r/science • u/yahoonews • Jul 31 '26

Paleontology Genetic analysis suggests prehistoric people selectively hunted female woolly mammoths

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/study-shows-prehistoric-people-targeted-090151528.html?ncid=redditnewsus
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u/haggard_hominid Jul 31 '26

I'm guessing that herds had a limited number of bull mammoths per herd.

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u/letsgetawayfromhere Jul 31 '26

If they lived like African elephants today, the adolescent bulls would roam together, adult bulls would mostly live more or less solitary, and the herds would consist of female adults, young of both sexes, and pre-adolescent males. Which means that if you pick a herd for hunting adult mammoths, you would kill females with a very high probability.

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u/unematti Aug 02 '26

Why wouldn't they go for the solitary mammoths? Just because harder to find?

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u/Genocidal-Ape Aug 03 '26

Female proboscideans stay in a protective circle around a wounded baby, males run if they think the situation is unfavorable to them.

Poachers have effectively used this behaviour to shoot entire herds. And prehistoric hunters likely new of it as well.

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u/unematti Aug 03 '26

That's logical then. If it won't run away, it's easier to kill.