Chapter 8: Bison and Mammoth: 0°C Temperature-Sum

Where are bison and mammoth still able to live? In what kind of a climate? At which temperature?

Northernmost range of bison in North America today:

Whitehorse

Wood bison range in SW Yukon, northwestern Canada, west of Whitehorse: Whitehorse, Yukon, 60°43’N, 135°04’W, elevation 2128 m

In: Climates of North American, 1974, by R. A. Bryson and F. K. Hare, World Survey of Climatology Vol. 11 p. 176

Air temperature-sum per year with days above 0°C: 1694°

Growing season of plants 184 days, 6 months

Fairbanks

Climates of North America 1974, R.A. Bryson and F. K. Hare, World Survey of Climatology Vol. 11 p. 142. Fairbanks, Alaska 64°49’N, 147°52’W, elevation 133 m

Air temperature sum per year with days above 0°C: 1755.2°

Growing season of plants: 153 days, 5 months

Fort Smith

Fort Smith, NWT, 60°01’N, 111°58’W, elevation 62 m. In: Climates of North America, by R. A. Bryson and F. K. Hare 1974 p. 158

World Survey of Climatology, Vol. 11

Air temperature sum per year with days above 0°C: 1808.2°

Growing season of plants 184 days, 6 months

0°C Annual air temperature sum of mammoths

Where bison and mammoth are still able to live, at the northern limit of their range, at which air temperature sum with days above 0°C.

1200 kg bison bull 1808°C ts with days above 0°C

3000 kg elephant (mammoth) 4810°C

4000 kg elephant (mammoth) 6340°C

5000 kg elephant (mammoth) 7890°C

6000 kg elephant (mammoth 9265°C

7000 kg elephant (mammoth) 10,830°C

Calculated on chart-paper, based on 1200 kg bison bull, with 1808°C ts above 0°C.

3-ton Mammoth in Far North, in which climate

At which climate has the 3000-kg woolly mammoth lived in the Far North, together with the bison, the horse, the camel, and the woolly rhinoceros? The plants were able to grow then in the Far North 9 months of the year, and the dormant season of the plants lasted 3 months.

Temperature sum with days above 0°C: 4800°, 275 days, 9 months growing season of plants, 3 months per year dormant season of plants. In this climate, at this 0°C-temperature sum has the 3000-kg woolly mammoth lived in northern Siberia, Alaska, the Yukon and Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Lion and Tiger in Northern Siberia and Yukon/Alaska

When the woolly mammoth was grazing in the Far North, also the cave-lion and the tiger have lived up there. The tiger has lived during the time of the woolly mammoth in northern Siberia, Alaska, and the Yukon Territory (Herrington). In what kind of a climate does the tiger live now in the northernmost part of its range, in Russia’s Far East? There the Amur tiger has to survive cold winters, with ice and snow. The Amur tiger is living up there (or has lived there until quite recently) up to about 51°-52°North. At which 0°C-temperature sum is the tiger living there now? The town of Vladivostok lies at 42°07’N, 131°54°E, elevation 138 m. Vladivostok has the following mean temperature:

Temperature sum with days above 0°C: 2686.1°. 214 days, 7 months with temperatures above 0°C. Mean daily air temperature from Climates of the Soviet Union, World Survey of Climatology, Volume 7, 1977 p. 422, by Paul E. Lydolph. This means: When the tiger and the lion were living in northern Siberia, Alaska, and the Yukon, the sum of the mean daily temperature with days above 0°C had to be then up there at least 2686°C. Further south it had to be then still higher.

The Mammoth and its Food: Its Protein-Content

Where is the mammoth still able to live and where not? How much crude protein must its food at least contain, so that it will still be able to survive the winter, when the plants are not growing, when the protein, which they contain, decreases more and more? How much crude protein must its food at least contain during the winter months, so that this elephant will not starve to death with a full stomach, due to lack of protein? How long had the growing season of the plants to be at least in the Far North, when the mammoth was grazing up there? And how long has the dormant season of the plants been then up there, where the plants are not growing, where their aboveground protein content is far below that of summer? The young growing elephant needs more protein, than the adult elephant. That is why the young growing elephant will starve to death first, when there is too little food, when its food contains too little protein.

How much protein must the food contain at least during the different months of the year in the Far North, when the adult 6.4-ton elephant (or mammoth) is grazing up there? What is the lower limit? During how many months of the year must the plants be growing up there? During how many months must its food contain enough protein, so that the adult elephant will be able to maintain its body weight? And how long may the lean season be, where the plants contain too little protein, where the tusker will loose condition, so that it will still be able to survive this lean season, until the new plants begin to grow? I do assume here that the elephant is able to take in as much dry matter, as it needs, in order to grow properly and to maintain its body weight. The two following tables will show this. They begin at the first of September and end and the end of April.

6.4-ton adult Mammoth on northern pasture: lowest protein content

This table shows us, how much protein the pasture in northern Siberia, Alaska, and the Yukon had to contain at least during the winter, so that the 6.4-ton adult mammoth would be able to survive up there until next spring, when the plants begin to grow again. That is, at the lowest possible crude protein level (dry weight) in the food. The plants in the Far North either had to grow then 9 months of the year or they had to contain enough crude protein, so that the elephant will be able to maintain its body weight. And there are 3 months, where the plants are not growing in winter, where they are dormant: the lean season, the nutritional bottleneck. Their protein-content (dry weight) is then below the amount, at which the elephant will be able to maintain its body weight, where it will lose condition, where it will starve to death with a full stomach, if it is too long.

I do assume here that the tusker is able to take in as much dry matter, as it needs, to maintain its body weight. The adult elephant needs 97.28 g DM/kg^0.75 (grams dry matter per kilogram metabolic body weight per day) and 3.228 g DCP/kg kg^0.75 (grams digestible crude protein per kilogram metabolic body weight) per day, to maintain its body weight. The 6.4-ton adult elephant will starve to death, due to lack of digestible crude protein, when its intake-deficit of protein has reached 220.021 kg or 3.438% of its body weight. In this table, the intake deficit of digestible crude protein (dry weight) of this 6.4-ton adult tusker has reached 218.931 kg at the end of April. So it will be able to survive there, while losing weight, until the beginning of May, when the plants begin to grow again, rich in protein and low in fiber. If the new plants will begin to grow later in May, the mammoth will starve to death with a full stomach, due to lack of protein

1-ton growing Mammoth on northern Pasture: lowest Protein content

I do assume here that this elephant is able to take in as much dry matter, as it needs, to maintain its body weight and to grow. Important is here only the protein content of its food. The growing elephant needs at least 13.5% crude protein (dry weight) in its food, in order to grow. That is about 6.154 gDCP/kg^0.75 per day. Dry matter intake is here 97.28 gDM/kg^0.75 per day. The growing 1000-kg elephant will starve to death with a full stomach, due to lack of protein, when its deficit of digestible crude protein (DCPI) has reached 106.311 kg or 10.631% of its body weight. By the end of April, this tusker has reached here a deficit of digestible crude protein (dry weight) 98.997 kg.

That is the lowest limit. Thus, it might be able to survive, until the beginning of May, when the plants begin to grow again. If the plants would start growing later in May, this young growing elephant would starve to death with a full stomach, due to lack of protein. This proves now quantitatively. When the woolly mammoth was grazing in the Far North, the climate had to be temperate, without an arctic winter, without ice and snow. There is now way around this. The growing season of the plants in the Far North had to be then about 9 months long, and their dormant season 3 months.

Objection: Someone might object now and say: The young growing mammoth does not need so much crude protein at all in its food, namely 13.5% for nine months of the year, because it will grow only for a short time in the first half of summer, for only a few weeks. During the rest of the year, the young mammoth will not grow at all, but will just maintain its body weight, like a grown-up animal. Also the young calf of the reindeer and the muskox will only grow during the first half of the short arctic summer. During the second half of the summer it will then put on fat-reserves for the coming winter. So that it will have enough energy, to survive the coming lean winter months.

This is a serious objection. Is it valid? If this were true, the small mammoth calf would never have been able to grow up in an arctic climate to full size, into an adult, because it would not have been able then to grow during about 10-11 months of the year. Because during this time, during the winter, the plants of the arctic tundra or tundra-steppe are dormant. They do contain then too little protein, because they have transferred it from the parts of the plants, which are above the surface of the earth, to the parts, which are below the surface.

What do the fossils show us? – The well-preserved skeletons and whole frozen bodies of the woolly mammoth, from the baby to the full-grown adult, do show us: The young woolly mammoth of the Far North has grown up just as fast and has become just as large, as its close relative, the Asian elephant, living now further south in the Tropics.

Woolly mammoth, painted in black on wall of the Cave of Pech Merle, S.W. France. From: A.J. Sutcliffe (1988:88) Fig. 8.3c. 60 cm long. The woolly mammoth of southern France and northern Spain has been just as hairy as in northern Siberia. This elephant has lived there in a temperate climate, on zonal forest-steppe.