Mammoth populations were decimated by humans 30,000 years ago

Wooly Mammoths. Image: Charles R. Knight [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Researchers from the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Nature Research Society say hunting by humans appears to have significantly cut mammoth populations in western Europe around 30,000 years ago.

The researchers analysed bones, teeth and mammoth ivory from the Gravettian era (30,500 – 22,000 years ago) to show that climate conditions as well as food and water supplies for these giant herbivores remained stable. Yet the study, led by biogeologist Dr. Dorothée G. Drucker and published in Quaternary International, shows that their numbers declined. [...] pasthorizonspr.com (Via B&W3)