Mammoths killed off by climate change

Published on Tuesday 17 August 2010 15:53

WOOLLY mammoths were wiped out by trees, not hungry cavemen, scientists have found.

The iconic beasts of the Ice Age, among the biggest mammals to have roamed the earth, could not cope when the planet got warmer and forests began sprouting up. The change in climate destroyed large areas of frozen grassland on which vast herds thrived and they were starved out rather than hunted to extinction.

Professor Brian Huntley of Durham University, who studied mammoth remains and pollen records, said hunting may have contributed to their demise, but added: "A global environmental event is far more likely to be the main cause as they were driven from their grazing grounds into smaller and smaller parts of Siberia."