Mammoth

**Mammoths** are large herbivorous mammals found throughout the Arctic Sector of FMM UV-32. The mammoth is currently available to hunt on the Ice Age Tour of the Arctic Sector.

## Biology

Towering around 7 to 8 meters tall and weighing up to 9,6 tons, the mammoth is one of the largest animals in the Arctic Sector and even one of the largest animals to walk on FMM UV-32, competing with the *Brachiosaurus* and *Tyrannosaurus* of the Central Sector. With its massive size, the mammoth has very few natural predators although young mammoths face dangers like wolves, *Smilodons*, and even desperate bears. The thick, brown hide can protect a mammoth from a predator if one would attack. Both male and female mammoths both have long tusks as a means to ward off predators.

Mammoths have many advantages over many herbivores of the Arctic Sector. Although the mammoth can easily kick up snow to get access to buried grass or use its weight to push down trees, the mammoth has a much more powerful trunk to get a large range of food. The mammoth’s trunk is prehensile and is able to grasp different foliage like pulling bushes and saplings out of the ground or even browsing through the tops of trees to get leaves, nuts, and berries. Occasionally, mammoths will eat the bark of trees to gain more calories and weight for the winter season.

Mammoths of FMM UV-32 are social animals, unusual behavior for the herbivorous mammals of the Arctic Sector. Using their trunks, mammoths can communicate with one another via loud trumpeting, barks, or even low frequency rumblings. A mammoth herd is typically made up of related cows alongside their calves of either sex and often lead by a matriarch, an elderly female mammoth. Bull mammoths often live alone or sometimes travel in a bachelor herd. Although these bachelor herds often form during the harsh, intense cold periods during the winter season, there are reports of bachelor herds throughout the year even within mating season.

Mating season is one of the most dangerous times for mammoths as bulls will undergo musth, or aggression caused by large rise of reproductive hormones. Bulls going through musth will fight against each other to claim herds of cows to mate with. But a bull going through musth have been known to rampage and destroy small woods and even gore animals including female mammoths. Due to the enormous sizes of bulls and intense aggression observed during musth, DinoHunt Corp. does not offer hunting tours during the mating season of mammoths; often during the early spring season.

Mammoths are popular outside of FMM UV-32 due to their elephant-like appearance and giant sizes although sadly, the ivory trade returned with the discovery of FMM UV-32. The tusks of the mammoth are made up of ivory, a white physical structure that made up of mostly dentin or the hard tissue within a tooth. Being one of the few creatures on FMM UV-32 and even the entire galaxy to have ivory, the mammoth is targeted by poachers to sell their ivory into the black markets. DinoHunt Corp. has invested into anti-poaching focused on combating the resurgent ivory trade in hopes to protect them from the near-extinction of the elephants of Earth.