Woolly Mammoth Extinction: Last Population Died Of Thirst On Alaskan Island 5,600 Years Ago

A new study has found that the last groups of woolly mammoths, that lived on a remote Alaskan island some 5,600 years ago, died because of lack of drinking water. It is believed that most of the world's woolly mammoths living on the mainland had vanished about 10,500 years ago. However, some isolated population of the prehistoric animal managed to live for another 5,000 years on the St Paul Island, which is located in the Bering Sea.

The study, which has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that it was after sea levels began to rise due to climate change and flooded the Bering Sea land bridge that the island's size shrank. Drier climate conditions led to less rainfall and shallow lakes which ultimately diminished the island's freshwater resources leaving the woolly mammoths thirsty, reported Tech Times.

For the study, a team of researchers from the Pennsylvania State University examined traces of mammoth DNA and fungal spores found near a lake on the island to calculate exactly when the animals disappeared. They also studied sediments and the remains of aquatic animals from freshwater lakes, to figure out the condition of the lakes at the time as well as to understand the environmental changes that might have resulted in extinction. It was found that reduced available habitat due to rise in sea levels and lack of freshwater sources made it difficult for the giant animals to survive. In fact, the researcher claim that the mammoths are partially to blamed for the changes.

"When they started congregating around these limited water holes, they probably destroyed the vegetation [on the banks], causing more erosion and infilling of the lakes," said lead study author Russ Graham, reported Daily Mail. "Ironically, the mammoths contributed to their own demise." The researchers said that the climate change that the modern world is currently facing could shift conditions even more rapidly as compared to the pace of climate change in Alaska at that time.