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Woolly Mammoth Facts – Woolly Mammoth Habitat and Diet – Woolly Mammoth Extinction

Here are some interesting Woolly mammoth facts that your kid would definitely love to know. Surprise your kid with the Ice Age animated movie series and let him know these woolly mammoth facts. Woolly Mammoth or our beloved Manfred “Manny” from the animated movie Ice Age, lived centuries ago in the arctic regions of Europe and North America. They are also usually known as Tundra Mammoths and belong to the group genus Mammuthus.

Woolly Mammoth Facts

Woolly mammoths are one of the best documented and well researched primitive animals known to mankind as their historic residue remains well preserved in its organic state. Hence their anatomy is very well understood

Adult Woolly mammoth reached a height of up to 3.2 m and is comparable to our modern day African Elephants. They were most famous for the dense layer of long bushy hair which grew as long as 1 meter. To live in the cold climate they had a thick layer of fat – up to 8cm thick- under their skin which acted as an insulation layer similar to those of many animals native to arctic region. However their iconic feature was a pair of exceptionally long tusks – up to 5m in length – which were distinctly more curved then today’s elephants.

Woolly Mammoth Diet

Woolly Mammoth was vegetarian and they liked to use their incisor (tusks) to excavate the snow and uproot tundra grass with its trunk. They fed to on low tundra vegetation like small plants, shrubs, grass and leftover tree parts. Some research shows that they were fond of eating birch trees.

Learn More: Woolly Mammoth Facts for Kids

Cause of Woolly Mammoth Extinction

As the zoologist have researched and have come to conclusion that the main cause of woolly mammoth extinction is likely due to the mutual effects of drastic climate change ,otherwise also known as the ice age, and excessive hunting by humans. This happened somewhere between the late Pleistocene period and early Holocene era.

Fossil evidence suggests that a minor habitat of these mammoth remained on saint Paul Island, Alaska even till 3,750BC while some other indications leads to the proof of their existence on Wrangel Island in Arctic Ocean till 1700BC.

Recommended reading: Are scientists trying to bring back woolly mammoths?

 

4 Comments

  1. Thanks a lot Mark for stopping by and leaving your words. There are many other interesting and rarely known posts forthcoming so stick to it for the latest updates.

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