When we go to a museum and see skeletons or life-size models of Pleistocene megafauna, we tend to assume these animals behaved just like the wild animals of tod

When we go to a museum and see skeletons or life-size models of Pleistocene megafauna, we tend to assume these animals behaved just like the wild animals of today: wary, elusive, and ferocious if cornered. Then we consider the size-difference and shudder. However, extinct megafauna may have behaved differently. The wild animals of today are the product of tens of thousands of years of intense selection pressure from humans. It's possible that a Mammoth behaved less like an African elephant and more like a Dodo. i.e. Humans migrating into areas where humans were previously unknown may have encountered animals that didn't view them as threats and which did not evade pursuit or defend themselves as modern wild game does.