Today, wild horses live in only mild climates. It is doubtful that primitive man could have exterminated the formidable, even dangerous, mammoth in a remote, frigid, and vast region. Besides, most primitive arrows and spears would do little damage after penetrating the mammoth's thick skin and fat layers. Nor are the distinctive marks of man's ax or knife clearly seen on mammoth bones and ivory. If man exterminated mammoths, some signs of human activity should occasionally be found among the millions of mammoth remains.
Humans often dig deep pits when trying to capture or kill large animals.
This would be extremely difficult in permafrost. Humans in today's heavily-populated areas might try to exterminate mammoths and rhinoceroses. However, it is difficult to imagine man doing this thousands of years ago in barren and sparsely populated regions of northern Siberia. Humans do not travel to desolate regions for food, especially food difficult to preserve and transport. Even if man occupied these regions, food would not have been his motive for killing mammoths and rhinoceroses, because less dangerous and more desirable game was available.