“Our research shows that humans were a strong and important stimulus in reducing the population of woolly mammoths and played a key role in their timing and extinction.” These are the words of Dr. Damien Fordham; Researcher at the Institute of Environment, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, and Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen.
“Using computer models, fossils and ancient DNA, we have identified the mechanisms and threats that played a major role in the decline and subsequent extinction of the hairy mammoth,” he said.
Signatures of past changes in the distribution and composition of the population of furry mammoths, identified using ancient fossils and DNA, indicate that humans delayed the extinction of these ancient giants in some areas by up to 4,000 years ago.
“We know that humans hunted woolly mammoths for flesh, skin, bones and horns,” said Dr. Fordham. “Until now, however, it has been difficult to determine the exact role of each of the factors in global warming and human hunting in their extinction.”
The study also shows that hairy mammoths probably survived in the North for thousands of years longer than previously thought; In small habitats with suitable climatic conditions and low human population density.
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Dr. Jeremey Austin, a researcher at the Institute of Environment and the School of Life Sciences at the University of Adelaide, said:
“Our findings on long-term survival in Eurasia independently corroborate newly released DNA evidence that woolly mammoths lived in Siberia 5,000 years ago. “Our analysis reinforces the claim of human influence as a stimulus for population decline and the collapse of large fauna in Eurasia in the late Pleistocene.”
He also said that the analysis refuted the previous claim that climate change alone wiped out the population of furry mammoths, and that the role of humans was limited to predators being shot: “Species extinctions are usually the result of complex interactions between processes.” It is variously threatening. “The extinction of woolly mammoths was long and permanent, beginning thousands of years ago.”
The findings are recently published in the journal Ecological Letters.
