The skeleton above is the closest we can get to a real mammoth, as a result of their extinction. However, it is not the only missing large species – indeed, the elephant family alone, is thought to have around 30 extinct members. Aside from these, there are 2 known extinct species of the woolly rhino, cave lions and sabre-toothed tigers, and various species of bear, among many others.
If you go back 50,000 years, there were 57 species of megaherbivores (herbivores weighing over a ton), yet just 11 of these survive today – these include the elephant species, the rhino species the hippo and the giraffe.
The problem with large species of animal, is that it takes a long time for them to grow to maturity – this means that they recover slowly to changes. Whether this is natural changes like climate, or human changes, like changing the use of land, and pushing out all the wildlife on it.
It should be noted that this happened at different rates in different places. In some it happened within a few generations, while elsewhere it took 10,000 years.
Loss of megafauna is a problem, as these species are almost always capable of having a large impact on their environment. Many countries in the world have ecosystems missing some of their large wildlife – we need to make sure that we do not loose what is left.
