Its unlikely to be a single factor in the demise of the Mammoth. Climate change was probably key but other issues - such as the rise of a new hunter with the ability to bring down mammoth's may have played a much bigger part than we think.
I saw a documentary recently that implied it wasn't so much the raw numbers of mammoth that was the problem - it was the ones chosen. The large males were taken first - this left a gap in mammoth "society" where adolescent males (who would normally be kept in check by the larger more mature males) ran riot in full musk. Like delinquent teenagers they tore the place up and, fighting amongst each other and raised the mortality rate of the infants.
The combination of stress of climate change, the new hunter and breakdown of their society sounds rather more plausible as a perfect storm that brought them to extinction.
I saw a documentary recently that implied it wasn't so much the raw numbers of mammoth that was the problem - it was the ones chosen. The large males were taken first - this left a gap in mammoth "society" where adolescent males (who would normally be kept in check by the larger more mature males) ran riot in full musk. Like delinquent teenagers they tore the place up and, fighting amongst each other and raised the mortality rate of the infants.
The combination of stress of climate change, the new hunter and breakdown of their society sounds rather more plausible as a perfect storm that brought them to extinction.
