mammoths have always fascinated people
from the creators of the earliest known
cave paintings to 20th century
practitioners of modern art and even to
today's tourists humans have tried to
grasp the essence of this magnificent
creature
its enormous size strength and beauty as
well as its coexistence with humans
not only did mammoths and our ancestors
coexist but for people in some parts of
central and eastern europe their
existence depended almost entirely upon
the animal
its meat was used for food its bones
were used for construction of dwellings
and for fuel
as well as for tools furniture and
musical instruments
while its tusks were fashioned into
ivory tools art jewelry and ritual
objects
the mammoth form was also a frequent art
subject
more than 360 depictions of it are known
spanning a wide range of mediums from
painting and engravings on cave walls in
spain france and russia to engravings
and three-dimensional carvings in bone
stone antler and ivory
despite knowing with certainty that
early peoples of north america hunted
killed and consumed colombian mammoths
depictions of mammoths are rare in north
america
however a small number of mammoth
petroglyphs figures carved into the rock
have been discovered in the southwestern
united states and may be the only
authentic representations of mammoths in
north america
while humans and mammoths certainly
coexisted in parts of north america
there is no evidence that this was the
case here in our area on the channel
islands
although several researchers have
postulated that the chumash people and
the channel islands pygmy mammoths were
contemporaries published radiocarbon
dates placed the youngest mammoth
remains at about 400 years before the
earliest known human presence
more clues and facts will have to be
assembled to determine whether the early
chumash people coexisted with pygmy
mammoths however a chumash legend
recorded in blackburn's book december's
child
does reveal that mammoth fossils may
have been just as fascinating to the
chumash as they are to us today maria
has seen rocks in the mountains that are
the exact shape of human arms and hands
they are the remains of the people who
died in the flood
those first people were very tall
they used to wade across the channel
without needing boats
the very old men told maria that people
had found bones on santa rosa island
which were human but which were yards
long
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today the human fascination continues
not only with mammoths but with their
modern relatives elephants
hundreds of visitors flew out to santa
rosa island in 1994
to witness the excavation of the world's
most complete pygmy mammoth fossil whose
replica lies before you
millions of people have visited mammoth
museums such as the la brea tar pits in
los angeles california and the mammoth
site at hot springs south dakota while
many more people have ventured to zoos
circuses or even to africa to see
elephants
mammoths and elephants are still
frequent literature and art subjects
especially african elephants which are
some of the most popular animals for
wildlife artists to depict
mammoth and elephant tusks even today
remain a prized resource to some
communities of craftsmen who carve them
into figurines and jewelry
tragically this art comes at a great
cost
between seventy thousand and one hundred
thousand elephants died every year
during the nineteen eighties to supply
the world ivory trade reducing the
population of african elephants from 1.3
million in 1979
to 609 000 in 1989
at this rate african elephants faced
extinction within decades
to halt this decline and save both
elephant species the asian and african
elephants were listed as endangered
species and the ivory trade was banned
by more than 115 countries in 1989
although ivory prices have fallen and
the trade is in decline poaching and the
ivory trade still continue
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with the ban on elephant ivory mammoth
ivory has become more prominent causing
carcasses to be plundered for their
tusks alone while the rest is simply
abandoned the precious remains of an
extinct animal which could provide
invaluable information for scientists
are being lost at a greater rate than
ever before
the ivory trade is not the only human
threat to mammoths and elephants
human population growth which is
projected to double our global
population by the year 2050 from 5.8
billion to 11 billion
and all the problems that come with it
destruction of habitat pollution and
exploitation of resources is driving
species to extinction and destroying
archaeological and paleontological
resources
unless we can slow population growth it
will be impossible to address these and
other critical environmental problems
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fortunately steps have been taken to
address these problems
at parks throughout the world and here
at channel islands national park
invaluable resources are protected
this protection has helped preserve
unique fossils represented by the pygmy
mammoth specimen that lies before you
and has helped many species like brown
pelican and elephant seals recover from
the brink of extinction
but parks are not isolated islands that
are shut off from the problems of the
rest of the world everything is
connected a problem for one of us is a
problem for all of us we must do our
part to protect and preserve the world's
precious resources so that future
generations have a chance to become
fascinated by elephants mammoths and all
life
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