Scientists are still debating this mystery. One theory is that mammoths had no natural predators until man evolved and started hunting them successfully. Certainly, judging from the cave paintings and decoration left by our early ancestors, mammoths were an essential part of their world. A large, lumbering animal foraging for plants would surely have been a ready target for trappers, and an abundant source of meat, wool and hide. Yet the sheer numbers of mammoths that existed, points to the need for a fuller explanation.
Many scientists prefer to use disease, or natural and cataclysmic disaster as the explanation.
Others point to the fact that these animals had become superbly adapted to the ice age conditions, but that they could not adapt quickly enough once inter-glacial conditions took hold and the earth warmed up. The answers remain unknown - and are probably unknowable. Where to find the nearest mammoth Mammoth remains have been found in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The spectacular finds of whole frozen animals have been made in Siberia, but even there only twelve full mammoth carcasses have been uncovered since the nineteenth century. There are many fossils found regularly in northern Europe, especially in the area of the English Channel and the North Sea.