The Tusks of Extinction

The Tusks of Extinction is a science fiction novella by Ray Nayler about conservation, memory and what it takes to bring a lost species back. Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert on elephant behavior, was killed by ivory poachers while trying to protect the world's last elephants. Her mind has been preserved, and now it has been placed inside the matriarch of a herd of mammoths, revived through cloning and released on a reserve in Siberia. The herd has the bodies of mammoths but none of the knowledge their ancestors once passed down, and wealthy hunters pay for the chance to track them. Damira must teach the herd how to survive while confronting what was done to her. The novella won the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novella.