The woolly mammoth stood 10-14 feet tall, and weighed in from 6-8 tons. The fossil record shows us that the mammoth's teeth were strong, plated enamel that was ideally suited to eat many kinds of plants including grasses, aquatic plants, and even shrub and tree material. However, during the last ice age they tended to stay within the grassy plain environment of savannas and tundras.

For thousands of years the mammoth population thrived. Only the young and sick were at risk to the large predators of the time, such as the saber toothed cats. Their size and strength, along with their several meter long tusks left them well defended. However, approximately 12,000 years ago (during the early Pleistocene) the mammoths went extinct. Scientists theorize that changing climates helped bring about the end of these giants. Also, on a larger scale it is believed that a new predator that had only entered North America a few thousand years before hunted mammoths to extinction. It was humans that are thought to have led to the demise of the woolly mammoth.

Today, we have fossils and some frozen specimens to study. These frozen samples, found mostly in Russia, are of particular interest. Many believe that using mammoth DNA and live cells from the closely related Indian elephant, that a clone of the mammoth is a definite possibility within the next decade. Perhaps one of the first extinct species from man's hunting, will be the first brought back with our technology.