An International Treasure | Return to the Panhandle
The Battle
More than 10,000 years ago, a pair of "testosterone-crazed" bull mammoths crossed paths on the ice age high plains in what would one day be western Nebraska.
Nearly equal in size and around 40 years old each, the two Columbian mammoths -- one with a snapped tusk on the left, the other with a break on the right -- battled for mating rights. However, fate thwarted desire.
With the broken tusks allowing each to jockey in close, the titans locked together and never separated. Eventually -- after hours of exhaustive pushing or moments after a decisive twist -- one fell, dragging the other to the ground, and each to their death in the Little Badlands north of Crawford.
