The Mammoth wipeout

How dogs helped ancient humans hunt this grand pachyderm to extinction

How did mammoths, the large, woolly ancestors of modern elephants that are believed to have roamed the earth till around 12,000 years ago, suddenly go extinct? Of the various reasons offered, many strongly support the theory that the animals disappeared due to climate change. According to this theory, the warming of the planet led to the extinction of mammoths. Sceptics, however, point out that there had been several similar episodes of warming earlier that did not lead to such extinctions. The other theory cited is the emergence of advanced human hunters, which significantly contributed to—if not caused—the extinction of the animal. However, researchers have been puzzled about how humans, with the primitive weapons they wielded at the time, could have killed animals as large as these on such a vast scale.

Over the years, researchers have unearthed around 30 ‘mammoth megasites’ in central Europe and North Asia, where tens of thousands of mammoth bones lie packed tightly on top of each other across areas as small as 60 square metres. These sites are dated to be between 45,000 and 15,000 years old. Some scientists have reasoned that a flood must have swept the animals to these spots, or unlucky herds might have fallen through thin ice.

However, according to new research conducted by an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, Pat Shipman, and published in Quaternary International, these sites were the hunting grounds of ancient humans, which in all probability caused the extinction of mammoths. She claims that humans developed a successful new technique for killing such large animals. Instead of hunting them across vast plains, ancient humans used dogs to ambush the creatures. Some sites have thrown up skulls of animals with both wolf- and dog-like features. Many of the skulls bear healed fractures, indicating that humans cared for them. The canines corralled the mammoths at ambush sites while human hunters moved in for the kill. Once the mammoths were dead, the dogs protected the sites from scavengers. In return, humans may have assured these canines food and protection.

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