Did we wipe out the mammoth?

[Dutch90]

....and other Pleistocene megafauna?

Wildlife activists and the like often use the extinction of these creatures as an early example of our destructive effect on biodiversity through excessive hunting. It is known that Neanderthals hunted mammoths and Cro-Magnons (our direct ancestors) hunted smaller creatures like large deer. Even in the Pleistocene humans were already very effective predators, making up for their lack of strength and physical weaponry (claws, sharp teeth etc) with intelligence, strategy and the ability to craft weapons out of stone, wood and even bone. The most best example is the throwing spear, which allowed them to kill animals from a large distance and also minimized the risk of injury from resistant prey.

I've also heard theories that this extinction had more to do with the end of the last Ice Age. Supporters of this view state that mankind didn't have the numbers, expertise or technology to kill animals on a scale large enough to drive them into extinction, and point out that the Neanderthals were victims of the Late Pleistocene mass extinction just as much as the Irish elk, woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear, cave lion and so forth. These creatures died out not because we (Cro-Magnons) hunted them into extinction, but because they were so adapted to freezing Ice Age temperatures that they couldn't cope with the warmer climate of the Holocene.

I support the latter view; I don't think Pleistocene humans were capable of causing the extinction of other species like we are today. What are your thoughts?

[CompanyMan]

Predators did it.

[deezelboy]

Bit of both, I reckon.

Ice ages are cyclical events, so most if not all of the species would've weathered previous ends of ice ages relatively well (i.e. not gonme extinct).  Admittedly this would've meant moving further north, where their numbers would've been greatly decreased, but climate change on its own failed to kill  them off numerous times in the past.

What was different at the end of the last ice age is that we were around - either as competitors or as hunters, depending on the species.  I heard not so long ago that just killing a single mammoth every three years would have been enough to push them into extinction during an interglacial.

[Dutch90]

In that case, couldn't the blame just as easily fall on other predators and not necessarily humans? Cave lions, cave hyenas and wolves wouldn't come near adult mammoths, woolly rhinos etc, but they'd definitely prey on younger animals. Also, I seem to remember that Cro-Magnons didn't hunt mammoths, although Neanderthals did. I'm not sure either human species hunted woolly rhinos. The Irish elk was probably a popular prey item, though.

All the exotic fauna on South America (Megatherium, the elephant-sized ground sloth for instance), should be taken into account as well. Were there even humans in South America at the time they went extinct? Based on the Out of Africa theory, that seems like the last place humans would reach.

[deezelboy]

In that case, couldn't the blame just as easily fall on other predators and not necessarily humans?

Yes, but the problem is that as far as we know we were the only new predator/competitor in place at the end of the last ice age.  You could also say a pathogen may be to blame.  But it gets problematic given the wide range of animals that went extinct, and the fact that they had survived the other interglacials without humans to contend with.

Also, I seem to remember that Cro-Magnons didn't hunt mammoths, although Neanderthals did.

Difficult to say - the Cro-Magnons were definitely painting mammoths along with other game animals, and making use of their bones.  Moving outside Southern Europe, other early modern humans like the Siberians and the Clovis people were hunting mammoths, going by the evidence.

All the exotic fauna on South America (Megatherium, the elephant-sized ground sloth for instance), should be taken into account as well. Were there even humans in South America at the time they went extinct? Based on the Out of Africa theory, that seems like the last place humans would reach.

Yeah, happened to Megatherium as well.  Survives up to humans reaching South America.  Isolated populations survive on the Caribbean islands until humans arrive there.  So we were probably part of the cause of their extinction.

[mission001]

yeah,  i  would assume that humankind had some part to play in the demise of this creature:
Can only offer theories... but i would arrest us all on more than a gut feeling...