But humans did cross paths with woolly mammoths, and resourceful hunter-gatherers who had recently arrived in North America in the late Ice Age may have played a role in the mammoths’ extinction.
Science
uOttawa researcher and his colleagues are probing a mammoth question
There are a number of intriguing questions about Alaska mammoths, including whether their presence attracted humans to North America, Clément Bataille says.
Using high-resolution isotope profiling, Bataille and his colleagues analyzed a metre-long tusk belonging to a female mammoth named Élmayųujey’eh — known as Elma — from the 14,000-year-old Swan Point archaeological site in the Tanana River valley in Alaska. The results were reported in a paper published earlier in January in the journal Science Advances.
Tissues provide a record of a living organism’s experiences of environmental factors such as climate and available food.
“For example, I was born in the Caribbean and lived in France, Canada and the United States. My tissues have chemical signals for all of these,” Bataille said Friday in an interview from France, where he is conducting research on prehistoric horses.
“What’s fascinating about tusks is that they’re like tree rings. You can track where that mammoth had been moving.”
There are a lot of questions about the behaviour of mammoths, how they lived and why their numbers dwindled and disappeared after their species had roamed the frozen tundra for about 300,000 years.
Humans and mammoths coexisted for about a thousand years in Alaska at the end of the last Ice Age. A lot was changing in that time period, including a climate that was getting warmer and wetter.
On the mainland, mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago. A few isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea and Wrange Island in the Arctic Ocean until about 4,000 years ago, then died out, possibly because the mammoths couldn’t roam and had become inbred.
There are a number of intriguing questions about the Alaska mammoths, including whether their presence attracted humans to North America, Bataille said.
Early Alaskans appear to have structured their settlements partly based on the presence of mammoths and used them for raw materials and likely for food. With an adult mammoth weighing more than five tonnes, they would have been an attractive food source. If their movements across the landscape were regular and predictable, it would have made them all the more attractive to hunters.
In previous research on a pair of tusks from a male mammoth named Kik, who lived about 17,000 years ago in a colder time period before the arrival of humans, the scientists found a different story.
Kik died at about 30 years of age, possibly of disease or starvation. Mammoths could live 50 to 60 years.
In contrast, Elma was about 20 at the time of her death and in perfect health. “Something happened to her. She may have been hunted,” Bataille said.
Mammoths were grazers, preferring open grasslands. Elma’s tusk showed she was more familiar with forests and wetlands. In the 3,000 years between Kik’s life and Elma’s, Alaska’s climate had changed, resulting in an invasion of woody shrubs that fragmented the mammoths’ steppe habitat.
“There were a lot of impediments to her movement,” Bataille said. On the other hand, Kik had the opportunity to spread his genes over a wide area.
Questions remain about woolly mammoths, including whether they behaved similarly to today’s wild elephants, with babies and juveniles travelling with a matriarchal herd until they mature.
This is the first clear evidence that mammoths lived in herds. Bataille is using a calcium isotope in an attempt to learn whether Elma had lactated, which would indicate she had young of her own.
It’s estimated that half the species of megafauna — large animals — became extinct at the end of the last Ice Age. Sabre-toothed cats disappeared. Camels and bison survived. Horses became extinct in the Americas, but survived in Eurasia.
The research has implications for the conservation of megafauna living today, Bataille said. “We are also experiencing climate change.”
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Science
The body of a Ugandan Olympic athlete who was set on fire by her partner is received by family
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Kenya’s high rates of violence against women have prompted marches by ordinary citizens in towns and cities this year.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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