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.