So, I was considering the common assertion that various animals (of the cooler, big sort) in Europe and North America were wiped out by hunting by humans during prehistory -- mammoths, mastodons, cavebears, etc. Then it occured to me that in Africa, where people have been for the longest period of time, there was virtually no hunting by human beings of large animals until dickhead Europeans showed up with their dickhead elephant guns in the 1800s. Nor was there much of a problem for elephants, tigers, and buffalo in India. Come to think of it there were loads of buffalo in North America until the arrival of, once again, dickhead Europeans.
This leads me to suspect that the idea that it was people who wiped out the mammoths, mastodons, wooly rhinos, North American horses, etc. is a big heap of bullshit. Does anybody more knowledgeable about this have any opinion?