Hunting did not kill off woolly mammoth

[Still Waters]

Researchers have found evidence to suggest that climate change, rather than humans, was the main factor that drove the woolly mammoth to extinction.

A DNA analysis shows that the number of creatures began to decrease much earlier than previously thought as the world's climate changed.

It also shows that there was a distinct population of mammoth in Europe that died out around 30,000 years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-24034954

[lightly]

Interesting. i always doubted the idea that they were "hunted to extinction ".

[Sundew]

The article states they had a stable population up until the time humans encountered them. If humans came across an ice bridge between Asia and North America as has been postulated, it is also possible that diseases came across as well and in both directions. The ocean is an effective barrier against disease, break that barrier down and you can have plagues on species with no immunity. Both the American Elm and American Chestnut were victims of disease brought from Europe or Asia, while neither is totally extinct, they both came very close. Perhaps it was a combination of events that killed off the mammoths; hunting from humans, introduction of new competitors and/or new diseases, changing climate. We may never know for certain.

[Essan]

I've always been quite certain that populations declined due to climate change - as they had in past interglacials. But last time, instead of finding a few refugia (like Wrangel Island) where small numbers could survive until the new ice age, they found hairless apes with big pointy sticks .....

[marcos anthony toledo]

Maybe we can hope they still survive in some remote area of Siberia

[ancient astronaut]

I thought Giant Robots wiped them out, silly me.

[highdesert50]

I could imagine the combined effect of climate change and humans as impacting mammoths perhaps through massive habitat destruction by human caused fires, disease, and displacing mammoth migratory routes.

[SameerPrehistorica]

I never believed that Mammoths were completely wiped out because of Humans.

[wuhugm]

I never believed human hunting drove them to extinction, some tribes might dare to hunt them but most people would have their heads screaming danger and avoided mammoth altogether

[Whisperer]

Dont forget about bacterial and viral contaminants. Single biggest cause for mass deaths of any species following human explorations...

Ooops, already posted above by Sundew...soz....

Edited September 12, 2013 by mumanster

[spacecowboy342]

Human hunting may not have been the ultimate cause of extinction but I believe Pleistocene overkill definitely contributed to them being endangered as it seems the most effective way to hunt mammoths was to wait until the wind was right and set fires behind them to stampede them off cliffs

[Essan]

The last known refugia of the woolly mammoth was Wrangel Island.

Despite all the climate change in the preceding millenia, they were quite happily chomping away on grasses there, in the Arctic Circle, whilst silly humans were building pyramids in Egypt and stone circles in England.

Around the same time, Siberian hunters reached Wrangel Island for the first time.

And then all the mammoths disappeared.

This means one of 3 things must happened: either they were killed by orgone energy transmitted by the Giza pyramid death star; they were transported back into the ice age by a time vortex emanating from stonehenge; or they were killed for meat by pesky apes carrying pointy sticks......

There is no evidence that climate change was an issue when the last mammoths died out around 4-5,000 years ago

Edited September 12, 2013 by Essan

[onereaderone]

in the game musical chairs... the last person standing is out.

in european politics , the last person blaimed is responcible .

among little girls , they turn on the target untill death takes her.

among eco - crazy's .... humans are in some way ... the reason all is wrong .

the funny part is...

in musical chairs... the first person out gets to watch , and enjoy the game the most .

in european politics , the people who are most responcible play the players , and are never caught .

among the little girls , the targets become the stylish, graceful, tasteful, sophisticated, classic, smart, fashionable, ladys

who stand with head rised above the petty mummbles.... because they stand alone .

...and...

the eco-crazy are systematically burning down all the forests , distroying the industry that keeps hords of people from distroying the rain forest because they have no magnet pulling them away. putting in nature trails that pave the way for non native animals , make owning wild animals illegal ... which ends the last hope of the great preditory cats to exstiction...

in short , the eco-freak ... tree hugger , " save the world from human beings " , nut cases ... do more to make the world a disney movie ... where bambi , thumper and their forest friends play happy and safe in the forest ... and remove any hint of real life ... are systematic in the distruction of nature every where they go .

global warming is a crimnal enterprise ... any one that supports it is either a person with the mind of a 2 year old or a money chasing crime monster .

the sooner we all see this for what it is... the better the world will be

[spacecowboy342]

Well not to sound like a tree hugger but we are destroying this planet.Google great pacific garbage heap for evidence of this

[docyabut2]

I believe the extinctions of the mammoths were from over kill, humans migrating all over and killing off whole herds never thinking of leaving a few off springs to breed future food.If it were just climate change there would have beem more animals that went extint, a specie goes extint because the off springs don`nt survive.

[Setton]

I love it when the news reports long standing theories as if they're new...

[cerberusxp]

So quit dumping your garbage. There was definitely a climate change, however humans had absolutely NOTHING to do with it except many millions died. These Mammoths died abruptly, frozen.

[George Ford]

Just out of interest, how many people do you think a Woolly Mammoth would feed? Cos I think humans back then were small tightly knit wandering groups. When they found a heard of Mammoths they would only kill one and I would assume it would feed them all for many days.

[spacecowboy342]

Just out of interest, how many people do you think a Woolly Mammoth would feed? Cos I think humans back then were small tightly knit wandering groups. When they found a heard of Mammoths they would only kill one and I would assume it would feed them all for many days.

This ignores evidence in the fossil record of pleistocene overkill. Often these hunters would not merely kill one to eat but would stampede whole herds off cliffs by lighting fires behind them. They would then eat one or two leaving the rest to rot, repeating the process the next time. I don't think overkill and climate change are mutually exclusive and both may have contributed.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/journal/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Gibbons_NatSci_2004.pdf