removed the body from the ice.

"We had to use both traditional instruments such as axes, picks, shovels as well as devices such as this 'steamer' which allowed us to thaw a thin layer of permafrost... it took us a week to complete this task," he said.

As well as bones, which are found frequently on Taimyr, pieces of skin, tissue, fat and internal organs were also retrieved. Scientists think the discovery can help to find answer to a question why mammoths were hunchback.

Scientists were also able to determine the animal's likely time of death saying, "This animal most likely died in summer because we do not see an undercoat, but it already had quite significant fat reserves and I think it was getting more and more fat ahead of winter."

The mammoth, who was 15-16 years old when he died, was named Zhenya, after the boy who discovered him.