Are humans responsible for mammoth extinction?

Answer 1

Whether the general mammoth population died out for climatic reasons or due to over hunting by humans is controversial. One theory suggests that mammoths may have fallen victim to an infectious disease. A combination of climate change and hunting by humans has been suggested as the most likely explanation for their extinction.

Data derived from studies done on living elephants suggests human hunting was likely a strong contributing factor in the mammoth's final extinction[citation needed]. Humans are known to have consumed mammoth meat as early as 1.8 million years ago.

However, the American Institute of Biological Sciences also notes that bones of dead elephants, left on the ground and subsequently trampled by other elephants, tend to bear marks resembling butchery marks, which have previously been misinterpreted as such by archeologist's.

The woolly mammoth was the last species of the genus. Most populations of the woolly mammoth in North America and Eurasia, as well all the Colombian mammoths in North America, died out around the time of the last glacial retreat. Until recently, it was generally assumed that the last woolly mammoths vanished from Europe and southern Siberia about 10,000 BC, but new findings show that some were still present there about 8,000 BC. Only slightly later, the woolly mammoths also disappeared from continental northern Siberia.