Last population of mammoths

Wrangel Island, located above the Arctic Circle on the north-eastern corner of Siberia, was home to a dwarf variety of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) that survived as late as 4,000 years ago; whereas by 10,000 years ago woolly mammoths had vanished in other regions of the high northern latitudes where they roamed for over 100,000 years.

Isotopic analysis of bone collagen protein from the Wrangel Island mammoths, undertaken by Finnish geobiologist Laura Arppe and colleagues, reveal that Wrangel supported a relict Ice Age steppe vegetation that provided adequate nutrients to support mammoth herds, long after the disappearance of this steppic habitat from much of Europe, Siberia and North America in sway with the end of the Last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago. The study also revealed there to have been no long-term progressive decline in the Island’s suitability as mammoth habitat, implying instead that the tiny population may have succumbed to enigmatic episodes of extreme weather. Current evidence of the first human settlers on Wrangel Island only post-dates that of the last known mammoth by about 100 years, suggesting possible overlap of mammoths and early colonizers on the island.

A 2021 study added a fascinating recent twist to this tale. Ancient DNA traces preserved in permafrost samples from the Canadian Yukon indicated woolly mammoths to have survived as recently as 6,000 years ago on the North American mainland, far post-dating the youngest North American mammoth remains known. The same study concluded that mammoths were in a staggered process of decline in the Yukon area beginning around 20,000 years ago.