Prehistoric hunters preferred female mammoths, new study reveals

Stone Age hunters in Eurasia and North America may have preferred hunting female mammoths, according to new research. While mammoths were a valuable resource for meat, fat, hides, and bones for tools and shelter, a recent study indicates a deliberate selection in prey.

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This is a great question that we are still actively investigating.

Genetic data from 521 mammoth bones, spanning the last 50,000 years across Eurasia and North America, revealed that approximately 70% of mammoths found at human hunting sites were female, compared to about 34% in natural environments. This suggests a distinct hunting pattern.

Researchers propose several theories for this imbalance. One leading hypothesis, drawing parallels with modern elephants, suggests that female mammoths lived in herds led by females, moving in predictable patterns. This predictability could have made them easier for Stone Age humans to locate repeatedly. Another theory posits that herds with young mammoths might have been less likely to flee from hunters, making them more vulnerable.

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One possibility is that if woolly mammoths lived in herds led by females, similar to today's elephants, these groups might have moved across the landscape in a more predictable way.

Additionally, female mammoths were generally smaller than males, weighing around four tons compared to a male's six tons, and standing about 2.9 meters tall versus a male's 3.4 meters. This size difference might have also contributed to them being a more manageable target for human hunters, who were nomadic hunter-gatherers also preying on other Ice Age mammals like woolly rhinoceroses and bison.

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It could also be speculated that it was easier to track a herd with young, from which the females would not be willing to flee.