Time: Late Pleistocene, 11,000 BCE

Location: Asia, Siberia, Russia

Mission Log: Day 1

Cold and white. That is the first thing one would notice if they were to travel to Siberia at the end of the Pleistocene. Afterward, one would notice how quiet it is. Aside from the chilling breeze and birds off in the distance, it is almost dead silent—a far cry from what was once a thriving biome.

These are all that Fluttershy and her team noticed upon arrival. They knew it wouldn't be a vast grassland filled with life, but they didn't expect it to be so quiet. It was hauntingly quiet. Despite this, though, they got to work immediately. There had to be mammoths out here somewhere, but with how quiet it was, Fluttershy and the others decided to split up. They all hopped on snowmobiles and rode off into the wilderness.

After several hours of searching, Fluttershy did not spot a mammoth or any animal other than some small birds. Fluttershy hopes she and her team can find at least one mammoth out here somewhere; if not, they'll have to travel elsewhere. After a while, she spots a forest off in the distance. While mammoths aren't adapted to forested environments, it was still worth exploring.

Here in the Ice Age, the warming of the climate has already changed this world. What once was rich open grassland covered in grazing mammoths has now been invaded by dense forests.

Fluttershy drives through the forest, avoiding trees left and right. It will be tricky to find even something as big as a mammoth in this dense habitat.

This is no place for a mammoth. Finding the last ones alive on the mainland will not be easy.

"We've gone for miles, and this forest just seems limitless," Fluttershy says as she hops off her snowmobile to look around. "And, you know, obviously, the climate's warming. And weevil beetles can survive off pine needles, but a six-ton mammoth, no way there's just not enough nutrition."

It's this lack of good food that has brought the mammoth population to its knees.

Fluttershy hops back on the snowmobile and continues her search. She keeps looking around, but all she sees are trees upon trees.

It looks like there's nothing but trees here. But at last, Fluttershy finds something to break the monotony.

A large rock formation catches her attention, and as she pulls up, Fluttershy spots a cave entrance. While her chances of finding a mammoth inside are nonexistent, Fluttershy’s curiosity gets the better of her. She hops off her snowmobile and carefully moves up to the mouth of the cave.

A prehistoric cave, she can't resist exploring.

Fluttershy slowly enters the cave but only gets a few steps in when a loud grunt and heavy footsteps force her to back out.

"No sudden moves," Fluttershy whispers calmly but nervously. She takes a few more steps back before a massive brown bear walks out of the cave. It huffs and lets out a roar at its cave's intruder. Fluttershy, in response, hurries down the path quickly. Running away from bears is a terrible idea, but humans were still considered regular prey to many predators, including bears, at the end of the last Ice Age. Because of this, Fluttershy doesn't have much of a choice.

Fluttershy has chosen the wrong creature to disturb.

The bear walks further out as Fluttershy hurries down. It lets out a few more huffs before standing tall on its hind legs. It lets out a growl, causing Fluttershy to not pay attention to where she's stepping, leading to her slipping and falling into the snow-covered ground.

Brown bears stand over eight feet tall, weighing up to half a ton, and are generally more muscular than most other bears.

Fluttershy rushes into the forest, but the bear gives chase. After her first encounter with the pack of three Tyrannosaurus rex, Fluttershy had been hoping she wouldn't end up in another similar situation. While she's now dealing with a bear instead of a six-ton theropod, the situation is much worse. The average human can run up to 15 miles per hour, but brown bears can more than double that at 35. Fluttershy‘s best goal is to run into thicker patches of the forest to help escape it, a task far easier said than done.

"Get moving!" Fluttershy shouts as she runs for her life. The bear continues its chase as it begins to close in on Fluttershy. Fluttershy can hear the bear's panting breaths and footfalls getting closer and closer. "Run, run! Drop the camera; move, move, move! MOVE!"

The cameraman drops the camera, which causes the bear to stop and swipe at it as it lets out another growl.

Brown bears may be huge, but luckily, they're poor tree climbers.

Sometime later, the bear ceased its chase. The cameraman collects the thankfully undamaged camera and searches for Fluttershy. For a brief moment, Fluttershy is nowhere to be found.

"There you are; I'm up here."

High up in a nearby tree is Fluttershy. She managed to escape the bear by climbing up as high as possible.

"I'm sorry about that," Fluttershy apologizes as she descends the tree. "I’d completely forgotten that they would be here. But what an exciting find."

Once on the ground, Fluttershy starts moving back in the direction she just ran from. While it seems ridiculous to go back, her snowmobile is back at the cave. It would also allow her to get a better look at the bear.

"We've got to go and see it," Fluttershy says. "And as long as we don't startle it, it won't charge again, and we can watch it foraging."

A short walk later, Fluttershy is now back at the cave, and she's not the first. The bear is walking back up the path to the cave's entrance. It briefly stops and observes its surroundings, making sure that there are no other intruders that could disturb it again.

"There he is," Fluttershy points out. "I can tell he's a male brown bear. The females have much smaller proportions. I'm certain he was hibernating in that cave. And what he's doing is packing in anything he can consume, like fish, grass, roots, small animals, and berries in early spring. They're not very carnivorous bears; they'll feed on anything. As for hunting, he wasn't doing that. We disturbed him; that's why he chased us. And he is massive, absolutely enormous. Typically, brown bears in the 21st Century are smaller than this, but that's due to overhunting and habitat loss. Here in the Pleistocene, they can average out at massive sizes. But I wouldn't be surprised if he had a cave bear ancestor. Cave bears are a very close cousin of brown bears and were even larger than this one here. Even now, at the end of the Pleistocene, they're extinct, but recent genetic studies have found that some brown bears have cave bear DNA in their genes. That means that, on rare occasions, both brown bears and cave bears interbred."

The bear, finishing its survey, begins to walk back into the cave.

"Brown bears are going to be just fine."

Brown bears are still alive in the 21st Century. While some subspecies and populations are endangered, they have the widest range of all eight bear species and the highest population overall, being found in Europe, Asia, and North America. Fluttershy has no reason to bring this one back to Prehistoric Park. So, it's best just to let sleeping bears lie. It's time to get back to the business of finding a mammoth.

Once the bear enters its cave, Fluttershy quickly hops on her snowmobile and drives off, both to get as far away from the cave as possible and to continue the search for a woolly mammoth.

It has been some time since her bear encounter, and Fluttershy has yet to find a mammoth or even a sign that one is here. This lack of progress is making Fluttershy more concerned by the minute. Riding around on a snowmobile can cover ground quickly, but it only helps a little in a search from Fluttershy’s perspective. It's time for a change in tactics, and a nearby outcropping is perfect.

Fluttershy decides the best way to spot a mammoth is to get up high to scout the terrain.

It's a bit of a climb, but Fluttershy manages to reach the top. Once she does, what she sees around her only makes her feel disappointed.

"This is so disappointing. I come back 11,000 years aiming for mammoth country, and all I can see is trees, trees; thousands of them, as far as the eye can see. Mammoths, they need plains and grasslands, and there's none of that anywhere here."

Fluttershy pulls out her binoculars and surveys the land around her, hoping that she can spot something worthwhile.

The changing habitat is not the only reason Fluttershy is struggling to find a mammoth. She knows there's another factor that has driven them to the brink of extinction: mammoths were hunted by Ice Age man.

During the Pleistocene, humans hunted mammoths. They used the mammoths for food and to make shelter, clothing, tools, and other materials. Like elephants in the 21st Century, humans are the only species that pose a threat to adult mammoths and even herds. From our modern perspective, it seems cruel and unjustified. But to our Ice Age ancestors, it was necessary for survival. It was a dangerous and unforgiving world for the mammoths and humans.

Fluttershy continues to survey the terrain but sees only trees, trees, and more trees. After several minutes, she spots something promising.

"I think our only chance; there's a break over there, just at the base of the mountain," She points out. "There may be some grassland, and maybe we can find them there."

Fluttershy descends from the outcropping, but something in the snow catches her eye once she reaches the bottom.

And then a clue a mammoth might not be too far away.

"This is the most exciting find yet," Fluttershy states as she digs out what she spotted, which resembles a flute. "I just saw it gleaming out of the corner of my eye. This has been carved from a mammoth tusk." She wipes the snow off it before blowing into it, releasing a brief yet beautiful sound. "Some kind of instrument. And if this hasn't been here too long, the hunters could still be around. And if they're around, the mammoths could be too." Now hopeful, Fluttershy heads back to her snowmobile to continue the search. She also brings the flute with her since it was either lost or abandoned; it wouldn't cause any harm in keeping it.

Once back on her snowmobile, Fluttershy drives into the forest, straight toward the breaking she spotted earlier. She still keeps a lookout for a mammoth or a sign of one.

And before long, there's signs that, at least, Fluttershy’s getting… warmer.

As she drives through the forest, Fluttershy spots something on the ground. She stops just in time to get a better look at it. What it is is the best sign she could find.

"Quick here; look," Fluttershy exclaims as she hops off her snowmobile. "Ha ha! At last, vital clues. Look at these massive footprints. They can only be a woolly mammoth." She states as she examines the tracks. "Bigger than that one there; this is the front foot going that way. And look at this," she says as she spots something else on the ground along the tracks. She kneels on the ground to show a brown blob before her and picks a ball of it up. "A concrete clue, at last! Mammoth dung! Looks gross, but it's not. The plant vegetation goes through the stomach virtually unchanged. They're useless at digesting plant cellulose. Cows can do it; elephants can’t. That's why they have to feed for 16 hours a day." She then pulls off her left glove to perform a rather... interesting test. "And the crucial thing is…" She sticks her finger into the dung. "It's still warm! So this is fresh; the mammoth can't be far away!" She then places the dung back on the ground, but once she does, Fluttershy goes silent after something catches her attention. "Shh! Shh!" She silently orders. Suddenly, a series of trumpeting sounds echo through the forest. "I can hear something. From over there, I think." She points in the direction she believes they are coming from.

Fluttershy hops back onto her snowmobile and follows the sounds. She can tell that the sounds are very elephant-like, which means that the only animal out here that can make them is a mammoth. Filled with excitement, Fluttershy can’t wait to finally find one.

But she's in for a shock.

Fluttershy exits the tree line and spots the source of the call: a woolly mammoth right on the other side of a small river.

"At last, mammoth!" Fluttershy says happily. She hops off her snowmobile and begins walking slowly toward it. However, as she moves closer, she spots something big on the ground that the mammoth is hovering over. "And there could be more than one." She pulls out her binoculars and sees that there is another mammoth, but it is lying on the ground, surrounded by branches. "There's two. There's one down, and it looks like there's a mammoth trapped or something there; the second one's not moving at all." She continues to watch from her position while the mammoth hovering over the other makes sounds of desperation. Fluttershy has a bad feeling about what is going on. "What we'll do, we'll try to get in closer. There's something not right." She hops back on her snowmobile and drives it closer to the river's edge, and Fluttershy sees that her bad feeling is spot on.

It looks like Ice Age hunters have beaten her to it.

Even from her side of the river, Fluttershy can see that the branches are spears embedded in the downed mammoth's body, with blood surrounding it. She slowly gets off the snowmobile and watches and listens to the other mammoth desperately trying to wake the other.

"I thought as much," Fluttershy sadly says. "This is a killing field. The hunters dug a pit and covered it with snow; the mammoth fell in, and they speared her to death. There's another one staying by her dead herdmate. This could be one of the last mammoths remaining on mainland Siberia."

In another desperate effort, the standing mammoth releases a series of grumbles, trying to entice her herdmate to wake up, but anything she tries will not work.

"Listen," Fluttershy says. "Oh, that is heartbreaking. She's making these grumbling sounds; they do that with their stomach. She's trying to communicate with her dead herdmate; it's a stomach rumble, which they do. Of course, she's not going to get a response." But Fluttershy sees that the living mammoth is not doing so well. "And she looks sick. Head held low, ears close against her head."

Fluttershy starts to move toward the mammoth, who stumbles a bit. Her legs shake, ready to give out at any moment. As she struggles to stay up, she sees Fluttershy approaching. While Fluttershy is there to help her, she doesn't see it that way. Humans killed her companion and many others throughout her life. To her, humans are always a sign of danger, and Fluttershy is no exception despite the fact she is not carrying a spear or any weapon on her. She wants to charge at her but is too weak to do it. She just hopes that she can intimidate her enough to scare her away.

"Hello there, sweetheart," Fluttershy says gently to her. "You're alright. Okay, okay." Then, at that moment, her legs finally gave out. She collapses to the ground and releases a weak trumpet. Fluttershy watches in heartbreak as the mammoth's weakness finally takes hold of her. Fluttershy slowly walks in front of her and crouches down to her level. "We've got two females. The dainty, straight tusks; bull mammoths have much bigger tusks with a corkscrew curve. And what's happened is that this one stayed behind to defend her herdmate, but she's been injured as well."

The mammoth grumbles, warning Fluttershy not to get any closer. Fluttershy keeps her distance but doesn't back away.

"Hello, girl," she speaks gently to her. However, she is not happy with her being here and attempts to get up and swing at her but utterly fails at lifting herself even a foot off the ground. "Oh, she's so weak. She can hardly lift her trunk."

Fluttershy gets up and moves toward the dead mammoth. She sees just how brutal the killing was. Dozens upon dozens of spears are embedded in her lifeless body, and that excludes the sharpened sticks from the pit.

"And it's likely that the one that's been killed is this one's sister." Fluttershy walks around the body, examining it. She understands that humans needed to survive in the Ice Age, but that doesn't make this any less heartbreaking. "Mammoth populations got smaller because of climate change. But it was this that drove them to extinction: overhunting by early humans. The horrifying thing is that they didn't know any better, but we're still doing this sort of thing to rare animals in the 21st Century."

After examining the dead mammoth, Fluttershy walks back toward the weakened one. As she gets closer, she notices a spear on the ground. She picks it up and sees that the tip has been broken off.

"I'm pretty sure this is why she looks so poorly; it's a broken spear," Fluttershy explains. "She was probably defending the one in the pit. She was attacked herself. You can see that there's a wound in the shoulder there, and it's starting to swell. We've got to do something quickly; otherwise, it could flare up to a serious infection."

Fluttershy is faced with a dilemma. Right now, the mammoth is too weak to walk through the time portal. But if she leaves, the hunters could come back to finish her off. Somehow, she needs to get her back on her feet. She calls in her team, who are scouting nearby.

"To all channels, do you read, over?" Fluttershy asks into her two-way radio.

"We read you, Fluttershy, over."

"We've got a mammoth down, a very sick mammoth. She needs rescuing, so if you can get here as soon as you can, please."

"Copy. We'll be there soon."

Time: 21st Century

Location: Prehistoric Park

Back at the Park, Twilight’s busy with problems of her own.

Twilight, at one of the workstations, is exhausted after a long day. However, she's more exhausted from frustration than hard work. Caring for Prehistoric Park's animals, both modern and prehistoric, is not easy. While some are not too difficult, others have proven to be a bit of a challenge.

She’s having trouble looking after some of the dinosaurs Fluttershy has already brought back.

The dinosaurs in question are the Ornithomimus. While they haven't caused issues with Twilight and the staff, they have presented a problem that has made them difficult to care for.

Applejack had decided to treat Ornithomimus like ostriches and put them in a paddock. But they aren't doing well here. They just won't eat the grass.

While Twilight and the staff have been feeding the fleet-footed theropods, they would prefer that they feed on the plants inside their enclosure, like with the Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus. Not only would this reduce the amount of feed the Park would need to acquire, but it would also allow the animals to continue expressing natural behaviors. Unfortunately, the paddock they have been staying in, while it provides plenty of open space for them to roam around, is not fulfilling its purpose. Twilight now has to figure something out. After some research, she realized Applejack made a mistake when giving them a new home.

"Well, AJ thought, 'Well, they look like an ostrich, and they have a mainly vegetarian diet,' so she put them in an ostrich enclosure. Now, that was an easy mistake to make because, although an Ornithomimus might look like and in many ways act like an ostrich's prehistoric cousin, they don't like ostrich feed."

But Twilight noticed that the diet of these dinosaurs is different from their large ratite counterpart.

At the moment, the Ornithomimus are inside a transport truck. The truck itself was inside an enclosure, but not their original one.

"The answer lies in their native habitat," Twilight explains. "Ornithomimus lived in an environment that lacked grass, so they wouldn't be able to digest it like ostriches. They fed on leaves, branches, insects, small animals, and crustaceans, mostly different from an ostrich's diet but somewhat similar to emus and cassowaries. So, I figured they could do better with a habitat with plenty of brush, leaves, and ponds," She gestures toward the pond behind her. The enclosure that Twilight and her team are moving the Ornithomimus into differs from the previous one. It also provides plenty of space for the Ornithomimus to roam and run around, but it also has more bushes, trees, and, most importantly, a pond. "Why don't I give them an enclosure with their own pond? Then maybe they can find their own food."

This is a much better strategy. While paleontologists still debate the diet of Ornithomimus, many agree that they were omnivorous. This enclosure provides plenty of bushes, shrubs, and trees to browse on, and a pond can provide insects, small fish, and lizards. If this enclosure proves to be a success, then Twilight and her friends would need to provide additional feed occasionally.

Twilight‘s team moves a trailer piece to allow the dinosaurs to exit the transport once they're set free. Once it's set in place, they open the door. However, the Ornithomimus don't seem keen on exploring their new home. Twilight walks up the platform and spreads some feed to entice them out.

All she has to do now is to convince them it's a good idea.

"Come on," Twilight gently says to the flock of Ornithomimus. Said flock is nervous about the sudden change. They've only briefly been in this new land, especially compared to their natural environment back in the Cretaceous. There have been so many changes over the past month, and while they've gotten used to it for a bit, they are still a bit stressed out by it all. Nevertheless, Twilight keeps trying to entice them out. "That's it, now. There you go. Come on."

With a loud squawk, the Ornithomimus rushed out at full speed. Twilight manages to get out of the way as the whole flock enters their new enclosure in a panicked frenzy. Twilight stands by and watches the spectacle in amazement.

"Look at them go."

Hopefully, the Ornithomimus will love their new home. If they can calm down enough to find it.

Author's Note

This episode is one of the many reasons why Prehistoric Park is so good. Yes, the death of the mother, T. rex, was sad, but this one shows how serious the show can get. It shows how bad mammoths had it at the end of the Pleistocene and doesn't shy away from how traumatizing it was to them.

For accuracy, the cave bear was replaced with an Eurasian brown bear. As Nigel stated in the episode, the cave bear would have been extinct 11,000 years ago. Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) went extinct around 24,000 years ago. How they went extinct is unknown, but it has been suggested that it was due to their preference for caves, which would have put them in competition with humans and Neanderthals rather than making a den for themselves like brown bears. Some have suggested it was due to climate change affecting their diet, but some studies say that wasn't the case. By the way, if you ever encounter a bear, never run or climb a tree to get away because this activates the bear's predatory instinct. Brown bears can run up to 35 mph (Usain Bolt topped out at 27 mph), and despite their size and preference to stay on the ground, adults can climb trees. Some people have attempted to escape a brown bear by climbing a tree, only for the bears to climb up and attack them. One of the highest tree climbs by an adult brown bear resulted in the death of a woman. And yes, bears can run downhill. Whoever created that myth was either stupid or tricking people into being stupid. The only reason I went through with the chase was because this was during a time when brown bears would actively view humans as prey, so the danger was real. Plus, the show stated that the bear was disturbed and not hungry, so I gave it a little leeway. Also, recent genetic studies have shown that 0.9-2.4% of brown bear genetics comes from cave bears, meaning they did hybridize on occasion.

Also, the Ornithomimus got a new home. I honestly think they were the least problematic dinosaurs in the show, with Theo following in second.