The Hairy Mammoth

AECP A1 assignment #3-Summary and Quotation

ps. I put it & "Snowy Owl" here because I love them and hope I did a good job in summary! Ha!

The hairy mammoths are the biggest elephants in the Earth’s history, but they all were extinct ten thousand years ago. The average hairy mammoth was 12 feet tall, and its weight could reach 13,225 to 15,450 pounds. The scientists discovered them in the Arctic area, such as “Siberia, northern Europe, northern Eurasia, and North America” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 4) and found there are many similarities between them and the modern elephants. By studying the modern elephants and the fossils of mammoths they have found, scientists can rebuild the amazing creatures now.

The hairy mammoths were vegetarians; therefore, they had big flat teeth to chew the plant that had a lot of fibers. They lived in one of the severest cold areas in the world, so they had to eat a large amount of food to maintain their fatty body and had hair to keep them warm. The Wildlife Fact File (1991) stated, “Their fat, which was especially thick around the shoulders, was used as an emergency store of food” (p. 3). Although they were the biggest animals at that time, they still had some predators, such as humans, Saber-toothed tigers, and wolves. Humans hunted the mammoths with spears and axes for food and clothing. The scientists guessed that only humans and wolf groups could hurt the adult mammoths because they hunted the mammoths in groups or with tools; on the other hand, the Saber-toothed tigers would prey only on the young mammoths.

The female mammoths could be pregnant after they were ten to twelve years old; furthermore, it took twenty-two months to gestate and just have a newborn from a conception. They liked to live together; thus, the pregnant and young mammoths could get good protection from other adults, and their lifespan could be up to sixty years.

*Reference

Wildlife Fact File. (1991). Hairy Mammoth. (Card 4, Group7: Prehistoric & Extinct Animals), 1-4.