Extinct Animals Research Essay, Research Paper

We have learned much about the Woolly Mammoth almost more than any other

dinosaur that has been identified. Due to the fact that the Woolly Mammoth so

closely resembles today’s elephants, care for them would most probably require

most of the same factors to keep it alive. Since the Woolly Mammoth has been

extinct for 4000 years, it is difficult to tell exactly what they lived on, but

we can hypothesize.

The Woolly Mammoth lived during the Ice Age, so if alive today, it must be

kept in a tundra environment. For food, only basic tundra vegetation is

necessary. Due to the thick pelt that the Woolly Mammoth has, any known Ice Age

temperatures would suffice since the thick fur protects the animal in any

extreme temperatures.

Large enclosures would not be needed as they would be for a normal elephant

since the Woolly Mammoth is only three meters high. The huge tusks would allow

it to scavenge for its own food, so no special feedings would be necessary.

Feedings would also be needed on a less frequent basis since the Woolly Mammoth,

much like today’s camels, keeps under its sloping back a thick layer of blubber

as nutrition when food was not needed.

The problem in keeping a creature such as the Woolly Mammoth in a zoo- like

surrounding would be poachers. Due to the endangerment of such a magnificent

species, poachers of pelts and ivory would most certainly be after it’s huge

tusks and thick furs, so it would be necessary to post guards around it’s cage

at all times.

A large-scale habitat would be constructed for this creature since, during

the period it lived, the Pleistocene, there were no restrictions on the places

it could roam to. There was nothing stopping this beast from stomping along to

wherever it wanted to go. A Woolly Mammoth might find it peculiar to be stuck in

a twenty foot ice field with no predators or other animals whatsoever.

To solve this problem, it would be possible to include other animals from the

Woolly Mammoth’s time period.