Human hunters were not the reason that woolly mammoths died out, according to new research.

Around 21,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age, the planet started to warm up. There was also more moisture and CO2 in the air, and all of these factors combined to make trees grow tall and cause forests to develop.

The grasslands were then reduced, making it harder for mammals like the woolly mammoth and woolly rhino to graze. As these plant-eating animals died out, so did other members of the food chain including the
cave lion and the cave bear.

“Woolly mammoths retreated to northern Siberia 14,000 years ago,” says Professor Brian Huntley, “whereas they had roamed and munched their way across many parts of Europe, including the UK, for most of the previous 100,000 years or more.”

Professor Huntley is one of the Durham University experts that led the research, along with the Natural History Museum. They studied ancient pollen records and simulated habitat change to work out what happened in the areas where mammoths lived.

Watch the video below to learn more about these huge, hairy creatures.

Image by the Natural History Museum