<P> Food at various stages of digestion has been found in the intestines of several woolly mammoths , giving a good picture of their diet . Woolly mammoths sustained themselves on plant food , mainly grass and sedges , which were supplemented with herbaceous plants , flowering plants , shrubs , mosses , and tree matter . The composition and exact varieties differed from location to location . Woolly mammoths needed a varied diet to support their growth , like modern elephants . An adult of six tonnes would need to eat 180 kg ( 397 lb ) daily , and may have foraged as long as twenty hours every day . The two - fingered tip of the trunk was probably adapted for picking up the short grasses of the last ice age ( Quaternary glaciation , 2.58 million years ago to present ) by wrapping around them , whereas modern elephants curl their trunks around the longer grass of their tropical environments . The trunk could also be used for pulling off large grass tufts , delicately picking buds and flowers , and tearing off leaves and branches where trees and shrubs were present . The `` Yukagir mammoth '' had ingested plant matter that contained spores of dung fungus . Isotope analysis shows that woolly mammoths fed mainly on C3 plants , unlike horses and rhinos . </P>
what kind of food did the woolly mammoth eat
plant food , mainly grass and sedges , which were supplemented with herbaceous plants , flowering plants , shrubs , mosses , and tree matter