Woolly mammoths went extinct due to a warming climate that reduced their habitat and hunting by humans. Scientific evidence suggests that small populations of woolly mammoths may have survived in mainland North America until between 10,500 and 7,600 years ago. Other evidence suggests that woolly mammoths persisted until 5,600 years ago on St. Paul Island, in Alaska’s Pribilof Islands, in the Bering Sea and as late as 4,300 years ago on Wrangel Island in the Chukchi Sea when they ultimately succumbed to the effects of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity.
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