Editing Mammoth (section)

==Behaviour and palaeoecology==
{{See also|Elephant#Behaviour and ecology}}
Based on studies of their close relatives, the modern elephants and mammoths probably had a [[gestation]] period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born. Their social structure was probably the same as that of living elephants, with females and juveniles residing in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Columbian Mammoth & Channel Island Mammoth |url=http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/_extinct/mammoth/mammoth.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727235134/http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/_extinct/mammoth/mammoth.htm |archive-date=2011-07-27 |access-date=2010-06-15 |publisher=[[San Diego Zoo]]}}</ref> with analysis of testosterone levels in tusks indicating that adult males experienced periods of [[musth]] like modern elephants, where they entered a state of heightened aggression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cherney |first1=Michael D. |last2=Fisher |first2=Daniel C. |last3=Auchus |first3=Richard J. |last4=Rountrey |first4=Adam N. |last5=Selcer |first5=Perrin |last6=Shirley |first6=Ethan A. |last7=Beld |first7=Scott G. |last8=Buigues |first8=Bernard |last9=Mol |first9=Dick |last10=Boeskorov |first10=Gennady G. |last11=Vartanyan |first11=Sergey L. |last12=Tikhonov |first12=Alexei N. |date=2023-05-18 |title=Testosterone histories from tusks reveal woolly mammoth musth episodes |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06020-9 |journal=Nature |volume=617 |issue=7961 |pages=533–539 |bibcode=2023Natur.617..533C |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06020-9 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid=37138076 |s2cid=258485513}}</ref>

The earliest mammoth species like ''M. subplanifrons'' and ''M. rumanus'' were mixed feeders (both [[Browsing (herbivory)|browsing]] and [[Grazing (behaviour)|grazing]]) to browsers. Throughout mammoth evolution in Eurasia, their diet shifted towards mixed feeding-grazing in ''M. trogontherii,'' culminating in the woolly mammoth, which was largely a grazer, with stomach contents of woolly mammoths suggesting that they largely fed on grass and [[forb]]s. ''M. columbi'' is thought to have been a mixed feeder.<ref name=":4" />

Like living elephants, mammoth adults may have been largely invulnerable to non-human predation,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Owen-Smith |first=Norman |date=1987 |title=Pleistocene extinctions: the pivotal role of megaherbivores |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0094837300008927/type/journal_article |journal=Paleobiology |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=351–362 |doi=10.1017/S0094837300008927 |bibcode=1987Pbio...13..351O |issn=0094-8373}}</ref> though evidence has been found for the hunting of mammoth calves by predators, such as by the [[Homotherium|scimitar-toothed cat]] (''Homotherium'').<ref name="desantis etal 2021">{{Cite journal |last1=DeSantis |first1=Larisa R. G. |last2=Feranec |first2=Robert S. |last3=Antón |first3=Mauricio |last4=Lundelius |first4=Ernest L. |date=21 June 2021 |title=Dietary ecology of the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium serum |journal=[[Current Biology]] |volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=2674–2681.e3 |bibcode=2021CBio...31E2674D |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.061 |pmid=33862006 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In living proboscideans, broken tusks sometimes occur during, for example, fights between males or when elephants of both sexes shove each other to reach critical resources such as water. The fracture surface of the remaining (rooted) tooth then becomes smoothed from use. It is very likely that this also occurred in extinct proboscideans such as mammoths as seen from a tusk found at Fenstanton Gravels (Cambs, UK) which still had some of the outer layers of cementum preserved and had a smooth, polished surface on an old, fractured surface ('faceting').<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Boismier|first1=WA|last2=Allison|first2=E|last3=Ardis|first3=C|last4=Banerjea|first4=R|last5=Batchelor|first5=CR|last6=Dark|first6=P|last7=Dudgeon|first7=K|last8=Green|first8=CP|last9=Henderson|first9=E|last10=Ladocha|first10=J|last11=Weinstock|first11=J|last12=Young|first12=DS|last13=Schwenninger|first13=J-L|title=Investigation of Borrow Pit TEA28 BP3, Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, UK|journal=Internet Archaeology|date=2024|issue=67|doi=10.11141/ia.67.23|doi-access=free|url=https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue67/23/index.html}}</ref>