Extinct Animals Research Woolly Mammoth Essay Research

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Extinct Animals Research: Woolly Mammoth

We have learned much about the Woolly Mammoth almost more than any other

dinosaur that has been identified. Due to the fact that the Woolly Mammoth so

closely resembles today’s elephants, care for them would most probably require

most of the same factors to keep it alive. Since the Woolly Mammoth has been

extinct for 4000 years, it is difficult to tell exactly what they lived on, but

we can hypothesize.

The Woolly Mammoth lived during the Ice Age, so if alive today, it must

be kept in a tundra environment. For food, only basic tundra vegetation is

necessary. Due to the thick pelt that the Woolly Mammoth has, any known Ice Age

temperatures would suffice since the thick fur protects the animal in any

extreme temperatures.

Large enclosures would not be needed as they would be for a normal

elephant since the Woolly Mammoth is only three meters high. The huge tusks

would allow it to scavenge for its own food, so no special feedings would be

necessary. Feedings would also be needed on a less frequent basis since the

Woolly Mammoth, much like today’s camels, keeps under its sloping back a thick

layer of blubber as nutrition when food was not needed.

The problem in keeping a creature such as the Woolly Mammoth in a zoo-

like surrounding would be poachers. Due to the endangerment of such a

magnificent species, poachers of pelts and ivory would most certainly be after

it’s huge tusks and thick furs, so it would be necessary to post guards around

it’s cage at all times.

A large-scale habitat would be constructed for this creature since,

during the period it lived, the Pleistocene, there were no restrictions on the

places it could roam to. There was nothing stopping this beast from stomping

along to wherever it wanted to go. A Woolly Mammoth might find it peculiar to be

stuck in a twenty foot ice field with no predators or other animals whatsoever.

To solve this problem, it would be possible to include other animals

from the Woolly Mammoth’s time period, but that is another project.

Bibliography

Carlberg, Ulf. “The Mammoth.” November 22, 1996.

(3/1/97)

Dixon, Douglas. The Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia. New York: Gallery Books.

1988. pp.10,31

Kitson, Kenneth. “Zoobooks: Elephants” San Diego: Wildlife Education, Ltd.,

1986.

Norman, David. The Prehistoric World of the Dinosaur. New York: Gallery Books.

1988. pp. 6-7

Preistland, Neal. “The Types of Mammoths.”

(3/1/97)

“Woolly Mammoth: Symbol of the Ice Age.” The Late, Great, Mammals of Canada.

December, 1994. (3/1/97)