Artist's notes

The woolly mammoth and the mammoth steppe were deeply connected. The steppe, spanning Europe, Asia, and North America during the Ice Age, was cold but full of grasses and flowers. While many herbivores grazed, only mammoths could uproot large trees, preventing overgrowth and maintaining the habitat. For Ice Age humans, mammoths were crucial, providing food, materials for shelters, and tools made from their hides, bones, and tusks. As the climate warmed, the mammoth steppe shrank, and the mammoths eventually went extinct, with the last population disappearing around 9,000 years ago, though some survived on Wrangel Island until 4,000 years ago. Despite the mammoth's extinction, many plants and animals of the steppe, like mountain avens and skylarks, still exist today.